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About Lincoln County leader. (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 1906)
The Trail of the Dead: fcfoft STRANGE EXPERIENCE ' ? OF DR. RORFRT MARIAN i By B. FLETCHER ROBINSON and J. MALCOLM ERASER (Copyright. I90S. by Joseph B. Bowie) CHAPTER III. In two strides my cousin was on the teep and narrow stairs. For a man of his age and size he mounted them with a surprising activity". Indeed, when I gained the lauding he was already standing at the door of the room. He held up his hand with a warning ees ture. I stepped up to him softly and peeped over his shoulder By the side of an old sofa placed against the wall of a room, half bed chamber, half study, Professor Marnac crouched on his hands and knees. lamp stood on the Boor at bis elbow. He was working with feverish haste, yet with a certain method, moving the lamp onward as his examination of the section lit by its immediate ravs was completed It was an odd sight, this silver-haired figure that crept about, peeping and peering, like some species of elderly ape. So absorbed was he that it was nigh on minute before, with a swift sideways turn of the head, be caught sight of our faces in the doorway and ross to bis zeet. "I can find no trace of it," said he, smoothing back his hair with a sigh it is excessively annoying." "Of what, may I ask. sir?" I queried "Of my signet ring. Mr. Harland A valued possession which I would not lose for fifty pounds." "Pray let me assist you." said I. step ping forward and raising the lamp. which the professor had replaced on the table. ' No, no, Mr. Harland. Enough has been done; In the presence of death we must forget such trivialities. Besides although it was on my finger when I entered the house, it may have been cropped in the hall or on the stairs, do not doubt that Hans will find it." The professor spoke in so resolute a fashion that politeness did not demand that I should press the matter. My cousin had already passed behind a great screen of stamped leather that cut off the bed from the rest of the apartment. .Marnac had stepped after him, and I though at a slower pace, followed them To be honest, the events of the evening Bad disturbed me not a little. I bad grown suspicious, uneasy; and this an uoyed me in that I was without reason able cause for such a frame of mind Granted that the professor had dis played oddities of demeanor, yet he was notoriously an eccentric. And if my cousin hau become taciturn, if his po- liteness rang Insincerely, the death of his old friend "Stand back, Herr professor! stand back, I say" It was Uraden's voice, stern and de cisive. 1 sprang to the corner of the screen and peered into tht darkened alcove beyond. Upon his, death-bed pillows the calm and simple face of poor Von Stockmar .gleamed like a mask carved in white marble. But neither of the two men who confronted each other across the body looked upon It. Uraden, a grim and resolute figure, stood holding a common wooden match-box in his huge hands. He had opened It carelessly, for cheap sul phur matches were scattered on the sheet before him. Marnac's face I could not see, but in the pose of his back and -shoulders there was something feline something suggestive of an animal about to spring. r or a second or two me tnree or us stood in silence, i iy cousin was the first to break it. "Pray do not let us detain you, Pro lessor Marnac," said he. "Should we chance upon your ring, believe me, it will be sate." The professor straightened' himself with a little gesture of submission and stepped back Into the lamplight. His hand was on the latch, when he turned upon us for we had followed him with a face deformed with the most ma lignant fury. "Au revoir, my friends," he cried. "I wish you a pleasant evening." And then a fit of laughter took him smothered, diabolical merriment that broke out in oily chuckles like water gurgling from a bottle. The door closed upon it. We stood listening as it grew fainter, fainter, until It died away in silence on the lower stairs. 