He has been that way for over a
week. But for the last two days he has been--well, different. He seems
to be troubled and--and suspicious."
"Suspicious? Suspicious of what?"
"I don't know. Of every one."
"Humph! Well, if he would only begin to get suspicious of Marietta and
her spirit chasers I should feel like givin' three cheers. But I suppose
those are exactly the ones he isn't suspicious of."
Lulie again glanced toward the parlor door.
"I am not so sure," she said. "It seemed to me that he wasn't as cordial
to them as usual when they came to-night. He keeps looking at Marietta
and pulling his beard and scowling, the way he does when he is puzzled
and troubled. I'm not sure, but I think something came in the mail
yesterday noon and another something again to-day which may be the cause
of his acting so strangely. I don't know what they were, he wouldn't
answer when I asked him, but I saw him reading a good deal yesterday
afternoon. And then he came into the kitchen where I was, took the lid
off the cookstove and put a bundle of printed pages on the fire. I asked
him what he was doing and he snapped at me that he was burning the words
of Satan or something of that sort."
"And couldn't you save enough of the--er--Old Scratch's words to find
out what the old boy was talkin' about?"
"No. There was a hot fire. But to-day, when the second package came,
I caught a glimpse of the printing on the wrapper.
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