VII
WHO WAS LUCAS MALLORY?
WELL, war makes funny things to happen. Ben Crider's tavern is straight down the valley, southward, from here. And though the Criders had lived there about as long as we had lived here, I had never seen their house from here, even in winter-time, owing to the trees being so thick around it. But, one night, I saw a light in that direction. Even then I wouldn't have noticed it, I expect, if it hadn't been behaving so funny. It went around in circles, then right, then left, then up and down, and to all quarters of the circle, and in all sorts of combinations of them. I thought it was some boys, maybe, playing with firesticks—as they often used to do in the hills about here. Next day I could see the window in the gable of the Crider tavern, for the first time in
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