1 "Turn the key, Cousin Robert. But no; after him, lad, and bolt him out of the house. He'll be burning it down, else." Graden was Inexplicable; but I ran to obey. As I reached the hall, I heard the clang of the street door and the squeak ing of the bolts as Hans shot them be hind the departing visitor. When I re-entered the room I found the screen pushed back against the wall, and my cousin, in his shirt-sleeves, lean ing over the bed. He barked at me over his shoulder to sit down and keep quiet, and I humbly obeyed him. Once or twice he turned to the lamp which he had at his elbow, and I caught a glimpse of a magnifying glass. Presently he rose, and, carrying the lamp In his hand, commenced a circuit of the room, lin gering now and again to examine some object. ' At the dressing-table he paused for several minutes, using the magnify ing glass repeatedly. But shortly after wards he threw himself Into a chair be side me with the air of a man whose work is done. "It's no aisrespect to onr little Her mann that I mean," said he, pulling out a big briar, "but smoke I must" Ha aat Ultra pufflnj for a minute or two, his head sunk forward, his eyes on the floor. I watched him expectantly, "It's a great gift, is observation," he began. "It makes just the difference between mediocrity and success in game- hunters and novel-writers. In painters o pictures and explorers of the unknown lands, where a man has never a map to help him. And this same trick of ob servation has given me some very re markable results this evening; and how remarkable you will realize when I set them out in proper order. You've logical head. Cousin Robert, and I want you to give me your fullest attention, Contradict me if I overstate the case. "Fact the first: That a certain cele brated scientist, Rudolf Marnac, had ill feeling a very ill and evil feeling towards a certain brother-professor, one Hernia nn Von otockmar. h act the sev- ond: That Von Stockmar died sudden ly." "Of a natural cause, as certified by a competent physician," I added quickly, "Exactly. Fact the third: Ma rnac. who considers you a deserter to the Stockmar camp as, indeed, I gather from your own story appears In your rooms to Inform you of the sudden death of his enemy. Now, why should he do mat 7" "He is an eccentric. A sudden whim perhaps. We were very intimate once, you must remember." "Though hardly so now, from his man ner of regarding you when he first an nounced himself this evening." "He might have caught what we were saying. Listeners hear no good of memselves, but that does not teud to im prove their tempers." "Well, let that pass. It brings us to iact number four: He tells a deliberate lie." "A lie! But when?" "The man was worth studying. When I first saw him this evening, I ran my eye over him. I especially noticed his bands their suppleness, their delicate color, their lone Dreueusile fineers. do not doubt that he is very proud of them. He wore no ring it is not the custom of those who deal with germs to so adorn themselves. What was he looking for so anxiously in this room, if it were not a ring? uy did he leave us in the hall that he might conduct this search before our presence disturbed mm?' "I cannot suggest an explanation; but really, Cousin Graden, you seem to be weaving a most unnecessary tangle. cannot imagine what result you expect to ODtain. "At conviction for murder." CHAPTER IV. I stared at him in tha found amazement. ies. murder. rVmnln PnWr a A. I . . .... iiDerate and cold-blooded a doing to death of an innocent man as has ever befouled a corner 01 God's fair world." He rose from -. rhnir and tilrm'o1 heavily up and down the room. The veins started in his forehead; his huge bands knotted themselves tensely. "Listen. This afternoon a man lay asleep on that couch in tha corner Wa know the manner of man a keen in vestigator, an indefatigable worker, an honest fighter: but one who hurl n done In all his life a mean or lirnnhla action. There comes a creak nnnn tha stairs, the door is opened softly, a head peers in. He the murderer enters the room. He knew the custom nf the h in thiB warm September weather: the aoors open, tlie old servant asleep, the master tatting his reiruinr k , Tinw far is he a criminal, how far a luna tic? Is this act premeditated, or the sudden tempting of opportunity? Who can say? It is enough that in his dis eased imagination he has come to regard the sleeper as an enemy who maliciously set himself to destroy his theories and to bring ridicule on the laborious work of years. His desire for revenge is con centrated on the man before him. How the 'thing' came into his session I cannot guess, thouch thnt should be a point easily discovered. He himself mav have nhfalneri if fmm k t " - Hi 111 rica, or It may have come Into his hands Dy cnance, as the chief of the Entomo logical Museum. Rut he haa It .ofo enough shut up in the tin box which fell irora ma pocket in your rooms. The spring of the lid was defective, you may remember; it is that same defective spring that will hang him. He stands over there. linfnnln