Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1914-02-05

Wide-open, deeply flushed eyes so near
his own; then with slow smile of ex-
traordinary subtlety, if not of compre-
hension, answered in a barely audible
murmur:
81 think / do. I may be mad, but
think I do"
The other sank back with sigh
charged with what the lawyer inter
preted as relief. Mr.. Harper reseated
himself, and for moment neither
looked at the other, and neither
spoke; it would almost seem as II
neither breathed. Then, as bird, de-
ceived by the silence, hoped to the
window sill and began it's cheep,
"cheep," Mr.. Ransom broke the spell
by saying in low but studiously bust
ness-like tones:
"Have you thought it worth while
to study the ground under her win
dow or anywhere else for footprints?
1t might not be amiss; what do you
think about it,"
Let us CO." readily acquisced the
lawyer, rising to his feet with an
honest show Of alacrity: latter which
/ must telegraph to New York. / was
expected back today"
II know it; but your duties there
will keep; these here cannot. Your
hand on the promise that you will re-
spect my secret till-Well, till | can
assure you that my intuitions are de-
void Of any real basis"
The lawyers palm met his; then
they started to go out; but before
they had passed the door, Mr.. Ransom
came back, and lifting the comb from
the table he put it in his pocket. AS
he did this, his eye flashed sidewise
on the other There were strange
hints and presentiments in it which
brought the color to the usually i'm
perturbable lawyers cheek.
In going out they passed the Office
door. They rounded the corner of
the house and entered a narrow walk,
tagged with brick, which connected
the space in front with the rear Of
fees and garden. This walk ran close
to the walls which were broken on
this side by an ell projecting in the
direction of the mill-stream. It was
from the roof of this ell that Anitra
declared Georgian to have slipped and
fallen.
Their first care was to glance up
at the roof. It was a sloping one and
Anitras story seemed credible enough
when they noted how much easier it
would be to drop upon it from the
little balcony overhead than to ira
verse the roof itself and reach the
ground beneath without slipping. But
as they looked longer, each face be-
trayed doubt. The descent from the
balcony was easy enough, but how
about the passage from Georgian's
window to the balcony? This latter
was confined to the one window, and
was surrounded by an ornamental bal
ustrade, high enough to offer a decid-
ed obstacle to the adventurous per-
son endeavoring to leap upon it from
the adjoining WindoW-ledge. However,
this leap, made in the dark and under
circumstances inducing the utmost
enough from the WindoW-ledge itself,
and Mr.. Harper, making a remark to
this effect, proposed that they should
examine the ground rather than the
house for evidences of Mrs. Ransom's
slip and fall as related by Anitra.
The only spot where they could
hope to find such was in the one short
stretch-the width of the ell-upder
lying the edge of the slipping roof. But
this spot was all tagged, as | have al
ready said, and when their eyes stray
ed beyond it to the untitled fields,
stretching between them and the
great rock at the verge Of the water
fall from which she was supposed to
have taken her fatal leap, it was to
find them as unprOductiye of evidence
as the brick wall itself. Not one pair
of feet but many had passed that way
since early morning. The ground
showed a mas Of impressions Of all
sizes and shapes, amid which it would
have been impossible for them, with
out the necessary experience, to have
followed UP the fisat Of any one per-
SON. They had come to their task too
late.
Futile" decided the lawyer. "There
is no use in our going that way" And
he turned to look again at the
ground in their immediate vicinity
AS he did so, his eye lighted on the
triangular spot where the ell met the
side of the house under the kitchen
windows. Here there was nc flag
ging, the walk taking a diagonal
course from the corner of the ell to
the kitchen door.
'fWhat are those?" he asked, point
ing to two oblong Impressions brim-
ming with water which disfgured the
center Of this small plot.
'They look like footprints, y ven
tured Ransom.
'They are footprints" decided Mr..
Harper as they stopped to examine