THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 1929
I: The
I RJED I
I LAMP j
1 W I
| MARY ROBERTS RINEHART |
Copyright by Geo. H. Doran Company «
WNU Service
June 28.
I slept very little last night, and this
morning made an excuse to go up to
town with the letter. Larkio had tel
ephoned me that be had an Inquiry
on the house through Cameron, and
this gave me a pretext
Larkin is impressed with the let-
Iter, but does not necessarily see its
connection with Uncle Horace’s death.
“You haveir't an idea who it’s
meant for, you say?”
“Not the slightest He hadn’t any
friends, intimates, so far as 1 know.
The Livingstones, very decent people
with a big place about six miles from
him, his doctor, and myself—that’s
about all.”
“ ‘Enormity of the Idea/ ” he read
again. “Os course that might be a
new poison gas, or this thing the press
Is always scaring up. the death ray.
Some fellow witb a bee in his bonnet
you may be sure.”
“That wouldn’t imply danger to him
self.”
“Any fellow with a bee in his bon
net is dangerous,” he said, and gave
me back the letter.
“Os course.” he went on, “you’ve
made a nice point about the stain on
the corner. If it’s blood. It’s hardly
likely be got up again and put it
where you found it But I think
you’ll find the servant there, what’s
her name, picked it op in her excite
ment and threw it Into the drawer.
However, if you like. I’ll .have that
stain tested and see what it Is.”
I tore off the corner, and left him
putting it carefully Into an envelope.
He glanced op as 1 prepared to go.
“What’s this II bear about your keep
ing off demons by drawing some sort
of a cabalistic design around your
self?" he asked “You’d better let me
in on it; I need a refuge now and
then.” _..vs •*. ...
Which proves that a man may shout
the eternal virtues and be unheard
forever, but If be babble nonsense is
a wilderness It will travel around the
world.
We have settled down Into our rou
tine here very comfortably. Our eggs
and milk are brotfgbt each morning
by a buxom farmer’s daughter, one
Maggie Morrison, a sturdy red
cheeked girl.
With the lawns cut and the shrub
bery trimmed, the place grows in
creasingly lovely. At low tide the
beach is covered with odds and ends
from the mysterious life of the sea.
red and white starfish, sea urchins,
and disintegrated jelly fish Sea-gulls
pick up mussels, hover over a flat
topped rock, drop them onto Its sur
face and then swoop down upon the
broken shell, with a warning cry to
other gulls to keep away.
Easter Eve
1 mw twe ««m wpfrig by the tomb
Os One new-buriml, fa a fair inn fbn
Bo we red with shrub*; the eve retained no trao*
Os aught that day performed; tut the feint
gloom
Os dying day was spread upon the sky;
The moon wes breed and' bright shows th*..
- wood;
The breeze brought token of e multitude, •
Music, end shout, and mingled revelry.
At length came gleaming through the thicket
shade
Helmet and casque.', and a steel-armed bead
Watched round the sepueber in solemn stand;
The night-word past, from naan to men con
veyed;
And I could see those women rise end go
Under the dark trees, moving sad and slow.
—Henry Alford, D. D-, in Kansas City Star.
Yaqui Tribal Dance
an Old Easter Custom
The dawn of a new Easter breaks
over Superstition mountain, near
I’hoenix, Ariz., as a small group of
exhausted Yaqui Indian dancers end
their weird movements of “Dia di
Gloria” and totter off to their wickiups
and hogans.
The colorful spectacle, which reaches
its climax just before dawn, is wit
nessed by thousands of tourists and
residents of Phoenix. Police with
double-barreled shotguns stand guard
by the throng and spectators as the
dance is near its und.
As the rites progress, bronze figures
flash in the light of smoked oil lamps
and tiie grotesque headdress of the
dancers nods and topples.
When the tribal dance ends the In
dians move away from a bank of
smoldering embers, all that remains of
fires kindled at sundown the day be
fore, and the scene shifts to a little
adobe chapel covered with twigs from
a thousand mesquite bushes.
Here services for the penitent In
dians are held. The self-confessed
sinners, wrapped in blankets and pros
trate before a shrine, have prayed
since Sunday the day before.
“I hear that you have lost your
valuable little dog, Mr. Taylor.
