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Dark Hollow by Anna Katharine Green
page 42 of 361 (11%)
And now this faithful friend was dead, and it was he who must bear
it alone,--alone! How could he face it! He sought for no answer,
nor did he allow himself to dwell for one minute on the thought.
There was something else he must do first,--do this very night, if
possible.

Taking down his hat from the rack he turned and went out again,
this time carefully locking the door behind him, also the first
gate. But he stopped to listen before lifting his hand to the
second one.

A sound of steady breathing, accompanied by a few impatient
movements, came from the other side. A man was posted there within
a foot of the gate. Noiselessly the judge recoiled, and made his
way around to the other set of gates. Here all was quiet enough,
and sliding quickly out, he cast a hasty glance up and down the
lane, and seeing nothing more alarming than the back of a second
officer lounging at the corner, pulled the gate quietly to, and
locked it.

He was well down the road towards the ravine, before the officer
turned.

The time has now come for giving you a clearer idea of this
especial neighbourhood. Judge Ostrander's house, situated as you
all know at the juncture of an unimportant road with the main
highway, had in its rear three small houses, two of them let and
one still unrented. Farther on, but on the opposite side of the
way, stood a very old dwelling in which there lived and presumably
worked, a solitary woman, the sole and final survivor of a large
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