PAGE TWO
f The I
HI
Copyright by Geo. H. Doran Company
WNU Service
SYNOPSIS
Events of the story, from June to
(September, as set forth In the journal
of William A. Porter, professor of Ensr
-lisli literature:
JUNE —The professor’s uncle. Horace
Porter, died under somewhat mysteri
ous circumstances at his home. Twin
Hollows, which is now Professor Por
ter’s property. Jane, the professor s
wife, has psychic qualities. She insists
Uncle Horace, then dead for a year
was at his class reunion, and a snap
shot she takes seems to prove her
right. Cameron, a fellow professor of
Porter’s and president of the Society
for Psychical Research, inclines to the
idea of psychic photography. Mrs.
Porter shows a pronounced disinclina
tion to spend the summer vacation at
Twin Hollows. A letter Horace Porter
had been writing at the time of his
sudden death, reveals he had been in
terested in spiritualism and makes
mention of some implied “danger.” and
of the “enormity of an idea.” A “small
red lamp” is also mentioned. Mrs
Porter’s reluctance to live at Twin Hol
lows cannot be overcome, and. with
Edith. Porter’s niece, they take uo
their residence in the Lodge house of
the estate. Warren Hallidav. in lov j
with Edith, comes to live in a boat
house near the Lodge. A reference Pro
fessor Porter had once made to a cer
tain cabalistic design returns to plague
him. He finds in the village a super
stition that there is something mys
terious about the red lamp. There are
mysterious happenings, and Mrs. Por
ter Is sure Uncle Horace’s spirit is hov
ering about them. A number of
are killed in the vicinity, by some un
known person.
"" 5c
July 5. <
The sheriff has offered a thousand
tirg reward for the apprehension
conviction oi the sheepkiller. l
jrstand Livingstone TTprivately of
ferT&l another five hundred.
Mr. Bethel and hfs secretary arrive
tomorrow, and the house is about
ready for them, In spite of the fact
that Annie Cochran moves about It.
unoccupied as it is. like a scared rah
bit. I shall see him at once on his
arrival.
Halliday will finish the float today
and I understand intends then to
start on the sloop. He has found a
way to address me. instead of the for
mal “sir” of tlie first day or two, and
now calls me Skipper.
Today, for the first time, I have
taken him fully into my confidence. 1
had been half way debating it, but the
matter of the dressing gown decided it.
(Note: 1 find that in the original
Journal I made no note of this inci
dent. The facts are as follows) :
At Jane's suggestion 1 proceeded to
the main house, to remove such of
Uncle Horace’s clothing as remained
in the closets and so on. to a trunk !
in the attic. Since the night of her
experience in the pantry she had not
entered the Armed with a
package of moth preventive, I was oo
my way when I met Halliday, and he
returned with me.
We worked quietly, for there is
something depressing in the emptiness
of such garments, and in their mute
reminder that sooner or later we must
all. shed the clothing that we call the
tlesh.
I located the dressing gown which
poor old Horace was wearing when he
was found, and discovered that there
were bloodstains on it near the hem.
“I’m going to ask you something,”
1 said to Halliday “A man dies ot
heart failure, and as he falls strikes
his head, so that it bleeds. He lies
Uiere. from some time In the evening
until seven o’clock in the morning.
There wouldn’t be much blood, would
there?”
“Hardly any. I should say.”
“And none In this location. I Im
agine.”
1 showed it to him, and he looked at
me curiously.
“Itti afraid I don’t get It, Skipper.”
he said. “You mean, he moved, after
ward?”
“If you want to know exactly what
1 mean, 1 believe the poor old chap
was knocked down, that he got up and
managed to dispose of something he
had in his hand, something he didn't
want seen, and that after that his
heart failed.”
He picked up the dressing gown and
carried it to the window.
“Tell me about it.” he said quietly.
As neither one of us knows anything
about the heart, or what occurs when
Mrs. Nayber—Do you know that
your dog killed my cat?
Mr. Nexdore—Oh, yes, but I’ve
put a muzzle on him so he can’t
do it again.
