THREE
SHUTTERED
HOUSES
• By BEN AMES
WILLIAMS
C**»rt**— WWJ SHVKt
THE STORY
CHAPTER I.—Driving home through ■
rain, young, wcJMo do Clint
-Fervicj picks up a girl, icar.tily clad,
canning tn (error-stricken flight down the
nid. She ride* a abort way a. leaves the
■car ard rur» into the woudt. Ha d«
<ldu to talk to hia dear friend*, Inspec
tor Tope and Mil* kfoas. about hU ad
‘*«*ure Clint still thiuks of her as Miss
Moss, fcu former guardian, though she
«ad the Inspector art marr.ed, Clint.
tMhrlog settled dov-n. now manages tha
<4atv)ts estate turns elf.
CHAPTER 0. — In three shuttered
all gloomy and forbidding, on
a» HLU, near where Clint picked
the frightened girl, lived three faml
\ln In one house lived old Denman
Herder. his wiRe. who had been Ella
Kencsaw. and his daughter. Kitty Lea
- deed and her daughter June. Living In a
second house was Aunt Evie Talr.c. Un
‘ die Justus and brothers Bab and Asa.
Tha third held old Matthew Row don and
* Ms wife Living on the estate was a
' MM known only to June as "Uncle
Mfm." Following their usual custom tbs
'VM families gathered In the Burder
'lanw Saturday ulghc Kitty. June's
S*Ssr. retired early with a headache.
9*1 was given warn milk, and In aisled
an teafSJ two sleeping tablaia, one
-masse than usual
R HI—Strangely spset. June
fitfully. and ta tha middle of the
ta to see her mother. Her
position warned June that
mother waa not sleeping. She was
■i Panic stricken. June ran from the
oe, out the unlocked door, and Into the
OB to get Doctor CaWcr. It was
iw that Corn James picked her ip
(Continued from last week)
girl opened the cabinet and
t out a familiar bottle. The bot
bad no label. She removed the
k and let one tablet roll Into her
et the bettle down on
l edge of the begin and was about
replace the cork when Kilty Lea
called:
'June. I'll take two tonight I
et to co to sleep quickly, tleep
June made an unhappy gesture,
bar hand touched the uncorked
It fell into the basin, spill
tablets. She rescued it hastily,
waa itlll w little water b> the
and the spilled tablets were
half-dissolved. There were
three remain log la the bottle.
June stood in tome consternation,
td bar mother called:
i was that? June, did you
them?"
tipped over the sottu, jut*
«on(<uei *1 tpOlad one or two.”
■“For heaven’s sake, be careful,”
Kitty Leaford cried fretfully. “Doc
Car Cabler always cross-examines
gam when they go faster than he
thinks they should. Bring me two."
June took one more tablet out of
Mae bottle, so that the had two In
ihmr hand, while two remained. She
jgKCt the bottle in its place and went
hack Into the ether room. She ssid:
"Mother, I wish you wouldn't take
Aub both. You remember what
happened that other time?”
"I took three that time.” hrr
Mother retorted. "Two won't hurt
rxaje.”
"You were awfully sick!"
"I must get to sleep,” Kitty Lea
* Cord insisted. She picked up the tab
from her daughter’s palm and
dropped them in the warm milk.
Shm waited a moment to give them
>Seae to dissolve. "These are harm
fhaa, June,” she urged. “Practi
cally! And they do make me sleep.”
laughed feverishly. "Twice
•Shis many wouldn't really hurt rr.e,
Jfcne.” Her eyes were haggard.
"And I can't help it If I don't
wfcaep, I go mad.”
She drained the draft “That doea
data atrong," she said with a faint
grimace. “Now run, baby. Kiss
w. and go. 1'il be asleep In a
ealnute.”
June kissed her, made her lie
Mown, covered her over. She opened
>■ one window s crack. Kitty Lea
, ford was not a fresh-air addict June
i locked at her and saw that she was
► Already half asleep. The girl
r laurnad off the light and slipped
^ .-w way.
[ Jk the head of the stairs she
I yyHStil long enough to be sure the
> wCbers were leaving. She heard
- oneona slide the bolt on the front
v Mm, beard Uncle Justus aay:
*Tre fastened It Denman.”
Ttten murmuring voices toward
Mm kitchen. They all went out that
end after S moment Grandpa
-rs Grandma Harder returned to
. gpe Into their own room, on the
* m--* floor, in the east wing. Her
■ Mrthtr'i room and her own were in
r Ma west wing, over the big ettting
A deep uoeaainesa poeeesoed June.
’ JKhm her own door waa doted and
Am war alone, she stood still, even
■ Aar eye.' unmoving. It might be,
thought the sullen electric air
, wshich made her thus rattiest and
K *uL at a vague foreboding.
S-V-GedwanUcd
Gahraaised BoD Tfai
and
r—nhii and Woodwork
A. T. Griffin Mi* Co.
TO THE HE2LALD
curm m
June undressed slowly, listlessly.
There was nothing In life as she
knew it which could provoke her to
eagerness. Her movements were
automatic, her thoughts went round
and round a familiar circle.