or. A watching. There Is no sound; the sleeper will not woke. Ha nnnna tha na i,n the dressing-table and lifts the 'thing' with tweezers for every hair of It has its poison. With scissors he cuts off some score of hairs, catching them in the crease of a folded sheet of note paper. He replaces It in tha mo ,i closes the lid. Like an ugly shadow he flits across to the conch, kneels by its side, and one, two, three times blows the hairs from the creased paper across the intake of the aleenar'a tipoofh tr turns, snatches up the case from the table, and is gone. In five hours Profes sor Von Stockmar Is dead of Inflamma tion of the lungs. There Is not a doc tor in all Germany who would chal lenge that dlarnnnla. Tn nina hnn.. r- ' - A 1 Vl fessor Rudolf Marnac Is accused by me, nenry urauen, or murder." "But this dendlv 'thlnr'!" T -l-.t iu a & wiiu a sinking horror at my heart. "This Deasi, reptns, insect what la it? Where m it now r I Vnm .... L. V t 1.1. . "usnw no iuru am nngers into his pocket and drew out the same wooden match-box that I had seen him with by the bedside of the dead man. He slid it half open and tapped it sideways on the table under the lamp. A round, fluffy ball rolled out and lay motionless. Suddenly a little black head protruded, a score of tiny feet paddled into motion, and across the table there rrent a hair caterpillar a loathsome, disreputable object, for across Its back lay a ragged scar, where the hairs bud been shorn away. "Do yon recognize the sneeies?" In a faint-hearted W8V I le.lneil nnrncta i to grasp it, but with a sudden motion he brushed my hand aside, "I see you do not," said he grimly "It is common enough in South Africa With the end of a match he carefully pushed the Insect back into the box. ana replaced it in his porket. the luck was against Marnac," he continued. "Not for One moment An T suggest that otherwise I should have sus pected the truth. To begin with, the de fective spring of the cane allowed the caterpillar to escape while he was bend ing over poor Hermann. After he had done his awful work he slipped It back 1 4T1 1 1 - . . uauiy into nis poeuet. tie never real Ized what had occurred until, upon accl dentally pulling It out with his hand kerchief in your lodgings, he found it empty. It was for that reason he searched so anxiously. What became of it did not matter so long as it was not found in this room; though, as a matter of fact, there was very small danger even tnen or.lt affording a clue And now we come to a stroke of abominable luck, of which Marnac has every right to complain. I found the caterpillar on the sheet of tha h,i where it had crawled in its wanderings! But that was not the worst of it. for I happened to be the one man in all Heidelberg who knew of iu ncin!!.ir properties; who knew that its hairs are slightly poisoned, sufficient indeed to raise a nasty rash on the hand; who knew that the old-time Hottentots em ployed it for removing their enemies by blowing the hairs into their lungs. I took out a match-box, emptied it, and collected the caterpillar. I was closing the box when I looked up and saw Mar nac watching me with a shocking ex pression, which could hardly have dis torted the face of a perfectly sane man. however provoked. Nearly every mur derer has a screw loose somewhere; but, In my opinion, Maniac is in an unusually bad way. It may turn out more of an 'asylum than a gallows business, after all." "But the details of the scene you pic ture; how did you obtain them?" "I am a quick thinker, and the events of the evening began to arrange them selves In a sort of sequence, crowned by the discovery of the caterpillar. The inference to be gathered from them was obvious. I examined the nostrils of the dead man, and found four of the eater oillnr hairs cauuht therein. On the ilraaa. iag-table lay an ordinary pair of nnll scissors. Two hairs were jammed where the blades met. On the creased sheet of naDer. which I found behind the eminh there was no sign: but the use tn whii-h it had been put was plain. From Hans I knew tha custom of tha house- tha sleep after -the midday meal, the open doors, the opportunity. Is the mutter plain to you?" "What are you going to do?" It was all that I could say. "Nothiug to-night. To an near at German police-station at this hnnr with such an extraordinary story would be for two foreigners, at least tha height or absurdity. Besides, there is no hurry Marnac won t budge. He ll sit it out never fear." One o clock clanged out frnm tha steeples as I bade good-night to Graden at the door of my lodgings. He had al ready secured a room iu a neighboring hotel. "Have VOU a lock nn vnnr heri-rnnm Qoori- said he. I believe so." 