Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1920-05-12

|
There's no use your staying here"
The resonance Of the deep voice
Jared thru the woods. The broad
shoulders twitched. One Of the hairy
hands made half circle.
II hope you'll clean this up, my
boy. You ought to replace the stones
and trim the graves. You couldn't
blame them, could you, II these old
people were restless and tried to 60
abroad?"
For Bobby, in spite of himself. the
man on whose last shelter the earth
continued to fall became once more
a potent thing, able to appraise the
penalty of his own carelessness.
Come" Katherine whispered.
! But Bobby fingered, oddly fascin-
ated, supporting the ordeal to its fin
al moment. The blows of the backs
of the spades on the completed
mound beat into his brain the end.
The workmen wandered off thru the
woods. From a distance the harsh
voice of one OF them came back:
II don't want to dig again in such
place. People don't seem dead
there"
Robinson tried to laugh.
| .'That mans WISE" he said to the
doctor. IF Paroles spoke of this
cemetery as being full Of ghosts l
could understand him."
The doctors deep bass answered
thoughtfully:
Paroles is probably right. The
man has a special sense, but l have
| felt 1t myself. The Cedars and the
forest are full of things that seem to
| whisper. things that one never sees.
Such things might have an excuse
for evil"
Lets get out OF It," Robinson said
gruffly.
Katherine withdrew her hand.
| Bobby reached for it again, but she
seemed not to notice. She walked
! ahead of him along the path. her
shoulders a trif1e bent. Bobby caught
up with her.
'Katherine!" he said.
Don't talk to me, Bobby"
He looked closer. He saw that she
| was crying at last. Tears stained
her cheeks. Her lips were strange
to him in the distortion of a grief
that seeks. to control itself. He
slackened his pace and let her walk
ahead. He followed with a sort of
awe that there should have been
grief for Sllas Blackburn after ALL
He blamed himself because his own
eyes We're not moist.
Oly No T. H.
muring conversation of the doctor
and the district attorney. Strangely
1t made him sorry that Robinson
should have been more impressed
than Howells by the Doctors beliefs.
They stepped into the clearing. The
wind had dissipated the smoke
shroud. It was no longer low over
the roofs. Against the forest and
the darker clouds the house had a
stark appearance. 1t was like a
| frame from which the flesh has fall
len.
The black wagon had gone. The
Cedars was left alone to the solution
of its mystery. 3
Paroles, Graham, and Rawlins
| waited for them in the hall. There
was nothing to say. Paroles placed
with delicate accuracy fresh logs
| upon the fire. He arose, flecking the
wood dust from his hands.
"iow cold 1t will .be here" he
unused, "how impossible Of entrance
| when the house is left as empty as
the woods to those who only go un-
Scent"
| Bobby saw Katherine's shoulders
shake. She had dried her eyes, but
in her face was expressed an aver
sion for solitude desire for any
company, even that of the man she
disliked and feared.
Robinson took Rawlins to the Ii
brary for another futile consultation.
Bobby guessed. Katherine sat on the
arm of a chair, thrusting one foot
toward the fresh blaze.
ut will snow" she said. 1T is
very early for that"
No one answered. The strain
frightened. The flames leapt, throw
ing evanescent pulsations of bril-
liancy about the dusky hal. They
welcomed Jenkins announcement
\ that luncheon was ready, but they
scarcely disturbed the hurriedly pre-
pared dishes, and afterward they
gathered again in the hall, silent and
depressed, appalled, by the long,
dreary afternoon. which, however,
possessed the single virtue of divid-
ing them from another night.
For long periods the district at
torney and the detective were closet
ed in the library. Now and then
they passed upstairs, and they could
be heard moving about, but no one,
save Graham, seemed to care. AL
ready the officers had had every op-
portunity to search the house. The
old room no longer held an inhab-
liant to set it's fatal machinery in
motion. Yet, Bobby realized. in a
dull way that at any moment the
two men might come down to him,
saying:
I'VE have found something. You
are guilty"
The heavy atmosphere OF the house
crushed such forecasts, made them
seem a little trivial. Bobby fancied
it gathering density to cradle new
mysteries. The long minutes loiter-
ed. Doctor Groom made movement
to go.
why should I stay?" he Erumbled.
What is there to keep me?
/ 4 Yet he sat back in his chair again
and appeared to have forgotten his
intention.
Graham wandered off. Bobby
thought he had joined Rawlins and
Robinson in the library.
The only daylight entered the hall
thru narrow Sits of windows on
either side Of the front door. Bobby,
watching these, was, even with the