I This wfas her world. These folk
who had been here tonight, and Un
cle Jim, who lived in the hut by the
pond. She thought cf him now with
a faint smile. There was sound
mirth in him. He used to laugh at
these people here; contrived nick
names for them all to make June
smile. Grandma Bowden was the
Iran Hand, Aunt Evie the Velvet
Glove. Grandma and Grandpa Har
der were the Conquered Provinces.
He never sought to make June
laugh at her mother, she remem
bered now. Once or twice she had
tried to persuade Kitty Leaford to
go with her to meet Unde Jim.
"You’d like him. Mother,” she had
urged. "I know you would-’’
But her mother would never go.
The girl went mechanically about
the business of preparing for the
night. Her eyes drifted half-resent
fully around the ugly room. She
loosed her hair and brushed it slow
ly for a while, watching her reflec
tion in the mirror above the marble
slab. The house long since was still.
When at last she turned out her
own light and opened one of the tall
window's, the saw Aunt Evle’t house
next door was dark and silent too.
Also she saw, far off, a flicker in
the sky; she even heard the rumble
of thunder. Yet the storm might
not come this way, or If it did, her
mother might not waken. She got
Into the big bed and lay without
drawing any covering over her, for
the night was hot, and the air was
lifeless and still. The old house
creaked ad around her; mice scur
ried In the walls.
She must have slept at last, and
for as indeterminate time. It was
a gust of wind which woke her, a
sudden quickening In the tempo of
the night. Then lightning etched a
net of flame across the sky, and the
crashing thunderstroke burst In her
ears.
June wee not afraid of thunder*
showers; but her mother, despite
the drug she had taken, might have
welted; June decided to go In and
see. She knew the older women
would be. If she were awake, cower
ing now, end crying out as though
from eo actual physical pain. The
girl got out of bed and crossed the
haQ to her mother*! door.
Without opening the door, she lis
tened, but she heard no sound from
within. Yet still June hesitated, un
certain, uneasy for no reason. In
the end aha opened the door and
spoke softly Into the darkness.
“Mother, are you all rightr*
But there was no reply, and June
wee - reassured. She wea about to
return to her own room, whan light
ning flashed again, close by. and
the glare of it was bright in the win
uuw u/ Pkikhj
Jan* mw her mother tor this in
stant, clearly.
And when the lightning passed,
the girl stnod still, her eyes dilated.
There had been something alarm
ing in her mother's posture, in the
way she lay along the bed.
With an abrupt movement June
turned on the light, An air-current
coming from the open window in her
own room blew her door shut with
a reverberating crash; and she
leaped with dismay at the sudden
sound. But her mother had not
roused—did not move as June bent
over the bed.
Mrs. Leaford lay on her side, her
head pillowed on her left arm; her
right arm limp along the coverlets.
June bad seen her In a drugged
sleep before, and there was nothing
patently alarming in her appear
ance now. But though her mother
lay on her side, her bead was turned
so that her face was upward. The
posture looked uncomfortable; and
June very gently tried to move her
mother's head to the left so that it
might be at ease.
But when June touched Kitty Lea
ford’s check smeared with un
guents, her heart turned cold.
June caught her mother's shoul
ders. She shook them; she cried:
"Mother I Mother t”
But Kitty Leaford made no re
sponse. June might ss well have
shaken a bolster loosely stuffed with
sand.
The girl backed away from the
bed. her hands pressed to her lips.
She turned and ran down the stairs
to the telephone in the hall.
The instrument was dead. She
snapped on the hall light—en elec
tric bulb hanging by one wire la
the midst at the gea chandelier—
and in that naked illumination she
tried the telephone again, without
response.
Terror was clamoring in her; she
tried to fight It down, to think what
■be should do.
Or and p* and Grandma Hurdar
wera asleep at the end of the hall,
| but the knew there was no help is
them. Eva if there were help any
where.
Then the electric light faded and
died, aad June stood in the dark
hall like a tomb. She eras stifled
CASH TALES
At Handley Motor Co.
Dodge and Plymouth
Dealers.
Good Used Can and Troche
At All Time#.
Read the Want Ads.
Thru I be electric light reded
end died.
by the blackness; she gasped for
breath; and the front door blew
open, banging against the wall, and
the girl choked back a scream.
She was swept by desperate and
nameless terror; a gust of rain
came sweeping in, and June ran
blindly to meet it, out through the
door, into the full beat of the rain.
The touch of it was sweet and cool.
Then she remembered that the
tront door was always locked and
boltad. Uncle Justus had bolted it
tonight. Why had it opened of it
self?
Blind panic possessed her utterly;
yet she dung to one thought; she
must fetch Doctor Cabler.
She might have roused Rab or
Asa, asleep next door. Rab had even
a car. But she took no time to
think of these things. She was al
ready racing across the lawn; she
found the gate hi the hedge, and felt
the smooth hard macadam under
her feet, and ran swiftly. Occa
sionally lightning flashes Illumined
her way, kept her in tha road.
