Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1922-09-01
CHAPTER X.

The voice was strange to Gramont
yet he had a vague recollection o
having at some time heard it before
1t was a jaunty and impudent voice
very self-assured-yet 1t bore
startled and uneasy note, as though
the speaker had just come unawar,
upon the man whom he addressed.
"Howdy, sheriff" it said. "Didn'
see you in there-what you doin' 81
far away from Houma, eh?"
"Why, I've been looking wei thu
place around here" responded an
other voice, which was dry and grim
Il know you, Ben Chacherre, and
think I'll take you along with me. JUS
come from New Orleans, did you?"
"Me? Take meT' The voice OF
Chacherre shrilled up suddenly in
alarm. Look here, sheriff, 1t wasn't
me done it! 1t was Gramont-"
There came silence. Not a sound
broke the stiffness of the late after
noon
Grainont, listening, lay bewildered
and breathless. Ben Chacherre come
here? Gramont knew nothing of any
tie between joachim Fell and Cha
cherre; he could only lie In the grass
and wonder at the mans presence.
What place" was 1t that the sheriff
Of Houma had been looking over? And
what was it that he, Gramont, was
supposed to have done?
Confused and wondering, Gramont
waited. And, as he waited. he caught
a soft sound from the marshy
ground beside him-a faint "plop" as
though some object had fallen close
by on the we grass. At the moment
he paid no heed to this sound, for
again the uncanny silence had fallen.
Listening, Gramont fancied that he
caught slow, stealthy footsteps amid
the underground, but derided the
fancy as sheer Imagination. His brain
was busy with this new problem.
Houma, he knew, was the seat OF the
parish or county. This Ben Chacherre
appeared to have suddenly and unex-
pectedly encountered the sheriff, to
his obvious alarm, and the sheriff had
for some reason decided to arrest
him so much was clear.
Chacherre had nothing to do with
the "place"-did that mean the ada
cent property, or the Ledanois farm?
In his puzzled bewilderment over this
imbroglio Gramont for the moment
quite forgot the trickle of oil at his
feet.
But now the deep silence became
unnatural and sinister. What had
happened? Surely, Ben Chacherre
had not been arrested and taken away
In such silence! Why had the voices
so abruptly ceased? Vaguely uneasy,
startled by the prolongation of that
intense stiffness, Gramont rose to his
feet and peered among the trees.
The two speakers seemed to have
departed; he could descry nobody In
sight. A step to one side gave Ora
mont a view of the land adjoining the
Ledanois place. This was cleared Of
all brush, and under some immense
oaks to the far left he had a glimpse
of a large summer cottage, boarded
up and apparently deserted. Nearer
at hand, however, he saw other build
ings. and these drew his attention. He
heard the throbbing pound of a motor
at work. and as there was no power
line along here, the place evidently
had its own electrical plant. He
scrurinized the scene before him ap-
praisingly.
' There were two large buildings
here. One seemed to be a large barn,
closed, the other was a long, low
sled which was too large to be a
garage. The door of this was open,
and before the opening Gramont saw
three men standing in talk; he recog-
nized nome of them. Two of the talk
ers We're clad in greasy overalls, and
the thffd figure showed the flash of a
collar. The sheriff, Ben Chacherre.
and some other man, thought Ora
mont He would not have known Cha
cherre had he encountered him face
to face. To him, the man was a name
only.
The mention of his own name by
Chacherre impelled him to go forward
and demand some explanation. Then
IT occurred to him that perhaps he
had made a mistake; it would have
been very easy, for he was not certain
that Chacherre had referred to him.
There could be other Gramonts, or
other men whose name would have
much the same sound in a Creole
mouth.
I'D better attend to my own bust
ness" thought Gramont, and turned
away. He noticed that the motor had
-