Show 4 t DA R hol L I 1 imiri 0 W by ANNA KATHARINE GREEN 1014 by dodd moud mend company d rv JL A CHAPTER 1 pr 17 I 1 the house of mystery A big id narrow gate or of care carefully fully 4 coined olied beards standing ajar in a fence if 31 the same construction what la Is there in this to rouse a whole neighborhood and collect before it a group if f eager anxious hesitating people tills this la Is judge Oat randers place a and nd anyone who knows shelby or the gossip of its suburbs knows that tills this house of hla his has not opened its doors to any outsider man or woman for ver a dozen years nor have his gates been seen in nil all that time to gape at in in instance stanco or to stand unclosed to public intrusion the seclusion sought was absolute the men and monten who passed and re passed tills corner many times a day were as ignorant as aa the townspeople in general of what lay behind the gray monotonous exterior of the boards they so BO frequently brushed against tho the house was there of at course cours e they nil know knew the house or did once but there were rumors of another fen fencka encia en coa second barrier Bt standing anding a few feet inside the first and similar to it in all respects even to the gates which corresponded exactly with these outer and visible ones and probably were lust last as fully provided with bolts bolta and bars and newt in the of this isumi lier morning without warning or any ally seeming reason tor for the change tile the strict habit of years lias has been broken into and tills this gate of gates Is not only standing unlocked before their eyes but a woman a stranger to the town as her very act allows has been seen to enter therel there to on en ter but not come out which menns means that sho must still bo be inside and possibly sibly in the very presence of the adge judge where Is ilola bela why does lie he allow hla his hut but it was ilela or so ao they hey have been told who left tills this pate bate ajar lie ho tile the awe and terror error of tho the town the enormous ro re doub alo tallo close cloae negro trust sit fitl as aa man Is seldom trusted and JAI Is artt fiut alyes apa un to if this 1 3 ta dour our na as all must ac acknowledge knowledg 1 in balte of every temptation and they had bad been many and alluring to disclose the secret of tills this home of which ho he was waa not the least interesting factor or what has made him thus cud ill enly careless lie ho who has never been ocar wireless eless before money manny A bribe from the woman who had entered there what else was thero there to believe there stood tho the gate bate with tile tho pebble holding it away train from the post and libere stood halt half the neighborhood in a fascination which had tor for its motif the knowl knowledge edgo that they themselves rk they had courage enough might go in just as tills this woman had gone in sand see why what one che Is teeing now athe the unknown yn guessed reason tor nil all these mysteries the hidden treasure or tho the hidden sorrow which would explain why ho he their first citizen the respected even revered judge of their highest court should make use of such precautions and show allow such unvarying determination to bar out all comers front from tho the place ho he called hla his ciomo 1 it had not always been so BO within memory of many there it bad been an ail abode of cheer and good fellowship not ot a tow few of tile tho men and women now hesitating before its ita portals could boast of meals taken at the judges pinilo board and of evenings spent in animated conversation lu in the tha great broom where ho he kept his bla books and did ibis his writing dut but that was before hla his son left him tin lin so unaccountable a manner before yes yea all wore were agreed on tills point before that other bitter ordeal jot ot hla his middle age the trial and condemnation dem nation of tho the man who had fiad way laid rind murdered min dered his best friend though the effect of these combined sorrows had bad not seemed to be immedi late one month bad seen both though a half year bad elapsed eil before all sociability was lost in extreme self seit absorption lon and a full one before he down the picket fence which had thitherto been considered a protection to hla his simple grounds and put up these boards which had so completely isolated birg from tho the rest of the world it waa evident enough to the friends arlenda who recalled hta took look and recep as he walked the streets with algernon etheridge on one side aldo and his brilliant ever successful son aon on the other lottier that the change now observable an in him was waa duo due to tho the violent sunder bunder sing king ot at these two ties grief slowly settled bottled into confirmed melancholy and melancholy into eccentricities judge ostander ost ander was a recluse or the most uncompromising type but lie ho was such for only half hla his time from ten inthe in the morning till til five in shooter the after noon ho he came and went like ncy aily other citizen fulfilling hla his judicial with