The Loup City northwestern. (Loup City, Neb.) 189?-1917, January 09, 1913, Image 6
The ♦ + Sable HORACE LORCHA HA'ZELTINE COPYP/G/yT, /9/JZ, a c Arc Cl UPC &. co. 2 SYNOPSIS. Robert Cameron, capitalist, consults Philip Clyde, newspaper publisher, re garding anonymous threatening letters he has received. The first promises a sample of the writer’s power on a certain day. On that day the head is mysteriously cut from a portrait of Cameron while the lat ter is in the room. CHAPTER II. Rifle Shots Echo In the Woods. Of conveying even a tithe of the hor ror I experienced at Cameron’s dis closure I am nigh hopeless. The more we discussed the occurrence the less susceptible it seemed of explanation. And what is so terrifying as the in explicable. or so dreadful as the in tangible? Here, apparently, was an enemy of calm and cunning malignity, who chose to manifest his power in a manner almost ludicrously puerile— save as it pointed with significant fin ger to some dire and inevitable sequel —yet with such crafty secrecy as com pletely to mystify and dismay. Cameron showed me the mutilated portrait. He had taken it down al most immediately, and had bidden It away in a closet of the hail behind an array of raincoats. The cutting had heea done, evidently, with an exceed ingly keen blade, and very dexterous ly done. But that it should have been accomplished in twelve minutes, while C ameron sat In the room, not fifteen feet distant, was beyond our compre hension. Absorption in his book was the nearest we came to a solution, and that was scarcely tenable. For there was the crowded top of the book shelves. To cut the canvas, the van dal must either have stood upon that or have reared a ladder. There was not room for the foot of a child on the shelf-top; and as for the ladder, it was unthinkable. How could a ladder have been carried in and out without Cam eron being conscious of it? From every possible angle we viewed the in cident, making every conceivable con cession, and no half-way plausible an swer to the riddle presented itself. And though our common-sense told us that the time of miracles was long past, that no Gyges' ring nor Albe rich’s cloak survived to this day to make invisible their wearers, there persisted, nevertheless, a chill, uncan ny sense of the supernatural, quite evident to me in Cameron’s hushed voice and furtive manner, and in my own unwonted nervous disquietude. We sat very late. I wished, if pos sible, to learn if at any time in my Triend's life he had done aught to en gender an enmity to which these strange developments could be traced —whether, for instance, in the hot blood of his youth in some far land he had provoked the vengeance of one whose humor it is never to forget. As we talked I came to know Cameron better than 1 had ever known him be fore. He bared to me much of his early career; he gave me a clearer view of his temperamental qualities; and yet I could not but feel that he left the vital point untouched, that be neath his seeming frankness there lay hidden, shielded, some one episode, perhaps, which might let the light in upon our darkness. For my question was evaded rather than answered. Presently, we went back to the let ters and dissected them, coldly and critically, sentence by sentence, and while the weird influence which they had exerted upon me at the first read ing increased, stimulated possibly by the incident of the portrait, still we reached a certain practical, common sense view as to the*origin; for we came to see in them what we be lieved to be the hand of a religious fanatic. Certain expressions, we con cluded, were quotations. If they were not Biblical, they were certainly of sacred genesis. And the discovery was not reassuring. It lent, iDdeed, an added prick to the perturbation we already experienced. Nor did the absence of a specified date for the second promised demon stration of power tend to relieve our uneasiness. In this silence we found the acme of cunning cruelty. Any day, at any hour, some other mystifying, soul-torturing incident was liable to occur. 1 tried to argue that the seventh day was implied, inasmuch as the second note was received on the same day of the month as the first, and was a mere continuation of the original threat. But my contention lacked the intrinsic strength which carries conyiction. and, as Cameron put it, we couid only “watch and wait;” for the communi cations offered no alternative. They made no demand which being com plied with would avert penalty. Only implacable and inevitable retribution, ►alin, patient, and determined, effused from every line. But, in spite of Cameron's evident anxiety—and in using that term I am very mildly stating his obvious condi tion of mind—he sternly refused to consult either the police or the private detectives. "You may not know,” he explained, “that I am largely interested in a cer tain line of industrial enterprises, the shares of which are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Should the pub lic become aware that my life is threatened, very serious consequences might ensue in the market. No, Clyde, whatever is done, must be done by ourselves, and by friends whom we can trust absolutely. 