The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-11-05
xXvI- BILLINGS MAKES FURTHER TROUBLE.

Dn the uay SuCCeedtng mat on which
 Beckwith and Trafrord visited Calden Grimbleshaw was again at the law yer's office. and felt trifle annoyed to find that what Beckwith wanted was to go again over the story of the finding of Altenburg's body. with all its attending circumstances It seem ed to him that this was already worn threadbare. and that if anything was to be done to accomplish the main ob- 5ect now in view. that of relieving Judith of the weight of anxiety under which she rested. something more than a study of ancient history was re- quired- He did not hesitate to say so when the interview was over. and he did not like the way in which Beck- with treated the suggestion. In facl. he did not seem to regard it as a sug- gestion at all. and Grimbleshaw left under the feeling that he had a coun- sel who could be exceedingly irritating when 1t suited him not to be exceed ingly pleasant
 Grimbleshaw had not seen Judith since the arrest of her father He knew that if he was to have made any explanation to her the time to have made 1t was immediately and that in- asmuch as he had let that time pass. he must either depend on a chance meeting with her. or wait until facts developed which would show in its true light the part he had played in that affair None the less when he left Beckwith. his impulse was to go direct to her and seek opportunity for an explanation It was a matter of comparative indifference to him if others blamed him so long as she knew the truth. and. conversely. the approv- al of others counted for nothing SO long as he was in doubt as to the state of her feelings.
 When he finally admitted to himself that it wasn't quite the thing for him to hunt Judith up to tell her that her brother was a blitherinx idiot. ha reached the conclusion that after all life hadn't just then anything else that was quite worth the doing. and so he decided to take to the woods. He turned into the road leading up the long hf1l and overlooking the r.yer. over which he had driven with Mrs CaIden on the niEht of his visit to the camp. Thus. almost without realizing that he had come in that direction. he found himself again fin Braxton's Woods. where he had met Judith that day when she had resented her in- ability to explain He was certain that he hadn't come that way because he had once met her there and hoped he might do SO again: he was certain that he hadn't come there because there was a wood road that led in the direction Of the Altenburg house. and. above all. he was sure that she would not misinterpret him. as Horace had done. and thereupon he wished that she was there then. that he might make surety doubly sure
 He had just turned into that cer- tain wood road that led. indirectly. but surely. to the Plains road. and in do- ing so skirted the rear of the Alten- burg farm. when he heard a rust ing in the undergrowth- and a man step- ped out of the thiclest part into the road a few rods ahead While there was nothing unusual in the incideht itself. there was something in the movements ef the man that struck Grimbleshaw as peculiar. and that caused him to draw back into a posi- tion from which he could watch the other without himself being seen The newcomer moved like a man who was engaged i'm a search. yet while at one moment he seemed intent upon marks on the ground. at others he stood erect and peered through the branches. as # trying 10 find some mark at a dis tance Then he would stoon again as examining the earth. and finally he