The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1924-02-07

L ottPD aV1g oN@Ne 49,
Of the night and waited.
With a final searching look In every
| direction, the man by the fence
climbed cautiously over and stole
down the creek bank into the little
park. Jack crept up to the fence.
crawled over and followed.
AT Whispering spring the night
prowler crouched down by the rustic
seat. put his hands 10 his mouth and
very cleyerly Initiated the %quavering
call Of the sereech owl, Jack seized
the favorable moment, crept up as
near as he deemed prudent and hid In
the dense shadow Of u clump Of shrub
berry.
The night was so placid that dur
Ing the intervals between the imita-
tive calls the low murmur OF Whisper
Ing spring fell distinct and clear upon
the silence. A few steps away the
red-roofed cottage bulked large in
the gloom.
The man had already twice given
his call and was about TO give il a
third time. when the parlor door at
the front of the house rather noisily
opened, and a nan cane down off the
porch and across the yard. As he
walked over the brink Of the slight
decline where the yard dipped to the
creek, he passed in outline for a brief
moment against the southern sky.
Ii was the preacher.
HE nlaggao tr.V ,ff Tho cfnnp rama
from his shoulders and his step
showed not a sign of mincing. He was
partly dressed, partly in his night
clothes-precisely as one who had
Weakened naturally from sleep and
gone into the yard for some trifling
purpose or other. There was O light
spot at his hip which tie watcher
under the clump of shrubbery sur
missed to be the ivory handle Of the
six-gun that mad thudded against the
bottom of the sklff.
He went straight to the spring, took
down the dipper and dipped himself
a drink, making a deal of noise in the
act-even an unnecessary amount of
II, as 1t seemed to the critical ears
under the shrubbery.
The drink over, he hung up the Dip
per, with another clatter; sauntered
past the man erouctied by the rustic
/ seat; snatched something that was
reached u to him; hid II in the
bosom of his shirt whispered a very
hurried word or two; strolled back up
the yard crossed the porch re-en-
tered the parlor door and locked 1t be-
hind him.
The man crouching by the seat half
rose and slipped pack the way he had
come, the frogs, as before, falling 81
lent as he came even with them and
resuming their croak again after he
had passed. Jack tried hard to make
him u MS he stole by, less than a
dozen steps away, but he was SD
stopped and so shrouded in gloom that
the effort was In vain.
And so they had come-and gone.
A burden seemed TO be lifted from
the night. A clean breeze came down
out of the cool dells of the serene
woods as IL to sweep away the faint
of their presence
The woodsman lay a long time lis
tening, and reviewing the astonishing
pantomime. Not a sound did he hear.
He glanced up at the red-roofed cot
tage. From porch step to gable 1t lay
as peaceful as its background OF placid
sky. II was hard to think that at that
moment Ii might be standing at the
danger-center of some intangible web
of evil that was being woven about it.
He knew the lay Of the house as
well as he knew his own small cabin
along the south and fronting the
road the seldom USED parlor, with
the spare bedroom opening off from II
on the east; back OF these the sit
ting-room. and the old bankers bed
room adjoining 1t. with the small
room containing his safe opening off
1t on the west and extending some
distance beyond the main wall back
of these rooms the dining-room and
back OF II the kitchen.
Front entrance to both parlor and
sitting-room vas from the wide porch,
which hlled mp almost the entire jog
between the parlor and the small
room that served as Office.
Mrs. Curry and Texie both slept up
stairs, the latter over the old bankers
bedroom, the former over the Office,
There were no rooms above the par.
Tor and spare bedroom, these, with the
porch. being a later addition to the
original building.
With every possible caution Jack
slowly crawled up the yard. around
back Of the house. and under the part,
ly open window of the parlor bed
room lay listening for a guarded mo
ment; then rose. noiseless as the
night, and peeped within.
On a chair just under the window
hung the somber frock coat; OF the
bed a man breathed even and deep
apparently sleeping as TRANQUILITY as I
tired athlete.