Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1909-03-31
CHAPTER LIv.
Another Load.

morse, riding hard for the doctor.
Then came stable-boy with the lam
tern, and after the light two gates
first, that on which was laid the dead
body of Mr.. Jordan; then another,
followed closely by Barbara, on which
lay Eve breathing, but now not even
moaning. As the procession was
half through the first field the bell Of
the house tolled. Westlake had COM
municated the news to the servant
maids, and one of them at once went
10 the bell
Tagging behind all came Joseph
France in the ballad marched up a
hill, and then marched down again,
having accomplished nothing. JOSEPH
had reversed the process; he had
leisurely marched down the hill, and
then more leisurely marched up It
again; but the result was the same
as that attained by the King of
France.
On reaching Morwen Jasper said in
low voice to the men, You must re-
turn with me; there is another tv be
sought for. VINO saw the boy with
the lantern last? He may have found
him by this time
Then Joseph said slowly, AS was
down by the boathouse 1 saw some
thing
What did you see?'
I saw UP on the hill lantern trav-
cling this way, then that way, So
he made zigzag Indication In the air
with his finger. 1T went very slow.
1t went, so to speak, like a drop o.
rain on a window pane, that goes
this way, then 1T goes little more
that way, then it goes quite contrary.
10 the other side Then it changes it's
direction once again and it goes lit
tie faster
I wish you would go faster said
Jasper impatiently. What did you
see last?'
I'm getting into it, but / must go
my own pace said Joseph with un-
ruffled composure. You understand
me, brothers-I'm not speaking of
drop o. rain on window glass, but
Of lantern light on the hillside
and bless you-that hillside was like
black wall rising Up on my right
hand into the very sky. Well then, the
light it travelled like drop o. rain
on a glass-frst to this side, then to
that. You've seen drops % rain how
they travel he appealed to all who
listened. And I reckon you know
how that all to once like the drop az
ter having travelled first this road.
then that road, in a queer contrary
fashion, and very slow, all to once
like, as said, down it runs like a
winking of the eye and is gone. So ex-
actly was it with (that) there light
1t rambled about ON the face of the
blackness; first 1T crawled this way,
then it crept that; always, brothers.
going little lower and then-to once
-wish!-I saw it shoot like falling
star-I mean a raindrop-and / saw
it no more
And then?
'Why-and then I came back the
same road I went down.
You did not go into the bushes in
search?'
How should To- answered Joseph.
I'd my best uniform on. I'd come
out counting, not thief-catching.'
And you know nothing further?'
How should I? Didn't I say I
went back up the road same way as
I'd come down? warn't bound to
get my new cloth coat and trousers
tore all abroad by brimbles. not for
nobody. l know my duty better than
that. The county pays for EN-
Directed by this poor Indication,
Jasper led the men back into the
wood and down the woodlands truck
road, that led by long sweep to the
bottom of the cliffs.
The search was for long time inef-
fectual; but at length, at the foot of
a rock they came on the object of
their quest-the body of Martin
among fragments of fallen crag, and
over it, clinging TO his brother with
one arm the hand passed through the
ring OF a battered lantern, was Wal
ter. The light was extinguished in
the lantern and the light was beaten
out of the brothers. Jasper looked in
to the poor boys face-a scornful
smile still fingered on his lips.
Apparently he had discovered his
brothers body and then had tried to
drag it away down the steep slope to-
wards the old mine, in the hopes of
hiding there and finding that Martin
was stunned, not dead; but in the
darkness he had stumbled over an
other precipice or Sudden down a run
of shale and been shot with his bur-
den over rock. Again the sad pro-
cession was formed. The two gates
that had been already used were put
in requisition a second time, and the
bodies of Martin and Watt were
carried to Morwell and laid in the
hall, side by side, and he who carried
light placed it at their head.