The Project Gutenberg EBook of Charred Wood, by Myles Muredach

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Title: Charred Wood

Author: Myles Muredach

Illustrator: J. Clinton Shepherd

Release Date: August 23, 2005 [EBook #16585]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARRED WOOD ***

Produced by Al Haines

CHARRED WOOD

BY

MYLES MUREDACH

"_O, Designer Infinite, must Thou
then Char the wood before Thou
canst limn with it?_"

ILLUSTRATED BY

J. CLINTON SHEPHERD

GROSSET & DUNLAP

PUBLISHERS --- NEW YORK

Made in the United States of America

Copyright, 1917

by

The Reilly & Britten Co.

Published October 17, 1917

Reprinted December 10, 1917

Reprinted October 11, 1918.

Charred Wood

CONTENTS

I THE LADY OF THE TREE
II MONSIGNORE
III UNDER SUSPICION
IV KILLIMAGA
V WITH EMPTY HANDS
VI WHO IS RUTH?
VII BITTER BREAD
VIII FATHER MURRAY OF SIHASSET
IX THE BISHOP'S CONFESSION
X AT THE MYSTERY TREE
XI THIN ICE
XII HIS EXCELLENCY SUGGESTS
XIII THE ABDUCTION
XIV THE INEXPLICABLE
XV "I AM NOT THE DUCHESS!"
XVI HIS EXCELLENCY IS WORRIED
XVII THE OPEN DOOR
XVIII SAUNDERS SCORES
XIX CAPITULATION
XX THE "DUCHESS" ABDICATES
XXI THE BECKONING HAND
XXII RUTH'S CONFESSION
XXIII CHARRED WOOD

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

On Killimaga's Cliff. . . . . _Frontispiece_

Something white swished quickly past him and he stared,
bewildered . . . She had stepped out of nowhere.

Saunders looked long and earnestly at his face. "He's the man!" he
announced.

"God rest her," Father Murray said after what seemed an age to Mark;
"it is not Ruth!"

[Transcriber's note: The Frontispiece and the "Something white..."
illustration were missing from the book.]

Charred Wood

CHAPTER I

THE LADY OF THE TREE

The man lay in the tall grass. Behind him the wall of the Killimaga
estate, from its beginning some fifty yards to his left, stretched away
to his right for over a thousand feet. Along the road which ran almost
parallel with the wall