1 can take no risk of this horrid thing getting Into the newspapers. Besides,” he added, with a kindly, considerative smile, “Evelyn must be kept in ignorance. Not for worlds would I have her trou bled by our perplexing enigma." My suggestion that he should go abroad for a time, or at least spend a few weeks at Newport, waa met with almilar obstinate refusal. “I admit that I have been somewhat upset by this extraordinary comblna tlon," was the way he expressed It, “but lam not a coward. Iam not go ing to run. Even if I were inclined to do so, what should I gain? If a man be not safe in his own house, where in Heaven's name is he likely to find safety?” Quite naturally I was led by this ex pression to inquire whether, per chance, he mistrusted any of the many persons who were employed in the house and about the estate. But, some what to my surprise, he was almost gravely offended by the mere sugges tion. Nevertheless there were several features of the afTair, chief of them the manner in which the letters were received, which caused me to dwell with some mental persistence on this as the most profitable ground for spec ulation. And when at length, in the morning’s small hours, I returned to my home and to my bed, I carried the thought with me. The sowing of this seed in the sub conscious garden of my mind brought forth fruit after its kind. I awoke with a perfectly clear understanding of how that which, the night before, had seemed so impossible of accom plishment was, perhaps, after all, merely a harlequin trick, quite simple when explained. With the new day, too, and the sunlight, and the cheery brightness of my own rooms, there came a lifting of that oppressive atmosphere of the eso teric which at Cameron’s had set my nerves out of plumb and my reason on the bias. Indeed I was fully con vinced that we had been foolishly con structing an Alpine chain out of a mis erable, little row of mole hills, and 1 determined to lose' no time in bringing Cameron, whom I now regarded as most needlessly alarmed, to my own wholesome way of thinking. Directly after breakfast, therefore, I set forth on foot for my neighbor’s, i choosing the shore road as the more direct of the two routes. Personally, my taste In landscape Is for distant view in preference to near at-hand foliage. My own house, which is fashioned in semblance of a Pom peiian villa, its cream-white walls I punctuated with shutters of a some what vivid pea-green and crowned by gently sloping roofs of the same bright color, gazes out across Stam ford Harbor and the blue waters of the Sound, to where on clear days the pencilled outline of Eaton’s Neck shows purple in the distance. There are no towering, umbrageous trees to interrupt the outlook; only low, care fully-trimmed shrubs, adorning a series of marble sculpture-dotted ter races, well below the line of vision. But the Cameron place, reflecting the Townsbury penchant for arboriculture, is quite the reverse. The prospect from the windows and verandahs of the fine old mansion is all green vistas and leafy perspectives, with only a glint of sun-sparkled waves, chance caught between gray boles or when the wind spreads a momentary open ing in the foliage. My way to Cameron’s led through a veritable forest of such luxuriant leaf age that the path more than half the time was in twilight, while to right and left the shadows deepened into dark in the cloistral recesses of the woodland heart. The silence was pro found. No voice of bird nor scurrying foot of squirrel invaded-the morning hush of those ramous depths. My own footsteps on the soft turf returned no sound. A half-mile or more I had walked in this mute greenwood peace, when sharp and clear there echoed through the verdurous aisles the crack of a rifle, and I came to a sudden, involun tary halt. Then it occurred to me that it was the third day of the open season for rail birds, and that it was the report of a shot-gun I had heard, fired by some sportsman, off on the shore, there, to my right. And so I resumed my tramp,, with ears keen for a repetition. A1-' most immediately I was regarded, and then I knew that it was no rail bird gunner, for the shot was unmistakably a rifle shot, and it was fired in the depth of the wood, to the left of me Three times more I heard it, in fair ly rapid succession, and sounding al ways from about the same direction. I cannot say that it gave me any un easiness, but it perplexed me in a mild way, arousing a passing curiosity as to its object. And then, 1 came out upon the well-kept, gravelled drive which circles the close-cropped, vel vety Cameron lawn, and catching sight of Cameron himself, in riding breeches and puttees, romping with