Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-09-08


meant to sleep at Poole's Inn, and take
the first morning train back to Boston
The moon was still struggling behind
gray clouds. Something which migh
be called the shadow of light moved
with varying effect on the sombre
silent woods.
From the avenue into the high road
an iron gate opened. AS Greylock
striding on at furious pace, anxious
to shake the dust of the place from his
feet, came in view Of this, he distinct
ly saw, leaning against 1t, a human
figure in an attitude Of waiting.
The head, surmounted by sloucheG
hat, reached to the cap Of the post
which was Of moderate height; the
body below seemed lost in shadow
Startled a little in spite of himself
Robert halted. At the same instant
the figure discovered his approach
and bounced up from the gate.
who's there?" cried Greylock.
| No answer.
Speak, whoever you are!" he urged
in a peremptory tone.
With face turned toward him, but
quite hidden in the darkness, the
shape stood for a breathing space, as
If undecided whether to reply or not
Then it vanished as suddenly as
though the earth had swallowed it up
Robert hurried to the gate, looked
around and saw nothing, listened and
heard nothing.
quite odd!" he thought, with q
shrug of the shoulders. Surely my
eyes did not deceive me. Who could
that late party be, prowling at the en-
trance of the woods at this 'ur?
Some follower of the kitchen maids
perhaps. BY my soul, now that l think
of it, there was something about that
figure which reminded me little, q
very little, of my Creole friend, Key
yon!"
He strobe out into the road; it was
silent and deserted.
Your life shall pay for this"
The ugly threat of his enemy flash
ed like lightning on his memory, but
the next moment he smiled at his alb
surd fears.
About this time," he said to him
self, Kenyon is drinking Sylphide's
health at one of the late recherche sup
pers, for which the wife Of my bosom
has an unlimited fondness. AS l came
down to Blackport on the last train
which will go over the road tonight,
and at the very time when Kenyon
was on his way to the theatre with my
wife, it is simply impossible that he
can have followed me hither.
The wind was rising, the tempera-
ture falling rapidly. over the land
scape brooded a portentous gloom and
silence well-calculated to increase the
depression which already beset this
discarded son. He raised his hand to
his breast pocket and felt there the
five hundred dollars. his fathers final
| gift, and the only portion of the Grey
lock fortune which he was very likely
to obtain.
He started for Poole's Inn, never
turning to look back at his lost inher-
| itance. He dreaded to meet that vixen
Mercy again, but there was no help for
it, and it was probable she would be
| in bed by the time he reached the
house. He turned from the road to
descend to the abandoned salt-pits
and the marshes.
Then it was that he heard some
where behind him stealthy step. AT
any time and in any place there is
something peculiarly unpleasant in the
thought that one is being pursued. AT
that hour, and in his present agitated
state of mind, Greylock found the sus-
picion doubly offensive. He wheeled
quickly, and sent into the darkness the
same cry which he had uttered at the
gate-"Who's there?"
Dead silence. Was devil-may- care
Robert Greylock turning coward, that
so many fancies beset him in this mid
night walk over old, familiar ground
Afar Bird Island light shone cheer
|
ting under the midnight sky. The next
moment he was alongside the tumbling
frame of a ruined shed. He began to
pick his way cautiously among the
debris of the deserted pits Again in
his ears sounded the pursuing step, OF
was it but the echo of his own? AS he
turned to look behind, his feet slipped
in a frozen salt pool, and before he
could quite recover himself, human
figure had stepped out from the shad-
ow of the ruined shed, and barred his
way.
| Stop" it said, softly.
The light being more favorable here
and the distance betwiXt himself and
the shape but a few feet, GreylocR
looked, and with utter amazement rec
ognized the face under the slouched
hat. He started back a step.
For Gods Sake"-he began, but the
sentence was never finished. There
was flash, whistling through the
silence, and Robert Greylock staggered
and fell face downward TO the earth
The sea roared on the beach; the
wind walled across the salt meadows
Up at Greylock Woods the lights were
all out-the we'll ordered household
was sleeping the sleep of the just. AS
night wore on into the small hours
out of the gray clouds broke the moon
large and serene. 1t shone down or
the path which Robert Greylock hac
traversed from Poole's Inn, and on the
old salt pits and general debris of the
ground beyond the marsh, and upur
Robert Greylock himself, stretched
there, upon the frozen earth, in the
shadow of the tumbling shed, prone
motionless, stoned dead, with bullet II
his heart.
(To be Cont'nued)
Serpent In law.-The case of Adam
Eve and the serpent in the Garden o