Cleveland County herald., 1920-12-02

uAMl EciueInDTHuC0 LRAI lo uaN outs heard somewhere these were the eel orz of a famous regiment that great fy distinguished itself in the Indian wars.
 The half minute CT more he had spent looking over the room had giv- es him time to recover his calm, and now his glance came back to the ruin in the chair.
 The Wild Man was whetting his knife against his palm. mumbling and nnuttering. He seemed to gloat over the glitter of it--and the girl within easy reach of his hand. The Pearl hunter stiffened; gathered himself to spring. She happened to look up, caught his eye, and shook her head. Seemingly unconscious of any danger. she came to the door. picked up her basket and his hat and put them on the table beside the vase of wild roses.
 You're not afraidr' asked the Pearl hunter.
 He wouldn't harm fly"
 "But the knifef"
 He plays with 1t by the hour. That knife." as if weighing the thought it raised. "He keeps 1t with him night and day. fear death will sometime come of that knife l"
 Ills eyes urged her to go on.
 Seven years he's been as you see him. Up to that time he was the most wonderful father a girl ever had He wasn't gray until then. and he didn't wear a beard. Those who knew him then wouldn't know him now. It was seven years ago this June-the twen- tieth. I remember it because 1t was my birthday-I was twelve. That eve hing l heard a groan at the kitchen door. l ran out, and there was Dad dy. holding to the door post to keep from falling, his hands covered with blood, and blood all over his face and hair. I helped him in, washed off the blood and discovered 1t came from a wound in his head. I bound 1t up the best l could and ran to the village for the doctor
 "When he came, he said Daddy had been shot. There was a long scar like a groove-that the doctor said was made by the bullet. It had caused concussion of the brain. Since that he has been like-this. The knife he must have taken from the person that shot him, for he had none of his own. It was clutched tight In his hand when found him-the knife, and this"
 Shn hnnknnnd to the book case. It was the first car pet the Pearl Hunter had ever walked over. He set his feet down like man crossing thin Ice.
 She fumbled out from behind a row of books small packet with the eau ton:
 You mustn't let Daddy see 1t. He will go wild If you do. I used to keep 1t stuck behind the picture, but 1t worked out into sight one day, and he drove the knife through It before I could get 1t away from him. If he ever finds the man It belongs to he'll serve him the same way, I'm afraid. Sometimes think that's why he haunts the woods-to see if he can find him. There, you can see where the knife went through"
 She had been unwrapping a fold of paper as she talked. The sight of its contents surprised low exclamation from the Pearlhunter. It was a red mask.
 The Pearlhunter fingered the bit of stiff cloth lying across the girls palm with such quick eaqer7ess hat her eyes sought his face curi. 'sy. The red mask The slit of the knife near an eye hole-no man in the F1atwoods better able to read the story 1t told ; none better able to piece together the fragments of that seven-year-old trag. edy.
 Up through the eye holes there seemed to glow a pair of eyes-blue, like blue ice; eyes that glow black when reused. He knew what they looked like when the blue turned to black.
 Suddenly, without warning, a deep groan set the silence ashiver. The girl crammed the packet back behind the books; the Pearlhunter whirled.
 The Wild Man had risen from his chair and stood peering toward him with wide, weird eyes. With a step that was ghostly noiseless he crossed the floor. Quite close he came, bis duiled senses seeming to need the stimulus of close contact His bony hands and long arms were qulYering his hollow face twitching pitifully.
 Hes never like this" the girl whispered.
 The young man glanced at her and stood still. The thin hands f1uttered over his face and head Even their lightest touch was heavy with a strength that must have been prodig- ious-as if the fires of his malady kin dled force in him more than human. Some impulse of compassion must have reached the heart of the Pearl hunter for he stretched his long arm forth and laid it about the old mans shoulders. Instantly he felt the weight of the gray giant upon him. It might have been the one thing the stricken man craved in his dumb way-the