The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1915-04-29
IND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION SERIAL.


cautions. She watched him impatiently.
He whispered to her:
u am going out, but don't you lose sight
or the little sitting-room. AT the least
movement call me; fire a revolver If you
need to-"
He slipped into the garden with the same
precautions for silence. From the corner
that she kept to, through the doors left
open. Matrena could follow all the move
ments of the reporter and watch Natacha's
chamber at the same time. The attitude of
Rouletabille continued to confuse her be-
yond all expression. She watched what he
did as II she thought him besotted. The
dvornlck on guard out in the roadway also
watched the young man through the bars
or the gate in CONSERVATION, as though he
thought him a fool. Along the paths of
beaten earth or cement which offered no
chance for footprints Rouletabille hurried
silently. Around hin he noted that the
grass of the lawn had not been trodden.
And then he paid no more attention to his
steps. He seemed to study attentively the
roy color in the east, breathing the deli
cacy of dawning morning in the Isles. amid
the silence OF the earth, which still SUM
bered.
Bare-headed, face thrown back, hands
behind his back. eyes raised and fixed, he
made a few steps, then suddenly stopped
as If he had been given an electric shock.
AS soon as he seemed to nave recovered
from that shock he turned around and went
a few steps back to another path. into
which he advanced, straight ahead, his
face high, with the same fixed look that
he had had up to the time he so suddenly
stopped, as if something or someone ad-
vised or warned him not to go further. He
continually worked back toward the house,
and thus he Travelled all the paths that
led from the villa, but in all these eXcur-
sions he took pains not to place himself in
the field Of vision from Natacha's window.
a restricted field because of its location
just around An abutment of the building.
To ascertain about this window he crept
on all fours up to the garden edge that ran
along the foot Of the wall and had suf-
ficient proof that no one had jumped out
that way. Then he went to rejoin Ma
trena in the veranda.
mo one has come into the garden this
morning" said he, "and no one has gone
out of the villa into the garden. Now I
am going to look outside the grounds.
Wait here; I'll be back in five minutes"
He went away, knocked discreetly on
the window of the lodge and waited some
seconds. Ermolai came out and opened the
gate for him. Matrena moved to the
threshold of the little sitting-room and
watched Natacha's door with horror. She
felt her legs give under her and she could
not stand up under the diabolic thought of
such a crime. All, that arm, that arm!
reaching out, making it's way, with a little
shining phial in its hand. Pains of Christi!
What could there be in the damnable
books over which Natacha and her COM
panion pored that could make such abomin-
able crimes possible? All. Natacha, Ma
,tacha! it was from her that she would
have desired the answer, straining her al
most to sitting on her rough bosom and
strangling her with her own strong hand
that she might not hear the response. All,
Natacha, Natacha, whom she had loved 10
much! She sank to the floor, crept across
the carpet to the door and lay there,