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About The advocate. (Portland, Or.) 19??-19?? | View Entire Issue (June 22, 1929)
ILLUSTRATED FEATURE SECTION June 22, I»29 A STRANGE, GRIPPING, MYSTERIOUS SERIAL STORY f In T w elv e In stallm ent* . Begin* on tKi* page to d ay , C olum n 1 A )K<)M my earliest child I hood the eerie aspect f t aa] ol the old Selwyn limme and it* weird and lonely i*olation from it* neighbors, hail intrigued tny interest. My grandfather had been a friend and contemporary of Ezra Selwyn when they were both runaway slaves, he from his m aster's plantation in Virginia and Ezra from the big house of the same planta tion where he was a house servant. The two brave- hearted a n d upstanding youngsters, with the blood of sable kings of an ancient race firing their ambition, decided they would no longer submit themselves tamely to the yoke of bondage. They plan-] tied and executed a daring es cape. Safely they mudo their way to Canada and the bless ed boon of freedom. There they remained, working and hoping and saving until the «lay when a country freed from the stigma of slavery, once more beckoned their homesick hearts to the sun shine and beauty of its land of cotton and song. They re turned to settle once more in the country of their birth. A few years later their ways parted again for a brief time. The education they hud a t tained during their sojourn in Canada fitted them in a very peculiar manner for the place* that th«* new duy brought into existence. G randfather became one of the first school teachers of his own race for those less fortunate than he had been. Ezra Selwyn was chosen to represent his government as minister to the black re public of Haiti. terrified the young husband ran crying into the night. "M ary! M ary!” he cried, but only the soughing When he parted from my of the Thoroughly wind in the trees, and the drums, answered his cry. grandfather with his new bride for whom this trip was lowing the tragedy and part-fw as busy with his many newaing that she xvould go inside*darkness they were not un- to be a honeymoon, there was no happier nor more hopeful ly from bits pieced together duties in the government ser and get a wrap, she left him. like the white cerements of young man on earth than front the talk of the two loyal vice. The cool green fast For awhile he sat waiting the dead being waved from Ezra, so grandfather said' Haitians, who accompanied nesses seemed to have a for her. The minutes pass high hillside tombs by the when long afterw ard people' back to the country es strangly mystic lure for her. ed. The steady beat of the winds that flow between the spoke of the eccentric, half; him tate that had designed as Something of the mysticism drums sounded far, near, worlds. The room was empty. crazy obi mi*er who lived al a home for he the young bride, seemed gradually to grow farther, nearer, from above, Ezra ran to the window most alone—save for the two old Iluitian servants— in th e 1 when he should have been and spread to her husband as from below, from every and looked o u t: there was no gr«*at bleak house set so far recalled, was the traditional the days grew into weeks. where. That steady beat one in sight. The stone ser back among the huge trees story of her end t«>l«i in a fter The nearness of the jungle, flowed from all directions in vant’s quarters and the kitch surrounding it. years. The story 1 hearii ns the weird call of the voodoo to his brain— into his heart— en stared whitely through Mary. drums through the perfumed into his mind. It lured, it the darkness. There w’as no a child. Mary G rant, the girl Ezra! Kehind the detached kitch twilight as it was borne to mocked, it drowned him. It ray of light visible from their Selwyn married, was heauti-j en of the house where Ezra them on tr.e joft night winds. choked and terrified him in ¡blank windows. Thoroughly ful. There was never an and his bride were'seemed to call to some deep some wild primitive way that | terrified, the young husband other more beautiful than Selwyn settled stood the stone built •'•train of mysticism in both. he could not fathom. W here ran crying into the night. sin*. Her dark eyes looked out on the world with that servar nt*. quarters. A garden jf drawn was if.,tHey, " ere b.e in* was Mary? Why didn’t she “ Mary! M ary!” he cried, of themselves, strange magnetic lure of in «rf wild tropical luxuriance to some in spite eback? At last he could but only the sighing of the fate that ¡com ner spiritual sweetness. Her surrounded these. A long, waited them strange ¡stand no longer. It w as1 wind in the trees and the beyond the bor mouth was tender und her rambling verandah r a n ders of the safe, sane life foolish it but .a jjr e a t te rro r,drum!, answered cry lithe brown body was grace around the dwelling itself on they led. seemed to grip him. ful as wild things are grace three sides. The house faced ’M ary,” he called, and Diaron, the old man who RESTLESSNESS. ful. The fawn and the doe the fashionable street that again "M ary!” But no « ^ came back to with him when he could move no more lightly in led into the centre of the At last one night, as they answered him. Only the afterw*rd*. foun/ hini ^ the soft green shadow of the town. Beyond the garden sat listening to the drum drums beat on and on. ing so, when the mists of jungle fastnesses that came and gradually ascending to beats, Mary suddenly became Something like a menace morning broke over the still up to the back door of the the mysterious and blue- restless and strangely agi seemed to hover over him. green fastenesses the dark house set apart for the U. S. black mountains that towered tated. She had been alone He rose from his chair in forests in which he of searched, minister and his wife, which in the distance were miles of all day and something of the frantic haste and entered the ever crying and calling that she occupied with her hus jungle, as virgin as the fast jungle in which she had been house. Within all was silent. name. band. in those all too short nesses of those primitive an wandering for hours seemed The window opening onto The government sent out days of her happiness, and cestors of the people that in to have permeated her blood. that side of the verantiah fac searchers. Great rewards his. habited the island. Here of Abruptly she got up from Partly by things that Ezra ten Mary liked to wander in her chair and with a casual ing Mary’s room, was open were offered, but when Ezra jísí curtains. In the «. Am,;;,. snid in those early days fol- those first days while Ezra word to her husband explain- the white Continued oil page « i ' m T % CREEPING THING CORA JEAN MOTEN