The Preacher of Cedar Mountain: A Tale of the Open CountrySeton, Ernest Thompson
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The Preacher of Cedar Mountain: A Tale of the Open Country
Seton, Ernest Thompson
Clergy -- Fiction; Great Plains -- Fiction; Western stories
They went first to Shay's attorney, but he dismissed the idea as
chimerical, so they dropped him from their plans. Together they set to
work, with little hope indeed, but it was at least better to be up and
doing. Judge Squeaks's office was small, easily entered and productive
of nothing. The police would give no information and seemed little
interested in the new theory. Squeaks's lodgings yielded nothing new,
but they found that Belle's theory was right; he had also had a room on
the floor above. The woman in the gray cloak had called on him once or
twice in the previous month and had come once since. She was a sort of
janitress, as she had a key and straightened up his room. There was no
hint of help in this. There was only one of his haunts that they had not
thoroughly examined, that was the club. There was no need for that, as
they knew every one that came and went, at least by sight.
Mrs. Hartigan was sitting in the club office at the back of the building
next day when Skystein came in, and sat down to go over some club
letters, officially addressed to him. As he read he made a note on each
and sorted them into three neat piles. Belle watched him with interest
that was a little tinged with shame. It is so human to consider a man
inferior if he does not speak your language fluently, and the early
impression they had gotten of Skystein gave them a sense of lofty pity.
But it did not last. At every board meeting they had found reason to
respect the judgment and worldly knowledge of the little Hebrew; those
keen black eyes stood for more than cunning, they were the lights of
intellect. Belle turned to him now. If any one knew the underworld of
the South Ward it was he, and what he didn't know he had means to find
out.
She openly, frankly, told him all she knew and suspected. He heard her
at first doubtingly, then with growing interest, then with a glare of
intense attention and conviction at last. His eyes twinkled knowingly as
she expressed her opinion of the attorney. Skystein uttered the single
word "fixed." Then he tapped his white teeth with his slender forefinger
and rose to get the membership roll. He looked over it, but got no help;
there was no one entered within the last few months that they could not
fully account for.
They sat gazing in silence through the window into the adjoining reading
room when an elderly woman came in and sat down. She wore a gray cloak
and large goggles.
"Who is she?" said Belle. "I've seen her often enough, but I don't
remember her name."
"Dat's Mrs. Davis: she's been coming only about five months. She was one
of Squeaks's members."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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