Page:Rideout--Beached keels.djvu/212

198 still smouldering. Lee had been there till noon or thereabout.

But next instant he lost all use of reason. The door into his mother's room stood open, splintered about the lock. With the cry of an animal, he darted in, and saw everything in a state of indescribable breakage, as if men had been wrestling about there. Some one had climbed in through the window, shoving the table aside. The knitting lay flung in a corner, and beside it the envelope to his letter, ripped open. The floor boards and the rugs were smeared with muddy tracks.

Marden shook his fist at the cracked ceiling and at the heavens beyond it.

"He 'll pay for this!" he cried, choking. "He 'll pay for this!"

Then, as he stood in dumb rage, the tears running down his cheeks, he mechanically straightened with his foot the deerskin rug that lay by the bureau. The movement uncovered something small that shone on the floor. He picked it up, but dropped it as if burned. He had seen it shine before. It was three links of silver chain, on a silver bangle