She had'gone halfway to oocxo*
Cabler’* house when a ear cams
down the bin behind her. She tried
to run taster, to escape this pur
suer; but this was vain, and she
turned off tba road, and fall, and
scrambled to her feet and stood lfks
a wild creature brought to bay.
The car stopped beside her, and
someone asked a question.
She stammered something, for
this was a man's voice, and June
was not habituated to encounter
strange man. But instantly, while
be used some persuasion, the found
hecaeU in the seat beside him.
w#
ATTEND MEETING
J. A. Best, Supt. Public Welfare,
Wayne County, went to Gastonia
Sunday to take two crippled chil
dren. He will also attend the 27th
Annual convention of the North
Carolina Conference of Social Ser
vice, in Charlotte, which convene;
Sunday night and runs through
Tuesday.
Mrs. Rutledge and Mrs. Campen
from the Department of Public Wei
fare, accompanied him. They wit
...» offered her his coat, but she
1 refused it Then this young man
i beside her turned out the dash-light
i so that darkness drew a protective
i garment over her, and she was
warm with gratitude to him. She
said: “Thank you—" She watched
him covertly, controlling her breath.
He asked some question, suggest
ing that she was afraid, end she
told him that she was not afraid.
Yet her knees were tlrenibling and
j her fingers pressad her palms.
He spoke again, but she did r.ct
hear him. She watched the road,
and at the beginning of the path
through the wood to Doctor Cab
ler’s house, she bade this young
: man stop the car. Ho did so, and
' she alighted, and ran awny along
, the path.
But hidden in the wood, she
stopped to look back; and she
stayed there till he drove on, watch
ing the headlights of his car till
their glpam was lost behind a screen
of trees.
When he was gone, she stood like
ore bereft, as though with him a
| part of herself had departed too.
i But then. In the darkness and the
rain, terror returned to spur her on.
She ran up the path and so came
pounding on the Doctor's door.
At length a flashlight’s beam
came down the stairs; she could see
it through the panel of the door. It
struck her in the eyes through the
glass; and at the same time the
door opened. The light was In her
eyes, and Doctor Cabler exclaimed:
f ".Inn.1 find bless melM
She whispered:
“Come quick. Doctor Cablerl”
“Come in, June," he commanded,
and led her Into the hall and shut
the door. “You're drenched. Whet
la it?"
“Oh, hurry, hurry!" sha cried.
“It's Mother. She's deadl"
The word on her own lips struck
her like a blow. She had not till
this moment shaped this word even
in her thoughts. “Oh. hurry," she
repeated; and thought in a dispas
sionate apathy that the injunction
was absurd. If her mother was
dead, there could be no reason for
haste. This had not occurred to her
before.
“Eh?" the Doctor exclaimed.
"Dead?"
"Yes," said June, fai an empty
tone. Even though the admission
convicted her of folly, convicted her
of having loat her wits, of having
run without tba slightest occasion
half a mils through drenching rain,
yet she bad no doubt th^t what s&l
said was true.
Kitty Leaford was dead. Of this,
now, June was sure.
(To Be Continued)
be back in the office Wednesday
morning.
GIFTS
J. C. Eagles of Wilson has do
nated one registered Holstein bull
I calf, one registered Guernsey heifer
calf, and one registered Guernsey
bull calf to 4-H Club boys of Wilson
j county. De’.naon Williamson of the
, Rock Ridge 4-H Club received the
j Holstein bull calf. The other two
animals will be placed later.
I
51DE DRESSlfNT WlO
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Be sure you side dress with Natural Chilean Soda.
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HATl&M-aztH
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Wt3. WDBO. W3FA. WAGE. HJUY. WJRD. WMCVWJDJC. K.WKB. WWL.
BJECOBO
Four-H. Club enrollment In the
United States reached a new high
In 1938, with 1,286 029 boys and Kiris
listed as members in 74,584 local
clubs. Aproximately 7.500,000 farm j
youths have been trained in this:
work since it was started in !9!4.
Moulding and Columns
Shingles and Laths
Lumber and Woodwork
i A. T. Griffin Mfg. Co.
BUILD
While The Weather is With You
Let us tell you how easily you can finance
a home oi your own through us
Citizens Building
& Loan Assn.
CHAS. S. NORWOOD. Secretary
Everyone Can Enjoy
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AMPLE STORAGE SPACE, carefully planned to
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ECONOMIES that include low food costs through
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ELECTRICAL DEALERS ant displaying ths 1939 Electric Refrigerators awl
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CAROLINA POWER & LIGHT COMPANY
^ACHIAPElECTRKITYCOSTSjgJESS
Opportunity will pass you—unless yon are prepared to stop it.
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INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENCE
BOX 899, SCRANTON, PINNA.
SCHOOLS
Without coil or obligation, pleat* tend tn« * cony of your bookltt, “Who Win* and
Why," and full particular! about the »ubject i/farf which I hire marked X:_
A«A<Wt
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OMtMar mmi BiJUm
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... ...
w_—.PrcitM fiririok...-—’
W. S. TAYLOR, Local Representative
Bov 783 Wilmington, N. C.