tone shaking his head meanwhile as who should say let no man contradict me for i won t believe him that john was in amazing force to and fit to tackle a chief justice the stranger suffered a short pause to and then asked abruptly what do you mean more than you think for friend returned john perhaps there s more meaning in them words than you suspect perhaps there is said the strange man but what the devil do you speak in such mysteries for you teu me first that a man is not alive nor yet dead � then that he s not dead in a common sort of way � then that you mean a great deal more than i think for to tell you the truth you may do that easily for so far as i can make out you mean nothing wh so you mean i ask again that returned the landlord a little brought down from his dignity by the stranger s is a story and has been any time these four and twenty years that story is solomon s story it belongs to the house d nobody but solomon has ever told it under this roof or ever shall � that s more the man glanced at the parish clerk whose air of consciousness and importance plainly him to be the person referred to and observing that he had taken his pipe from his after a very to keep it alight and was evidently about to tell his story without further gathered his large coat about him and shrinking further back was almost lost in the gloom of the spacious chimney comer except when the flame struggling from under a great weight almost it for the time shot upward with a strong and sudden glare and his figure for a moment seemed afterwards to cast it into deeper obscurity than before by this flickering light which made the old room with its heavy and look as if it were built of � the wind roaring and howling without now rattling the latch and creaking the hinges of the stout door and now driving at the as though it would beat it in � by this light and under circumstances so solomon began his tale it was mr mr s elder here he came to a dead stop and made so long a pause that even john grew impatient and asked why he did not proceed said solomon dropping his voice and appealing to the post office keeper what day of the month is this the nineteenth of march said the clerk bending forward the nineteenth of march that s very stranger in a low voice they all and solomon went on it was mr mr s elder brother that twenty two years ago was the owner of the which as joe has said � t you remember it joe for a boy like you can t do that but because you have often heard me say so � was then a much larger and better place and a much more valuable property than it is now his lady was lately dead and he was left with one child � the miss you have been inquiring about � who was then scarcely a year old although the speaker addressed himself to the man who had shown so much curiosity about this same family and made a pause here as if expecting some exclamation of surprise or encouragement the latter made no remark nor gave any indication that he d or was in what was said solomon therefore a� ed to his old companions whose noses were brightly by the deep red glow firom the of their pipes assured by long experience of their attention and resolved to show his sense of such behaviour mr said solomon turning his back upon the strange man left this place when his lady died feeling it like and went up to london where he stopped some months but that place as lonely as this � as i suppose and have always heard say � he suddenly came back again with his little girl to the bringing with him besides that day only two women servants and his steward and a gardener mr stopped to take a at his pipe which was going out and then proceeded � at first in a tone occasioned by keen enjoyment of the tobacco and strong at lie pipe and with increasing distinctness � bringing with him two women servants and his steward and a gardener the rest stopped behind up in london and were to follow next day it happened that that night an old gentleman who lived at row and had long been poorly deceased and an order came to me at half after twelve o clock at night to go and toll the there was a movement in the little group of listeners sufficiently of the strong any one of them would have felt to have turned out at such a time upon such an errand the felt and ood it and pursued his theme accordingly it w� i a dreary thing especially as the grave was laid up in his bed from long working in a damp soil and sitting down to take his dinner on cold and i was consequently under obligations to go alone for it was too late to hope to get any companion however i wasn t unprepared for it as the old gentleman had often made it a request that the bell should be as soon as possible after the breath was out of his body and he had been expected to go for some days i put as good a face upon it as i could and myself up for it was mortal cold started out with a lighted lantern in one hand and the key of the church in the other at this point of the narrative the dress of the strange 