The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1916-02-03
VAS Il 1 sPfcTERl
ANoNYMouA.

g ANONYMOU0s 3
He was waiting for her: he had
been waiting an hour and q half In
. dusty suburban lane. He loved her,
and he was engaged to be married to
her. with the complete disapproval Of
every reasonable person who had
been consulted. And this half-clan-
destine meeting was tonight to take
the place Of the grudgingly sanctioned
weekly observation-disclosures q certain
rich uncle was visiting 1T her house,
and her mother was not the oma to
acknowledge to . moneyed uncle q
match so deeply ineligible as hers
with him.
So he waited for her. and the chill
Of an unusually v evening N.
tered into his bones.
The policeman passed him with
but a surly response to his good
night" The bicyclists went by him
like gray ghosts with fog-horns; and
It was nearly ten o'clock and she
had not come.
He shrugged his shoulders and
turned toward his lodgings. His road
led by her house-desirable, commo-
dious, s~uburban-and he walked slow.
" as he neared it. She might, ven
now, be coming out. But she was
not. There was no sign Of move
ment about the house, no sign of
life, no lights even in the windows.
And her people were not early peo-
pie. He paused by the gate, wonder
Ing. Then he noticed that the front
door was open-wide open-and the
streetlamps shone q little way into the
dark hall.
He walked up the path and listened.
No sign of life. He passed into the
hall. There was no light anywhere.
Where was everybody, and why was
the front door open? Everyone was
out, evidently. But the unpleasant
ems that he was, perhaps, not the
first casual visitor to walk through
the open door impelled him to look
through the house before he went
away and closed it after him. So he
went upstairs, and at the door of the
first bedroom he came to he struck
q wax match, as he had done in the
sitting rooms. Even as he did so he
felt that he was not alone, and he was
prepared to see something; for what
he saw he was not prepared. For
what he saw lay on the bed, in a
white, loose gown-and it was his
sweetheart, and her throat was cut
from ear to ear. He did not know
what happened then, but the police.
man found him in a fit, under the
lamp-post at the corner of the street.
He could not speak when they picked
him up, and he passed the night in
the police cells, because the policeman
had seen plenty Of drunken men be.
fore, but lev n in a fit.
The next morning he was better,
though still white and shaky. But
the tale he told the magistrate was
convincing, and they sent a couple of
constables with him to her house.
There was no crowd about it as he
had fancied there would be, and the
blinds were not down.
AS he stood, dazed, in front of the
door, it opened and she came out.
He held on to the door-post for sup.
port.
She's all right, you see," said the
policeman who had found him under
the lamp; Il told you you was
When he was alone with her, he
told her.
But, my dearest" she said, II dare
say the house was dark, for we were
all at the theater with my uncle,
and no doubt the door was open, for
the servants will run out if they're
left. But you could not have been
In that room, because I locked it when
I came away, and the key was in my
pocket. l dressed in a hurry, and I
left my odds and ends lying about .
Il know" he said; Il saw-why, /
even noticed the calendar on the
neutrality-suspicious. Fl, At least,
It couldn't be that, because this ia
May. And yet it was. Your calen-
dar is at October 21, isn't it?'
mo, Of course it isn't" she said
smiling rather anxiously. you must
have had a dream, or a vision or
something"
He did not believe in visions, but
he never rested day or night till he
got his sweetheart and her mother
away from that commodious house
and settled them in a quite distant
suburb. In the course of the remov-
al, he incidentally married her, and
the mother went on living with them
His nerves must have been a good
bit shaken, because he was very
queer for a long time, and was al.
ways inquiring if anyone had taken
the desirable suburban house; and
when an old stock broker with q
family took it, he went the length Of
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