The Pale Man Rises

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

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Mabry left the porch and looked out on the farm. He noticed the giant oak tree far away in the pasture, it looked very old, a poor elderly victim of the storm. "That tree looks rather old." Mabry said pointing at the downed gargantuan. Trumbo came into the yard followed closely by the SBI agent. "I'd wager the thing is thousands of years old. You got to have been around a lot of years to get that big." said the Sheriff. "Without a doubt." Mabry agreed. Turning his head a bit to his left he noticed the cattle barn at one end of the pasture.

"I see Mr. Reese had some cows." Mabry speculated. "Twelve as a matter of fact...they're down there right now...a neighbor Slocum is gonna take charge of 'em 'til we figure out how to dispose of the case." the Sheriff said. "That's where it probably started." he added. Mabry looked at him confused by the statement. "What started?"

"The argument." Said the Sheriff. "Argument?" "Well Reese and his boy were probably feeding them cows when something got started up...his pals might have been down there too for that matter."

"How do you know they were down there?" Mabry asked. "Well for one thing there was feed in the animals troughs and some bags of grain were freshly opened with buckets and tubs and such scattered about...yeah they were feedin' them cows alright. Man's got to feed his animals regardless what the weather is like. You can't let animals get off their schedule."

"That seems to be sound advice." Mabry agreed. "Well now I think I should have a look at that...do you gentlemen concur?" he asked the other two men. They looked at each other as if confused and then shook their heads in unison. "Yeah sure." Trumbo said.

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They walked to the bridge where Mabry halted and looked out at the tree once more. "Yes sir that is sure some old tree." he opined. "Yeah it's been there as long as anybody can remember. Hell I remember when all that land was forest. Well when they cleared it they left that old tree standing. I don't know if they did it because it just wasn't practical or just to damn expensive. Likely though because of the word carved into it, people thought it was important, that it was historical."

Mabry turned very curious now. "Word?" he raised his eyebrows. "Yeah...Manta...ah...Manta something like that. Hell I haven't seen it in years, but it's been there as long as the tree. Nobody knows for sure who put it there. Some say Indians, but most of the tribes had no written language. Some think that white folks wrote it there. Some even think they were descendants of the Lost Colony. Got no idea what it means though. Some professor was by here once taking pictures of it. I don't know what he had to say about it though." Trumbo admitted.

"I'd sure like to take a closer look at it...I'm kind of a history buff." Mabry said now. He seemed to be asking for permission to get out there in the pasture and look at the defeated tree. "Sure...by all means." Trumbo said.

They looked about the barn for several minutes. But Mabry didn't betray anything that he was thinking. Trumbo and Carter stood and looked about acting impatient because they weren't sure what they were doing there since it was obvious all that had occurred here were perfunctory chores. 

 After a moment Mabry went back outside. Trumbo and Carter followed and soon saw him down near the wire staring out at the downed oak tree. They went down to where he was standing. "One of them went to the tree." Mabry said. "Huh?" Sheriff Trumbo said now rather curious at the statement. Mabry turned about to them. He thumbed over his shoulder at the oak. 

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"Somebody that was down here went to the tree." he told them. "What...how do you know that?" Trumbo now asked.

"Did you or any of your people go out there?" Mabry now asked the Sheriff. Carter looked at the Sheriff with a disappointed expression. "No sir–saw no reason to." "I don't suppose there would really be any good reason to." Mabry said.

"That's what I thought, but why did you ask me that?" Trumbo offered. "Because either someone went out there some time back during another rain storm or one of the Reese's did yesterday morning. See right here on the wire." He then pointed to the middle strand of wire on the section of the fence where they stood.

"It looks like rubber. I'll wager if we find a raincoat in the house with some damage it probably will match this." Mabry said. "There was one in the dining room where we found Mr. Reese. It was on the floor and all muddy, but to be honest with you we thought it meant nothing except someone just threw it there." Trumbo explained. Mabry nodded as he removed the rubber fragment and wrapped it in a handkerchief. "Let's have a look at the tree now if you don't mind?" He then asked.

And so they ducked down as Clay Reese had and moved toward the tree virtually in the same line that he had went. After a short while they came upon the tree. Mabry studied the word the Sheriff spoke of and recorded it his note book. After a bit more of contemplative thought he went to the edge of the hole. Looking down he saw that a lot of activity had taken place down there.

"Look at this." He said to his two companions. "What?" They asked in unison as they joined him at the edge of the hole. "Down there." He said pointing down to where the outline of the pale man's body could clearly be seen. Also there were footprints all over the hole, some half full of water from the rain. Mabry looked at Trumbo.

"You sure none of your deputies came down here?" He asked the Sheriff once more. The Sheriff looked at him obviously agitated by the question once again. "Yes sir I'm sure." He said. Mabry nodded unaware that the Sheriff took offense with the question.

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"Damn it looks like somebody was down there having a rassling match!" Carter exclaimed. "Sure does...somebody even had a dog down there...see aren't those a dog's prints there near the edge of the hole?" Mabry asked. "Yeah, yeah, fact is it looks like the dog just stood there...you'd think a damn dog would have prints all over the place." Trumbo remarked.

"Odd, odd indeed isn't it? We've had activity all over this hole...someone had themselves a rest or for some reason laid down and suddenly a dog is standing there where the prints of someone that was barefoot was standing...notice that, there are two sets of human prints one with shoes on and the other one without." The federal agent now said.

Cyril Carter now looked over his shoulder to the west. The way he was stretching his neck it seemed as if he was somehow trying to look over the terrain until he had the interstate within his sight. "The road...ah...the interstate is just down there." He said now looking back toward the federal agent. "Do you reckon they could've come from there...some maniac from the road...some barefoot maniac with a dog?" Carter asked excitedly. Mabry looked that way and then said with no real conviction. "Could be maybe." He said.