All-Story Weekly, March 1, 1919 — page 145: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

a > o« . 2, - “You scared of bears?” he Secinsted suddenly, looking up at her. “Oh, yes, indeed.” “T ain’t,” he declared. “ They’s a bear round here, but I ain’t scared of him.” ~ “Of course not. You’re a boy, and boys are never afraid, like girls and women. Have you seen the bear?” . “No, ma’am. But Mr. Tilley—” Knock hesitated guiltily as the name passed his lips. “Ves?” said Miss Dean, encouragingly. ‘“‘ Well, he’s seen where it makes tracks in the ground.” “ How wonderful! Is he going to kill it?” ‘No, ma’am, At any rate, he ain’t goin’ to kill it right off. He’s goin’ to make a picture of it first. -Then maybe my pop Il kill it.” Miss Dean nodded ina satisfied manner, of which Knock took no notice. “ An’ if you’re scared of bears,” he added, , warningly, “ you better keep away from that walk up by the spring, ‘cause: that’s where its picture is goin’ to be took.” Miss Dean knew all that she wished and began a significant examination of the con- tents of her purse. “Say, I promised not to say sellin’ ” re- marked Knock. “ You ain’t goin’ to tell Mr. Tilley I told you?” E oaieae not. It’s a secret between us. And you really didn’t tell me anything, Knock, because I saw it right inside your head all the time.” ~ Knock stared at her with uneasy eyes, then put on his hat and pulled it down over his ears. He did not omit, however, to take what she offered, and if it was only a dime he consoled himself with the thought that he really had not told her anything she did not already know. Having thus obtained confirmation of a _ suspicion, Miss Dean retired to the cottage, so that she might give uninterrupted con- sideration to several circumstances that had recently come to her notice. She wanted, if possible, to set one thing into its correct relation with another and thus discover what it was all about. Tilley, the naturalist, was in an unusually disturbed state of mind. He had set a trap, only to discover that it had been sprung 2 P fied him, of course, was the fact that an. essential part of the trap had been carried = away. He asked Knock Gatdcuinly if he had revisited the scene and had been assured, with complete truthfulness, that he had not been near it since the night before. If the plate-holder and its contents had not been missing Tilley would have been inclined to persist in the experiment; but there was something uncanny and even sinister in the disappearance, particularly when taken into account with the fact that the flash had been fired. Not feeling that he was in a posited to make inquiries, the naturalist kept his own counsel; but it was a restless counsel, shad- — owed by a consciousness that the watcher i . was watched. The Grouch had certain theories of his own concerning the affair of the birch wood. He guessed, correctly enough, what the blinding flash had meant, but he could not be certain as to the author of it, unless it was Miss Dean herself, who was the most frequent user of the spring walk, in which she had come to assume a sort of proprie- tary interest. Just what she intended to photograph he had not the least idea. It struck him as rather a grim joke that she had fallen a vic- tim to her own preparations. When he re- flected upon that for a while, it occurred to him as quite unlikely that she would for- get having set such a trap, so that he wound up by doubting whether she had anything whatever to do with it. That, of course, reopened the whole field of speculation again. One thing only he blamed himself for— he had failed to return to the spot after leaving the lady at her cottage. Such a visit undoubtedly would have cleared : up everything. As things stood now, he could only await developments, and he did not await them with equanimity. He was standing in the orchard when Miss Dean returned from her trip to the village and. he heard her singing as the buckboard passed along the road. without caching anything, What mysti- 3 It was =< = = clear that she had made a complete recov- ery, a fact that surprised him somewhat : 3