The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1923-04-27
CHAPTER XVII.
Pursuit.

in slippers. went from her fathers
bedroom swiftly down into the study
again what she was going to do there
she did not definitely know. She
heard, as she descended the stairs, the
steward in the hall outside the study
calling up the police staticLj OF the
n~eighboring villages and giving news
of what had happened and instruc-
tionS to watch the roads; but as she
reached the foot of the stairs, a serV-
ant closed tie study doors. The great.
curtained room in it's terrifying dis
order was brightly lighted, empty, alb
solutely still. She had given dlrec-
tons that, except for the remova OF
B%latchford's body. all must be left as
II was in the room till the arrival of
the police. She stood an instant with
hands pressed against her breast, star
ing down at the spots upon the floor.
Was one of them Eaton's?
Something within her told her that
It was, and the fierce desire TO go to
him, TO help him, was all she felt just
now. II was Donald Avery's and her
fathers accusation of Eaton that had
made her feel like this. She had been
feeling, the moment before Donald
had spoken. that Philip Eaton had
played upon her that evening in max
ing her take him TO his confederate
in the ravine in order to plan and con-
summate something here. Above her
grief and horror at the killing of her
cousin and the danger to her father,
had risen the anguish of her guilt
with Eaton, the agony of her betrayal.
But their accusation that Eaton a
killed Wallace ~Blatchford, seeing him,
knowing HMM the light-had swept
all that away; all there was of her
seemed to have risen in denial of that.
Before her eyes, half shut, she saw
again the body of her cousin Wallace
living in its blood on the floor, with her
father kneeling beside 1t, his blind
eyes raised in helplessness to the
light; but she saw now another body
teO-Eaton's-not here-lying some
where in the bare. w~ind-swept woods,
shot down by those pursuing him.
She. looked at the face of the clock
and then down to the pendulum to see
whether it had stopped; but the pen
dulum was swinging. The hands stood
al half past one o'clock; now she re-
called that, in her first wild gaze about
the room when she rushed il with
the others, she had seen the hands
showing a minute or so short of
twenty minutes past one. Not quite
a quarter of an hou had passed since
the alarml The pursuit could not
have moved far away. She reopened
the window through which the pur-
suers had passed and stepped put onto
the dark lawn. A half mile down the
beach she heard shouts and a shot /;
she saw dimly through the night in
that direction a boat without lights
moving swiftly out Upon the lake,
Her hands clenched and pressed
against her breast; she stood strain
ing at the sounds of the man-hunt. 1t
had turned west, it seemed; it was
coming back her way, but to the west
of the house. She crossed the lawn
toward the garage. A light suddenly
shone out there, and she went on.
The wide door at the car driveway
was pushed open, and someone was
within working over a car. His back
was toward her, and he was bent over
the engine, but, at the glance, she
knew him and recoiled, gasping. II
was Eaton. He turned at the same
instant and saw her.
rob; it's you! - he cried to her.
Her heart, which almost had ceased
to beat, raced her pulses again. A,
the sound she had made on the drive.
way, he had turned to her as a hunted
thing, cornered, desperate, certain that
whoever came must be against him
His cry to her had recognized her as
the only one who could come and not
be against him it had hailed her with
relief as bringing him help. He could
not have cried out SO at that instant
at sight of her if he had beer guilty
Of what they had accused. Now she
saw too, as he faced her, blood flow
ing over his face; blood soaked {
shoulder of his coat, and his left arm
dangling at his side; but now, as hi
threw back his head and Strengthened
in his relief at finding it was she VIII
had surprised him, she saw in hin
an e%xultation and excitement she haC
never seen befOre-something which
her presence, alone could not hav,
caused. Tonight, she sensed vaguely
something had happened to him which
had changed his attitude toward he
and everything else.
YES; it's I!' she cried quickly an,
rushed to him. "It's L! It's l." Wild
she treasured him. You're hurt |!
She touched his shoulder. "You'r
hurt! l knew you werer"
He pushed her back with his RICH
hand and held her away from him
did they hurt your father?"
Hurt Father? No."
"But Mr.. Blatchford-"
Dead" she answered DULY,
"They killed him, then I"
Eyes; they" She iterated. II
was telling her now-unnecessarily-
that he had had nothing to do with it
II was the others who had done thai
He released her and wiped the bloc
from his eyes with the heel of hi
hand. "The POOR old man." he sale
the poor old man."
She drew toward him In the realizs
ton that he could find sympathy fo
others even in such a time as this.
where's the key for the batter
and magneto-the key you start til
car within"
She ran to a shelf and brought
TO him; he used it and pressed tn
starting lever. The engine ctart
and he sprang to the seat. His lei
arm still hanging useless at his sid
he tried to throw in the gears wit