Middletown transcript., 1915-01-09
CHAPTER /.
The House of Mystery.

The House OF Mystery.
A high and narrow gate of carefully
Joined boards. standing ajar In a fence
Of the same construction! What is
there in this to rouse a whole neigh
borhood and collect before it group
of eager anxious, hesitating people?
This is Judge Ostrander's place, and
anyone who knows Shelby or the gos-
sip Of its suburbs knows that this
house Of his has not opened its doors
to any outsider, man or woman, for
over dozen years; nor have his gates
been seen In all that time to cape at
anyone's instance or to stand unclosed
to public intrusion. The seclusion
sought was absolute. The men and
women who passed and repassed this
corner many times day were as igno-
what lay behind the gray, monotonous
exterior of the weatherbeaten boards
they so frequently brushed against.
The house was there, of course-they
all knew the house, or did once-but
there were rumors of another fence, a
second barrier standing few feet in
side the first and similar to 1t in all
respects, even to the gates which cor
responded exactly with these outer
and visible ones and probably were
just as fully provided with bolts and
bars.
And now! in the freshness Of this
summer morning, without warning or
any seeming reason for the change,
the strict habit of years has been
broken into and this gate Of gates Is
not only standing unlocked before
their eyes, but a woman-a stranger
to the town as her very act shows
has been seen to enter there!-to en-
that she must still be inside. and pos
sibly In the very presence Of the
Judge.
Where is Bela?. Why does he allow
his errands-But it was Bella, or so
they have been told, who left this
gate ajar he, the awe and
terror of the town, the enormous, re-
doubtable, cloee-mouthed negro, trust
ed as man is seldom trusted, and
faithful to his trust, yes, up to this
very hour, as all must acknowledge,
in spite of every temptation (and they
had been many and alluring) to dis
close the secret of this home Of which
he was not the least interesting fac
tor. What has made him thus sud
denly careless, he who has never been
careless before? Money? A bribe
from the woman who had entered
there?
What else was there to believe?
There stood the gate with the pebble
holding it away from the post; and
here stood half the neighborhood, in
a fascination which had for its motif
the knowledge that they, themselves,
II they had courage enough, might go
in, just as this woman had gone in,
and see-why, what she is seeing
now--the unknown, unguessed reason
for all these mysteries-the hidden
treasure or the hidden sorrow which
would explain why he, their first citi-
zen, the respected, even revered judge
Of their highest court, should make use
Of such precautions and show such un-
varying determination to bar out all
comers from the place he called his
home.
1t had not always been so. Within
the memory of many there it had been
an abode of cheer and good fellowship.
Not few of the men and women now
hesitating before its portals could
L NF 1a 80
ample board, and of evenings spent in
animated conversation in the great
room where he kept his books and did
| his writing.
But that was before his son left him
In SO unaccountable a manner; be-
,fore-yes, all were agreed on this
point-before that other bitter ordeal
of his middle age. the trial and con-
demnation of the man who had way
laid and murdered his best friend.
Though the effect of these combined
sorrows had not seemed to be immedi-
ate Zone month had seen both) !;
though half-year had elapsed before
all sociability was lost in extreme self
absorption, and full one before he
took down the picket fence which had
hitherto been considered a sufficient
protection to his simple grounds, and
put up these boards which had SO COM
pletely isolated him from the rest of
the world, it was evident enough to
the friends who recalled his look and
step as he walked the streets with AL
gernon Etheridge on one side and his
brilliant, ever-successful son on the
other. that the change now observable
in him was due to the violent sunder.
ing of these two ties. Grief slowly