'Well. Use it to-nlirht. Wa'va an iiirlv customer to deal with; and the worst of It is that, unless I am much mistaken, he knows how much we know." I watched him as he rolled iw a gigantic figure in the moonlight, waving the thick stick he carried. Never had my stairs seemed so uncomfortably dark, never had they creaked behind me so mysteriously. It was with a sigh of re lief that I gained mv room and liv a quick glance assured uiyselt that I was aioue. It seemed that I had onlv lust dronned off into dreamland for. indeed, sleen had been hard to won that nieht when a knocking at my door brought me from mV bed. T nnlnnlrnil anil nnanml t Cousin Graden filled the foreground. I didn't think lied throw up the sponge," said he. "But he has, none the less. Marnac has bolted!" "And youV" "I shall follow." So commenced thosa atranpa wanrie. Ings which I shall entitle "The Trail of the Dead." (To be continued.) 3 Narrow Eacape. "I can cure you, I believe," said tha young doctor, "but you must drink no coffee " 'I never do drink coffee," interrupt ed the patient "E-r, don't interrupt me. As I was saying, you must drink no coffee but purest Mocha. You must drink a lit tle of that every morulng." Philadel phia Press. itn w 1 1 r ii ninnnrinH.H ; ux ri i V3 n rvf U L I i U C 1 1 a n. mil j I ! Clod Maahrr, Leveler and Drag. This clod niusher, leveler and drag can ulso be used for mushing down cornstalks and weeds. Cut off a log ubout twelve Inches In diameter thut will Kpllt straight through the middle nicely, take off the burk from both pieces, that will leave one flat side and one rounding side to each piece; get Koine old half-Inch rod irons, six pieces about fifteen inches long, have taps on one end and hook about two Inches long, bent on the other end ; bore two auger holes In each piece a foot from each end; put the hooka with taps through holes. Get two pieces of old log chains, with three links each, which will fasten the two pieces of timber to gether. Bore two wore holt-s'Ia one of the nieces about two feet from each end, mid take one long trace cbuln and fasten to doubletree. Letter A shows shiile of the rods. If you -want to GOOD FIELD CONTRIVANCE. make it heavier, drop a pole on tlie chains between the logs. This will make as fine a drag, clod crusher, land leveler, stalk and weed knocker us you would wish to use. Cheap Fnel Alcohol. Penaturlzed alcohol will probably be come another great product of the southern states. It Is claimed that cot tonseed oil machinery is perfectly adapted to making industrial alcohol Troin the potato. If this Is successfully proven, the many cottonseed oil mills of the south, which are Idle each sum uier season for lack of material, will be able to operate all the time and keep their employes together. Furthermore, being already euulnned with the ma chlnery, they will, no doubt, be able to manufacture the alcohol very cheanlv Farmers would also be benefited by the Immense demand for potatoes that would result In Cuba alcohol Is rro- duced and sold from twelve to fifteen cents a gallon, and it is said to make an excellent fuel for running engines. It produces no soot or dlsngreeable odors. When the law recently passed by congress to denatur'zu alcohol in the United States becomes operative it is expected greatly to Increase the .use of the article both for fuel and otber purposes. The War o Make Hena Moult. One of the achievements of modern poultry keeping Is that of forcing a hen to doff her old coat, and grow a new one before the time when she would do ao naturally. Many hens shed their feathers so late In the senaon, natural ly, that cold weather overtakes them before they get new suits, consequently they seldom begin laying before spring. If the moult can be hastened so that a new coat of feathers Is grown and the laying can be started before cold weather, the prospect is good for a supply of eggs during fall and winter. The result is usual v acoomnllsJied by cutting off nil meat and mash foods, putting the hens on short rations of grain for a week or so to stop the lay ing, then allow more liberty and feed a full ration high In protein. This loosens the old feathers, which drorc off aulcklv and starts a rapid growth of the now. A liberal allowance of beef scrap Is essential, and linseed meal is an advan tage. Sunflower seeds are also good during the moult Enemy, Dansrerona Corn Peat. The cornstalk borer has Infested ?a rious parts