one of his picturesquely graceful Rus sian wolf-hounds, promptly forgot all about it. He came across the sward to meet me, the great, gaunt white hound pressing close to his side, and 1 thought I saw that he, too, had ex perienced the inspiriting influence of the morning. "I have found an answer,” I cried, while he was still fifty yards away, "possibly the answer.” He raised his brows in question, and the hound, with open jaws, fondled his wrist. "I had a horseback ride before breakfast,” he told me, as he shook my hand. "Then I spent an hour at the kennels. We’ve a fine new brood of collie puppies. You must see them.” "I want to,” I returned. “What do you say to tennis?” he suggested, irrelevantly. "Just a set It’s a fine morning for tennis.” “If you can lend me a pair of shoes,” I consented, glaring down at my boots. “A dozen pairs,” he smiled. “Come up to my dressing room. Louis will fit you out” I was scarcely prepared for this change in my friend's mood, and far from happy over it. He was evidently determined to ignore the subject that had so engrossed us the night before, hoping to find surcease of harassing thought in a restless round of activi ties. The condition was a morbid one which I believed should be discour aged; the more so as I possessed what I fancied was a perfectly practical so lution of that which hitherto had seemed to us an inexplicable phe nomenon. And I was a little annoyed, too, that my good tidings should be thus disregarded. When, therefore, we had entered the hall and Cameron was leading to wards the broad, ascending staircase, I paused. “Do you mind giving me Just a minute?” He stopped, turned, and stood in questioning silence. “A minute in your study," I added, in explanation. Reluctantly, it seemed to me, he crossed to the study door, and throw ing it open, stood aside that I might precede him. The room appeared far less grim and gloomy than when I had last en tered it. Its windows faced the south; and between the olive-green tapestry curtains the sun poured in a flood, lighting up the far corners, glint ing on the gilt ornaments of the writ ing table, and bathing in dazzling splendor the burnished bronzes on the crowded top of the book-shelves. “I see you are not disposed to re sume our discussion of last night,” I began, when Cameron, having closed the door behind him, halted just in side, and with hands in pockets, atvait ed my opening. “But I want to show you that we have been in very much the same position as the wondering children who watch the prestidigita teur. We have imagined something amazingly like a miracle, which, in point of fact, is capable of a very sim ple. commonplace explanation.” “You mean the cutting out of the head of the portrait?" he asked, with kindling interest. “I do.” “You have discovered how it was done, before my eyes, so to speak, and yet—?" “I have discovered how It may have been done,” I interrupted. He moved his head just perceptibly from side to side in skeptical gesture. “The door of this room is seldom locked?” I queried, ignoring the indi cated skepticism. “Never locked,” he answered. “It would be quite possible for any one, knowing that you were absent, to spend an hour or so here, uninter rupted?” “Any one?” he questioned. “Any one who had gained entrance to the house,” I amplified. “Oh, yes, I presume so.” “They would have ample time to clear a space on the book-shelves, climb up, and carefully cut out the head, or any part, or the whole of a portrait, if they were so inclined?" I paused for his answer, but he only smiled with a sort of incredulous tol erance. "Would they not?" I Insisted. But Cameron was most perverse this morn I ing "My dear Clyde,” he scoffed, “of what use is all this? The portrait was cut, not while I was absent, but while I was present. I saw it complete at three o’clock; at twelve minutes past three, it was mutilated.” “My contention is,” I explained, quite patiently, “that while you saw it complete at three o’clock, the cut had already been made, but the cut portion had not been removed. In other words, the cutting having been deftly done with a thin, sharp knife, it was perfectly feasible to leave the por trait apparently intact, though with the slightest effort the Incised portion could subsequently be released—with, say, a piece of cord, glued to the back for that especial purpose.” Now that I had made myself clear, Cameron was quick to acknowledge the possibility of such a method. “And the cord, you mean, led down behind the book-shelves, and perhaps through a window?” he suggested. “Precisely. And was pulled by some one on the outside." “Yes.” he said, thoughtfully. “Such an explanation is not unreasonable. The thing, really, must have been done in some such way.” “And don’t you see,” I hurried on with my advantage, “how utterly cheap this makes the whole affair? There's nothing at all impressive in that performance when you find out how it was done. If the next