“Yaas, in a railway accident. I
was saved but the dog was killed.”
“What a pity!” i
The boathouse Is ready for young
Halliday. Edith has put in it a great
deal of love and one. or two of my
most treasured personal possessions.
“That isn’t by any chance my smok
ing stand?”
“But you aren’t going to smoke 1
much this summer, Father William,’*
she says, and tucks a hand into ray
arm, “1 heard you say so yourself.”
It has a sitting room, bedroom and
kitchenette, but no bath.
“He can use the sea,” says Edith,
easily. “And take a cake of soap in
with him.”
“And wash himself ashore,” l sug
gest, and am frowned down, probably
too old for such ribaldry.
Jane is very serene. Now and then,
as she sits on our small veranda with
her tapestry, I see her raise her eyes
and glance toward the other house,
but she does not mention it, nor do I.
But she absolutely refused to take
the pictures of the house l.arkin had
asked for. Not that she put it like [
that.
“I haven’t had any luck with the
camera lately,” she said. “You take 1
them, or let Edith do it.”
The result of the collaboration, 1
which followed early, this afternoon
is still In doubt Jane intends to de
velop and print them this evening.
And so our life goes on. We retire
early, I generally slightly scented
from the cold cream of Edith’s good- 1
night kiss. Clara, our household staff, '
too, goes up early, probably looking
under her bed before retiring into it.
And Jane sits and sews while I make '
my nightly entry in this Journal; she [
is, I think, both jealous and faintly
suspicious of it I 1
At ten o’clock or so we let Jock out,
and he looks toward f be main house
and then turns out the gates and into
the highroad, where for a half hour
or so he chases rabbits and possibly
looks for a bear. At ten-thirty he
scratches at the door, and we admit (
him and go up to bed.
Later: 1 have just had a surprise 1
amounting to shock. Jane finds she
has forgotten the black japanned lan- !
tern with a red slide which she uses
in the mysterious rites of developing
pictures, and suggests that we go to
the other bouse and use the red lamp 1
there. '
“But I can bring it here."
“I am through being silly about the
other bouse, William,” she says with
“But I Can Bring It Here."
I
an air of resolution. “Anyhow, the
pantry there is better, and yon can
sit in the kitchen. Bring a book or ,
something.” ' i
She has, poor Jane, very much the .
air of Helena Lear’s kitten the day ]
Jock cornered it and it came out res
olutely and looked him in the eye. In
effect, Jane is going out to meet her
r bugaboo and stare it down.
* - June 29^:
Jane is in bed today, and 1 am not
all 1 might be, although 1; managed
to get an indifferent print or two to
Larkin this morning..
It is well enough for cold-blooded
and nerveless individuals to speak of
fear as a survival of that time wben.
in our savage state, we were surround
ed by enemies, dangers, and a thou
sand portents in skies we could not
comprehend, and to insist that when
knowledge comes in at the door, fear
and superstition fly out of the window.
It Is only in his head that man is
heroic; in the pit of his stomach he
is always a coward.
Yet, stripped of its trimmings—the
empty, echoing house, its reputation
and my own private thoughts about
its possible tragedy, the incident loses
much of its terror; is capable, indeed.
<?of a quite normal explanation.
That is, that Jane either saw some
one outside the pantry window, or was
the victim of a subjective image of her
owd producing. -.- C -1.
To put the affair in consecutive
shape.
At eleven o’clock I had moved the
red lamp from the den in the other
house to the paotr.f and there con
nected it. Jane seemed to be going
very well beyond the pantry door, and
after a time I ceased the reassuring
whistling with which 1 had been at-,,
firming my continued presence within
call, and grew absorbed in a book.
It must have been 11 :1f> when she *
called out to me sharply to know
.vhere a cold wind was coming from,
and although I felt no such air I
closed the kitchen door. It was with
in a couple ot minutes of that, .>r
thereabouts, that I suddenly heard her
jve a low moan, and the next instant
there was the crash Os a falling body
When 1 opened the pantry door •
found her in a dead faint, underneath
the window. When she revived, she
THE CHATHAM RECORD, PITTSBORO, N. C.
maintained that she hail seen Un«*i«
Horace..
