Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1920-05-14

after supper"
The doctor looked round the room,
frowning.
4 don't like it. I can't understand
it. If this had happened in India |
should have said the man had died
from some form of snake-bite. | was
out there two years, and I've seen a
hundred cases of it. They all looked
just like this. The things ridiculous.
How could man be bitten by snake
in waterfront boarding house? The
whole things mad Was the door
locked when you found him, Mrs.
Pickett?"
Mrs. Pickett nodded.
81 opened it with my own key. [
had been calling to him, and he didn't
answer, so / guessed something was
wrong"
The policeman spoke:
''You amt touched anything, ma am?
They're always mighty particular
about that. If docs right, and there's
been any funny work here, that's the
first thing they'll ask
Everything is just as found it,
"What's that on the door beside
him?"
That's his harmonica. He liked to
play it of an evening in'his room. I've
had complaints about it from some of
the gentlemen; but I never saw any
harm, so as he didn't play too late"
Seems as if he was playing it when
it happened. That don't look much
like suicide, doc"
II didn't say it was suicide"
Officer Grogan whistled.
"You don't think"
81 don't think anything-till after
the inquest. All I say is that it's
queer"
Another aspect of the matter
seemed to strike the policeman.
81 guess this amt going to help
the Excelsior any, ma'am," he said
sympathetically.
Mrs. Pickett shrugged her shoulders.
Silence fell upon the room.
81 suppose had better telephone to
the coroner" said the doctor.
He went out, and after a mOmentary
pause the policeman followed him.
Officer Grogan was not greatly trou-
bled with nerves, but he felt decided
desire to be somewhere where he
could not see those staring eyes.
Mrs. Pickett remained where she
was, looking down at the dead man.
Her face was still eXpressiOnless, but
inwardly she was in a ferment. This
was the first time such thing SIS this
had happened at the Excelsior, and,
as Officer G1ogan had limited, it Yves
not likely to increase the attractive
ness of the house in the eyes of pos
sible boarderS.
However we'll established the repu-
tation of house may be for comfort
and the excellence of its cuisine, if it
is a house of tragedy, people, for
time at any rate, will look askance
at it.
It was not the possible pecuniary
loss which was troubling Mrs. Pickett.
AS far as money was concerned, she
could have retired from business years
before and lived comfortably on her
savings. She was richer than those
who knew her supposed.
It was the blot on the escutcheon
of the Excelsior-the stain on the EX-
celsior's reputation-which was tor
menting her.
The Excelsior was her life. Start
ing many years before, beyond the
memory of the oldest boartler, she
had built up this model establishment,
the fame of which had been carried
to every corner of the world.
In saloons and places where sailor
men gathered together from Liverpool
to Yokohama, from Cape Town 20
Marseilles, the reputation Of P1ckett's
was of pure gold. Men spoke of it as
a place where you were we'll fed,
Clearly housed, and where petty rob
berry was unknown.
Such was the chorus of praise from
end to end of the world that it is not
likely that much harm could come to
Pickett's from a single mysterious
death; but Mother Pickett YVES not
consoling herself with such reflections.
She was wounded sore. Pickett's
had had clean slate; now it had not.
That was the sum of her thoughts.
She looked at the dead man with
pale, grim eyes. From down the pas
sage came the doctors voice as ne
spoke on the telephone.