through the night air. Hubbard recognized it for that of an itinerant Free Methodist minister, whose church in Ovid he and his family occasionally attended.
The song rolling forth, as the Man of God drove along the highway in his rig, was Jesus, Lover of My Soul.
FOR the moment Hubbard shielded his face with an arm as if to ward off an invisible thing.
Then, bending over the prostrate form, he ran his hand inside the clothing to test the action of the heart. He performed the act mechanically, because he knew he had killed his man.
He discovered the handbag. Evidently Harper was on his way to Ovid to catch the train to the county seat for the trial on the morrow. This meant that he would not be missed by his wife for at least twenty-four hours.
The murderer studied his next move. Where to secrete the body? A piece of wood lay back of him, but he was aware that it was constantly combed by squirrel hunters. He thought of the railroad. Why not an accident? Killed by the very train he was bound for?
He started to lug the body toward the track which passed half a mile to the north. Realizing, however, that for the time at hand the distance was too great, he let the body slide to the ground. Next he stole along the twin fences to the highway and peered both ways. No one seemed abroad.
He came back on the dead run, and in twenty minutes he had carried the body to the Eldridge premises and flung it down the ancient well.
When he returned he found his wife and daughter together in the parlor, where with the itinerant preacher, all three were kneeling on the floor in prayer. Hubbard unceremoniously nudged the clergyman.
"That'll do," he said.
The minister rose, his tall, lanky figure towering over Hubbard.
"Brother," he began, in an orotund voice, "come with the Lord—"
"Yes. I know," returned Hubbard, with a patience that surprised his wife.
"But I've got something to talk over with my family." He paused. "Here," he added, feeling in his pocket and producing a small coin, "take this and go along."
When the preacher had left, Hubbard called to his daughter.
"Harper was gone when I got over to the fence."
"What kept you so long?"
"I walked over to the woods. There's a nest of coons. They're a-goin' to play havoc with the corn." He smiled unnaturally. "Look-a here! If we can catch 'em, I'll give you the money their pelts bring."
Hubbard divined that his acting was poor. Both the girl and his wife were frankly regarding him.
"Well!" he shouted. "What's the matter with ye?"
"Oh, nuthin', Pa, nuthin'," whimpered the girl.
"Then go to bed, the two of ye."
Next morning Hubbard started for the county seat, a ten mile drive. He returned that evening and complained that the case had been adjourned because Harper had failed to appear in court.
The following day he went back to his field far down the road for more ploughing. Twice he was called to the roadside by passersby to discuss the disappearance of Harper.
One morning a week later, when he came along the road with his team, he discovered the Harper child on the Eldridge premises. She was sitting at the edge of the well.
With a suppressed oath, he dropped the lines and half-walked, half-ran, to where the little girl sat.
"Didn't I tell you to stay away from there!" he exploded.
The girl stared at him, but made no move, though her lips quivered. Hubbard glanced back to observe the road. Then he caught her arm.
"Go home!" he shouted.
He spun her roughly. She continued to stare at him as she retreated homeward.
All that morning Hubbard worked his horses hard. He realized that he was eager to go back by the Eldridge dwelling. Promptly at twelve o'clock, therefore, he tied his team and started up the road. A flash of relief came to him when he did not observe the little girl. It left him cold, however.
"Eatin' dinner," he mumbled.
He moved off, without looking into the well. Until four o'clock that afternoon he labored. On his way home he discovered the girl again seated by the well. She was bending over and acting queerly.
Hurrying his horses to the roadside, he looped the lines over one of the posts in the old "snake" fence. As he approached, he saw her toss a piece of stone down the hole.
Hubbard waited until he was sure of his voice.
"Come with me," he said.
Gripping the girl he started with her toward her home but a short distance away. When they arrived the front door was ajar. A woman, with eyes red from weeping, looked at Hubbard in silence.
"Here!" he said gruffly. "This child ought to be kept to home. She'll fall into the well."
Mrs. Harper merely reached out her arms for her daughter. Hubbard remained standing awkwardly.
"Have you heard anything of Harper yet?" he asked.
"I don't want to talk to you," replied the woman.
Hubbard turned on his heel. Waiting for him by his horses, was the deputy sheriff. The two further discussed the disappearance.
"If you yourself wasn't so well known, Jeremiah," finally declared the official, "they'd sure be thinkin' you was in it some way."
"Why?" grunted the farmer, as he untied the lines.
"Well, everybody knows you an' Harper been lawin' it for years over that boundary line."
Hubbard achieved a laugh.
"I'll tell ye where Harper is. He's cleared out, that's what I think—deserted his family."
That night, and many following nights, Hubbard did not sleep. Some weeks later a tremendous electric storm broke in the night. One particularly heavy clap so startled the wakeful Hubbard that he leaped from his bed and dressed. In the pouring rain he started out.
Inevitably his steps took him toward the well. It was black, and he could not see at first. But another flash came, and he observed a strange thing:
The huge oak, standing at the side of the well, had been split in two by lightning, and one portion of the tree had fallen over the mouth of the hole.
NEXT MORNING Simpson, the man with the "tin Lizzie," stopped at Hubbard's place. He was a blunt-spoken, red-faced man whom Hubbard hated.
"That was a bad storm last night," he said. "The lightning struck the big oak tree by the well."
"What of it?" snapped Hubbard.
"There was a skeleton in the center of that tree," explained Simpson. "I was talking this morning with the sheriff over the telephone. He said seventy-five years ago a man was murdered in Ovid, and they never found his body. This skeleton must be his."
Hubbard cleared his throat sharply.
"What did you do with it?"
