Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1872-01-04


the staff of which he had long been
attached.
The sort of house that he looked for
was, as you may believe, not very
dear one. He naturally wished for a
very quiet situation and as he was a
man who had always lived in the coun-
try, and was very fond of flowers, he
said he would put up with any incon-
venience so long as he could have a
piece of ground to himself. He told me
the sort Of house he required, and |
told him the districts in which he could
most probably find one. 1t was one
Wednesday, I remember, four days af-
ter be had been With us, that he went
out rather earlier than usual. We never
expected him to return very early but
when the dinner bell rang and we found
he had not come in, we felt little I'M
easy. He was very shy man, as you
know, and very particular; the last
thing he would be likely to do, was to
be purposeIy late for dinner, without
giving us any warning. We waited for
twenty minutes, and then sat down
without him. He never came back all
that night. nor the next day, nor the
day after that; in fact, as you all know,
he never came back ut all.
We vert to the police Office at once
and / was very much amused at the
theories set up by the excellent detec-
tives, to account for his disappearance.
told them that / believed it very
likely that he had been looking for a
house, or, if not, that he had gone to
the british Museum but they got it
into their heads that he had been de-
coyed into the slums of St Giles or
Westminster, or had committed sui
eide; ana nothing would dissuade
them at first from these two ingenious
theories.
They asked me if ne was not man
of studious, solitary habits, and rather
eccentric.
| answered; Yes, certainly
"Then depend upon it, said the
sargcnt, "he's III the Regcnt's Canal or
tho Thames.
This reasoning was SO unanswerable
that did not attempt to answer it,
but | determined to test my own theory
first.
Hitherto we had been able to find
nobody who had seen him. He knew
very few people in London, and he was
not the sort OF man TO attract attention.
! began MY endeayors to trace his
movements in rather novel manner.
| started every morning from nay own
house at the same hour as hc had done.
! stood for about five minutes in the
street, and then | set out in whatever
direction chance suggested to me. For
eight days | walked almost fifteen miles
day, looking everywhere for any
house to let which would have been
likely to attract Bayle's attention, but
| did not get any clue, | found sew
eral which he had been to, but not on
the day upon which he disappeared.
On the ninth day / selected a district
which | knew 10 contain one or two
houses such as he required. /
walked on in the same unprecedented
manner, turning down any street as
chance led me. | was very much dis
pirited, SO much so that | had forgot.
ten | was hungry, when | found my
self in very quiet part of one Of the
western suburbs. | was just going to
try and find some place where / could
lunch, which promised to be no easy
matter, as there seemed no shop or
public houses near, when my eve caught
a very crazy-looking board which was
peering over the dingy corner of a dead
wall straight in front OF me. | walked
mp 20 it and read: This eligible vii