Henderson daily dispatch., 1945-01-25

two lakes. SlX-1orty-nve passed.,
and seven. The two people were so
%engrossed that Aggie was able to
move closer and to part the branches
in order to look at them. A reddish
CLINT Of sunset shonc on Daniolle's
smooth hair and silhouetted her
vivid profile. 1t Illuminated Bill
Calder, lounging against a boulder,
downcast, tormented. Aggie felt
sorry for him; what the girl was
doing seemed coldly deliberate. AS
if she were merely trying to keep
him there as long as possible. That
thought became so clear to Aggie
that he wondered what it could
mean. At last, however, Bill tore
himself away and hurried down the
trail.
Again, Aggie slipped into the
woods and started back by a
straighter, shorter route. He was
determined to reach the club ahead
of them. He took a series of steep
rock lodges with the facility of a
channels. He hurried along under a
growth of white pines. In his brain,
recollection unfolded a map I'M
printed during his youth. There
would be a brook with easy going
for a while. Then a cut through a
narrow burned area to another old
road which would come out behind
the Patton place.
He followed a track of grass
bleached wan by shade-a remnant
from the time when the road had
been more open. Then he plunged
into a dense thicket-and stopped
Just before he emerged on the other
side.
He looked at the ground. What
held his attention would have ter
ritied most persons, in that gray and
silent place. But Aggie was not in
the least frightened. Startled-and
no o I He pursed his lips and
whistled one low, soft note.
Two logs lay across the vestigial
road-one on top of the other. Long,
vertical stakes held them together
stakes that had guided the upper
log to drop on the lower. Beyond
the logs lay trigger, lever and bait
bread and honey, in this case.
There were ants busy now in the
honey. 1t was a deadtall-a big
one - of a size suitable for bear.
But the top log had closed, like the
blade of a giant scissors, on a man.
The man was Jim Calder.
There was nothing new about the
spectacle of death for Aggle Plum.
In his researches among the ruins
of many civilizations, he'd seen the
remains of myriad deaths, violent
and peaceful. In his association with
primitive people, he had seen death
under circumstances which most of
the members of the Indian Stones
Country Club would have found in
supportable. A social mistit, a wall
flower. he was nevertheless no sissy.
He turned briefly to work out an
explanation for the presence of the
dead man in the trap. Calder had
been coming in the same direction
as Aggie. His footprints were there
to show it-dim depressions, recent
small disturbances. He'd ducked
low in the tangle to avoid some fes-
toons of bull brier. He'd stepped to-
ward the bottom log-with the in
tention of going over it-and acct
dentally hit the trigger. Or, per-
haps, he'd pulled at the bread and
honey out Of curiosity-not noticing
the other log poised above his head.
It could have been either way.
Agile took a careful route to ex-
anime the man. There was no doubt
that he had been dead for some time.
The blood, at the base Of the shat
tered skull, was dry and dark.
Broken-oA leaves were not just
wilted, but curled by the days heat.
There was evidence of reflex kick
ine around the mans feet And