The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1924-02-20

, | Of the night and waited. t..,.
. With q 6nal searching look In ever
! 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
crnwled over and followed
At Whispering spring the night
prowler crouched down by the rustic
seat, put his hands to his mouth and
very cleverly initiated the quaverine
call of the screech owl. Jack seized
the favorable moment, crept up as
near as he deemed prudent and hid In
the dense shadow Of clump Of shrub
berry.
The night was 30 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 1t q
third time, when the parlor door at
the front Of the house rather noisily
opened, and a man came 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.
1t was the preacher.
His glasses were off, the stoop gone
I 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 trifing
purpose or other. There was light
spot at his hip which the watcher
under the clump Of shrubbery sur
missed to be the ivory handle Of the
six-gun that had thudded against the
| bottom of the skiff.
He went straight to the spring, took
down the dpper and dipped himself
drink, making deal of noise in the
act-even an unnecessary amount of
it, 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 crouched by the rustic
seat; snatched something that was
reached out to htN; bid it in the
bosom v,s nis sSirt; whispered very
hurried word or two; strolled back up
the yard; crossed the porch; re-en-
tered the parlor door and locked it be-
hind him.
The man crouching by the seat half
rose and slipped back the way he had
come, the frogs, as before, falling ST.
lent as he came even with them and
resuming their croak again after he
had passed. Jack tried hard to make
him. out as he stole by, less than a
dozen steps away, but he was so
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 If to sweep away the faint
Of their presence.
The woodsman lay long time lis
tening, and reviewing the astonishing
pantomime. Not sound did he hear.
He glanced up at the red-roofed cot
tage. From porch step to gable it lay |
as peaceful as its background Of placid |
sky. 1t was hard to think that at that
moment it 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 it
on the east; back of these the sit
ting-room, and the old bankers bed
room adjoining it, with the small
room containing his safe opening off
it on the west and extending some
distance beyond the main wall back
of these rooms the dining-room and
back of 1t the kitchen.
Front entrance to both parlor and
sitting-room was from the wide porch,
which filled up almost the entire jog
between the parlor and the small
room that served as office.
Mrs. Curry and Texle botn 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 later addition to the
original building.
With every possible caution Jack
slowly crawled up the yard, around
back Of the house, and underline part
ly open window OF the parIor bed
room; lay listening for guarded mo-
ment; then rose, noiseless as the
night, and peeped within.
On chair just under the window
hung the somber frock coat; on the
bed a man breathed even and deep,
apparently sleeping as TRANQUILITY as
tired athlete
CHAPTER XII
<..;x. Il Al .-Lk