The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1923-06-21
CHAPTER /
The RumOr

The RumOr
Mark Brendon, at thirty-five, al,
ready stood high in the criminal in
vcstigation department of the police
He was indeed about to receive ar
inspe ctorship.
Mark was taking holiday on Dart
moor, devoting himself to his HOBBY
of trout fishing and accepting the
opportunity to survey his own life
from bird's-eye point of view
measure his achievement, and con
slider impartially his future, not en-
ly as detective but as man.
He found himself with five thou
sand pounds saved as result Of
some special grants during the wal
and large honorarium from the
French Government. He was alst
in possession of a handsome salary
and the prospect of promotion, whcr
a senior man retired at no distant
date. Too intelligent to find all that
life had to offer in his work alone
he now began to think of culture, OF
human pleasures, and those added
interests and responsibilities that Il
wife and family would offer.
He was somewhat overwcary after
a strenuous year; but to Dartmoor
he always came for health and rest
when opportunity offered, and now
he had returned for the third time
to the Duchy Hotel at Princctown
Being good talker he never failed
of an audience there. But better
still he liked an hour sometimes
with the prison wardens. For the
convict prison that dominated that
gray smudge in the heart of the
moors known as Princetown held
many interesting and famous crimi,
nails.
| He had found an unknown spot
where some good trout dwclt and on
an evening in mid June he set forth
to tempt them. He had discovered
certain deep pools in disused
quarry fed by a streamlct.
Foggintor Quarry, wherein lay
these preserves, might be approach
cd in two ways. Originally broken
into the granite bosom of the moor
for stone to build the bygone war
prison of Princctown, road still
extended to the deserted spot and
Joined the main thoroughfarc half a
mile distant.
Brcndon, however. came hithcr by
direct path over the moors. Leav-
ing Princetown railway station u pom
his left hand he set his face west
where the waste heaved out before
him dark against blaze of light
! from the sky. -.
Against the western flame APP
pcarcd figure carrying basket.
Mark Brcndon, with thoughts on
the evening rise of the trout, lifted
his face at a light football. Where
upon there passed by him the fair
est woman he had ever known. She
was slim and not very tall. She
wore no hat and the auburn of hcl
hair, piled high above her forehead
tangled the warm sunset beams anG
|
And she had blue eyes--blue as the
gentian. Their size impressed Bren
don.
She walked quickly with COCO
stride and her slight, silvery skirts
and rosy, silken jumper showed hel
figure clearly enough-her rount
hips and firm, girlish bosom.
Her eyes met his for a moment
with frank, trustful expression
then she had passed.
The vision made Mark pensive, a.
sudden beauty will, and he wonder
ed about the girl.
Tramping forward now, the de
tective came to a great crater tina
gaped on the hillside and stoo,
above the dead quarry workings O
Foggintor. Underneath him opened
a cavity with sides two hundred fee
high.
Mark proceeded to the extrem.
breadth of the quarry, fifty yard
northerly, and stood above two wide
still pools in the midst. Trou
moved and here and there circles o
light widened out on the water an,
rippled to the cliff beyond.
Mark set about his sport, yet fel
that sort of unfamiliar division
had come into his mind and, Will,
he brought two tiny-cyed flies from
a box and fastened them to the hair
like leader he always used, Their
persisted the thought of the auburn
girl-her eytD blue as April--he
swift, delicate tread.
He began to fish as the ligh
thickened; but he only. cast once O
twice and then decided to wait hal
an hour. He grounded his rod AM
brought a brier pipe and pohcl
of tobacco from his pocket. Til
things of dav were turning to slum
Der; but still there persisted
clinking sound, uttered monotonous
ly from time to time, which tn
sportsman supposed to be bird. l
came from behind the great acclivi
Il ties that ran opposite his place b,
the pools. Brendon suddenly per
ceived that it was no natural nois
but arose from some human activi
ty. 1t was, in fact, the musical not
of mason's trowel, and when pre-
sently it ceased, he was ann tied t
L