Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-02-13


low shoulder of the hill by gentle ascent.
Passing the hills shoulder, he came into
full view of Prophetstown.
There was the canal which, along in the
1905, had given Prophetstown what
meager and fleeting commercial advan-
tage it ever possessed. For many years
now hardly anybody except the frogs
and few job-holders had taken the least
interest in the canal. By 1S45 the rail-
road was completed to Glidden, five miles
west, and at that Prophetstown, COM
mercially speaking, about gave up the
ghost. Some buildings were moved bodily
over to Glidden. Some others stood in
blind and gaping dilapidation. Even the
sidewalks had mostly been torn up for
kindling long ago.
Miss Bensley, with nine pupils of vari-
GUS ages gathered from nearby farms,
taught an ungraded district school in one
room of the decaying school-house. Every
fourth Sunday the Methodist church
nearly painless now-was opened for
services. In the leaky structure that had
been hotel-its south end lurching dis
reputably toward the canal as if bent on
a dissipated suicide-old Aunt Lucinda
Gregg gave economical table board to
several hands who worked in the stone
quarry.
Beyond the hotel, on the bank of the
canal, stood rude, dinghy yellow frame
structure, one story high and nearly two
hundred feet long. That was Lovell's,
and Lowell was the paradox of Prophets
town. They would tell you anywhere in
two townships that, no matter what you
wanted to buy or sell, you could do bust
ness with Lowell. 1t was we'll settled that
the canal could not compete with the rail-
road. Yet Lowell floated out stone and
grain, and foated in coal and fertilizer
Even now, a clumsy, time-blackened,
water-eaten canal-boat was tied up at the
narrow and weather-beaten wharf on the
canal-side, taking on sacks of wheat
Lowell would buy your dozen eggs or sell
you a spool of thread or lend you five
thousand dollars on farm mortgage, if
the security was good, or buy the farm
outright if the price suited him.
While Prophetstown placidly decayed,
he prospered. They said he learned the
trick from his father, who ran the general
store there before him. They said there
was no end to his money. They said
especially in the fall when grain was COM
ing in-he kept thousands of dollars in
cash on hand. This was the point that
more particularly interested Wade Kelley
and his friends. t-'t <,-'s 80.
TRUDGING down the gentle descent
from the shoulder of the HILL his hands
thrust in the pockets Of his shabby sack
coat, his SLOUGH hat pulled over his brows,
Kelley surveyed Prophetstown with coldly
twinkling little eyes. On the whole, it
looked good to him. He surveyed more
especially the long, dinghy yellow build
ing. This end toward him was no doubt
the front. An electric light bulb, sus-
pended from a crooked iron arm, hung
over the door. Presumably Lowell brought
the current in from the trolley line two
miles distant-a great stroke of enter
prise for Prophetstown. The door, like
the door of barn and mounted on rollers
at the top, stood wide open. Nobody was
in sight around there. Kelley strobe over
and entered.
This part of the establishment was evil
dentlv tho aueneral Storn paintlacs