Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-01-17
CHAPTER XVI-Continued.

III snow you the IuIultSt tHih6 Sou CsSA
saw in your life"
In my joy Of seeing her l was neglect
ing Cecilias commission. Very likely
Hezekiah had forgotten all about her
theft: hers, reasoned, was a nature that
| delighted in the nearest pleasure. i would
| follow her jack % Lantern round the worlC
for the chance of seeing the fun brighten
in her brown eyes, but / had made a
promise to Cecilia and ] meant to fulfill
lit.
She led me now across the meadow,
over a stone wall, up a steep slope and
by devious ways through a strip of wood
| land. l bore the jack-o'-lantern-she hac
hidden me do it, with some notion, I did
not question. OF making me particeps
criminis in whatever mischief was afoot.
| Dignfied conduct in a man OF twenty
| eight in his best evening clothes. carry
| ing a jack-o'-lantern over stone walls
under clumpS Of briar and through woods
whose boughs clawed the night wildly!
The moon, lost and found under the fly
ing scud, was in keeping with the general
Iirresponsibility of a world ruled by HeZe-
kiah
She swung along ahead Of me with the
greatest ease and certainty. Occasion
ally she flung some word back at me or
whistled few bars Of tune. and when
I slipped and nearly fell on a smooth
slope she laughed mockingly and bade
me not lose the pumpkin. Once. when a
boy, / stole a watermelon and bore 1t a
mile to the rendezvous of my pirate band
camped at a riverside; but carrying a
pumpkin, even a hollow one, is attended
with manifold discomforts. 1t would
help, / reflected, to know just what l
was Juggling it for. but Hezekiah vouch-
safed nothing When l threatened to
drop the grinning gargoyle she laughed
| and told me to trot along and not De
silly; and a moment later she stopped
and demanded that 1 repeat fully the
story / had told her aunt of the finding
of the slipper.
You are better than / thought you
were, Chimney Mani she declared. when
l had concluded and added her aunt $
comment. You may be sure that t1ckled
i Aunt Octayia. You can lie almost as well
as an architect. Aunt Octavia says arch1-
tects are better liars than dressmakers.
1T was my weakness for the truth that
caused me to abandon architecture. For
heavens sake, what are you up to-
of our flight. and | was surprised that we
had now reached the stile over which
had watched the passing or the sultors
on the afternoon of my meeting with
Hezekiah in the orchard.
This is the appointed place., she re-
marked, taking the pumpkin from me
and dropping down on the far side OF the
stile.
"Hezekiah. I've trotted across most of
| Westminster county after you. and my
arm is paralyzed from carrying that
pumpkin. / must know what you're UP
to right here, or I'll go home. Besides.
there's a mist falling and you'll be
soaked. What do you suppose your father
thinks of your absence at this time OF
night?''
'Oh. he'll never forgive me for not let
ting him in on this. This is the grandest
thing ever thought Of Sit on this step
and gently incline your ear toward the
| house. It's about time those gentlemen
were leaving Cecilia, and they'll be gal
looping for their inn in minute, and
them
Hezekiah whistled the rest of it.
While we waited she babe me reset the
candle and snuff the wick, which I did
of necessity with my fingers. Sitting or
a stile with pretty girl is an experience
that has been commended by the ballad
lists. but surely this felicity loses nothing
where the night is fine. When you get
used to sitting in a drizzle in your dress
suit, while your shirt bosom assumes the
consistency Of a gum shoe and your col
lar CLUES itself odiously to your neck. ]
dare say the ordeal may be borne cheer
fully, but my expressions of discomfort
seemed only to amuse Hezekiah. While
we waited for / knew not what, / tried
once or twice to revert to the silver note
book, but without success. Hezekiah was
a mistress Of the art Of evasion with her
tongue as we'll as her feet.
wait till the evening performance is
over and I'll talk about that. 'Sh! Quiet!
Crawl over there out of the way, and
when l say run. beat it for the road"
| These last phrases were uttered in q
whisper, her face close to my ear. She
d gave me a little push and l withdrew a
few yards and waited. The ground,
may say. was wet, and the drizzle had
become monotonous autumn rain.
| The light of the lantern fell warmly
upon HeZekiah's face as she held its il
lumined countenance toward her, crouch
ing on the stile steps. / heard now what
her keener ear had caught earlier-the
tramp of feet along the path. The suit
voices Of one or two Of them reached
me. One-I thought it was Ormsby-was
eXecrating the weather. They were STEP
ping along briskly. and my remembrance
OF their retreat over this same stile
through the amber evening dusk was so
4 vivid that I knew just how they would
appear if light suddenly fell upon the
path.
The nature of Hezekiah's undertaking
suddenly dawned upon me. No one but
Hezekiah could ever have devised any
thing so preposterous. so utterly lawless:
but in spite of myself 1 waited in breath
less eagerness for the outcome. ! could
not have interfered now IL l had wished
to do SO, without hetraying her and in
volving myself in predicament that
could not rebound to my credit.
4 Nearer and nearer came the patter OF
feet, and j heard. for could not see, the
/ scra ping of Hezekiah's slipper-a wet lit
| tie shoe by now.-as she crept higher on
our side of the stile. The first sutton
CROPPED blindly for the steps, slipped on
the wet plank. growled and rose to try
again. That grOwl marked for me the
leader of the van. Hartley Virgins. be-
yond a doubt, and In no good humor,
guessed. The others, judged. had trod-
den upon one another's heels at the mo-
ment Virgins stumbled. Thus let us
imagine their approach-six gentlemen in
top hats headed for a stile on chilly
night of rain.
1t was at this strategic moment that
Hezekiah pushed into the middle of the
stile platform. it's grinning face turned
toward the advancing suitors the jack O
lantern her hand had fashioned.
I marked its position by it's faint glow
an instant. but an instant only. The
world reeled for a moment before the
sharp cry of man in fear. 1t cut the
dark like a lash, and close upon it the
second man yelled, in different key. but
no less in accents of terror. The first ar
| rival had flung himself back, and SO close
upon him pressed the others and SO unex-
pected was the halt that the nine men
seemed to have flung themselves together
and to be struggling to escape from the
hideous thing that had interposed itself
| in their path. -
All was over in a moment. In the