Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-04-19

ana C8ll0u.' SAllOT SmlLn, sturdy uuu
white, entered and greeted Kent cour-
teously.
"Mr. bennett was saying" remarked
Kent, that you know something OF the
history of Hedgerow house. as be-
lieve they call T."
They call it," repeated the old
sailor. -Who calls It! II you mean
the Blair place, that's Hogg's Haven,
that Is! You can't wipe out that name
while there's man living as knew
the place at it, worst. Old Captain
Hogg built 1t and lived in 1T and died
in 1t. And II there's fryin' pan in
hell, the devil il fryin' bacon out Of old
Hogg today for the things he zone in
that house" !
How long since did he die1"
"Oh, twenty year back \
And the house was sold soon, af-
teri"
"stood vacant for ten years. Then
this rich Teller, Blair, bought it.
don't know him; but he bought q
weevilly biscuit, there. A bad house,
1t is-rotten bad"
Whats wrong with it?'
Mems bones In the brick and worn-
ems blood In the mortar"
Was the old boy q cannibal?" asked
Kent, amused by the sea veterans
heroics.
Just as bad; slave-trader."
Have you ever been In the house?"
"Many's the time, when 1t was
Hogs Haven. Only once, since.
They do tell that tho curse has come
down with the house and is heavy on
the new ownor'a aon ~
so I've heard"
The old white head wagged boding-
". THE curse of the blood" he said.
"It's on all that race"
But that wouldn't Affect the Blairs."
Not Aleck Blair. But the boy"
How so?"
Didn't you know there was the
same strain in young Wilfrid Blair, as
there was in old Captain Hogg?"
"Hogg's Oldest sister was the grand
mother of this young feller's mother,
wasn't she?" put in Elder bennett.
That's right. Wilfrid Blair's great
grandmother."
"And a bad 'un, too, 1 guess, con-
tinued the elder relishingly.
Don't you say it," cried the old sea.
man. THE curse Of the blood was on
her. Strange she was. and beautiful,
10 my mother used to tell me; but not
bad. She came in ut Lonesome Cove,
too
Drowned 1t sea- asked Kent.
"Thsy never knew. One day she
was gone; the next night her body
came In. They said In the countryside
that she had the gift of second sight,
and ,fofetold her own death"
"Hum-m," unused Kent. and now
the Blairs have changed the name Of
the place. No wonder
There's one thing they haven't
changed, the private buryin' plot
family" Il
Hogs there, all right. an never q
parson in the countryside dared to
speak to God about his soul, when they
laid him there. His nephew, too, that
was as black-hearted as himself. But
the rest of the graves has got no head
stones
"Slaves?'' &.
Them az he kept for his own serv-
ice an killed in his tantrums. Nobody
knows how many. You can see the
bend Of the creek whore they lie, from
the road. and the old willows that
lean over en-"
Cheerful sort of person the late Mr..
Hogs seems to have been. Any relics
Of his trade In the house?"
Relics? You may say SO. His old
pistols, and compasses, guns, nautical
and the loaded whalebone
whip that they used to say he slept
with. They've got 'em hung on the
walls now for orynments. Orynments!
II they'd seen 'em as I've seen EN-,
they'd sink the dummed things in
hundred fathom o'clean sea-"
Sailor Smith was cabin-boy on one
of the old Hogg feet one voyage ex-
planned Elder bennett.
God forgive me for it" said the old
man. There they hang; and with 'em
the chains and
Isn't that lamp finished yet?" de-
manded Kent, turning sharply upon
Elder bennett.
Having paid for with something
extra for his curtness-he led the sea-
man out of the place.
"You were going to say and hand
cuffs weren't your" he inquired.
why yes. What of THAR" asked
the veteran, puzzled. Suddenly he
brought his hand down with slap on
his thigh. Where was my wits?" he
cried. Them irons on the dead wom-
ans wrist knew I'd seen their like
before. Slave manacles! They must
a. come from Hogs Haven't
VERY likely. But that suspicion had
better be kept quiet, at present
AYE, aye, sir" agreed the other.
More devilment from the old Haven?
A bad house-a rotten bad house,"
"Yet I've a pressing desire to take
q look at It," said Chester Kent mus
Ingly. Going back to Annalaka, Mr..
Smith? I'll walk with you as far as
the road to Mr.. sedgwick's.'
Freed Of the veterans company at
the turn of the road, Kent sat down
and took his ear In hand, to think
Miss Dorrance," he unused, Mar
|orie Dorrance. What simpler twist
Tor nickname than to transform that
INTO Marjoria Daw? Poor Sedgwick!"
At the Nook he found the object OF
Ms commiseration mournfully striving
10 piece together as in a mosaic. the
shattered remnants of his work. Sedg-
wick frightened at his friends ap-
proach.
liz v