Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1921-01-14
CHAPTER vI-continued.

A form blotted the moonlight upon
the floor with a living spIotch of shad-
q9w An arm came in ats the door; a
hand fumbIed behind the easement
That was all. No face appeared. A
moment or two, and the arm disap-
peared the splotch of shadow slid off
the square of moonlight; the soft foot
falls slipped away around the east end
of the cabin and muffled into silence.
Very softly the Pearlhunter rose to
his feet. The light outside was far
too bright to risk venturing forth. 1t
would have betrayed him instantly.
He glanced around the cabin. The
moon had passed by the east window,
so that it was in the shadow. He
stole across the floor and peeped out
through a broken pane.
A man was picking his way up the
bluff. He seemed in no great hurry,
nor in the least disturbed. At the top
Of the bluff he stopped and looked
back. In his brief instant of pause be-
fore striding away INTO the woods the
moon picked him out clear as day. 1t
was the Man-in-the- Fancy-Vest
There was no more sleep for the
Pearlhunter. He left the window,
went to the cabin door and felt behind
the easement where the hand had
CROPPED. His fingers came in contact
with tiny bundle wedged between
the logs and the door frame. He drew
it forth and unrolled It in the moon
sight, deemipg 1t imprudent to light
che candle Even before the moon
beams fell upon the thing he knew by
a certain disquieting premonition what
1t would prove to be-a red mask.
He felt along the wall to the chink
above the table and poked his fingers
between it and the logs, where he had
concealed the packet the evening they
moved into the cabin. 1t was still
there. He drew it forth and compared
1t with the other. They were almost
identical. and of pattern with the
one he had seen that afternoon at the
three gabled cabin.
He sat down by the. table and
dropped his chin in his palm. What
did it mean? What must it mean
this last one? He knew the meaning
of the frst-dropped by chance. He
had a very plausible surmse as to the
story of the other, the one with the
knife thrust through it at the three
gabled cabin. But this one-this last
one?
The man wanted to hide that bi. of
cloth right there. But why? The Pearl
hunter raked his brain for the answer.
Why? He must have been ignorant
that the other was hidden behind the
chink, or why should he have taken
such pains to hide this one? He was
probably ignorant of the fact that he
had dropped the other one in the cab
tn that night; possibly did not know
where he had lost it. 1t was even con
ceivable that the loss of it may have
eccaSiOned him no small anxiety. If
ne did not know that he had dropped
the other mask in the cabin, he prob
nbly was unaware that the Pearlhunt-
er knew him. The young man sat still
a long time over that thought.
That he could with such apparent
readiness supply himself with another
mask after the FIRST was lost suggested
q nearby rendezvous, undoubtedly
somewhere in the Flatwoods-a rem
devious. or confederate. But that
was unlike him-to have confed-
crate. He was known TO work alone.
And his horse-he would not likely al,
low himself to get far from it. He
wouldn't dare ride it into the village.
Rocket. the famous. thoroughbred of
the Red Mask, was well known. And
a horse can not be easily disguised.
But always, no matter where his
thought strayed, like a man lost in
the woods and travelling in circle, he
invariably came back to the starting
point-the question: Why did he hide
the mask in the cabin? One thing was
certain. He didn't hide it without
purpose.
He seemed to feel some intangible,
indefinable force for evil forming
about him-like spider webs across the