Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1911-11-24
CHAPTER VIII.
'LILA-LILAp

IL two moved toward the house.
And be sure you place me
where l can see without being seen.
l have no wish to attract attention to
myself or to be identified with the no.
lice until the necessity is forced upon
me-"
Then we won't go in together" de-
cided HeXford. Find your own place:
you won't have any difficulty. A
crowd isn't expected Miss Cumber-
lands condition fOrbids it."
Sweetwater nodded and slid in at
the side door. He found himself at
once in a narrow hall. from the end
of which opened a large room A few
people were to be seen in this latter
place. and his first instinct was to
join them; but, finding that few min
utes yet remained before the hour set
for the services. he decided to i'm
prove them by rapid glance about
this hall. which, for certain reasons
hardly as yet formulated in his own
mind, had peculiar interest for him.
The most important object within
view, according to his present judg-
ment. was the staircase which con-
nected it with the floor above, but If
you had asked his reason for this con-
clusion he would not have told you,
as Ranelagh might have done. that it
was because it was the most direct and
convenient approach to Carmel Cum
berland's room. His notice led him
next to rack upon which hung sew
eral coats and a gentleman's hat.
He inspected the former and noted
that one was finished with a high col
lar, but he passed the latter by-it was
not a derby. The table stood next
the rack, and on its top lay nothing
more interesting than a clothesbrush
and one or two other insignificant OBJ
jects; but with his memory for de-
tails, he had recalled the keys which
one of the maids had picked up some
where about this house and laid on a
hall table. If this were the hall and
this the table, then was every inch of
the latter's simple cloth covered top of
the greatest Importance in his eyes.
He had no further time for even
these cursory investigations. Hexfords
step could be. heard on the veranda,
and Sweetwater was anxious to locate
himself before the officer came in En-
tering the room before him, he crossed
to the small group clustered in its
farther doorway. There were several
empty chairs in sight but he passed
around them all to a dark and incon-
spicuous corner from which without
effort he could take in every room on
that foor-from the large parlor in
which the casket stood to the remotest
region of the servants hall.
The clergyman had not yet descend
ed. and Sweetwater had time to OBJ
serve the row of little girls sitting in
front of the bearers, each with small
cluster of white flowers in her hand
Miss Cumberland's Sunday school
class, he conjectured. and conjectured
rightly. He also perceived that some
Of these children loved her. His eyes
dwelt lingeringly on these before pass
ing to that heaped up mound of flow
ers under which lay murdered body
and bruised heart. He could not see
the face, but the spectacle was sufh-
ciently awe compelling without that
Would 1t have seemed yet more so had
he known at whose request the huge
bunch of lilies had been placed over
that silent heart?
The sister sick. the brother invisi-
Io tn hnl
attention in this quarter, so he let 1t
roam across the heads of the people
about him to the distant hall commu-
nicating with the kitchen.
Several persons were approaching
from this direction, among them Ia
dok-the servants of the house. no
doubt. for they came in all together
and sat down side by side in the
chairs Sweetwater had so carefully
passed by. There were five persons
in all-two men and three women
Only two interested him-Zadok. with
whom he had already made super.
fetal acquaintance and had had one
| bout. and smart. bright eyed girl
with a resolute mouth softened by an
| lnsiStent dimple. who struck him as
possessing excellent sense and some
natural cleverness. A girl to know
md a girl to talk to was his instan-
laneous judgment.
During the services Sweetwater
found himself watching, with anx-
lous curiosity. the attitude and alb
Eorbed expression of good looking
young man whom he was far from
suspecting to be the secret representa-
live of the present suspect, whom no
body could forget, yet whom nobody
wished to remember at this hallowed
hour.
Had this attitude and this absorp-
ton been directed toward the casket
over which the clergyman's words
rose and fell with ever increasing i'm
pressiveness he might have noted the
man. but would scarcely have been
held by him. But this interest. sim
rere and strong as 1t undoubtedly was.
centered not so much in the services.
careful as he was to maintain a de-
POROUS attitude toward the same. but
In the faint murmurs which now and
then came down from above, where
Inconsistencies reigned and the