The Argosy — page 69: what you’re looking at

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

THE ARCosy : The Miller's Revenge. 59 barred with iron. As Lebrun’s slow mind mastered these facts one by . one, he burst into a cold sweat, and looked fearfully around. No ordi- nary human being could have got at the sack to untie it; ergo, it must have been untied by the agency of witchcraft. Such was the first thought that evolved itself out of the miller’s mind. As he stood there, in the ghostly gray of the early morning, it did seem to him quite possible that some power more than human might be granted to those who had sold themselves to the Evil One, and that he was the victim of a malig- nant trick, which had its origin in some such compact. “ He took a step forward, and peered closely into the open sack, and then he started back indismay. The sack had not merely been opened, but some portion of the contents had been stolen: a quantity of flour had been scooped out, probably by a handful at a time, the mark of four outspread fingers being still plainly visible on the surface of what was left. In an instant, the witchcraft theory was brushed like a cobweb from the miller’s matter-of-fact brain. A thief, and a merely human thief, had been at work on his premises during the past night, His pocket was touched, and that was enough to rouse his worst passions. ‘“‘< Gaspard ! Gaspard !’ he called out, hoarsely, ‘ make haste hither.’ ‘‘There was something in the old man’s voice that brought Gaspard at once, half-dressed as he was. ‘ Yes, my uncle, here I am,’ he said. ‘‘¢ Who has touched this sack P—hast thou? Who has taken of the contents ?—hast thoue’ demanded the old man, fiercely, as he pointed, with a quivering finger, to his violated property. ‘““*¢No, my uncle, certainly not I; that you know sufficiently well, without asking the question,’ answered the astonished Gaspard. The two men spoke habitually in a patois of Norman-French, although neither of them was at a loss to express himself in English when the necessities of the case required that he should do so. “¢Who, then, has touched itPp—and where is the thief?’ asked Lebrun, as with glaring eyes he gripped his nephew by the wrist. “Gaspard shook his head, and gazed helplessly around. If his uncle’s superior wisdom was at fault in the matter, how was it likely that he, a comparative ignoramus, could throw any light upon it? “Neither could Pierre Lebrun himself, as it tured out, throw any light upon the matter. The premises were thoroughly searched for some traces of the thief; but, for once, the miller’s low cunning was com- pletely at fault, and he went to bed that night a morose and baffled man. ‘The one point of the case that puzzled both uncle and nephew was as to how the thief had obtained both ingress and egress, without in the least interfering with either window or doors. It was a point that drove sleep, except in brief, weary snatches, from the pillow of Pierre Lebrun. If it was possible thus to enter his mill without his cogni- zance of the mode by which such entry was effected, what portion of his comicaocks (GO)