Her statement runs about as foi
lows': She had not felt parlicihisfiv
uneasy on entering the house, “al
though I lt;:< 1 expected to,” she ad
mits. Nor at the beginning of oper
ations in the pantry. The cold air.
however, had had a peculiar quality
to it; it “froze” her, she says; she
felt rigid with it.
And it continued after she heard
me close the kitchen door.
This wind, she says, w 7 as not only
po cold that site called to me, but she
had an impression that it was coming
from somewhere near at hand, and
she seemed to see the curtains blowing
out at the window. The lower sash
was down, as she could tell by the re
flection of the red lamp in it, but she
went to the window to see if the up
per sash had been lowered.
With the darkness outside, the glass
had become a sort of mirror, and she
said her own figure in it startled her
for a moment. She stood staring at
it, when she that she was
not alone in the room. Clearly re
flected, behind and over her right
shoulder, was a face.
It disappeared almost immediately,
and I have my own private doubts
about her recognition of it as Uncle
Horace, which I believe Is post facto
But I am obliged to admit that Jane
saw something, either outside the win
dow and looking in, or the creation of
her own excited fancy.
As soon as I could leave her I went
outside, but I could find no one there,
and this morning I find that my own
footprints under the window have en
tirely obliterated anything else that
may have been there.
Jane herself believes it was Uncle
Horace, but I cannot find that she
received anything more than an in
distinct impression of a face. She
rather startled me this morning, how
ever, by asking me if 1 had ever
thought that Uncle Horace had noi
died a natural death.
“Why in the world should 1 think
such a thing?”
But pressed for an explanation she
merely said she had beard that the
spirits of those who have died violent
deaths are more likely to appear than
of others who have passed peaceably
away; that the desire to acquaint the
world with the circumstances of the
tragedy is overwhelming!
What seems much more likely Is
that she has caught from -me, "With
that queer gift of hers, spme inkling
of my own anxiety . .
Larkin’s report from the laboratory
shows that the stain on fbe corner of
the letter Is blood. One lives and leam6
Not only does the report state that 11
is blood, but that it is human blood
Moreover, that it is about a year old.
and that it is the imprint of a hu
man finger, hut is too badly blurred
for identification, as.it was made while
the blood was fresh. f
So does science come to the aid ot
the police today. Truly one lives and
learns. * ?
June 30.
I have been brought today, for the
first time, into active contact with
the feeling of the country people
against my house, and especially
against the red lamp. It is an amaz
ing situation.
Thomas came to the doorway this
morning while I was at breakfast, fol
lowed by Starr the constable, who re
muined somewhat uneasily behind
him. It developed that half a dozeD
sheep in a meadow beyond Robinson’s
point, were found the night before
last with their throats cut. The farm
er who owned them heard them mill
ing about and ran out, and he de
clares he saw a da'Tk figure dart out
of the field and run into my woods at
the bead of Robinson’s point
It appears, that the farmer, whose
name is
as soon aV-be saw. where the fugitive
was beadeg, and went back to his
dead sheep* They were neatly laid
out in a tipw. • v
“At, wbat time was all this?” )
asked. - • \ «
“Eleven p’clock, or thereabouts/'
“How about a dog?" l acked. “They
kill sheep, don’t they? Catch them, by
the throat or something?”
“They don’t stab them with a knife.
Not around liere, anyhow,” said Starr.
The ostensible object of the visit
was to ask if we .bad been disturbed
that night, and for some- reason nr
other I did not at once connect the
situation with Jane’s curious expert
ence.
“No,” I said. “You’ll probably find
that Nylie has an enemy somewhere,
come hand he has discharged, per
haps.”
Starr took himself away very sood
after that, but before he ’ left he ex
changed a glance with Thomas, and
1 had a feeling that something lay be-;
hind this morning visit. It: was qot
long before Thomas brought .it out;,.
It appears that Nylie ran after the fig ,
ure. to the edge, of the wood, and
there stood hesitating. The woods, I
gather, share in the ill-repute of the
houce. And. as he stood v therfe. as
though everyone knew the house was
empty. h£* distinctly saw*the evil glow
of the red lamp from it! < ;
1 dare’ say Jane Is right-,' and my
sense of humor is perverted, but i
could Hot resist the opportunity of
hnitihg 'Thomas, In which 1 realize
now I made a tactical error.
