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"Nobody living in it?" "No-o." "Got the key to it?" Here was the question direct. If he answered in the affirmative the next utterance of the Powless man would be a command to be shown the interior of the house. Jed was certain of it, he could see it in the man's eye. What was infinitely more important, he could see it in the lady's eye. He hesitated. "Got the key to it?" repeated Mr. Powless.
"Does this man make them himself, I wonder?" She seemed to be addressing her husband, so Jed did not answer. "Do you?" demanded Mr. Powless. "Yes," replied Jed. Mrs. Powless said "Fancy!" Mr. Powless strolled back to the window. "This view is all right, Mollie," he observed. "Better even than it is from the street. Come and see." Mrs. Powless went and saw. Jed stood still and stared miserably.
"Which don't you know, whether you go into the house at all, or how you get in without a key?" "Yes, er er that's it." Mr. Powless breathed deeply. "Well, I'll be damned!" he declared, with conviction. His wife did not contradict his assertion, but she made one of her own. "George," she commanded majestically, "can't you see the man has been drinking. Probably he doesn't own the place at all.
And," his voice rising in desperation, "neither has anybody else." Mrs. George Powless went a few moments later; before she went she expressed her opinion of Mr. Winslow's behavior. Mr. George Powless followed her, expressing his opinion as he went. The object of their adjuration sat down upon a rush-bottomed chair and rubbed his chin. "Lord!" he exclaimed, with fervor. Mrs.
Jed swallowed hard. "Well, ma'am," he faltered, "I I'd like to, but but the fact is, I " "Well, what?" "It ain't my house." "Isn't your house? George," turning to Mr. Powless, "didn't I hear this man distinctly tell you that this house WAS his?" George nodded. "Certainly, my dear," he declared. Then turning to Mr.
Powless remained by the door. He spoke first. "You own all this?" he asked, indicating the surrounding country with a wave of his cane. Jed nodded. "That house, too?" waving the point of the cane toward the Winslow cottage. "Yes." "How old is it?" Jed stammered that he guessed likely it was about a hundred years old or such matter. "Umph! Furniture old, too?" "Yes, I cal'late most of it is."
Barbara asked numberless questions concerning each and chattered like a red squirrel. Her mother showed such a genuine interest in his work and was so pleasant and quiet and friendly, was, in short, such a marked contrast to Mrs. George Powless, that he found himself actually beginning to enjoy the visit.
He shone with prosperity and sunburn, she reeked of riches and talcum. They were just the sort of people who would insist upon hiring a house that was not in the market; its not being in the market would, in their eyes, make it all the more desirable. Jed had seen them before, knew they were staying at the hotel and that their names were Powless. He remembered now, with a thrill of alarm, that Mr.
"Of course I shall not," she declared. "I am flattered to know that you consider Barbara and me preferable to Mr. and Mrs. Powless; but even there you may be mistaken, and, beside, why should you feel you must endure the lesser evil. If I were in your place I shouldn't endure any evil at all. I should keep the house closed and empty, just as you have been doing."
Reuben H. Morley, now secretary-treasurer of the Province of Nueva Vizcaya, who lived nearly a year in Tulubin, two hours from Bontoc. December 14 Mr. William F. Smith, an American teacher, was sent to Bontoc to open a school. Early in 1902 Constabulary inspectors, Lieutenants Louis A. Powless and Ernest A. Eckman, also came.
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