Chapter 7
When Frank Shabata got home that night, he found Emil's mare in
his stable. Such an impertinence amazed him. Like everybody else,
Frank had had an exciting day. Since noon he had been drinking too
much, and he was in a bad temper. He talked bitterly to himself
while he put his own horse away, and as he went up the path and saw
that the house was dark he felt an added sense of injury. He
approached quietly and listened on the doorstep. Hearing nothing,
he opened the kitchen door and went softly from one room to
another. Then he went through the house again, upstairs and down,
with no better result. He sat down on the bottom step of the box
stairway and tried to get his wits together. In that unnatural
quiet there was no sound but his own heavy breathing. Suddenly an
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