The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1914-03-31
Mary Roberts
Rinehart
Copyright, 1913, the Bobbs-Mer-
rill Company.

women are always lighting alco-
hol lamps on the bureau, and
wanting the bed turned into a
cosy corner so they can see their
gentlemen friends in their rooms.
Well, with Mr.. Holcombe gone,
and Mr.. Reynolds busy all day
and half the night getting out the
summer silks and preparing for
remnant day, and with Mr.. Lad
ley in Jail and Ida out of the
city-for | saw in the papers that
she was not well, and her mother
had taken her to Bermuda had
good bit of time on my hands.
And SO l got in the habit of
thinking things over, and trying
to draw conclusions, as l had
seen Mr.. Holcombe do. l would
sit down and write things out as
they had happened, and study
them over, and especially ! wor-
ried over how we could have
found slip of paper in Mr.. Lad
ley's room with a list, almost ex-
act, of the things we had discov-
cred there. / used to read II
over, rope, knife, shoe, towel
Horn" and get more and more
| bewildered. "Horn"-might have
been a town, or 1t might not have
been. There was such to town,
according to Mr.. Graves, but ap-
parently he had made nothing OF
1t. Was it town that was meant =?
The dictionary gave only a few
words beginning with horn
hornet, hornblende, hornpipe,
and horny-none of which was of
any assistance. And then one
morning i happened to see In the
personal column of one of the
newspaper that a woman named
Eliza Schaeffer, of Horner, had
day-old Buff Orpington and Ply
mouth Rock chicks for sale, and
1t started me to puzzling again.
Perhaps it had been Horner, and
possibly this very Eliza Shaeffer-
l suppose my lack of expert
ence was in my favor, for, after
all, Eliza Schaeffer is a common
enough name, and the Horn"
might have stood for "hornswog-
gle," for all / knew. The story
of the man who thought of what
he would do IL he were a horse
came back to me, and for an hour
or so tried to think / was Jennie
Brice, trying to get away and hide
from my rascal of husband. But
| made no Roadway. would
never have gone to Horner, or
to any small town. II I had wanted
to hide. think should have
gone around the corner and taken
room in my own neighborhood,
or have lost myself in some large
city.
1t was that same day that, since
I did not go to Horner, Horper
came to me. The bell rang about
three o'clock, and / answered 1t
myself. For, with times hard and
only two or three roomers all
winter, / had not had a servant,
except Terry to do odd Jobs, for
some months.
There stood a fresh-faced
young girl, with a covered basket
in her hand.
Are you Mrs. Pitman?" she
asked.
II don't need anything today"
l said, trying to shut the door.
And at that minute something In
the basket cheeped. Young
women selling poultry are not
common In our neighborhood.
what have you there?" l asked
more agreeably.
Chicks, day-old chicks, but
I'm not trying to sell you any.
may ] come in?" :
1t was dawning on me then that
perhaps this was Eliza Schaeffer
l led her back to the dining-room
with Peter shifting at the basket.
my name Is Shaeffer," she
said. 1--WE seen your name in the
papers. and / believe l know
something about Jennie Brice."
Eliza Shaeffer's story was curl