Argosy, Volume XXIII — Index Page, 1897 — page 166: what you’re looking at

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

736 | HOODOO SAM. Pigs and calves had not been the only prey of the alligator demon. A deeper horror had attached to the Sink, since one day two years before, when achild had disappeared, after having been last seen playing on the bank of the lagoon above the Sink. The lagoon had been thoroughly dragged, but the body had never been found. ‘The alligator leaves no bones after his feast. Was this the fate of little Rob? The thought overcame Hetty with horror. She cowered back from the edge of the Sink and crouched on the bank, trembling. In another moment she had got upon her feet and was running along the path toward the house. ‘There was stilla hope. Rob might have come while she was away. When she was almost at the gate she met her father and brother return-. ing from the hunt, Nathan, the elder, carrying, as his trophy, a great turkey gobbler that hung by its legs from a stick slung across his shoulders. ‘Why, sis, what’s the matter ?’’ he exclaimed. She had stopped before them, white and breathless. ‘“Rob,’’ she gasped. ‘‘I can’t find him; his fishing rod’s at the Sink— maybe he’s come home though.”’ ‘“ No, he ain’t,’’ spoke up a tramp boy, who had been hired to pick beans in a neighbor’s patch. ‘‘ I’ve jest come from the house an’ Rob ain’t there. Las’ time I seen him he was goin’ to’ards the Sink; that wus whilst Hardy wus talkin’ to you at the winder.’’ ‘* Hardy Brock at this house—talkin’ to Hetty?’’ ‘“Ves,’’ went on the boy, delighted at causing a sensation. ‘“ An’ when I went long by the winder I heard him say he wish’t Rob wus dead,” so as Hetty could go off with him to Californy.’’ ‘Then he’s made way with Rob—the scoundrel !”’ ‘‘No, no!’ cried Hetty. ‘‘ He never meant it. He was mad; he didn’t know what he said. Oh, boys, oh, father—don’t quarrel, don’t take up time, but hunt for Rob. Hunt everywhere. Find him, for mercy’s sake, find him.’’ There was no need to urge them. The child was the idol of the house. Hate and anger were sunk in anxiety. The search began at once. Loud blasts on a horn summoned the neigh- bors. Before the sun went down they had scoured the pine woods and the belt of swamp, and dragyed the Sink and the lagoon for many yards. But save the fishing rod and the little catfish no trace was found of Rob. He had fallen in the Sink while fishing and been devoured by the alligator —this was the belief of all but the Darke brothers and their father. They held to the suspicion that Hardy Brock had a hand in the child’s disappear- ance. ‘They had met his indignant denial with sneers and threatening looks. He had been the most active of those hunting for the child, though he kept apart from the Darkes. It was after sundown when the searching party came through the swamp along the lagoon. ‘They would go home and get lanterns and torches. The search would go on that night in the swamp farther down the lagoon—in the faint hope that the child had wandered so far. Eomichooks =) (E(0)