Show ren 4 4 0 0 4 4 0 4 0 0 41 DAR K how LOW by ANNA KATHARINE GREEN copyright 1014 by dodd md head company I 1 CHAPTER ha h the house of mattry iry I 1 A big nd id narrow gate gale ot of caret carefully ai joined bards boards r standing ajar in a fence t at t the game what Is I 1 there in th this Is to rouse a whole a neighborhood and collect before it a group f eager anxious hesitating people tillit la budge judge Olit randers place and anyon a who knows knova Shelby ot or tho the gos gas tip lip ol of its ita suburbs knows that this house houie of his has not opened its doors f to any autel outsider der man or woman tor for over a dozen years ears nor havi have his gates been seen in all that time to gave gape it at in Ln In instance or to stand unclosed to public intrusion the seclusion F ought was absolute the men and ft women omen who passed and reprised BCd this corner many times a day ignorant agthe as the townspeople la in general of what lay behind the gray monotonous exterior ot tho the boards they so BO frequently brushed the house was there of course abey ill know knew the house or did orice once but there were tumors rumors ot another fence a acono barrier standing a few feet inide the first and similar iff it in all respects even to the gates which corresponded exactly with these outer and 1010 ble anes and pro probably babli were libat i ally provided with bolts and tars bars and cowl in the freshness of this sunnier bummer morning without warning or an any Y seeming reason for the cl change iange the strict babbit of years hail has been broken into and this gate of gates Is t 1 not flat only standing unlocked before V their eyes but a woman a stranger v to the town as her very net act showe hasteen has been seen to enter therel there to en ter but note no torne bome out which means that she be inside and pos sibly in taj ohp very presence of the ludge judge 10 whery lidela Is ls dela why doer docs he be allow his bis errands but it was dela bel a or 0 r so they have been told who left this gate ajar i ho he tho the awe and f iw terror of the town the enormous re 4 doubtable clase mouthed negro trust ed d as os man to Is seldom trusted and faithful to hla his trust tet yea up to this berv yen hour boor adall must acknowledge lidge in spite of every temptation U and ild they s had been many mally md nd allu alluring ring to tits 00 close so the secret pt this home of which ho was wao not the least interesting factor tor what abat has made him thus and denly careless he who has never been careless ear eleas before money blaney A bribe i i from the woman who had entered f there what else ww was there to believe A there stood the gate with the pebble holding it iway away from the post tad art here stood halt balt the neighborhood an a fascination which had far or its motif the knowledge know edga that they themselves it they had courage enough might go in just as this woman had bad gone in and see aee why what she he to Is meing now corthe the unknown reason 1 c i tor for all A these my mysteries the tha hidden bidden essm treasure or the bidden sorrow which feet W would 0 explain why he be their first arct aitt M zen the respected even revered judge ot or their highest court should make use usa tk of 0 such buc precautions and show luch un i varying determination to bar out ill all i comers from the place he called hla his f burae bar it bad not always been so within he memory demor y ot of many there it had been an abode of lif cheer and good fellowship not ot a few af pf of the men and women now 1 f hesitating before its portals could boast of meals taken at the judges dimple ample board and of evenings spent in r f animated ni mated conversation in the great room where ha be e kept pt his dl books and did W bl B writing f but bilt that WM was before his son eon left him la in so unaccountable a manner be fore fora yes yea all were agreed on this x T point before that other bitter ordeal 5 of his middle age the trial and condemnation dem nation oti of the man who had bad way laid and murdered his best friend effect of these combined had not seemed to bal limme tte ate one month had bad seen both though bough a half balf year had elapsed before all sociability y was lost in extreme self absorption and a full one before he y took down the picket fence which had hitherto been considered a sufficient protect protection iou to bla bis simple grounds and put up these theeo boards which had so corn com plemely isolated him from the rest of the wo it was evident enough to i ih aba friends who recalled his bis look and tep its as he walked the streets with at al gernon ernon Etheil dge on one side and his brilliant evir successful son on the other that the change now observable i in him was due to the violent sunder in n of these two ties grief slowly settled into confirmed melancholy and 1 melancholy into eccentricities as ostrander was a recluse or of ait the most anost uncompromising type but he ha i vaa was such euch for only halt half his time from ten in the morning till five in the afternoon he be come came and went like any other citizen brozen his bis judicial cuties with tho he same scrupulous carr carp as formerly and with more affability indeed ho showed at ai times ames and often when it was least expected a mellow