Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-01-14
Copyrighted. 1913. I

fstence.
On the outskirts of the village was
the BIatcher place 1t had been the
stood well back from the street. with
handsome naples and elms surround
| ing it. 1t had now long been vacant
and was falling to decay. No one ever
entered the grounds except boys, who
are proverbially fond of deserted
places.
A murder had been committed. Boys
seeking to detach an enormous icicle
that hung from the roof of the dilapi-
dated house had been horrified to see
the body of an old man sitting in an
upper room.
And there amt nobody lived in the
house for twenty years." cried Simon
Dale, the postmaster, as he led a Curl
Gus crowd up the street toward the
house. "Tbere amt been soul there
since old Philo BIatcher died and his
son, young Philo. went to Asia or Afri-
ca or some other outlandish place.
expect young Philos dead long ago,
but there amt nobody to take interest
enough to find out, not being another
relative. If he is dead 1 expect the
property III revert to the state"
"But what about the old man that
Billy Breen saw through the winder?"
Insisted Asa Fitch. How'd he come
inside?'
.Mebbe some tramp that's been
housing there. 'Twon't be no mystery
when the constable gets around. Here
he comes now"
The constable was the postmaster's
brother. and so these two by right of
high office in the village took tempo
rary charge of the case.
Constable Ben Dale smashed a win
dowpane and gained entrance to the
big house that had stood in the midst
of large grounds. untenanted, unvisit-
ed, for twenty years. The trees and
shrubs had been untrimmed and grew
rankly, almost hiding the house from
the street.
When the constable unfastened the
front door it was to admit chosen
few. How Miss Alvina Petty managed
to slip inside no one ever knew. But
there she was, the only woman among
half dozen men. who tramped up the |
carpeted stairs. stirring the dust of |
years into a choking cloud.
"'Tain't no sight for a woman"
protested Constable Ben as he paused. |
with a hand on the knob of the front !
chamber door.
Awful tender with wimmen all of |
a sudden" sneered Alvina. Every |
body knows it sickens you to kill a
chicken, and you let your wife do it,
but she never eats chicken because
% Ill I
stand anything you can, Ben Dale"
Somebody Uttered. and Ben Dale
opened the door and entered the room.
Billy Breen had reported truly.
In one corner of the dusty room was
a handsome four post bedstead whose
silken covers had been tossed back as
if the bed had been recently slept in.
Beside the empty fireplace was a
large chiptz covered chair, and in this
chair was the dead body of a white
haired man. His head dropped to one
side as If he slept, but there was a
rigidity about his attitude that limited
at something else.
One hand hung over the arm of the
chair, and the outside of the hand
was streaked with blood. On the
floor was little wet spot
Constable Dale touched his finger to
the spot.
Blood" he whispered hoarsely;
wet blood, 1t was done last nightr'
A shudder ran through the crowd.
Then the postmaster nudged some
body, and they all turned and looked
1T Alvina Petty. who was trembling
ike leaf and staring at the face of
he dead man.
Il said it want no place for VIM
nenw calculated Ben Dale as he
'traightened himself.
"Who do you say it is. Ben
Oale?"
For the first time the constable look
d closely at the man in the chair.
,hen the color forsook his fresh face,
md he almost reeled.
Good heavens, boys-it's-it's old
'hilo Biatcher himselfr'
$50 'tisr' breathed the postmaster
But we buried him twenty years
gor' protested somebody.
Then Alvinas voice. curiously re-
ressed to a whisper, caused them all
o turn and stare at the little spin
ter who once had been known as the
rettiest girl in Lyndhurst, but now.
Nth her white hair and her pale. wrin-
led face, looked older than her forty
We years.
This isn't old Philo Blatcher." whis-
cred Alvina. still staring at the man.
1t is young Philo. his SON.
Young Philo? You're crazy cried / (
zen Dale. pushing forward why,
Dung Philo had black hair and (
ut is young Philo grown DID," broke :
! Alvina. II ought TO know" [
Silence followed her outburst One {
inn whispered to another that Alvina
nd once been engaged to young Phijo :
catcher and ever since his disappear
nee twenty years before she had act
4 queerly. Young Pbilo could not be
lore than fifty now. and this man