Mr. Henpeck—Are you the man
who gave my wife a lot of impud
ence?
Mr. Scrapper—l reckon I am.
Mr. Henpeck—Shake! You’re a
hero.
Lady—Aren’t you ashamed to ask
for money?
Dusty Rhodes—l got six months
for taking it without asking.—The
Pathfinder.
$
Only the extremely skillful can
opinion without getting
cru«.ied.
a fatal seizure attacks it, it is pos
sible Halliday is right. That is, that
feeling ill he got up, crumpled the let
ter in his hand, turned out the desk
light, and then fell. But that he re
covered himself and managed to drag
himself to his feet again, when the
full force of the seizure came, and he
fell once more, not to rise.
“There is no real reason to belie\<e
that he was not alone,” he said. “Nor
even that he ‘saw something,’ as Mrs.
Livingstone intimates.”
But the letter I had found in the
drawer interests him. He has made a
copy of it, and taken it home to study.
“I appeal to you to consider the
enormity of the idea. Your failure to
comprehend my own attitude to it,
however, makes me believe that you
may be tempted to go on with it In
that case I shall feel it my duty, not
only to go to the police but to warn
society In general.
“I realize fully the unpleasantness
of my own situation; even, if you are
consistent, its danger. But—”
“But —what?” said Halliday. “ ‘But
1 shall do what I have threatened, if
you go on with it.’” He glanced up
at me. “It doesn’t sound like siieep
killing, does it?”
“No,” I was obliged to admit. “It
does not.”
July 6.
1 am in a fairway to go to jail it
things keep on as they have been go
ing! And not only for sheep-killing
If we have not had a tragedy here,
certainly today there is every indica
tion of it. And with the fatality
which has attended me for the past
week or so, 1 have managed to get
myself involved in it.
Last night a youth named Carro
way, sworn in by Starr a few days
ago as deputy constable, was assigned
the highroad behind our property as
his beat. He was armed against the
sheep-killer with a 30-30 Winchester,
which was found this morning in the
hedge not far from our gates.
Nothing is known of his movements
from nine o’clock, when he went on
duty, until a few minutes after mid
night, when he appeared breathless on
the town slip, minus his ride, and
hFj j 'yflVu ll y
“Te l ide About it,” He Said Quietly.
jumping into a motor launch moored
at ti e float, started off into the hay.
I‘etei <Jeiss, an old fisherman, was
smoking his pipe on the slip at tlu»
time, hut I’eter is deaf, and although
Carroway shouted something the old
man did not hear it. There is, how
ever, an intermediate clew here, for on
his way Carro way had run into the
Bennett house, and told the night
clerk there to awaken Greenough and
get him to our float; that the sheep
killer had taken a boat there and was
somewhere out on the water.
The deputy’s idea was probably to
drive the fugitive back to the shore,
and os there are, due to the marshes,
hut few landing places there, he seems
so far as I can make out to have
figured that the unknown would be
forced back to our slip.
Greenough appears to have lost no
time. He threw an overcoat over bis
pajamas, took his revolver, and com
mandeering a car in the street was on
our pier before Carroway had been on
the water ten minutes. And here, with
that fatality which has recently pur
sued me. he found me returning from
the float 1
There are times when misfortune
apparently picks up some hapless indi
vidual as her victim and, perhaps for
the good of his soul, hammers him on
this side and on that until he himself
begins to think he has deserved it
He is guilty of something; he knows
not what.
1 was a guilty man as 1 faced
Greenough! And yet the scene must
have had its elements of humor. I,
rather shaken already with the night
air, my teeth rattling, and this ghost
ly figure suddenly appearing on the
runway above me and turning my
knees to water; a terror which only
changed in quality when this ghost In
structed me to put up my hands.
But I knew the voice, and I man
aged as debonair a manner as was
possible under the circumstances.
“Nothing in them hut a flash-light,”
! said. “However, If you insist —”
He seemed to hesitate. Then he
laughed a little, not too pleasantly, .
and cyme down the runway to me. '
“Out rather late, aren’t you, Mr.
