The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-04-14

mans face. The man struck bacx-
n heavy blow on the side OF Alan'2
head which di2zied him out lift him
strength TO strike again, aad his
knuCkleS reached The mars face once
more, but he got another heavy blow
i'm return. The man was graphing
no longer; he swung Alan to one side
and Off of him, ana rolled himself
away. He scrambled To his feet and
dashed out through the library, acroS
the hall, and into the service room.
Alan got TO his fee diZzied and not
yet familiar with the house, he blum
dered against a wall and had to feel
his way along it 10 the service room;
as ne slipped and stumbled down the
stairway. a door closed loudly at the
end Of the corridor he had seen ut
the foot Of the s.uirs. He ran along
the corridor to the door; 1t had closed
With a spring lock, and seconds passed
while he felt in the dark for the catch
he found it and tore the door open,
and came u suddenly into the cold
air Of the night in n paved passage
| NlN lt~ANlC lIlP lpNSt NulOil INNl III N'llt
direction 20 the street ana in the
other to a gate opening on the alley.
He ran forward to the street AMI
looked up and down. but found ii emp.
ty; then he ran back to the alley. At
the end Of the alley, where il inter
scCted the cross street, the figure OF
the man running away appeared sud
denly out Of the shadows, then dis
appeared; Alan. following as far as
the street, could see nothing more OF
him this street too was empty.
He ran a little farther and looked,
then he went back to the house. The
side door had swung shut again and
latched. He le. himself In mt the front
door and turned on the light in the
reading lamp in the library. The
electric torch still was burning on the
floor and he picked 1t up and eXtin-
guished It; he went upstairs and
brought down his shoes. He had seen
Il wood fire set ready for lighting in
the library, and now he lighted 1t and
Sat before it drying his wet socks be-
fore he put on his shoes. He was still
shaking and breathing fast from his
struggle with the man and his chase
after him, and by the strangeness Of
what had taken place.
When the shaft of light from the
torch had flashed across Alan's face
in the dark library, the man had not
taken him for wha. he Was-a living
person he had taken him for Il spec
ter. His terror and the things he had
cried out could mean only that. The
Spccter Of whom? Not of Benjamin
COrvct; for one OF the things Alan
had remarked when he saw Benjamin
COrvet's picture was that he himself
did not look at all like his father. Be
sides, what the man had said made it
certain that he did not think the spec
ter was Ben; for the specter had
"got Ben" Did Alan look like some
one else, then? Like whom? Evil
, IDENTIFY like the man-nOw dead, for
he had a ghost-who had "got" Ben,
in he big mans opinion. Who could
that be?
Alan got up and went to look at
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 n round black mark. Alan
looked down at his hands; a little
skin was off n knuckle, where he
had struck the man, and his fingers
we're snudged with a black and sotty
dust. He had smudged them on the
papers upstairs or else in feeling his
way about the dark house, and at
sorHe time he had touched his fore
head and left the black mark. That
had been the bullet hole"
The =. that the man had said had
been a reference 10 some name; Alan
had no trouble 20 recollect the name,
and, while he did not understand IL
at all, 1t stirred him queerly-'the MI
waka." What was that? The queer
excitement and questioning that the
name brought, when he repeated Il
TO himself, was not recollection; for
he could not recall ever having heard
the name before; but 1t was not COM
pletely strange TO him. He could de-
fine the excitement 1t stirred only in
that way.
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.
lE, 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
mar whom Alan had surprised there
an hour ago.
The fact that this other man
searched also did not prove that Ben
idmin COrvet had left n record in the