of the count) for many years, but hns not done great damag in most parts of the corn belt It haa begun to appear in Iowa and Kansas in the last two or three years. It Is a large, white, brown-spotted caterpillar which bores into a stalk of young corn. When fully grown it bur rows down into the tap-root and in the spring transfcms to a pupa, from which the adult soon emerges and laya Its eggs on the young corn near the ax ils. Tlie young larvae hatching from them bore Into the stalk and upward through the pith. When fully grown they bor outwnrds to the surface, making a hole, from which the moth escapes and trans forms to pupa in the burrow. This In sect is two-brooded, the second brood feeding on the old stalks, generally be tween the second Joint and the ground, and becoming full grown about harvest time, when they go Into winter quar ters. When corn was seriously Infested last year and the stalks left standing a second Infestation may be expected this year unless the farmer has raked and burned, a method which we have always suggested when the cornstalk were known to harbor any kind of In sect iiests. Corn is too good to be with out Is full Buiply of enemies, which at tack I from the very time It Is planted in the ground until It is in the full ear. Valne of Hairy Product. There were 12,147,304,5uO pounds of milk and 588,18(1,471 pounds of cream used in 1004 In the manufacture of 551,278,141 pounds of butt-r. aia.fuuv. 290 pounds of cheese and 303,485,183 pounds of condensed milk. These fig ures are pnrt of the census ef manufac tures for 1005. The total cost of the materials used in the Industry was $142,020,277, while the value of the pro ducts was $1(18.182,780, an Inerense ol the former of 31.3 per cent, und of tha latter of 28.0 per cent The number of establishments dropped from 0,242 to 8,02(1, while the capital Increased 30 per cent to $47,255,550. There were 3,507 salaried officials and clerks and 17,557 engaged In the manufacture of these articles. These received salnriea and wages amounting to $9,789,030, Arranging; Larare Kettle. Thia Illustration gives a plan to s1 up a kettle In butchering time which la much better than the old way with post and pole. Take one and one-half- HOW TO SET TUB KETTLE. A Deep One. "Senator Slye advise all young men to be honest" ' "Well?" . "But he's an old grafter." "Just so. And he wants to rWa competition in bli line." Philadelphia Bulletin, Dodder Alfalfa's Tim worst enemy to alfalfa la dod der, a yellow twining parasite that lives on alfalfa and clover and rapidly destroys them. The seeds are small and vellow and most of the alfalfa sAada from the West are Infested with dod der. The New York station Bays that tlie dodder seeds can be removed by sifting the seed through a sieve having twenty meshes to the Inch. Careful seedsmen will sift the seeds, but fann ers should be on their guard against common aeeda that mar be on tha market Inch old wagon tire to the blacksmith shop and get a ring made the size of your kettle, with three legs welded to It and you can move vour kertln an place where wanted, and nothing is 1 your way to go around It Tape Worm In Tnrkere. The presence of the tapeworm ma be recognized through the indolent, drowsy spirits of turkeys Infested by It; a careful examination of voldlmra will rveal Its presence, as those In- rested will pass small portions of tha worm. Powdered male fern is an ef. fectlve remedy, and may be adminis tered in doses of from thirty eralna to one dram of the powder; or of tha liquid extract fifteen to thirty drons. This should be administered morning and evening before feeding; the mini mum dose to the younger, Increasing the dose as they grow older. Oil of turpentine Is an excellent remedy against worms of all kinds which In habit the digestive organs of poultry. A common remedy for the removal of worms from fowls is one drop of kern. sene oil night and morning. Thia should not be administered to the very young, but may be used with Impuni ty after they are a few weeks old. Sllaare for Beef Animal. The Virginia Experiment Station haa Just issued a bulletin on feeding silage to beef animals. It concludes that silage after all will enable the feeders to maintain their animals at a lower cost and to secure greater gains than they have heretofore obtained ; that animals to be fed for Immediate slaughter can safely receive silage as the sole rough ness. Animals so fed will kill out a high per cent of dressed meat, will help hip well, and will show a superior finish to animals fed on dry, ooaraa. rooghneaa,