I’orier?” he asked.
it was m.v turn to hesitate.
“I came down to pull the canoe up
■ u.!o the float.” ! syid finally. “Mrs.
Porter thought the sea was rising.”
“Sounds quiet enough to me,” he re- ;
toned and turning "ii Ills flush, he ran
THE CHATHAM RECORD, PITTSBOROrN. C.
it over the surface of the water, which
was as still as a mill-pond, and onto
the canoe, which lay bottom-up and
still dripping, on the float.
It is indicative of the whole situa
tion, I think, that he lighted tlie flash.
He was no longer lurking in the dark,
waiting for the motor boat to drive
the marauder ashore. That marauder,
in the shape of a shivering professor
of English literature, slightly unbal
anced mentally, was before him.
Greenough was frankly puzzled. He
had, one perceives, a problem on his
hands. He wanted Carroway to come
in and identify ine, for without that
identification he was helpless. And
somewheres out on the water was Car
roway, possibly with a stalled engine.
He put his hands to his mouth and
called:
“Hi! Bob!” he yelled. “Bob.”
But there was no answer, except
that Halliday came running out and
asked what the trouble was. Green
ough was thoroughly Irritated; he
lapsed into a sulky, watchful silence,
and offered no objection when I shiv
eringly suggested that 1 go back to
my bed. I left them both there, Halli
day preparing to row out and locate
the launch if possible, and came back
to the Lodge.
This morning 1 learn that Carro
way’s boat was found by Greenough
who had a fast launch with a search
light, at one o’clock this morning,
drifting out with the tide and about
two miles from land. It was empty,
and no sign of young Carroway was
found. As it trailed no dory, our
mystery has apparently become a
tragedy.
And 1 am under suspicion. 1 have
put that down, and sitting hack have
stared at it. It is true. And suppose
what I am expecting at any moment
take? place, and Greenough comes into
the drive, to confront me with the
damnable mass of evidence he has put
together, the circle enclosing the tri
angle; the fact that the sheep-killing
did not commence until after our ar
rival at the Lodge; the night Morri
son, driving his truck-load of produce,
saw me 6i5 the road ; and most of all,
with last night!
Suppose f fell him the actual fact?
That my wife has some curious power,
and that in obedience to it she last
night aroused me from a virtuous
sleep, to tell ine she had clairvoyantly
seen a man taking a boat from our
float, and that I must immediately go
down; that there was. she felt, some
thing terribly wrong? Suppose 1 told
him that, which is exactly the fact?
And also that, once there, I found that
Edith had left the canoe in the water,
and that I had, like the careful indi
vidual I am, drawn it up out of harm’s
way? Will he believe that? I won
der —
Quite aside from my unwillingness to
drag Jane into this, particularly as
the possessor of a faculty which she
herself only reluctantly reveals even
to me, is my conviction that such a
story, soberly told, would only increase
Greeriougti’s suspicion of my sanity.
And as if to add to the precarious*-
ness of the situation, Halliday himself
in all innocence has added another
damning factor; gave it, indeed, to
the detective last night.
Yesterday it appears, in repairing
rhe float, tie found a new and razor
sharp knife between the top of one
of the barrels and the planks which ;
made the flooring.
“1 didn't tell you. Skipper,” he says, j
“because 1 was afraid of alarming
you. And, of course, there might have
been some simple explanation. Starr
might have dropped it, during his car
pentering.”
He was first amused and then in
furiated by the web which seems to
be closing around me.
“Os course they can’t do anything,”
he says, “unless they catch you in the
act.”
But the unconscious humor of that
statement set me laughing, and after
a moment he saw it and grinned sheep
ishly. “You know what I mean,” he
said. “And in one way, if you can
stand it, it’s not a bad thing.”
Pressed for an explanation. It ap
pears that he had been thinking of go
ing after the reward himself, and that
this matter of Carroway has decided
him.
