Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1915-03-18

Win Judge OStranQer, MIS-. 4ardI6y-
keep house for him, myself and daugh-
ter. His man is dead and he feels
very helpless. l hope that 1 shall be
able to make him comfortable"
Mrs. YardIey's face was a 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:
It's 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 a daughter. you say?"
After Mrs Yardley's departure
Mrs Scoville, 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 Colburn avenue and Perry
street, she walked a short distance on
Perry, then rang the bell Of an at
notwithstanding 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 block or two
till she came to a corner, where high
fence doomed forbiddingly between her
and a house so dark that it was i'm
possible to distinguish between its
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 1t 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
| from some distant point within, low
and peculiar sound which held her i'm
movable for a moment, then sent her
on shuddering.
It was the sound of hammering.
Hearing this sound and locating it
| where she did, she remembered, with
a 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 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 it behooved the
| judge to secrete from sight yet more
| completely before her own and Reu-
| theirs entrance, and he was at work
upon it now, hammering with his own
| hand while other persons slept No
wonder she edged her way along the
fence with a shrinking, yet persistent,
| SIcp. OAO was I'll wing hCA AuLN1 .
home and that house held mystery.
AS she CROPPED her way along, she
had ample opportunity to hear again
the intermittent sounds of the ham
mer, and to note that they reached
their maximum at point where the
ell of the judges study approached the
| fences.
Rat-tat-tat; rat-tat-tat. She hated
the sound even while she whispered to
herself:
TT is just some household matter
| he is at work upon-rehanging pic
lures or putting up shelves. It can be
nothing else"
Yet on laying her ear to the fence
she felt her sinister fears return !;
and, with shrinking chances into a
darkness which told her nothing, she
added in fearful murmur to herself:
What am l taking Reuther into?
I wish l knew. I wish l knew"
CTO BE CONTINUED