The Pickens sentinel. (Pickens, S.C.) 1911-2016, 1915-12-09


ma. 1t Is ihe last.
Kisses for my comforter. Come soon
I,EUTHER.
for two hours. then she rang for Mrs.
Yardley.
The maid who answered her sum.
mons surveyed her IN amazement It
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 a
kind Of fuster, as she met her strange
| guests quiet eye.
| But she got no further. That guest
had correction to make,
My name Is not Ayerill," she pro-
tested. "You must excuse the tenn
porary deception. 1t is Scoville.
once coupled your present position in
this house."
Mrs. Yardley had heard all about the
Scovilles; and, while a flush rose to
her cheeks, her eyes snapped with
sudden interest
AM! came In quick exclamation.
followed, however. by an apologetic
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 a straight
forward meeting Of the others eye.
she quietly added, II am going to live
with Judge Ostrander, Mrs. Yardley-
keep house for him, myself and daugh-
ter. His man is dead and he feels
hn1 1,1n
able to make him comfortable"
Mrs. Yardleys 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 a good thing for you and
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 daughter, you say?"
After Mrs. Yardley's departure
Mrs. Scoville, as she now expected
herself to be called, sat for 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 Colburn avenue and Perry
street, she walked a short distance on
Perry then rang the bell Of an at
tractivelooking house of moderate di-
mensions Being admitted, she asked
to see Mr.. Black and for an hour sat
in close conversation with him. Then
she took q trolley car which carried
her into the suburbs. When she
alighted, it was unusually late for a
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 a corner, where a high
and house so dark that it was i'm
possible to distinguish between it's
chimneys and the encompassing 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 ravine, 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 her
on shuddering.
1t was the sound Of hammering.
Hearing this sound and locating 1t
where she did, she remembered, with
quick inner disturbance, that the
judges house held a secret; secret
of such import to it's owner that the
dying Bella had sought to preserve it
at the cost Of his life.
Oh. she had heard all about that!
The gossip at Claymore inn had been
great and nothing had been spared
her curiosity. There was something
In this house which 1t behooved the
Judge to sccrete from sight yet more
completely before her own and Reu.
Tiers entrance. and he was at work
upon 1t now, hammering with his own
hand "hile other persons slept! No
wonder she edged her way along the
renee with shrinking, yet persistent.
step She was circling her future
home and that house held a mystery.
AS She groDed her way along, sha
, had ample opportunity to hear again
che intermittent sounds OF the ham.
'hcr, and to note that they reached
their maximum at q point where the
ell Of the Judges study approached tho
fences.
Rattat-tat; rat-tat-tat. She hated
The sound even while she WhiaDered to