“Reward or no reward,” he said,
quietly, ‘Tve had a bit of training;
they put me in the Intelligence in Ger
many, during the occupation. And of
course the way to catch a criminal is
to keep him from knowing who’s after
him. Then again, if he learns the
police are watching you—and he may
—he’s watching them, you know —It
may make him a bit reckless. You
uever can tell.”
But he has a third reason, although
he has not mentioned it. He is
chivalrously determined to protect me,
and through me* Edith.
i Continued Next Week)
3>
A RUNNING FORD!
A Laurinburg man. who has one
of the new Buick? that runs like
a haunt, tells about an experience
on highway 20 last week. Coming
toward Laurinburg from Hamlet, and
at a lively gait, he said he noticed
one of the new Fords nosing in be
hind him. He stepped on the gas
but the Ford stayed right behind.
Now the new Buick, he savs will do
75 miles all right and with a litHe
coaxing will do 80. On a nrettv
, stretch of road he got op to 75 and
) by degrees above it, abnost to the
80 notch. But that Ford was still
right behind him. He decided it was
time to slow down and he did. Just
then the Ford passed him, and the
driver was driving with one hand and
smoking a pipe with the other.. And
now he wonders what the Ford would
i have done had his new Buick picked
1 nn to 85 or 90 or possibly an even
‘IOO miles an hour?
AND WE LEARN ABOUT
REDS FROM THEM
®
(News and Observer, April, 19)
Viewing the outrage in Gastonia
yesterday morning when a band of
masked men, variously estimated be
tween a hundred and six hundred de- j
molished the headquarters and relief \
store of the Loray Mill strickers, ;
under the noses of sleeping soldiers j
sent there by the State to maintain j
order, two or three things stand out ;
with shocking prominence.
1. The impression almost invari
ably conveyed by the call for troops
on the occasion of a strike, that the
troops are for service in beating
down the morale and the resistance
of the strikers, is pointedly em
phasized in the failure of troops to
maintain that decent semblance of
order under which this thing would
have been impossible.
2. The first deliberately conceived
and executed outrage of the whole
strike, the first semblance of disorder
that might have called for a show of
organized resistance and that would
not have been planned and could not
have been executed except in the ;
faith that the troops on duty would
behave as they did behave, is charge
able, not to strikers or their radical
leaders, but to citizens sympathetic
with the manufacturers’ anti-labor
attitude.
3. Whereas opposition to the ;
strikers and their demands has cen
tered hysterically around the pre- 1
sence of several radical labor leaders,
with much noisy condemnation of
Reds and Bolshevists, the only act i
that shows red was committed not
by the strikers but against them.
These observations lead d'irectly {
to the conclusion that Adjutant i
General Metts ought to determine by ]
proper investigation why, with his
troops on duty, this thing occurred; j
that Governor Gardner, so prompt ;
1 FERTILIZER
We have on hand a good stock of all grades of I
Fertilizers including Nitrate of Soda.
USE NITRATE OF SODA j
All authorities are agreed that soda pays well when used about J
cotton chopping time. Let’s make the cotton crop pay this year. The (
surest way is to use Nirate of Soda, and the place to buy it is—
THE CHATHAM OIL & FERTILIZER COMPANY j
PITTSBORO, N. C. I
S/TWETm* ?? *IOTJ C 3 f’
Ptiiy cl iHimi. JJfiißliS®
TT*J7* m ‘A "K “a © *<s
'*> CZ ifr*) T - ® (''■’i &T fHi T ,<■ - k fcl TV#
iv *o &,uLjL±iL%~~. L/ w UUI
bearing HlO Meet ks/
1/ a \\ 3 r &
W^t am A
standing Used
_____ Car Values
1926 Chevrolet Roadster $125.00
1926 Chevrolet Coupe $225.00
1926 Chevrolet Truck $150.00
1926 Ford Roadster $150.00
1923 Ford Roadster SIOO.OO
1926 Ford Roadster $125.00
1925 Ford Truck $125.00
1927 Ford Roadster $175.00
1926 Chevrolet Touring $150.00
1926 Ford Touring $150.00
The foregoing cars can be seen at
the Economy Motor Co., Siler City,
and the following at the Chatham
Chevrolet Co. garage, Pittsboro:
1925 Ford Touring $ 50.00
1927 Chevrolet Coupe $250.00
Ford Truck $200.00
ECONOMY MOTOR CO.,
Siler City, N. C.