nets ditto tf t temper quite foreign to him in V yi lite aly early da the admiration by his bis fine appearance on th benah was never marred now by ibie lio se quick tones of at j an m 4 I 1 V 1 I f v easily disturbed temper which has had given edge to his invective when he stood as an pleader picador in u the very court where he now presided as aa ludge judge hut but away away argin from the bench once quit of the courthouse court housa and the town the man who attempted to accost him on his way to his carriage or sought to waylay him at t his own gate had need of 0 all his bin courage to sustain the rebuff hla his presumption incurred the son a man of 0 great witty ability who was making tits hla way as a journalist in another city had no explanation to give of his fathers peculiarities though chenever he never came to shelby the rupture between the two it if rupture it were seeming to be complete there were many who had visited him in his own place of business busl nees and put such questions concerning the judge and his eccentric manner of living as must have provoked response had the young man had any response tn ta give but he be appeared to have none either lie ho was as ignorant as of the causes which had led to his bl fathers habit of extreme isolation or he showed powers of dissimulation hardly in accordance with the other traits of his admirable character all of which closed inquiry in this direction but left the maw of curiosity unsatisfied and unsatisfied it had remained up to this hour when through accident or was waa it trenchers tren treL chery the barrier to knowledge was down and the question of years seemed at last upon the point of being answered adean meantime time a f fussy u say talkative man was endeavoring to I 1 impress empreso the rapidly collecting crowd with the advisability of their entering all together and approaching pro aching the judge in i a body we can say that we felt it to he be our dooty to follow this woman in he argued you say she had a child with her miss weeks yes yee and tell us the whole story miss atlas weeks some of us heard it then it if it seems our duty as his neighbors and well wishers to go in well just go in ill the little woman towards whom this appeal was directed immediately began her ingenuous tale she was bitting in her front window sewing ev knew that this window faced jaia 46 they burst bunt through the second gate the end of the lano lane in which they were then standing she could see out without being very plainly seen herself she had bad her eyes on this gate when uela bela prompt to the minute as he be always was issued forth on his bis morning walk to tows town tor for the days supplies always exact always in a hurry knowing as aa ho he did that the judge would not leave for court till tits his return he be bad never in 11 1 the el eight years she had bad been st at ng ing in that window malting making buttonholes shown any hesitation in his bis methodical re locking of at the gate and subsequent quick departure but this morning he had lingered in the gateway peering to right and left in a wity way so BO unlike himself that the moment he be was out of sight eight she could not help running down the lane to see if her suspicions were correct and they were not only hd he be left the gate unlocked uti locked but he had bad done so pur she had bad about decided that it was only proper tor for her to enter and make sure that all was right with the judge when she saw a woman looking at her from the road a woman all in purple even to the yet veil which hid bid her features A little child was with her anil and the two must have stepped into the road from behind some of the bushes an neither of tarm were anywhere in sight eight when she herself came running down from the corner comer it was enough to startle anyone especially ally as the woman did not speak lut but lust just stood silent allent and watching her through P veil the like of which was not to be found in shelby and which in itself was enough to rouse a decent domans womans suspicious suspicions site she was so go amazed at this that she stepped back and attempted to address the stranger st but before she eho had got much further than a timid and hesitating A madam ladam the woman roused into action possibly by her interference made a quick gesture suggestive of impatience it if not rebuke and moving resolutely towards the gate was miss weeks had so BO indiscreetly left unguarded pushed it open and disappeared within dragging tho the little child after her and ashes in there still T 1 I seen her come out then tho the matter with you called a burly high strung woman stepping hastily from the group and laying her hand upon the gate still standing temptingly ajar its no time for nonsense she announced as she he pushed it open and stepped promptly in followed by the motley group of men and women who if they lacked courage to lead certainly showed willingness to follow one glance and they felt their courage rewarded rumor which so often deceives proved itself correct in this case A second gate confronted them exactly like the first even to the point of being held open by a pebble placed against the post and a second fence meal also built upon the same pattern na as the one they had just passed through the two forming a double