The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1915-05-28

ma. 1t is the last
Kisses for my comforter. Come soon
REUTHER
Over this letter Deborah Scoville sat
for two hours, then she rang for Mrs.
Yardley.
The maid who answered her sum-
mons surveyed her in ama2ement 1t
was the first time that she had seen
her uncovered face
Mrs Yardley was not long in com
ing up.
Mrs. Averill-" she began, in
kind of fluster, as she met her strange
guests quiet eye.
But she got no further That guest
had a correction to make.
My name is not Averill," she pro-
tested. You must excuse the tenn
porary deception. 1t is Scoville.
once Occupied your present position in
this house"
Mrs. Yardley had heard all about the
ScovilIes; and, while a flush rose to
her cheeks, her eyes snapped with
sudden interest.
All" came in quick exclamation,
followed however, by an apologize
cough and the somewhat forced and
conventional remark: You find the
place changed no doubt?"
Very much so, and for the better,
Mrs. Yardley." Then, with straight
forward meeting of the others eye.
she quietly added, 81 am going to live
with Judge Ostrander, Mrs. Yardley-
keep house for himR myself and daugh-
ter. His man is dead and he feels
very helpless. l hope that | shall be
able to make him comfortable"
Mrs. Yardley's face was study. In
all her life she had never heard news
| that surprised her more. In another
moment she had accepted the situa-
ton, like the very sensible woman she
was, and Mrs. Scoville had the salts
faction Of seeing the promise of real
friendly support in the smile with
which Mrs. Yardley remarked:
ITS good thing for. you and a
very good thing for the Judge 1t may
shake him out of his habit of seclu-
sion. If it does, you will be the city s
benefactor. Good luck to you, madam
And you have a daughter, you say
After Mrs. Yardley's departure
Mrs. Scoyille, as she now expected
herself to be called, sat for a long
time brooding. There was one thing
more to be accomplished. She set
about it that evening.
Yelled but in black now, she went
into town. Getting down at the cor
ner of Coiburn avenue and Perry
street, she walked a short distance on
Perry, then rang the bell Of an at
fredericksburg house of moderate di-
mansions. Being admitted, she asked
to see Mr.. Black, and for an hour sat
in close conversation with him. Then
she took a trolley car which carried
her into the suburbs. When she
alighted, it was unusually late for
woman to be out alone; but she had
very little physical fear, and walked
on steadily enough for a block or two
till she came to corner, where a high
fence doomed forbiddingly between her
and a house so dark that it was i'm,
possible to distinguish between its
chimneys and the enconpassing trees
Was she quite alone in the seem
ingly quiet street? She could hear no
one, see no one. A lamp burned in
front of Miss Weeks small house, but
the road it illumined, the one running
down to the rayine, showed only dark
ened houses
She had left the corner and was
passing the gate of the Ostrander
homestead, when she heard, coming
from some distant point within, low
and peculiar sound which held her I'M
movable for moment, then sent hel
on shuddering.
1t was the sound Of hammering
Hearing this sound and locating il
where she did, she remembered. with
quick inner disturbance, that the
Judges house held a secret; a secret
of such import to its owner that the
dying Bella had sought to preserve II
at the cost of his life.
Oh, she had heard all about that!
The gossip at Claymore inn had beer
great, and nothing had been spared
her curiosity. There was something
in this house which it behooyed the
Judge to secrete from sight yet more
completely before her own and Reu
theirs entrance, and he was at Wori
upon it now, hammering with his owl
hand while other persons slept! M
wonder she edged her way along the
fence with shrinking, yet persistent
step. She was circling her future
home and that house held mystery
AS she CROPPED her way along, sht
had ample opportunity to hear agair
the intermittent sounds of the ham
mer, and to note that they reached
their maximum at point where thu
, ell of the judges study approached thu