Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1924-01-17


return to the village The brail sticks
were united, the seine rolled up, and
the woodsman walked up the bar for
the boat.
He stopped over the craft, possibly
recalling the circumstance of the six
gun concealed in the frock coat: laid
his hand to the bow to push II on !;
Strengthened after moment, walked
some distance farther up the bar and
stood gazing intently toward the mar
row upper end OF the arm of water
where 1t disappeared under the over
tapping branches Of trees and tangled
vines. Shrugged away under the tangls,
In manner that must have made It
practically invisible, except from that
one point, lay small houseboat
A trifiing circumstance enough
. Households were common on the Wa
bash-but why there7 The place was
dark and dank, the bank DOGGY. and
there was no spring short Of Alpine
island. The woodsman turned and
motioned to his companions
They had been watching him and at
his sign came trooping up the bar
the preacher tagged and tagging be-
midland gathered around him. Fol-
lowing the direction Of his finger, they
peered in under the overlapping trees.
Counterman grinned around at the
others after moment and jerked his
thumb back toward the skiff.
"Sposin' we row up an pay i'm a
visit? ia like t see a man with SIGH
an eye FIR campin' place"
sUncle Nick tossed up mis- chin, grunt-
ed. and led the way down the bar to
where he had beached the boat.
The preacher appeared to be consid-
erably .vexed at the further prolonga-
tion Of trip that was growing more
and more irksome TO him 1t might
almost have been imagined that a
frown ruffied the studious primness of
his brow. But as the skiff glided up
the narrowing arm of dead water, he
appeared to get himself in hand again
The frown disappeared and his air be-
came that Of man only mildly inter-
ested in what went on about him.
There is little formality among men
of the river and the woods-a fine
enough delicacy, though, when big mo-
ments come. They brought the bow
of the skiff up under the stern of the
secluded little craft and climbed
aboard. q
There was both fore and an aft
door to the tiny cabin that occupied
the whole mid-section of the deck, but
no windows on either side. Both doors
were heavily padlocked--a further
proof Of the owners exclusiveness.
On the dusty boards there were num-
Der Of footprints. some Of them-curi-
ously enough-made by boot that
must have been stylish. even dainty.
Uncle Nick leaned upon the railing
of the forward deck and prodded his
pipe, while the one-eyed fisherman
gnawed himself fresh chew from
sweaty plug that he ciawed up out Of
his oyeralls pocket, the two of them
generallzing on the circumstance OF
stylish boot tracks, no windows and
lpadlocked doors. .
The preacher had Joined in the. dis
cussion and was just telling them, In
his half-bored drawl, that it might be
some naturalist taking unusual pains
to preserve his specimens when Jack
Warhope, still standing in the skif
and holding 1t to the stern of the house
boat, picked up one OF the shiny
boots from the preachers stack Of
clothes in the bow, and, hidden from
the others by the cabin, pressed the
heel Of it down hard beside one Of the
heel-prints on the dusty afler-deck.
The two prints conceded perfectly.