The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1915-03-05
E
The Secret of the Night--- By CASTOR LerOux
OF RUSSIA NrRnHB
HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION SERIAL.

watching their shadows in the the
shadows, searching the darkness, the
armchairs, the sofas, to rouse them. to
appeal in low tones to all they held
binding, by their own name and the
name of their father. to promise them
bonus that would amount te some
thing If they watched well, to count
them in order to know where they all
were. and, suddenly, to throw full in
their face the ray of light from her
little dark-lantern in order to be sure,
absolutely sure, that she was face to
face with them, one Of the police, and
not with some other, some other with
an Internal machine under his arm.
Yes, she surely had less work now that
she had no longer to watch the police.
And she had less fear!
She thanked the young reporter for
that. Where was he? Did he remain
In the pose of porcelain statue all
this time out there on the lawn? She
peered through the lattice Of the
veranda shutters and looked anxiously
out into the darkened garden. Where
could he be? Was that he, down yon-
der. that crouching black heap with
an unlighted pipe in his mouth? No.
no. That, she knew well, was the dwarf
she genuinely loved. her little domovoi-
doukh, the familiar spirit Of the house,
who watched with her over the Generals
life and thanks to whom serious injury
had not yet befalfen Feodor Feodoro-
vitch--one could not regard a mangled
leg that seriously. Ordinarily in her
own country (she was from the Orel
1istrict) one did not care to see the
domovoi doukh appear in flesh and
blood. When she was little she was
always afraid that she would come
upon him around turn of the path in
her fathers garden. She always thought
Of him as no higher than that, seated
back on his launches and smoking his
pipe. Then, after she was married.
she had suddenly run across him at a
turning in the bazaar at Moscow. He
was Just as she had imagined him. and
she had Immediately bought him, car
ried him home herself and placed him,
with many precautions. for he was Of
very delicate porcelain. in the vesti-
bule Of the palace. And in leaving
Moscow she had been careful not to
leave him there She had carried him
herself in a case and had placed him
herself on the lawn Of the datcha des
Hes. that he might continue to watch
over her happiness and over the life OF
her Feodor. And in order that he
should not be bored, eternally smoking
his pipe all alone, she had surrounded
him with group of little porcelain
senii, after the fashion Of the Jardins
des lies. Lord how that young
Frenchman had frightened her. rising
suddenly like that, without warning.
on the lawn. She had believed for a
moment that it was the domovoi -doukh
himself rising to stretch his legs. Hap
PLY he had spoken at once and she
had recognized his voice. And besides.
her domovoi surely would not speak
French. All Matrena Petrovna breathed
freely now. 1t seemed to her, this
night, that there were two little ia
miliar genii watching over the house.
And that was worth more than all the
police in the world. surely. How willy
that little fellow was to order all those
was necessary to know; it was neces-
in the way Of learning It, As things
were now. the mystery could operate
without suspicion or interference Only
one man watched 1t, and he had not
the air OF watching. Certainly Rou-
letabille had not the air Of constantly
watching anything. He had the man
ner, out in the night, Of an easy little
man in porcelain. neither more nor
less, yet he could see everything-if
anything were there to see--and he
could hear everything--if there were
anything to hear. One passed beside
him without suspecting him. and men
might talk to each other without an