Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1913-08-22
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The MYSTERY Of the
The Shadow on the Wall

"wnar d1a you my the mother was
uke?" :
II didn't say" I retorted, pleased to
catch Rand at one of his tricks.
moi Well, then, I will. She is q
pale blonde, with ash-colored hair.
rather long. pointed teeth, q tall, grace.
full figure, an aquiline nose and q
face which may have once been cold.
" beautiful" ......<.-.,:g..
$ "You know herl" charged. resent.
fully. :< '~, >~ ~ szes s.
+. mo. never saw her in my life.'
Rand's smile IL often frank and kind,
but when am trying to follow him
through ono Of his banning calculations
.-deduced. 40 In the present case
from the very things that his informer
does not know-I feel that smile to
be . very exasperating one He gave
no heed to my protesting ''Oh, come
now. Randi" but whistled softly as he
stepped about. getting into his coat.
you'll take tho case?' I hazarded.
watching him.
Eyes, I might % we'll. Toni" he
called out to the tall Sioux who 10 his
cook. bodyguard. chauffeur and friend,
and who Is never far away, "Tom. just
run out and buy half 4 dozen sulphur
candles-the kind you use for fumigat-
Ing, you know. And Tom-get out the
car. We're going to-where did you
say tho place is1" .as -,
-"2016 Old Boston road"
know that tho whole Danvers fam
lily felt q distinct sense of disappoint-
ment In tho friend" whose shrewd-
ness had recommended. but whom
they did not know % the great detec-
tive. for Rand seldom wanted his per-
sonality exploited, -
:~ The long hall where I had Witnessed
the ghostly apparition Of the night be-
fore was, Of course. the first thing to
which We gave attention. Rand walked
its length twice. had VI tell him ex-
actly where tho shadow was always
seen, and asked to be shown the rooms
and passages over 1t. From there he
went to the laundry. which extended
under the whole back of the house, but
declined to let any Of us save Tom
accompany him. =
Dinner was announced soon, but It
was an utter failure. Mrs. Danvers
could not eat. young Danvers looked
too serious for such 4 young fellow.
and even Rand looked graver than ]
had ever seen him. Happening to
glance out into the hall. from which
tho dining room opened, I saw Toms
tall figure lounging among tho shad.
ows. Evidently We were keeping close
formation. -.
II want mamma to leave here at
once" Miss Danvers told me, under
cover of some light conversation which
had arisen between her mother and
Rand.
'Where will you got" asked.
She shrugged her shoulders YEARLY
Back to Europe. I suppose. Matthew
and I we're wild to return to America
and to this house. You know we lived
here when we were children, and ii
was the happiest time of our lives
We were always talking about Amert
ca and wanting to return, but-fathel
didn't care for It, and would never
allow us to talk about it, "
She continued to talk OF Europe
but I replied absently, for, in reality;
I was listening to a conversation be-
tween Rand and Mrs. Danvers, and
the thread of connection which ran
through it teased me.
Was Mr.. Danvers English? All,
Welsh. That, no doubt, accounted fol-
the type Of beauty to which Miss Dan.
vers belonged. Mrs. Danvers sup
posed So in so faint and disheartened
a tone that I felt sorry for her, but
Rand went on, praising the old house
How fortunate to have servants SO
faithful that they would remain with
q deserted house for-how many
years? Fifteen. perhaps? Yes. it was
fifteen, corroborated Mrs. Danvers,
again family. y #
OF course she would advise with the
family lawyer before disposing Of the
property, as. no doubt, she had deter.
mined on doing-Yes, 1t was indeed
pity that he was so far away. How
did it happen that Mr.. Danvers had all
Of his business interests represented
by an Italian? She hadn't said that 1t
was by an Italian? She hadnt7 How
odd! Then, Of course, he must have
known 1t in some way; one hears all
sorts of Information. Strange though,
wasn't It? Mr.. Danvers must have
had some strong partially for Italians
even the servants were Italians and
Sicilians, at that. oh. but Mrs. Dan
vers must know that those English
names did not mean anything. All the
servants were Italian-oh, yes. he
knew Italians we'll.
knew that Miss Danvers must no.
tice my abstraction and she, In her
turn. began to listen to the one-sided
conversation. Utter perplsxity cloud
ed her eyes as she listened. and finally
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