The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1909-08-26
CHAPTER III.
MoRRIsTowN

1t was not until the colonel had
,assed over the shoulder above the
,tonewalled house that he escaped from
he, teers OF the younger members of
his savage tribe. who, noting some
hing abnormal In the fashion Of the
strangers clothes, followed him a space.
On descending the farther slope, how
ever, he found himself alone In the sill
snce OF the waste. Choosing without
hesitation one of two tracks, Ill trodden,
but such as In that district and at that
period passer for roads, he took his way
along 1t at a good pace.
A wide brown basin, bog for the most
part, but rising here and there into low
mounds of sward or clumps of thorn
trees, stretched away to the foot of the
hills. The tower on the shoulder behind
him had been raised by his wild fore
fathers. Soil and sky, the lark which
sang overhead. the dark peat-water
which rose under foot. the scent OF the
moist air, the cry OF the curlew, all
spoke of the home which he had left
in the gayety Of youth, to return to It
a grave man, older than his years, with
gray hairs fiecking the black. No Won
der that he stood more than once and,
absorbed I'm thought, gazed on this or
that, on crag and moss, on the things
which time and experience had so
strangely diminished.
The track after zig-zagging across a
segment of tho basin, entered q narrow
valley, drained by a tolerable stream.
After ascending this for a couple Of
miles II disclosed a view of a wider
vile, enclosed by gentle hills. In the
lap OF this nertled a lake. on the upper
md Of which some beauty was con-
ferred by a few masses OF rock partly
clothed by birch trees, through which a
stream fell sharply from the upland.
Not far from these rocks a long, low
house stood on the shore.
The stranger paused to take in the
prospect: nor was Il until after the
lapse of some minutes. spent In the
deepest reverie, that he pursued his
way along the left bank OF the lake.
By and by he was able to discern, amid
the masses of rock at the head of the
lake, a gray tower. the twin of that
Tower of Skull which he had left be-
hind him, and a hundred PAGES further
on he came upon a near view OF the
house.
1.-TWO and twenty years!" he muir
INJURED. There is not even dog to bid
me welcomed
The house was Of two stories, with a
matched roof. It's back was to the
slopes that rose by marshy terraces to
the hills. It's face was turned to the
lake and between II and the water lay
~ %AAS an Lii6AC Ol CdCIl
side Of the entrance protected by q
tower Of an older date than the house.
The entrance was somewhat p~retentious
and might--for each Of the pillars sup
ported by a heraidic beast-have seemed
to an English eye out of character with
the tkatched ro'i. But one Of the beasts
was headless, and n of the gates had
fallen from its hinges. In like manner
the dignity OF a tolerably spacious
garden, laid out beside the house was
marred by the proximity of the fold
yard.
On the lower side OF tn, road, oppo-
site the gates, half a dozen stone steps
that, like the heraldic pillars, might
have graced a more stately mansion,
led down to the water. They formed a
, resting place for as many beggars, en-
gagged in drawing at empty pipes, while
twice as many old women sat against
the wall of the ~forecourt and with their
drugget cloaks about them kept up a
continual whine. Among these, tufIi-
Ing herself now to one, now To another,
moved the girl whom the colonel had
seen at the landing place. She held her
! riding skirt uplifted In one land, her
whip ia th@ other. n she was h-rA-