Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1925-03-11
BY Victor Rousseau
CHAPTER IX-Continued
Copyright BY w. G. Chapman

only at times that he'd take the NOR
phine, and then he'd have terrible out
bursts of rage, and his mind would go
especially when he'd have those fits
after he came back from Avonmouth.
But after that the hoodoo got him.
That was when I was afraid"
1.-THE hoOdOO?" inquired Joan
Miss Wentworth, the devil who
was at him so long got hold of him
once or twice. I've seen him come
back from Monmouth different man
Miss Wentworth. That's when I've
been afralI. Because the devil that
can kill the Dody isn't much of a
devil, but when he kills the soul there
is no help but prayer When he's in
those dreadful moods he's another
man. He's a wicked man, Miss Went
worth, and I'd shoot him then, if he
tried to- harm me or any of mine, and
l wouldn't think I'd killed Doctor Lam
caster. 1t all began after they accused
him Of stealing the trust funds"
1T is not true" said Joan.
I'm sure it isn't, Miss Wentworth
But you see old Doctor Lancaster
didn't leave the charge of the fund
to his son; he left it in the care of
the trustees. And there were COM
picatiOns about the hospital at Avon
mouth. And then, after the doctors
bride ran away on the eve of their
marriage it changed all his nature"
Il have heard of that" said Joan
quietly. "But we must not discuss
that in the doctors absence"
"Why, every body knows about that,
Miss Wentworth. Before it happened
they say the doctor was the most re-
spected man in Lancaster. He'd been
born here, you know, on the planta-
ton down in the valley Millville way.
She was Miss Reid. She came from
Farnley county. She was the reigning
belle there, admired and flattered. and
1t turned her heart to a stone to have
all the men after her. crazy to marry
her The doctor was a young man
then, and he couldn't see any further
into her heart, such as it was, than
the rest of them.
"She led the doctor a chase before
che promised him, they say. But the
very day before their marriage was to
have been she left her home without
a word to anyone, to go off with an
other man who's never been djscov-
cred. That broke the doctor up. He
took to drugs then, they tell me. The
institute had beer big place before
1t stood over on Morley's hill, but it
burned down one night, and we took
this old farm house. And the doctor
was using the funds, they said, and
wasn't responsible at ALL
1.-THE trustees found that the money
was gone. Nobody knew where IL
went because the doctor had his own
Inheritance, and he wasn't the man to
steal or squander. They wouldn't do
anything to him, because of his fam
fly, but they put Mr.. Myers in charge
Of the finances. That's all. None of
us liked him, but what could we do
about it? He was here when Doctor
Jenkins and I were appointed, and as
soon as we understood how matters
were we agreed to stay as long as we
could and try to help the doctor"
Mrs. Fraser, ] want to know why
Mr.. Myers melted Doctor Lancaster
to use morphine" said Joan.
Miss Wentworth"
"You know he did. You told me
so. And Doctor Jenkins knows"
The matron looked agitated. what
could we do?" she cried. Suppose
we knew, what can two people do
against a man like Myers? Suppose
we had said so, who would have be-
lieved us? We did all we could do !;
and we all love the doctor and would
rather stay with him and help where
we could than be discharged and do
nothing"
She looked at Joan piteously, like a
child caught in wrOng-doing.
Il know you did your best" an
swered the girl. But why should
Doctor Lancaster stay here in Myers
power, instead of at his home in
AyOnmouth, where he is respected
and pow erful? Nothing of all this is
known there"
The matron wrung her hands. II
don't know" she answered. 81 sup
pose that man has had him by the
throat in more ways than we know.
Whenever the doctor used to go TO
Avonmouth Mr.. Myers would go with
him, and generally he'd come back
with him. Miss Wentworth, till you
came here the doctor wasn't a man;
what with his drugs and the hold Mr..
Myers had over him, he was just
machine. And Mr.. Myers was the
driver"
Joan had the feeling that she should
not listen to the matrons talk about
Lancaster; it seemed disloyal of her;
but she felt, too, that she must know
more, and speedily, if she was to
thwart that menacing evil which she
sensed more and more clearly as the
moments passed.
Miss Wentworth" said the matron,
placing her hand on the girls arm
firmly, there's something else ought
to have told you about. Mrs. Dana"