demon stration is no better than such clap trap, you may rest assured you have a very picayunish sort of mountebank villain to deal with. So, cheer up, my dear man, and I’ll show you a few tricks at tennis that may be equally eye-opening.” Unquestionably my friend appeared relieved. But I came to fancy later that the appearance was feigned for my benefit Certainly he was not con vinced, and in that proved himself possessed of an Intuition, a world more accurate than my own. CHAPTER III. The Target. The set at tennis having finished with victory perching on my banners, I made excuse to put off the inspection of the collie puppies until another time, resumed my walking boots and, with a parting if futile admonition to Cameron to “think no more about it,” started on my homeward way. My route lay again through the min iature forest, for the day had waxed uncomfortably warm with the ap proach of noon, and there was scant shade on the high-road between our two houses. In the wood, however, the air was gratefully cool, and I strode on at a good pace, breathing deeply and with enjoyment the bosky odors which greeted me afresh at every step. The dead silence which I had re marked earlier was broken now by the hoarse tooting of a steamboat whistle, somewhere ofT shore, and by the shrill voices of birds, apparently in resent ful protest at this raucous invasion of their sylvan quiet. I bad succeeded in putting aside, for the moment at least, all thought of Cameron, his anonymous letters, and his mutilated portrait, and was dwel ling on my disappointment at not hav ing caught even so much as a glimpse of Evelyn Grayson during my morn ing visit to Cragholt. It is true that I had gone there with a single purpose in mind—to convey to Cameron what I believed to be an important theory— but underlying this, I realized now, was more than a hope, a confidence even, that I should see Evelyn. I was tempted, indeed, to a regret that I had not waited, visited the kennels, and accepted Cameron’s invitation for luncheon, which would doubtless have insured me a few words at least with my Goddess of Youth. While on the verge of this self-re proach my spirits suddenly lifted, for the steam whistle having died away in the distance and the feathered choristers having relapsed into a pleased chirp that merely accented the stillness, there broke all at once on the mute calm of the woodland the silver sweetness of a girl’s singing. Clear and resonant it rang through the forest aisles; a voice I knew beyond mistaking. Evelyn Grayson was com ing towards me over the scented turf. Still hidden by a bend in the path, the melody alone measured for me her ap proach. It was a French chanson she was lilting, a lyric of Baudelaire’s, of which we were both fond. Sweet music sweeps me like the sea Toward my pale star. Whether the clouds be there or all the air be free, I sail afar. And then she came around the turn. At first she did not see me, for her eyes were lifted with her voice, and I had time to mark the fascinating grace of her long, free stride, before she became conscious of my presence and checked and shortened it. She wore a frock of white serge, the skirt’s edge at her ankles, revealing dainty, snowy buckskin ties and just a peep of white silk hose. And her flower-like face looked out through a frame of Leghorn straw and pink roses, tied snugly beneath her softly rounded chin with the filmiest of long, floating white veils. You can imagine the picture she made, there in this green glade, with her big blue eyes alight with glad surprise, and the warm blood suddenly risen in her cheeks. "You truant!” 1 cried, in jocular rep rimand. “Are you always going to run away when I visit Cragholt?” She pouted prettily. I detest a wom an who pouts, ordinarily. There is usually such palpable affectation about it. But Evelyn’s pouting was winsome as an infant’s. Besides it was only momentary. Then her eyes flashed and her foot was planted very hard, for such a tiny thing, on the green grass blades. “I’m not a truant,” she declared, with feigned indignation, “and I never thought of running away. That’s just your conceited manly imagination. You fancy that everything I do can have but one cause, and that is your self. How, pray, was I to know you intended paying us a morning call?" “Tut, tut,” I caught her up. "What a little spitfire we have here! If you hadn’t deserted me so shamefully last evening, I shouldn't have minded this morning, so much. As it is, it seems aeons since I saw you.” Now she smiled until her dimples nestled. “That is much better,” she returned, gayly, “and deserves a reply, just as my action of last evening de serves praise, and not rebuke. I sac rificed myself and my pleasure for one I love.” _ _* “Not for me. surely!” “Did I use the word conceit a mo ment ago? Are you the only man I love?” "I hope so,” I answered, impudently. “There is another,” she confessed, in mock tragedy. “Behold his