Evening star., 1924-08-30
THE OWLS HOUSE
4 Thrilling Adventure Story
By CrOsbie Carstin
BV CrOSble GarStln
Copyright, 1924. by Frederick A Stokes Co.

to say that the messenger refused to
move. He knew the doctor was in, he
said: the groom had told him so.
Furthermore, II Spargo did not come to
his masters assistance without further
ado he would smash every bone in his
body. Doctor Spargo rolled out Of bed.
and, opening the window, treated the
messenger to samples from a vocabu
larry enriched by decade of army life
The messenger listened to the TRADE
unmoved and. as Doctor Spargo cursed,
it was borne in on him that he had
seen this outrageous fellow before.
Presently he remembered when; he had
seen him at Gwithian Feast, a canvas
jacket on, tossing parish stalwarts as
a terrier toSSeS rats. The messenger
was Bohemia, the wrestler Doctor
Spargo closed both the TRADE and the
window abruptly and bawled for his
boots.
The pair rode westward. the
truculent hind cantering on the
heels of the physicians cob, laying
into it with an ash plant whenever
II showed symptoms of tagging. The
cob tripped over a stone in Buccas
Pass and SHE'D at a goat, near Ire
woofe, on each occasion putting its
master neatly over it's head. BY the
time Spargo arrived at Bcsula he was
shaking worse than ever. He de-
manded more rum to steady his hand.
hut there was none. He pulled him
self together as best he could and set
to work, trembling and Wheeling.
Spargo was retired army surgeon
he had served his apprenticeship in
the shambles of Oudenarde and NAL
plaquet among soldiers who had no
option but to submit to his ministra-
| tions. His idea was to patch men
up so that they might fight another
day. but without regard to their ap-
pearance. He sewed the tatters of
John Penhale's face together secure
| ly but roughly. pocketed his fee and
| rode home, gasping, to his toddies.
John Penhale was of fine frame
and hearty. In a week or two he was
| out and about: in month he had
resumed the full business of the farm.
| but his face was not a pleasant sight.
The left side was merely marked with
| silvery burn on the cheek bone,
but the right might have been
dragged by harrow; 1t was ragged
| scars from brow to chin. The eve
lad gone and part of an ear, the
broken jaw had set concave and his
cheek had split into long harelip
| revealing a perpetual snarl of teeth
! underneath. He hid the eye socket
with a black patch, but the lower
paw VI IlS Lace lie COulQ not mask.
Three months after his accident he
rode into Penzance market If one
woman squeaked at the sight of him
| so did dozen, and children ran to
| their mothers blubbering that the
devil had come for them. Even the
men, though sympathetic, would not
look him in the face, but stared at
their boots while they talked and
were plainly relieved when he moved
away. John never went in again,
unless driven by the direst necessity,
| and then hurried out the moment his
affairs were transacted. For despite
his bulk and stole bearing he was
supersensitive. and the horror his ap-
pearance awoke cut him to the raw.
Thus at the age of 23 he became a
bitter recluse, a prisoner within the
bounds of his farm, Bosula, cared
for by widow and her idiot daugh-
ter, mixing only with his few kinds
| and odd farmers and fishermen that
| chance drove his way.
He had come to Helston on busi-
| ness, to hear the terms of his Aunt
| Seilna's will. and now that he had
| heard them he was eager to be quit
OF the place. The serving girls be-
havior had stung him like a whip
lash and the brawling of the drunken
squfres Jared on his every nerve.
He could have tossed the three of
them out of the window If he liked