STOUT MOTOR CO. CHATHAM HEVROLET CO.
Goldston, N. C. Pittsboro, N. C.
for the Red Tag-“with, an OR that counts”
to go to the aid of the Gastonia
authorities when they feared trouble
should use the full powers of his
office with equal directness and
speed to run down every man who
figured in this outburst of mob law;
that the people of North Carolina
and particularly those, who feel as
the anti-strikers element of Gaston
feels, ought to realize that all the |
Beales and all the Pershings and all
the Weisbords cannot create as much
radicalism among the mill workers
of North Carolina as one such out
break against decency and law.
HIS FIRST TIME UP
(Laurinburg Exchange)
A young man at Maxton last
week went to work for the telephone
company. The first pole he climbed
his body came in contact with a
“live” wire and he was electrocuted.
It was a most touching and distress
ing tragedy. The human mind can
speculate on any number of things, |
of altered circumstances, which
might have made the young man’s
death unnecessary. If he had not
gone to work that morning. If he had
climbed another pole, and so on. But
the mind is impotent still.
From an earthly or human view
point, it is a terrible tragedy. That ■
is because we see a little of life at
a time and we get but a glimpse of
great truths. Men are dying every :
day. A huge toll of human life is 1
exacted. It is the price of progress. 1
Hundreds of young men are dying <
trying to fly. It is rash and foolish
say some. But some day man’s con
quest of the air will be complete. '
Young men dying now are not dying 1
in vain. The world has never con- t
sidered it foolish or rash for young t
men to die in defense of their coun
try. If it is an honorable thing to
give one’s life in defense of liberty '<
and freedom, is it not equally honor- t
used car department is operated under'
famous Chevrolet Red O. K.Tag system* •
Under this plan, we attach the Chevrolet Red
O* Tag to the radiator cap of every recondi
tioned car —showing exactly what vital units of
the car have been checked or reconditioned by
our expert mechanics.
We believe that no fairer system of used car mer
chandising has ever been worked out —for it
assures the customer honest value.
Due to the great popularity of the new Chevro
let Six, we have on hand at this time a wide selec
tion of “O. K.’d” used cars taken in trade on new
cars* Come in and look them over. You are sure
to find exactly the car you want at a price that
will amaze you. Terms are exceptionally easy* >
THURSDAY, APRIL 25. iQon
able to die in the front trench
the great army of industry*) es «!■
The young man who died at v •
ton last week has a good mam
to his credit. In the first rJar.
was at work. If he had been iq’ M
might not have died. But it : < h » I
to climb a pole and die
the ground and do nothin'" ' ld '' o,l l
FRANCE AND SPAIN AT rm„
A nasty quarrel has g.4 r DDS
I tween France and Spain ~V o/ i
Spanish oil monopoly. When c
ish government took over all l r Pai h
business in the state it proceeded
settle with the various foreig n a
firms doing business there, t?
French firms insisted on an allows
for goodwill which the govern™?
refused to allow. Finally the Fren?
government intervened and sugge?
arbitration. This Spain refused a !J
thereupon France resorted to renri J
by levying full fees for idenS?
cards on all Spanish citizens 2
France. This was a breach of a cop
vention of 1862 and caused a strut
protest from Spain.—The Pathfindl
He Came Clean
He was a big collar and cuff
from Troy, N. Y., but she soon took
the starch out of him. —The Path
finder.
The voters can’t be lured to the
polls by talking to them about the
duties of citizenship, but there would
be a tremendous outpouring if each
one got a dollar for voting.
■
This is called the richest country
in the world, but you would never
know it when passing around a sub
scription paper for some good com.
munity cause.
There might not be so many tri
angular love affairs if there were
more square meals.