barrier as an mysterious to contemplate in fact as it had ever been in fancy in gazing at these fences and the canyon like walk stretching between them the band of curious invaders forgot their prime errand for a moment but whatever the mysteries of the place a greater one awaited thern them beyond and presently realizing this they burst with one accord through the second secand gate into the mass masa of greenery which either from neglect or intention masked this side of the ostrander homestead never before had they beheld so lawless a growth or a house bouse so completely lost amid vines and shrubbery rubbery eh two solemn fir trees which were all that remained of an old kimg and famous group kept guard over the untended lawn adding their suggest suggestion lort of age and brooding melancholy to the air of desolation infesting the whole place one might be approaching a tomb tor for all token that appeared of human presence even sound was lacking it was like a painted scene acene a dream of at human extinction instinctively the women faltered and the men drew back then the very silence caused a sudden reaction and with one simultaneous rush they made for tho the only entrance they saw and burst further ceremony into the house A common hall and common furnishings ria nish bings ings confronted them more afore they could not gather for blocked as ae the doorway was by their crowding figures the little light which sifted in over their heads was not enough to show up details 11 halting alting with one accord in what seemed to be the middle of tho the uncarpeted floor they waited for some borne indication of a clear passageway to the great room where tho the judge would undoubtedly be found in conversation with hla his strange guest the woman of the hard voice and self bolt satisfied demeanor who had started them upon this adventure ad venturo was still ahead but even she GOO quailed when she found herself face to faco face witti v jtb a heavy curtain instead af a yi edIng door look at chist she whispered pushing the curtain inward with a q ou k movement I 1 sunshine net A stream st reamor of it dazzling them almost to blindness and send benda g them one and all back upon each other however dismal the approach hero here all was in brilliant light with every evidence before thero ahem of busy buoy life the room was not only but crammed ed with furniture this was tho the first thing they noticed then as an their blinking eyes became accustomed to the glare and to the unexpected confusion of tables and chairs and screens and standing receptacles for books and pamphlets pamphlet fl and boxes labeled and padlocked they beheld something else the judge was there but in what a condition from the end of the forty foot room his seated figure confronted them client bent staring and unmoving with clenched fingers gripping the arms of hla his great chair and head held forward ie he looked like one frozen at the moment of doom such the expression of features usually so noble and now omelet almost unrecognizable recognizable uni we lit it not for far the snow white of hla hie locks and his unmistakable brow frozen not an eyelash quivered nor was there any perceptible movement in hla his sturdy chest ills fits eyo were on their eyes but he saw no one and down upon his hia head and over his bis whole form the sunshine poured from a large window let into the calling directly above him up the strained and unnatural aspect of hta fits remarkable countenance and bringing into the common W alp objects cluttering the table at h ow inoculate in murmurs swelled and ebbed now lux louder idor now more faintly as the crowd surged purged forward or drew back app appelle ap palle alleA by that breathless awe ae compelling figure A breathless moment then the hor rifled murmur rose here there and everywhere iles hes deade lies hes bendl when quietly and convincingly a bluff masculine voice spoke irom from the door way behind them you t be frightened in an hour bour or a half hour he will bo be the th same as ever my aly aunt has a uch euch at tacks they call it catalepsy 1 imperceptibly the crowd dwindled tho the most discreet among them quite content to leave the house a few and these the most thoughtful devoted all their energies to a serious quest lot foi the woman and child whom they con linued to believe to be in hiding some where inside the walls she had bad so au an entered the small party decided to starl star their search by a hasty inspection ol 01 the front hall when a shout and scramble in the passages beyond cut cul short their intent and held them pant ing and eager each to his place frightened they drew their from the rigid figure in the chair and with bated breaths and rapidly cheeks listened to the distant mur mur on the far off road what was it they could not guess and it was with unbounded relief tho the pressed forward to greet the shadow form of a young girl hurrying kowarc boware them from the rear with news nea in hei face she spoke quickly the woman Is gone harry doan saw her sliding out behind us just jus after we came in she was hiding biding lc ir some of the corners hero here and slipped out by the kitchen way when we wert not looking he fie has gone to see breathlessly miss atlas weeks cut thi th girls story short breathlessly sh ah rushed |