Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1928-07-05

not see it plain. He asked us if we
kept a great yellow and black dog, a
hound as large or larger, than a Great
Dane"
The elder Hayward and | were stroll
ling on the course, and a few minutes
before our host had been with US. He
had gone into the house on some err
rand. Josephine was with Villas on
the veranda, and his chair was drawn
close to hers. At first wasn't think
ing about Hayward or Ahmad either.
| was remembering with what astoun-
ding fortune Villas and Josephine al
ways seemed to be alone together.
1t was a battling thing. | couldn't
think of any conscious effort in that
direction. Yet seemingly powers in
the sky were always throwing them
together. In one instant, all the oc-
cupants of Southley Downs would be
on the veranda together; in the next,
a group of us would have wandered
off, and Villas and Josephine would be
alone.
| wondered how much of this cur
ious development was engineered by
Josephine herself. 1t wasn't a par
ticularly pleasant thing to think about.
OF course, girls in this age have a
right to play their cards to win the
love of a desirable man. 1t was all
legitimate-all fair. But sometimes
it seemed to me that she would have
preferred to stay with the rest of US,
but that some inscrutable power, mys-
FERROUS and immutable, denied it. That
power was either Josephine's aged ia
Their, the elder Hayward, or both.
Hayward and / were having a cigar
together. Ny wrist watch indicated
a few minutes after ten. And then
Hayward saw a shadow waver in the
moonlight of the golf green.
1t was hard to see at first. Some
living creature vas advancing along
the slope toward us-something that
seemed dark and not very tall. We
stood still and waited. There was
nothing else to do.
Then all at once the creatures form
seemed to change. | can't describe
it except to say that upon one instant
it appealed to me as being low and
rather long, and on the next tall and
narrow. The change vas so abrupt
that the creature seemed fairly to
leap. Yet it easily could have been
the effect of the moonlight or the
shadows. 1t might have been simp-
ly a matter of perspective. At once
we saw the advancing form that be-
fore had seemingly had the dimensions
and outline of a dog was just the form
of a man. But / had been enough
in the mountains to know that the
moon and the darkness and the jungle
play strange tricks IN fancy and Wis
ion.
1t was Ahmad Das. He was COM
ing from one of his long walks. Hay
ward gasped behind me, and as | NOV
ed back the back of our hands touch
ed.
Hayward's felt cold. Whatever
had been fancy and wrong perspec-
tive before, this was the truth. His
blood wasn't in his hands, as it should
have been. Evidently it had all gone
up to his brain, playing strange tricks
with it.
Ahmad bowed to us as he passed.
"Good Lord!" Hayward breathed, Il
wasn't looking for that wretch"
"He was just coming in from one
of his walks"
"Those walks of his! Why don't
Southley forbid 'em? | will if he
don't. I'll be damned if I'll have
him walking through those jungles
and creeping up on US this way"
HCroan,nn m ON 1tc9V nohaad
What way?"
Besides, what would a mar want
to walk around in those jungles for?"
he went on, unheeding me. "Tell me
that? ?" Then his voice changed
dropped tone by tone until it was al
most a whisper. "And tell me this,
too, Long-and tell me the truth"
eyes"
"Did-did you see anything Curl
Gus about-about Ahmad's posture as
he came up the hill? Of course, it
was probably just the moonlight yet
there was something puzzling about
it."
"Ill confess | didn't recognize him
at once"
"That isn't it. That isn't quite it,
Long. Oh, the devil! It's nonsense,
anyway"
We walked up to the veranda and
halted for an instant on the steps for
a last look over the marsh. There
was a ring around the moon that pro-
missed rain. We listened to the night
birds and the noise of a banjo inf
nitely remote, above the drear, gray
wastes. Then Hayward touched my
arm.
"If you'd go in, Long, and look at
Ahmad's hands, he told me, YOU'D
find 'em with mud on EN-"
"Why, Mr.. Hayward?
Because he was crawling up that
hilton hands and feet!"
Then his face grew into a scowl
and he entered the house.
had a pipe by myself after he had
gone. At first l thought it didn'
make particularly good sense. 1t was
true that Hayward didn't like the In
dian, yet this would have scarcely lee
/ to an accusation so bizarre. The
glare with which Hayward's eyes fol
lowed him when the servant walked
about the rooms was little short Of
deadly had observed it too man,
| times to be mistaken. Orders he CAV.
were always in the most insulting
tone. 1t seemed to me just an unjus