bed-room door. When he found he could not get in that way, he went outside, and Anethe saw him on the corner of the house. She next halooed, Louis, Louis, Louis, a good many times, and I jumped to the window and looked out, and when he got a little further I saw him out the window, and he stopped a moment out there.”
“How far from the window was he when he stopped?”
“He was not far from the window; he could have laid his elbow right that way on the window. Maren then illustrated this gesture for the court.
Yeaton asked: “Who was that man?”
“Louis Wagner.”
“Go on. What else took place?”
“And he turned around again, and when Anethe saw him coming from the corner of the house, back again with a big axe, she halooed out, Louis, Louis, again, good many times she hallooed out Louis, till be struck her. He struck her with a great big axe.”
“Did you see that part of her person the blow took effect?”
“He hit her on the head. He struck her once, and she fell down. After she fell down, he struck her twice.”
“Well.”
“And back he went on the corner again, and I jumped out, and told my sister to come, but she said, I am so tired I can’t go.”
“Which sister was that?”
“Karen. I told Karen to come; she said, I am so tired I can’t.”
“You jumped out where?”
“Out through my bed-room window, and I ran down to the hen-house where I had my hens, and opened the door and thought of hiding away in the cellar. I saw the little dog coming, and I was afraid to hide away there because he would look around, and I was afraid the dog would bark, and out I went again. I thought I would run down to the landing-place, and see if he had dory there, and I would take the dory and draw to some island. I looked down the dock, but I did not find any boat there, so I went around. I got a little ways out from the house, and I saw he had a light in the house.”
“Go on, and state what you saw or heard.”
“He had hauled the window curtains down too. I did not haul them down, but he had them hauled down before I got into the kitchen. I forgot to state that. I went down on the island, ran a little ways, and heard my sister haloo again. I heard her so plain I thought she was outside of the house. I ran to find myself away underneath the rocks on the island.”
“How long did you remain there among the rocks?”
“The moon was most down, and I staid till after sunrise, about half an hour after sunrise.”
“What relation are you to Anethe and Karen?”
“Anethe married my brother, and Karen was my own sister.”
Beyond the harbor, the sky blackens and hangs in sheets. The sun, which is still in the southeast, lights up all the boats in the harbor and the buildings on Star with a luminescence against the backdrop that is breathtaking. We can actually see the front moving.
The rain hits Rich’s face and washes over his brow, his eyes, his mouth. Drops hang on the tip of his nose and then fall in rivulets down his chin. He has to narrow his eyes into slits, and, as he holds the tiller, I wonder how he can see at all. The T-shirt he has so recently dried drags on his chest from the weight of the water.
I sit with my feet anchoring the poncho over the cameras. I have taken my glasses off, and I am trying to shield my eyes with my hands. All at once, there is a green wall beside us, the hull of the boat. Rich touches my knee. I shake my head.
A figure looms above us, and a hand reaches down.
“Give me the cameras first,” Thomas shouts. “I’ll take them in.”
23 September 1899
WHEN I FINALLY understood, on the beach, that Evan had brought a wife with him to America, I was at such a loss for words that I was unable to express anything further there on the shore, and it wasn’t until some time afterwards that I had the strength to make a proper greeting to the woman, who, I must say, was possessed of such an astonishing beauty it was an effort to draw one’s eyes away from her. It was a beauty the chief components of which are