the samo same scrupulous carr as tor for and with mere affability in flotd ho he showed aw al mes mea and afteu whon it was vaa least expected a mellow tamper er quite foreign to him film in h his I 1 borly daa da s the leilh alne 0 ice on tho was ney cr up r by bv I 1 att an ani V tf vv yr r v r r vav v r aw easily disturbed temper which had given edge to his invective when lie ho stood as pleader in the very court where he now presided as judge out but away from tho the bench once quit of the ca courthouse and the town the man who attempted to accost him on his bis way to his carriage or sought bought to waylay him at tits lila own gate had need of all his bis courage to sustain tile the rebuff his bis presumption a incurred the son a man of at great ability who was malting making his way as a journalist in another city had no explanation to give of his fathers peculiarities though he never came to the rupture between the two if rupture it were seeming to be complete there were many who had visited him in lila his own place of bus business inces and put uch such questions concerning the judge and his eccentric manner of living as must have provoked response had the young man had any response to give but lie he appeared to have none either lie he was as aa ignorant as themselves of at the causes which had led to lits hie fathers habit of extreme isolation or he showed powers ot of dissimulation hardly in accordance with tile 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 lor was it treachery the barrier to knowledge waa waa down and the question of years seemed boomed at last upon the point of being answered meantime a fussy talkative man was endeavoring to impress tho the rapidly collecting crowd with the advisability of their entering all together and approaching pro aching tho the judge lit ip a body wo we can say that we felt it to be our dooty to follow this woman in he argued you say she hadd had d a child with her miss weeks yes and tell us the whole story miss alias weeks some of us heard it t then if it seems our fluty duty as ills his neighbors and well wishers to go in well just go I 1 in n the little woman towards whom this aj appeal leal was directed immediately be gilt her ingenuous tale site she was sitting ting hi t a hei front window sowing ii everybody v knew that tills this window faced ar 4 1 41 X I 1 awe they burt burst through the second gate tho the end of the lane in which they were then standing she could see out without being very plainly seen herself she ehe had her eyes on tills gate when ucla bela prompt to the minute as he be always was issued forth on his morning walk to town tor for the days daya supplies always exact always in a hurry knowing as aa ho he did that the judge would not leave for court till his return he had never in all the eight years she had bad boon been sitting bitting in that window making buttonholes shown any hesitation in hla his methodical re locking of the gate and subsequent quick departure dut but this morning ho he had lingered in the gateway peering to right and left la id away a way so unlike himself that the moment he be was out of sight eight she could not help running down the lane to see it her suspicions were correct and they were not only ld lad ho he loft left the gate unlocked but he had dono done SQ purposely she had about decided that it il was only proper tor for her to enter and make sure that all was right with the judge when abell she saw a woman looking at hor her from rom tho the road a woman all in purple even to the yell veil hid bid her tea fea tures turee A little child was with her and tile h two must have stepped into the roaul from behind some BOIMO of the bushes ns as neither of theau were anywhere in eight bight when she herself came running iowa down from the ho corner comer it was waa enough to startle anyone ts specially ally BB as the woman did not speak break b tut ut just stood silent and watching her through throng h a veil it the like of was not to be found in shelby and which in itself was vaa enough to rouse a decent womans comans suspicions she was nas so BO amazed at this that she stepped back and attempted to address tile the stranger dut but before she had got much further than a timid and heal best tating A madam ladam tho the woman roused into action possibly by her interference made a quick gesture suggestive of impatience ImpAt lence it if not rebuke and moving resolutely towards the gate miss alias weeks had so indiscreetly left unguarded pushed it open and disappeared within dragging the little child after iier her and ashes in there still 1 I seen her come out then the matter with you called a burly high strung woman 6 stepping hastily from the group and laying her ter hand upon the gate still standing temptingly ajar its no time for nonsense nort sense she announced as aa she 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 allowed 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 finst even to the tha point of being held open by a pebble placed against the post and a second fence