“Really?” I said. “Nylit was cer
tain of that, was he?”
“Saw it as plain as 1 see you,” said
Thomas. “1 know yoi) don’t believe
me—” ■ ■ ■- , ■
“But. A do believe you. What about
ihe red lamp?”
“Well.’* he said, “it’s pretty well
Known about tlie.se parts that that
lamp ain’t healthy Some sa* on>
•liing and some say another, but most
folks t* nirreed on that.”
(Continued Next Week)
DOG’S HEAD LIVES FOR |
HOURS AFTER CUT OFE|
A German scientist announces that
he has been able to keep a dog’s head
alive for hours after it had been
severed from the body. Cominer.ting
on the incident George Bernard Shaw, 1
Irish novelist and playwright, said
that he was tempted to have his own
head cut off so that could go right on
thinking and dictating plays without:
the impediment of bodily illness.!
However, the old Irish wit says he
would expect one or two other men j
to undergo the experiment first to
prove that “it is not dangerous.”
AL SMITH MAY BECOME
HEAD OF TAMMY HALL
George Washington Olvany, big
chief of Tammany Hall for several
years, unexpectedly resigned last
week, leaving that century old club
without a titular head. Among those
prominently mentioned to succeed
him are two former governors, James
A. Foley and Alfred E. Smith.
■ j>jLentai pictures ever} 7 . ! ■
car buyer r -
M# , ~ , i . sifeU
' should have
gOME DAY you will consider buying
J|; Keep in mind these pictures made i Kfli
j from photographs of scenes at General ■
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car wallowing in a sunken road With .to test vartous farts of Genial Motors ours under
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tire economy, body Strength every the Proving Ground engineers exactly what happens
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PONTIAC. 7 models. $745—5895.
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G ENE RAL
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TUNE IN—General Motors Family Party,
every Monday, M. (Eastern Standard
Time) WEAF and 37 ataociatcd radio station*.
! TO SELL ’EM—TELL ’EM
! The newspaper was placed at the
head of the four factors that make
the community, ;in an address by
Dr. -C. D. Curran, business builder
and psychologist, before the Ingle
i wood Lions’ club. After the news
paper he placed the bank, the school
and last, but not least, the church,
“for” he said, “the strong founda
tion of every community rests upon
religion.” -
I “How much,” he asked, “have you
business men set aside for an adver
tising budget this year? If you
haven’t set aside very much, on the
pretext that your newspaper isn’t
very large, let me say that it will
grow just as fast as you permit it
to grow by your advertising.”
If you are going to sell ‘em, you’ve
got to tell’em,”. Doctor Curran de
clared, “and keep on telling ’em,
through your newspaper, and more
than ever in slack times.”—Reseda
(Calif.) Banner.
Even if a man’s good deeds live
after him, he isn’t in a position to
care.
OAKLAND.« models. $1145
$1375. New Oakland All Ameri
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Luxurious appointments. Attrac
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Three wheel-bases from 115 to 118
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LaSALLE 14 models. $1195
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®
SANFORD BOOSTING ITS
, ADVANTAGES IN SURVEY;
An industrial survey supplement,
setting forth the advantages of San
ford as a town in which to live and
do business, was published last Thurs r
day in the Sanford Express and the
Raleigh Times. The mechanical work,
printing, etc., was done in the Times
shop and it is an attractive job. The
twenty-four pages of the supplement
are illustrated with half-tone cuts of
Sanford homes, business houses and
citizens. Advertising patronage was
liberal.
$
Instead of regretting yesterday get
busy and prepare for tomorrow.
Some men will stand up for the
fair sex everywhere—except in a
street car.
A manicure artist who could also
polish men’s brains would fill a long
felt want. , ,
Any man who works only for pay
seldom does his best.
Climb a little higher than the
crowd and you will be a target for
the knockers. -v
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Famous efficient 8-cylinder \9©-
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Extensive range of color and up
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(All Prices f. o. b. Factories. Time payments
may be made on the low-cost GMAC Plan.) ,
ALSO
FRIGID AIRE Automatic Refrig
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cold-control device. Tu-tone cabi
nets. Price and model range to suit
every family.
DELCO-LlGHTElectric
ft Water Systems. Provide all
electrical conveniences and labor
saving devices for the farm.
PAGE THREE