The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1912-08-01
CHAPTER XIV.

CHAPTER XIV.
A HERD OF cACKLING GEESE.
When at 10 O'Clock the next morning
Louisa Harris entered the Victoria
coroner's conr accompanied by her
Iather, the coroner and jury were just
returning from the mortuary at the
back of the building whittier they had
gone, in order to ook upon the dead.
Already the small room was
crowded to its utmost holding capac-
1ty. Louisa M Colonel Harris had
some difficulty in making their way
through the groups of idlers who filled
every corner of the gangway.
The air was hot and heavy with the
smell Of the ust of ages which had
gathered in the hooks and c%rannies of
TINS u n drabby room. 1t mingled
with Irritating ~Inpleasantness with
the scent of opoponaN or heliotrope
that emanated from lace handkerchiefs,
and with the pungent odors of smelling
salts ostentatiously held to delicate
noses.
Louisa, matter-of-fact, commonplace
Louisa looked around at these unac-
customed surroundings with the same
air of semi-indifferent interest with
which she would have viewed a second
rate local music hall, had she unac-
countably drifted inc one through cur
iosity or desire.
She saw a dull, drabby paper on the
wall, and dull, drabby hangings to the
single window, which was set very
once whitewished was now covered
with uneven coatings of CRIME.
In the center of the room, a long
table Uttered at one end with papers
tied up in bundles of varying bulk,
with pieces of pink tape, also a blot
paper-the one white note in the uni
form harmony of drabby brown; and
in among this litter that encountered
the table a long piece Of green baize
covering a narrow formless something,
which Louisa supposed would be re-
vealed In due course.
On a side of the table were half
a dozen chairs of early Victorian de-
sign upholstered in leather that had
once been green. To these chairs a
dozen men We're even now making their
way, each taking his seat in solemn
silence; men in overcoats n with
velvet collars somewhat worn at the
back of the neck-it seemed to Louisa
as II they were dressed in some kind
of unifrom SO alike did their clothes
appear. She looked at their faces as
they filed in-haggard faces, rubicund,
jolly faces, faces which mirrored sus-
plcion, faces which revealed obstinacy,
the whole of middle class England per-
sonifed in these typical u men all
wearing ~overcoats with shabby velvet
collars, who were to decide today how
n when Philip de Mountford, heir
presumptive to the Earl of Radcliffe,
had been done to death.
Louisa and her father were able at
last to each the forefront of the
crowd, where chairs had been reserved
for them Immediately facing the table,
at the farther end of which the coro-
ner sat. Louisa recognized Mr.. Humph-
reys, one of Mr.. Dobson's clerks, who
did his best to make her and Colonel
Harris comfortable. Farther on sat
MI. Davies, who had been Philip de
Mountford's solicitor when he had first
desired an interview with Lord Rad
clyffe. Louisa knew him by sight
Luke had on one occasion pointed him
out to her.
Luke and MI. Dobson were ever now
making their way to the same group
Of seats. They had-like the jury and
the coroner-been in the mortuary to
have a last look at the murdered man.
Louisa thought that Luke looked years
older than he had done yesterday. She
saw him standing for a moment right
against the dull, drabby background Of
the court room wall; and it seemed
as if something of the %drabbiness had
descended upon his soul. Youth
seemed to have gone out of him.. He
appeared to be looking out onto a
dreary world through windows OBJ
scured by CRIME.
There was a look not so much of
detection as of absolute hopelessness
in the face. No fear, or anxiety-only
a remuneration. But this was only for
one moment; the next he had caught
sight of her, and the look of blank
detection in his eyes suddenly gave
place to one of acute and intolerable
pain. The face which usually was SO
calm and placid in it's impressive mask
Of high-bred Indifference was almost
distorted by an expression of agony
which obviously had been quite beyond
control.
The whole thing was of course a
mere flash, less than a quarter of a
second perhaps in duration, and already
Luke was just as he had had always
been: a correct, well-born English gen
tleman, perfect in manner perfect in
attitude and bearing, under whatever
circumstances Fate might choose to
place him.