alsot alsol built upon the same pattern as the otio orio they had just passed through the two forming a double barrier as mysterious to contemplate in fact as it had haid 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 dut but whatever the mys mysteries of at the place a greater ono one awaited them beyond and presently realizing this they burst with one accord through the second secand gate into the mass of greenery which either from neglect or intention mashed this side of tile the ostrander homestead never before had they behold beheld so lawless a growth or a house so completely lost amid vines and shrubbery two 80 solemn lemn fir treba which were here nil all that remained of an ail old time and famous group kept guard over the untended lawn awn adding their suggestion 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 alko a painted seene scene a dream ot of human extinction instinctively tile the women faltered and the men drew bac kOthen the very silence caused a sudden reaction and with one simultaneous rush they made for tho the only entrance they saw ail and burst wl hout further ceremony into the house A common hall and common furnishings nish ings confronted them more afore they could not gather tor for blocked ua as the doorway was by their crowding 11 figures g the little light which sifted in over their heads was not enough to show up details halting with one accord lit in what seemed to be the middle of tho the uncarpeted floor they waited for some indication of a clear passageway to the great room where tho the judge would undoubtedly be ba found in conversation with his strange guest the woman of the hard voice and self satisfied demeanor who had started them upon this adventure was still ahead but oven even she quailed when she found herself face to faco face with a heavy curtain instead of 0 a ding door look at she bhe whispered pushing in g the curtain inward award with a quick movement not A stream of it dazzling them almost to blindness and sending them one and all back upon each otherl however dismal tile the approach hero here all was in brilliant light with every evidence before them of busy life tho the room was not only filled but crammed with furniture this was the first thing they noticed then as their blinking eyes became accustomed to the glare and to the unexpected contusion of tables and chairs chain and screens and standing receptacles for books and pamphlets and boxes labeled and padlocked they beheld something else elie the iho judge was there but in what a condition from the end ot at the forty foot room hla his seated figure confronted them client staring and unmoving with clenched fingers gripping tho the arms of hla his great chair and head held forward lie ho looked like one frozen at tho the moment ot of doom such the expression of features usually so BO noble and now almost unrecognizable were it not for the snow white ot at his hid locks locka and his unmistakable brow frozen not an eyelash quivered nor was there any perceptible movement in ilia his sturdy chest ills hla eyes were on eyes but he saw no one and down donn upon hla his head arid and over his whole ona the poured train frona a largo let ln the ceiling directly above him lighting up the strained and unnatural aspect of hla his remarkable and bringing into intel hiiro the common place objects cluttering t the he table at his elbow I 1 inarticulate murmurs swelled and ebbed now louder now more faintly as aa the crowd surged forward or drew back appalled by that breathless awe compelling figure A breathless moment then tho the hor bar rifled murmur rose here there and everywhere iles hes beadi ilea deada when quietly and convincingly a bletl masculine voice spoke from ir 0 m the doorway behind them you be frightened in an hour or a half hour he will be the same as ever my aly aunt has such euch attacks they call it catalepsy imperceptibly the crowd dwindled 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 toi fat the woman and child whom they con linued to believe to be in hiding some where inside the walls walla she had so au all entered the small party decided to start their search by a baity inspection ol at the front hall when a shout and scramble cramble in the passages beyond cut short hort their intent and held them pant ing and eager each to his place frightened they drew their gaz from the rigid figure in th the e chair and with bated breaths and rapidly paling cheeks listened to the distant mur mur on othe the fat far off road what was it they could not guess and it was with unbounded relief the pressed forward to greet the shadows form of a young girl hurrying kowarc them from the rear with news in hei he ei face ace she spoke quickly tile the woman Is gone harry doan coant saw her sliding out behind us busl after we came in she was hiding If some of the corners hero and out by the kitchen way when we wen not looking lie he has gone to see breathlessly miss weeks cut the girls story short breathlessly blu rushed to the nearest window and helped by willing hands succeeded it |