Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-12-21
The Daily
Short Story
ONE RAINY NIGHT.
BY Genieye Ulmar.

! a
of Abner Steele, lawyer. Steele
had been kind of agent for John
BARLEY, the uncle of Gerald, had
wormed himself into, his confidence,
and no one in Marston who knew
of his evil, conniving ways, believ-
ed he was justly entitled to the old
homestead that had been in the
family for so many years.
The rightfuI successor to the
property, it was everywhere
thought. should have been Gersld,
who asserted his claim, but a GER
tain document of recent date held
by Steele seemed to cinch his pre-
tensions. When the local court so
decided. Gerald Immediately APP
pealed the case.
The BARLEY house was closed up
pending the appeal. A creature OF
! Steele's, a rough, uncouth, grimly
silent fellow named Ponsonby, was
appointed care-taker. 1t nettled
| Gerald every time he passed the
place to see the slOuching, insolent
miscreant parading about the
porches or swinging in a ham
mock, smoking a pipe or drinking
from a black bottle, prOfaning, to
Geralds way of thinking the beau
tiful home where he had passed 50
many pleasant years. More than
once. feeling that he was not strong
enough to Battle Steele, he had al
most decided to abandon the case,
when Minnie Dodge, to whom he
was engaged, encouraged him to
fight for his rights 10 the last
4 ditch.
1T will be a long, drawn-out bat
tie" Gerald told her YEARLY, the
costs will beggar me. Far better
to go away somewhere. begin life
anew and when l have acquired d
home send for you"
But Minnie prevailed upon him to
remain on the scene of action. She
saw the justice of his legal heir
ship as next of kin, and believed
that higher court would look diff
ferently at the equity Of the case
than did the local court
Minnie lived over at Chester, the
next village, and Gerald went there
: twice a week to call upon her. One
evening about ten o'clock Gerald
kissed his faithful, patient fiancee
gOOdby and started to traverse the
four miles to Marston on foot. It
had been clouding up since sun
down, but he had not noted any in
dications of rain until a sudden tor
rent drove him to the shelter of a
Wayside shed Between showers
Gerald managed to cover about q
mile Then a new dash of rain
caught him crossing a barren waste
and, pretty well soaked and I'M
comfortable, he made a dash for
the porch OF the Old mansion as he
peaTed it,
His sensations were varied and
poignant as he. stood within the
shelter Of the home where he had
passed so many happy hours. The
rain kept up, and he fingered where
he was, mentally going over all the
= distressing events OF the preceding
few months. He felt that he was
being robbed of his rights by an
INSCRIPTIONS schemer, and then, as
his hand in a pocket CHANGED to
touch a key, a whimsical thought
Il suggested a hayward impulse. He
unlocked the front door, passed in
. to its spacious hall and thence in
to a front room, to stumble over
a heap of debris. Gerald recovered
himself, felt for chair, sank into
it and flared a match.
He was considerably mystified as
he made out the obstruction to he
lot of bricks, plaster and tile.
This had been removed from the
fireplace. Gerald wondered why.
While Steele had a custodian in
charge of the house. the man Pom
sonby had no right to do anything
with it until the legal status of the
case was settled. The match went
out. Gerald lighted another one.
His curiosity was aroused. He ad-
vanced to the library.
The gas was lighted. Lying on
the floor, apparently stunned by q
fall, was Ponsonby, the custodian
The room was reeking with the
faint of liquor. There was a bottle
on the table, some scattered papers
and Gerald readily surmised that,
engaged in writing under the in
fluence of liquor, Ponsonby haG
fallen from the chair.
But what startled Gerald most
was the fact that in this room, as
in the others, the fireplace had been
dlsmantled What did it mean? He
examined Ponsonby to discover
that he was simply IN a drunken
stupOr. His eye frightened as he
glanced at the papers on the table
One was a note Ponsonby had
just scrawled. 1t was directed to
his employer, Steele. Il have
found the paper" it ran, you sus-
pected had been hidden by BARLEY.
1t is worth so much more than the
measly five hundred dollars you Of
fer, that I won't give 1t up for less
than as many thousands"
And beside IT lay the document
referred TO. Steele must have had
a hint that it existed that John
BARLEY had hidden it, around some
fireplace, and had mpoyed Pom
sonby TO search for #. The docu-
ment plainly explained that any
right Steele claimed to the properly
was purely as trustee, and abso-
lutely placed all the estate in the
/ possession OF Gerald Stowe.
1t was raining harder than ever;
1t was dark, the roads kuee-deep
with mud; II was late, but with a
soaring. surging heart Gerald
stowe made his way back to Ches-
ter TO impart 10 the darling Of his
heart his wonderful discovery and
the happy news that their futura