The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1922-03-09

ter was BEN; Tor the specter5 had
"got Ben" Did Alan look like some
one else, then7 Like whom7 = Evil
IDENTIFY like the man-now dead. for
he had ghost-who had got" Ben;
in The big mans opinion. Who could
that be? .1...
Alan got up and went to look Mt
himself in the mirror he had seen in
the hall. He was white, now that, the
flush Of the fighting was going: he
probably had been pale before with
excitement, and over his right eye
there was a rotind black mark. Alan
looked down at his hands; a little
skin was on one knuckle,, WHERE he
;;hnd1 struck the man. and Ais fingers
we're .smudged with a black and sotty
dnst,i, he had smudsed them ,9n:l the
papers, upstairs or else in feeling. his
way about 1.-The dark house, and mt!
some time he had touched his fore
head and left the, black: mark. That
had been; the e'.buHet hole s4y
The res. that the man had said had
been a reference to some name; Aim
had no trouble to recollect the name.
and, while he did not understand it
at all, it stirred him queerly-'the Mi
waka." What was that? The queer
excitement and questioning that the
name brought, when he repeated it
to himself, was not recollection; :; for
he could not recall ever having heard
the name before; but it was not com
pletely strange to him. He could de-
fine the excitement it stirred only in
that way. 49,.
Sheriff. had believed that here in
this house Benjamin Corvet had left
or might have left-a memorandum, a
record, or an account of some sort
which would explain to Alan, his son,
the blight which hung over his life.
Sheriff. had said that it could have
been no mere intrigue, no vulgar per-
sonal sin; and the events of the night
had made that very certain; for, plain
~, whatever was hidden in that house
involved some one else seriously, des-
perately. There was no other way to
explain the intrusion Of the sort Of
man whom Alan had surprised there
an hour ago.
The fact that this other man
searched also did not prove that Ben
jamin Corvet had left record in the
house, as Sheriff. believed; but it
certainly showed that another person
believed-or feared-it. Whether or
not guilt had sent Benjamin Corvet
away four days ago, whether or not
there had been guilt behind the ghost
which had "got Ben," there was guilt
in the big mans superstitious terror
when he had seen Alan. A bold, pow
erful man like that one, when his con-
science is clear, does not see a ghost:
And the ghost which lie had seem had
a bullet hole above the brows! > =
Alan took up his hat and looked
about the house; he was going; to re-
turn and sleep here, of course he was
not going to leave the house unguard-
ed for any long time after this, but,
after what had just happened, he felt
he could leave it safely for half an
hour, particularly If he left q = l
burning within. :, IT..
He did this and stepped over to the
Sherrills'. The man who answered his
ring recognized him at once and adj
mitted him; in reply to Alan's ques-
ton, the servant said that Mr.. Sheriff.
had not yet returned. When: Alan
went to his room, the valet appeared
and, finding that Alan was packing,
the man offered his service. Alan let
him pack and went downstairs; a mo-
tor had just driven up to the house.
CONTINUED in Next lssue)