Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1915-02-04
CHAPTER |.
The House Of Mystery.

A high and narrow gate Of carefully
joined boards, standing aiar in fence
of the same construction! What is
there in this to rouse a whole neigh
borhOod and collect before it a group
Of eager, anxious, hesitating people?
This is Judge Ostrander's place, and
anyone who knows Shelby or the COS
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 Enclosed
to public intrusion. The seclusion
sought was absolute. The men and
women who passed and repassed this
corner many times a day were as igno-
rant as the townspeOple in general OF
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 a few feet in
side the first and similar to it 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 thereto en-
ter, but not come out; which means
that she must still be inside, and pos
sibly in the very presence of the
judge.
Where is Bella? Why does he allow
his errands-But it was Bella, or so
they have been told, who left this
gate aiar he, the awe and
terror of the town, the enormous, re-
doubtable, close-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 bride
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
q fascination which had for its motif
the knowledge that they, themselves.
if 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 I'M
varying determination to bar out all
Corners 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 a few of the men and women now
hesitating before its portals could
bCoSf of yoaaIc foIrou Of tl,o s,5..,z
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 Gone month had seen both) ::
though q half-year had elapsed before
all sociabinty was lost in extreme self
absorption, and a 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, 1t was evident enough to
the friends who recalled his look and
step as he walked the streets with Al
gernon Etheridge G one side and his
brilliant, ever-succs ,sfuI son on the
other, that the change now observable
in him was due to the violent sunder-
ing of these two ties. Grief slowly
settled into confirmed melancholy, and
melancholy into eccentricities.
Judge OstrandeT was a recluse of
the most uncompromising type: but he
was such for only half his time. From
ten in the morning till five in the after
noon, he came and went like any other
citizen, fulfilling his judicial duties
with the same scrupulous care as for
merly and with more affability. In
deed, he showed at times, and often
when it was least expected. a mellow
ness Of temper quite foreign to him in
his early days. The admiration
awakened by his fine appearance on
the bench was never married now by
those quick and rasping tones of an