The Pulaskian., 1920-08-19
CHAPTER f..

Itdifl fldd De0H ldIllHS LOT live dttyS when I first saw Hartley house. The place had so much local distiaetion that q village not far from the estate was named Hartley. fer it.
 Even when drenched and dripping in a storm which had lasted for five days in late May, the spot was beau tiful and charming; it had antiquity, that rare thing in new land. It's two thousand acres, handsomely arranged for decorative and agricultural pur- poses, lay along the river bank. with an indented and interesting litt0raI where the river was two miles wide.
 had been an interne in St. Julian's hospital, and at the close of my last year Dr. Br0wnell had asked me if my arrangements would make it possible for me to undertake q case which he thought might be profitable and in teresting to young physician. It was that of NIT. Homer. Sidney, the owner of Hartley house.
 "I never SAW so strange will to Iive," said the doctor when he dis eussed the circumstances with me. "The old man is indomitable. For that reason he is interesting. He lives be- cause he wills to live, for some tre- meadous reason Of which I know noth- ing. It Is enormous. You may live to see him die; Rm afraid I shall not and he is seventy and am fifty"
 I decided to accept. It may have bsen professional weakness, but in ad- dition to the financial certainty offered there was a professional interest aroused. If Dr. Brownell were at- traeted by a human beings will to live there certainly was something SUI perhumanly interesting about that hu man being.
 The recollection of Hartley as first saw it remains as an enduring impression The long downpour of rain had given the place spiritual ac- cent. One felt as if the soul were saturated.
 It is only occasionally i1 normal mind that weather works q spiritual effect ' thought my mind was nor nal, but I felt the spiritual depres- sion.
 The way from the station for three miles was through ordinary American small farm land. Then it changed ab- ruptly. Antiquity began to show. The driver said we were in the Hartley grounds.
 was so depressed by the rain, by my own uncertainty, by thinking over the decision I had made and seemed about to regret, by the dismal pros pects-or at least the uncertain pros peets-that I should have been glad for any sustaining human association. At the end of my journey I soon found such association and was thereafter happy in it, but approaching the place vas apprehensive My driver had beets, if not unapproachable at least stupid and dismal.
 It somewhat astonished me when suddenly he began to talk. We were then about q half mile from the house.
 q wish you had come an hour earlier" he said.
 "Why?' I asked.
 I'm not a coward" said the driver S'-at least, no more than usual bur don't like to be in here alone, ana I've got to go home alone"
 In q fashion he expressed what might have been my mood if l had known more of the place. l could sympathize with him. The rain hau done this for me.
 What have you to be afrald ofT asked ''Is something haunted around hcfe?" It seemed as if so beautiful spot ought to have this in- terest. He stopped his horse.
 "Pm going back out of here like scared pig" he said, "-tiat IS, II the old horse can stand 1t. But you're go- ing to live here for while, and III stop minute to show you where they say the ghost walks"
 He pointed to where the river hau eaten q substantial bit out of the baaR' making q pool or tiny bay. The road' swervine toward the river here, was within thirty feet of It.
 Tt isn't natural flor man to XII his brother said my driver ana something unnatural comes or II. man killed his brother there. and some thing unnatural has come of Ii. That s why I'll be just as well satisfied 10 get you to the house and .Ayself pack out of here before dark
 "fset aiong. sa,n.s l said. Tt LOOKS like an aaaiinaiy place to me.
 'sTa ssse e4~s. said my driver. "Ann