face!” I had not noticed that she held a little roll in her hand, for my eyes had been ever on hers; so, when abruptly, she spread out and held before me the missing head from Cameron's portrait, I was doubly unprepared. I know I was startled. She said afterwards that I went very white. I suppose I did; for with the rush of realization came such a chain of supposition as to drive me momentarily dizzy. For a second or more I stood dumb, while my hand went out in eager reach for the scrap of canvas, which, I had ob served, instantaneously, bore four per forations, all of a size—the size of a rifle bullet. With that discovery had recurred the shots I had heard; and following this, came a maze of con jecture, going back to that first letter, then to the painting's mutilation, and on through devious ways to the morn ing’s target practice; and always with one or another of Cameron’s trusted servants as the chief actor. When 1 recovered my composure I found fevelyn backing wilfully away from nw covetous hand. “It is the picture of the man I love,” she was saying, teasingly. “A very, very good man.” “But where did you get It?" I asked seriously. “Do you know where it came from?” Suddenly she was as grave as I could w'ish. “I found it nailed to a tree,” she an swered. “Wasn’t it odd? How do you suppose it came there? It looks like the portrait that hung in Uncle Robert’s study. Do you suppose he grew to dislike it, and cut it up and threw it away?” Now I found myself in some little embarrassment. If I was to obey Cameron’s injunction I could not tell Evelyn the truth. Yet I wras in no position to make light of her find. On the other hand I must learn from her just where she had come upon it, and so trace, if possible, the person who had fired the shots which riddled it. “My dear girl,” I said, adopting a tone of cajolery, “we have here, I think, a matter in which we both can be of service—very valuable service, indeed, to that beloved uncle and guardian of yours. But, you must trust me, absolutely, and, for the present at least, you must give to him no hint of what we have in hand. Do you un derstand?” nne laugiieu in uiai merry rippling fashion which I had found not the least of her charms. “Do I understand?” she repeated, laying a hand on my arm in emphasis of her amused tolerance. “Do I un derstand? Of course I don’t, and I shan't, until you have answered at least a half-dozen whys and wrhats.” “But you must trust me,” I Insisted, “and as primary evidence of that trust you will proceed at once to hand over to me. for examination, that somewhat damaged piece of portraiture which you are holding behind you.” Very wide her eyes opened in an in nocent, almost infantile stare, as she asked: “Do you really mean it, Philip?” "Really," I answered, gravely. "I'd like to tell you all about it, right here and now, but that might spoil every thing, so you must show what a strong womanly woman you, are, by keeping silence and waiting.” * In token of compliance she gave me the oval piece of canvas. “I wonder who punched the holes in It!” she remarked, ruefully. “Who ever it was, they were shockingly dis respectful.” I tried to fancy what she would have said had she known they were bullet holes. Evidently that possibil ity had not occurred to her and I was glad that it had not. (TO BE CONTINUED.) From an Australian Diary JU Voracious Ants of All Kinds—One Species that Evinces Fondness for Sheet Lead. About noon it got too hot for any thing and I took a well earned swim in a secluded creek, amid shoals of fish, large and small, who apparently resented my intrusion, from the way they came and stared at me. I found on emerging from the water that a host of blue brown ants had taken possession of my clothes, and when they were shaken out they re venged themselves by biting my bare feet in a way which was exceedingly painful. There are thousands of ants every where, says a writer in the Gentle w’oman. Some of the anthills are three feet high and six feet across— but except for a sharp nip at the time, the ordinary ant’s bite is not notice able. But if a soldier ant or a bull ant or a green head (an ant about one and a half inches long, with a green head) bites you, it is not to be forgotten, be cause they take quite a big piece out. Then there are the white ants (not really ants, but termites), which cheerfully eat the Inside out of thn beams of the wooden houses, and re cently have been eating the sheet lead on the top of the Sydney museum. The city fathers thought this was going a little far, so now the ants are pre- 1 served inside the museum with sam ples of the half consumed lead as warning to all who allow their appe tites to run away with them. Imprisoned Tailor Strikes. The latest Australian strike is one of the Gilbertian order. A prisoner in Fermantle prison, a tailor by trade, refused to work on the ground that it would be contrary to his principles as a trade unionist. He sent a