◆ SpookStack

“The (aor of fhe dtudy Hew open CHAPTER I ‘The: Devil’s Go-Between — HE room was a tibrary -partly ‘availed with ‘bodks: set in‘recvessed miches iand ‘#iterspaced with panels of rich English walnut. ‘The Anouse ‘stool two hundred feet from the ‘street ‘at ‘the ‘loop of a winding drive- way, ‘deep in ‘its wide acre sof Jawn . Hotted with ‘trees, Shrubs and fancy ‘flower ‘pots. “The*town was Royalton, an exclusive suburb of Chicago. i The hour was the hour of «dusk. The occupants of the librany were three-men, of strikingly different ‘typés and ‘appearance, . ne “The First man, till -anit ‘thirty:five,” Aressed ‘in ‘gray tweeds, strode -up-and: ‘Gown -‘in ‘front of ‘the fireplace Qike animal in a cage. His ‘face was wor -with worry <arifil it looked years olde ‘than ‘his body. The second man, ‘bi ‘rather than ‘tall, sat stiff and -erect ‘inia! feather arm ‘Chair, ‘his -civilian serge! ‘outlining ‘his powerful. frame with all the authority of'a military uniform. The third man, thin ‘and dark ani gusty -clericals, who -occupieil a seat-i tess ‘Hignity, was an ‘individual “known ‘to ‘Chicagd’s -churth-wise press ‘and: -public-as‘the “Reverend Reuben Acton, «meek director of an obscure mission in the “lims. More simply andl :saltily "acknowledged as “The Parson” 2by his