Show E EBONY B L ak a I 1 WAT WATERS EK IA US ma w 0 by anna mcclure IV g copyright by W d chapman chipman servi a e SYNOPSIS on her way to a acuity faculty position in loftland Lost land academy janet mercer meets pro prof arthur fleming also on his way to the academy at the school they are struck by an air ot of mystery per bading the place gordon haskell pro krietor welcomes them thern wilton payne completes the academy acuity faculty in a schoolroom janet finds a group which the teachers had opposed supposed up posed were schol ars are are wax figeres haskell explains unusual circumstances connected with the conduct ot of the academy among the pupils Is to berenice bracebridge daughter of 0 the late tate owner ot of the school the story ot of the tragedy ot of loftland Lost land academy Is that ot of two sis sin and two brothers of berenice who lost their lives in the water at the same moment some years ago the wax figures were modeled in the like nesses ot of the tour four children and doctor bracebridge a will provided that they must be preserved payne learns from berenice berenic 0 that the uncouth giant whom janet h had d seen with haskell Is named balder and Is a valuable servant from an old farmer jerry moore the only witness ot of the drowning ot of the chil dren payne learns particulars ot of the tragedy he begins to take an increase ing interest in berenice as fleming does in janet CHAPTER IV continued 14 wt ot tonight don t forget to put out the lairds when you go to bed ill I 1 li see to it janet said I 1 ou won wont t come in sir payne asked he had noticed haskells II askell s reluctance luc tance on other occasions to linger in that library iso no I 1 hive work to do in my room berenice looked after him with a speculative half maternal air I 1 hope when I 1 in off his hands hell he 11 en joy life a little must everything go on like this un til you are twenty one or until I 1 marry if I 1 marry before I 1 am twenty one then the guard an ship trusteeship passes to my bus baid hand until I 1 am twenty evv enty one then to me absolutely mrs denver laid down her knitting my child why don t you marry A nervous hence followed this remark payne put his hand over his eves as if to shade them from the light and arthur and janet looked like people at a play just after the curtain has gone up mrs denver re fumed her knitting berenice stirred the fire and great tongues of flame sought the black case of the chimney then feeling strangely juvenile to gether and as it if skirting the dark wood of fate they drew around the fire telling stories then payne said someone must be delegated to get fude ill go said berenice rising go v with ith you no please payne acted gave her a little start then followed her at the toot foot ot of the staircase she turned not toward the kitchen but toward the room where the figures were kept berenice his voice had a stern yet tender quality she started vio bently looked back oh why did you come because I 1 thought you might do this you ed the door too much I 1 was getting afraid again I 1 sup pose the anniversary and mother mar tha thas s tolling the bell depressed me I 1 wanted to see their dear faces be kept from tt ti inking they could ever harm me its a foolish fancy but it came and I 1 thought I 1 would look in there first before I 1 got the fudge he walked with her down the pas sage will you take one of the lamps from the brackets he fie lifted it down she turned the handle why its it s locked and there s a new lock I 1 oh he must gh give e me the key he musti must I 1 don dont t you think it its s just as well to have this room locked the fig ures are safe from prying eyes and meddling hands and I 1 am sure your guardian will give you a key he may not he is very firm at times maybe he thinks it its 9 better for your health and spirits cot not to go there too much perhaps he Is right and after all now you will think me foolish again there was something else beside tear fear I 1 suppose I 1 ive ve been like a little girl with her dolls who ho doesn t want them to be lonely or unhappy even though she knows they are not alive later in the evening she showed him some old diaries kept by her fa ther I 1 ve often thought they ought to be published he put down so many comm comments ants on current events as well viell as the academy news would you look took over them for me some time and tell me what you think could be done with them he promised her to look through them the four had planed cards eaten fidge chatted with mrs den ver pl placidly avidLy eting in the back ground grou nd iney th her qu tp te ad au r able in her faculty of being w th them w without any of the va addle a baad ed str c tures on tl ti air impulses of the moment they had a LOW on mon ui ut spoken feeling of being in a play the wind ind sheep ing wildly from tte tle mountains mount airs r the heavy frames and swaged the maroon rep curtains softly ahey had a sense of empty rooms and hid den projects about them berenice forgot even that she had ever felt fear in tl e place though the ever present mastery was still sharply with her CHAPTER V wen ivien every one but himself had gone to bed payne sat down to read the d anes aries of the late dr jethro bracebridge but he had no intention of going back to the earlier years farst first on the track as he was of the situation in loftland Lost land academy just before tl tt e deaths of the four bracebridge children it was easily traced as the diaries ended abruptly on the twenty ninth of september of the year of the drowning on that thit fatal day doctor bracebridge had ceased his records never to open them again he evidently had been a man of deep scholarship and of what is sometimes missing in conjunction with scholarship broad and deep thies in one place he had written ahe I 1 he thinker Is sometimes more likely to go astray in to his conclusions than the warm arm hearted man of action education should neer never be carried beyond the point where it stultifies spontaneous and generous deeds life was meant to be loved out not thought out payne turned back to the mate ditt d itt of doctor bracebridge s second marriage and found this en try mrs haskell Is a dear woman most lovable I 1 would not be sur it if after our marriage berenice did grow to love her as her own moth er the child Is only four the first mention of gordon has kell rather surprised wilton well he arrived at five to take up his new duties and I 1 must confess DO ohl he must give me the key he musti 1 I 1 am disappointed in him though whether this first feeling will wear off and a heartier one take its place re mains to be seen two weeks later jethro announced to me that be disliked gordon haskell and did not intend to be his student I 1 remon strafed with him but the lad with all his fine qualities Is at times hot headed and obstinate AM ea isor man and isabel show this aversion to gordon apparently only little ber enice likes the poor fellow she al lowed him to take her on his knee yesterday and hear bear her say her let poor baby I 1 education at pres ent interests her but slightly SIs six months later I 1 intend to appoint gordon co guardian with mrs bracebridge in case of my death over the five chil dren I 1 shall of course provide for him too though not in the measure I 1 do for the others I 1 am sorry the youngsters hate him so tor for it leads to a series of minor outbreaks between them IrIva tely I 1 think gordon a rather savage teacher some men are like that too impatient of a pupil pupils s limitations I 1 I 1 have asked him to be more gentle and more nonchalant with his scholars children as a rule respect and like people who are rather casual toward them the intense adult Is their abhorrence perhaps they know better than we do that a rage tor for reshaping life Is not according to the sweet reasonableness of the dl di vine policy gordon Is ambitious ambit loust 1 I 1 doubt greatly if he cares to bury him self long at loftland Lost land academy so the children and their arch foe may be separated naturally in the last year gordon haskell s name appeared very seldom doctor bracebridge evidently had other things to worry him an epidemic of measles in the school and a series of thefts particularly one large sum from the locked drawer of a desk in the library in another place was written I 1 am afraid it Is balder a sullen disagreeable fellow but as he does twice the work when he chooses of an ordinary man it doesn doean I t seem right to dismiss him merely from prejudice prejudice or the suspicion of something we can t prove I 1 ve given up trying to recon die cile my incomparable four and gor don that too Is a temperamental matter and nith with such chemistry one does well not to meddle I 1 man it would have been bet ter if you had meddled wilton re fleeted those boys and girls ably haskell s character bet ter tl an you did I 1 TO BE |