Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-10-16
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M.~-B ROBERT W CHAMBERS 40
ROBERT W CHAMgERS
e1oQq aIonI HpoRAs coMnAtr

the accuracy of his aim, he took
other shots at intervals.
. Leverett moved the muzzle of his
rifle a hairs width to the left, shiv-
cred, moved it again. Under his
soggy, sun-tanned skin a pallor made
his visage sickiy gray.
"Jake?"
No answer.
Say, Jake?"
No notice.
Jake, 1 wanta take a peek at
them bills"
Merely another stream of tobacco
soiling the crimson pitcher.
"T'm-Tm desprit. l gotta take a
peek. I gotta-gotta@'
Something in Leverett's unsteady
voice made Kloon turn his head.
you gol rammed fool" he said.
what you dom with your"
The loud detonation of the rife
punc.uated K1oon's inquiry with a
final period. The big, soft-nosed
bullet struck him full in the face,
splitting his brains and part of his
skull down his back, and knocking
him flat as though he had been
dubbed.
Leverett, stunned. sat staring, mo-
tionless, clutching the rifle from the
muzzle of which a delicate stain OF
vapor floated and disappeared
through a rosy bar of sunshine.
In the intense stiffness of the
place, suddenly the dead mar made
a sound land the trap-robber nearly
tainted.
But it was only air escaping from
Leverett, ashy pale, shaking, got 10
his feet and leaned heavily against
| an oak tree, his eyes never stirring
from the %sprawling thing on the
ground.
If it were a minute or a year he
| stood there he could never have
| reckoned the space of time. The
suns level rays glimmered rudy
| through the woods. A green fly ap-
| peared, buzzing about the dead man.
| Another zig-zagged through the sun
shine, lacing 1t with streaks of green
ish fire. Others appeared, whiriing,
gyrating, filling the silence with
their humming. And still Leverett
| dared not bulge, dared not search
the dead and take from 1t that TOT
which the dead had died.
A little breeze came by n stirred
| the bushy hair on Kloon's head ana
fluttered the ferns around him where
| he lay.
Then, near in the ferns, the with
ering fronds twitched, and a req
squirrel sprung his startling alarm,
soueaking, squealing, chattering his
opinion of murder and Leverett,
! shaking with the shock, wiped ICY
sweat from his face, laid aside his
rifle, and took his first stiff step to-
ward the dead man.
But as he bent over he changed
his mind, turned, reeling a little,
then crept slowly out among ths
pitcher-plants, searching about him
as though shifting. ma
In a few minutes he discovered
what he was looking for: took MS
bearings; carefully picked his way
back over a leafy crust that trembied
under his cautious tread.
He bent over Kloon and, from the
left inside coat pocket. he drew the
packet and placed it inside his own
flannel shirt. -
Then, turning his back to the
dead, he squatted down ana clutcheu
Kloon's burly ankles. as q man
grasps the handles of a wneeioar-
row to draw it after him..
Dragging, rolling, humping over
roots, Jake Kloon took his last trall
rough the wilderness, leaving a
redder path than was left by the
setting sun through fern and moss
and wastes of pitcher-plants.
Always, as Leverett crept on, pull
ing the dead behind him, the floor
of the woods trembled slightly, and
a black ooze wet the crust OF WIN
cred leaves. ~
At the quaking edge of a little
nooI of water, Leverett halted. Inc
water was dark but scarcely an incn
deem over its black bed of silt.
Besides this sink hole the trap
thief dropped Kloon. Then he DIRE"
his hunting knife and cut a tall, slim
swamp maple. The sapling was
about twenty feet in height. Lev
erett thrust the butt of IT into the
pool. Without any effort ne pusheo
the entire sapling out or sght IN
the d%epthless silt. n
He had to maneuver very ginger,
ly to dump Kloon into the pool any
Eeen ont of il himself. Finally ne
managed it. I'LL,
TO his alarm, Kloon did not sink
far. He cut another sapling ano
nIIshed the body until only the SHOES
were visible above the silt.
These. however. were very slow!y
sinking. now. Bubbles rose, duiiy
iridescent, floated, broke. Strings
of blood hung suspended in ths
clouding water. ,,..,.
Leverett went back to the nttle
ridge and covered with dead leaves
the spot where Kloon had lain. Tnere
were broken ferns, but he could MOI
straighten them. And there lay
Kioon's rifle. .u,s
For a while he hesitated, his HABITS
of economy being i~ngrained; put ne
remembered the packet in MS snlr.'
and he carried the rifle to the Htuis
pool and showed 1t, muzzle mrs.
driving 1t downward, OUT OF sisH
AS he rose from the pools edge
somebody laid a hand IN his shoul-
der. 49,.
That was the most real death tnat
L.eyerett eyer had died.