Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1916-02-25
CHAPTER XIII.

The summer was upon the hills with
a vengeance

Proof at Last.
The summer was upon the hills with
a vengeance.
Mighty UNUSUAL" said Ma Daily,
this here heat. Hottest it's been fer
many year; tits a-goin to be
mighty dry season an it's a-comin
early"
Which prophecy seemed due to be
fulfilled. A blue heat haze lay deep in
the valleys. hung amid the hills. The
deep floor Of pine needles in the big
woods was already dry as powder and
it was only late July. The camp was
humming ahead with the work. They
had exceeded their expectations in
getting out logs, sending out more
than they had planned
Miss Ordway. still mistress of the
little south room, worked feverishly
at the new story of the timberlands.
A bit of her brightness, some of her
painstaking cheeriness, was gone with
the summers heat. She had thought
that long before this she would have
won, that the engagement she had so
daringly announced would be a fact.
She could not understand his holding
out against her.
Sandry had made many trips to
Salem. consulting with the lawyer he
had summoned from the East, who was
turning heaven and earth in an effort
to prove what Sandry knew to- be
true of Hampden, but it was unavail.
ing The young commissioner at Sa-
lem was ION to his job" and the weeks
flew by with not one raveled end ia
the ball of fraud and deception and
criminal intrigue which lay snug in the
doctored records of the state land of
flee. Miss Ordway had dropped her
| fling for the timber claim and the
young commissioner was uneasily
searching his offices for the two let
tiers and a missing account book. He
did not family suspect that the last
time he had seen them was during the
visit to Salem of the charming new
acquisition to the ring" In fact
some of those days were still shrould
ed in nebulous haze of mystery-red
wine and red lips and heady infatua
ton.
But things were approaching an
other change in Daily's lumber camp
One day in late July Sandry wrote sew
eral letters and Poppy Ordway. lean
ing Familiarity over his shoulder
reached out hand for them.
I'm going up TO the forked stick,
she said languidly. land I'll take
/. them"
The dainty fingers were all but
trembling with eagerness, for she saw
that one Of them was addressed to
John H. Musseldorn, at town in New
Jersey. There was none to observe
her on the sunny Siletz road behind
the low growth of spruce, and wher
she strolled down the little meadow
again toward the cook-shack, that par
ticular letter lay safe inside the bosom
of her dress.
She went straight to the south room
entered and closed the door. Hel
hands trembled violently, but there
was no conjunction for what she wal
about to do in her heart She wal
pretty we'll armed with knowledge tina
would give her hold on Sandry. II
case she was forced to use 1t, bu
here, she believed, would be proof pos
tive, the actual written word that sh,
might hold before his eyes in some
hard event of the future.
With strong excitement she slit thu
envelope, drew out the sheet and be
gan to read. Faster and faster cam,
her hot breath, redder and reddel
grew her cheeks, while triumph spar
killed. In her eyes. She moved slight!
on her slippered feet, a little motor
of satisfaction that set her garments
whispering-as when the tiger. scent
ing its prey, squirms before the leap
With eager haste she sat down a
her typewriter and began to write
When she had finished an hour later
after long intervals of study, there la.
under her hand very creditable brie
of the famous Whitby case-a verba
tim copy of President Whitby's las
letter concise history of Walter San
dry's life since college, the notes II
the red morocco book, plainly speci
fed as -hfs delirious words. ami cop,
of this letter to Musseldorn. Takel