Omaha daily bee., 1918-12-12
The Aband0nedRoon
By Wadsworth Camp

figure. Bobby noticed that the great
stolid form Of the doctor was i'll at
ease. From his thickly bearded face
his reddish eyes cleaned forth with
a fresh instability.
The clergyman shook hands with
Bobby.
I'VE need not delay. Your cousin
is upstairs
He included the company in his
circling turn of the head.
ANY one who cares to 90"
Bobby forced himself to walk up
the staircase, facing the first phase
of his ordeal. He saw that the
district attorney realized that, too,
for he sprang from his chair, and,
followed by Rawlins, started upward
The entire company crowded the
stairs. At the top Bobby found
Paroles at his side.
Carlos! Why do you conner"
Il would like to be of some COM
fort" Paroles answered gravely.
His fingers on the banister made
that restless, cropping movement.
Graham summoned Katherine.
One of the black-clothed men open
ed the door of Silas Blackburn's
room. He stepped aside, reckoning
He had an air of Snowman crav-
ing appreciation for the surprise he
has arranged.
Bobby went in with the others.
Automatically through the dim light
he catalogued remembered objects,
all intimate to his grandfather, each
oddly entangled in his mind with
his dislike of the old man. The iron
bed; the chest of drawers, scratched
and with broken handles; the closed
colonial desk; the misery rag carpet
ali seemed mutely asking, as
Bobby did, why their owner had de-
serted them the other night and de-
livered himself to the ghostly mys-
terry of the old bedroom.
Reluctantly Bobby's glance went
to the center of the floor where
the casket rested on trestles. From
the chest of drawers two candles,
the only light, played wanly over
the still figure and the ashen face.
So for the second time the living
met the dead, and the law watched
hopefully.
Robinson stood opposite, but he
didn't look at Silas Blackburn who
could no longer accuse. He stared
instead at Bobby, and Bobby kept
repeating to himself:
Il didn't do this thing. didn't
do. this thing"
And he searched the face of the
dead man for a confirmation. A
chill thought, not without excuse
under the circumstances and in this
vague light, raced along his nerves.
Silas Blackburn had moved onse
since his death. If the power to
move and speak should miraculously
return to him now! In this house
there appeared to.be no impossible
ties. The cold control of death had
been twice broken.
Katherine's entrance swung his
thoughts and released him for a
moment from Robinson's watchful-
ness. He found he could turn from
the wrinkled face that had fascina-i
ted him, that had seemed to ques
ton him with a calm and complete
knowledge, to the lovely one that
was active with little smile of en-
enlargement. He was grateful for
that. 1t taught him that in the heavy
presence of death and from the
harsh trappings of mourning the
of youth is unconquer-
able So in affection he found an
antidote for fear. Even Graham's
quick movement to her side couldn't
make her presence less helpful to
Bobby. He looked at his GRANDPA
Their again. He glanced at Robin
son. As in a dream he heard the
clergyman say
"The service will be read at the
grave"
Almost indifferently he saw the
dark-clothed men side forward, lift
a grotesquely shaped plate of metal