letter to the Tailors’ union officially notify ing it of his action, but that body ex pressed neither sympathy nor disap proval, preferring silenoe. Shield for Searchlights. Searchlights used to guide vessels through the Suez canal at night are prevented from blinding the pilots of approaching craft by cutting off some of the rays so as to project a dark anglo. GET THIS FOR COLDS Prescription for Positive Results Don’t Experiment. From your druggist get two ounces of Glycerine and half an ounce of Globs Pine Compound (Concentrated Pine). Take these two Ingredients home and put them into a half pint of good whis key. Shake well. Take one to two tea spoonfuls after each meal and at bed time. Smaller doses to children ac cording to age." This is said to be the quickest cough and cold cure known to the medical profession. Be sure to get only the genuine Globe Pine Compound (Concentrated Pine). Each half ounce bottle comes in a tin screw-top sealed case. If your druggist is out of stock he will quickly get it from his whole sale house. Don't fool with uncertain mixtures. It is risky. Local druggists say that for the past six ydars tills has had a wonderful demand. Published by the Globe Pharmaceutical laboratories of Chicago. Both Vows Broken. Apropos of the anti-vivisectionists’ fight against the Nobel prize award to Dr. Alexis Carrel of the Rockefel ler institute. Prof. Herbert Satterley said the other day in Jacksonville: ‘These antis contradict themselves terribly when they try to prove that animal research is useless and futile. They just put themselves in the posi tion of one of their number whom I met at my hotel the other day. “As this ariti was dining I bent for ward and said to him: " ‘Pardon me, but you are, I believe, both an anti-vivisectionist and a vege tarian?” "Yes, sir, that is correct,’ he an swered. “ ‘Then,’ said I, ‘you will probably be shocked to learn that you have just eaten a live caterpillar with your lettuce salad.’ ” Problem in Physics. A native of T.. on the coast of Scot land, when the contract for the build ing of the first three steamers fitted with electric lights at the local ship yard was completed, formed one of the social party gathered to entertain the electricians, says Ideas. In a burst of candor and comradeship, he was heard to say to one of the wire men: “Mon, Peter, efter workin' wi' you on they boats, I believe I could put in the electric licht masel', but there's only one thing that bates me.” “Aye, aye, Sandy, what is that?" inquired his interested friend, willing to help him if it lay in his power. “Weel, mon," replied Sandy, “it's juist this: I dinna ken hoo yet get the ile tae rin alang the wires.” Its Class. “That was a raw deal.” “What was?” “The plot they cooked up.” NATURALIZING HIM. “This man doesn’t seem to knew about the constitution.” “But he didn't miss a ball game last season, judge.” “Then I guess he's assimilated.” In the Night Editor’s Room. “Here's a long story about that storm on the lake the other day. Want It cut down?” “Does it begin, 'The storm beggars description?’ ” “Yes.” “Well, run that, and cut out the de scription.” It takes all the fun out of doing a thing if you get paid for doing it. “Be on the jump” Don’t allow yourself to become discouraged and “out of sorts.” The stomach, liver and bowels have become lazy and inactive, but a short course of HOSTETTER’S STOMACH BITTERS will soon make things right. It strengthens the entire “inner man,” prevents Colds and Grippe and makes you strong and vigorous. Try it. ALCOHOL-3 PER CENT j| AYegefable Preparation for As - similating the Food and Regula totl bng the Stomachs and Bowels of : iilfmTOjiSHiiiUtUMi ! --- Promotes Digestion,Cheerful- ) ?! nessand Rest Contains neither Opium.Morphine nor Mineral Not Xarc otic < & Peapr o/OU DrSANVClPfTC/fE/l Pumpkin Scad • Alx Sanaa * \ i ?. 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Many a young man is up with the lark because he kept the lark awake, all night. It's a favorite theory of married women that every widower's heart should be in the grave. Bad luck is commonly the result of bad judgment. He’s Not a Chicken Fancier. Speaking of chickens a funny man writing in Puck says: “They are the most dadbusted, un certainest creatures that walk the fam ily acre. Almost everybody tries to raise chickens at one time or another. Looks easy—that's the deceiving part of it. "And it is easy after you learn one thing. Little chickens don’t know anything, medium sized chickens don’t know anything. If there is any change of an intellectual nature as the size increases the big ones know less, tf possible, than the little ones. “If there is a wire partition in your pen with an open door at one end the chickens will try to plunge through the wire instead of going around and walking through the door.” It is easier for love to find the way than it is to pay the way. 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