New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-02-04


entrance, which had not seen before, and
after some little trouble l found the bell
and rang it. Five minutes elapsed before
| any one answered the summons, and then
| man opened the door and asked me what
l wanted. He was a cunning, dirty looking
| fellow, with very peculiar eyebrows, grow
ing in patches, as if he had had the mango
He looked as if he had been drinking, but
did not speak quick, nor was his gait or
hand unsteady, but the bloodshot eyes and
blOtchy face made me feel sure that he was
not a man that should care to leave in
charge Of house. One other popularity l
noticed then, and that was the great length
of his arms, which gave him the appear
ance of a monstrcls ape.
He led the way to damp gravel walk
overgrOwn with weeds, through what had
been little garden. On the right hand
side noticed large patch of very rank
| grass around broken sun dial. l remark
ed to the man that the soil seemed pretty
rich there.
"Yes," he answered, with kind of hoarse
chuckle, "the grass do grow very thick and
sweet there; and it ought to. considering
what is underneath"
"Why, what is underneath there
"Clay, of course" he answered with an
other chuckle. and by this time found my
self at the front door of the house.
1t was singular little place. The win
dows OF what was probably the dining room
opened into riCkety mouldy veranda,
which terminated at the porch. This porch
projected some little way from the house,
and at once struck me as space very i'll
utilized, since there was no room above
| Two urns, that looked as If they were at
| flicted with gangrene, surmOunted the front
door; the lattice-wOrk that had bsen put up
for the creepers was nearly all rOtted away.
One or two chimneys were quite ready to
drop and the whole place looked as if it
was built of mouldy cheese.
Not in very good repairs, this house."
observed to my hideous guide.
| "Quite good enough. Only wants little
| touching up here and there
| l can't tell you where it was that the
| peculiar feeling, which had taken posses
| sion of me ever since looked at this unin-
viting property. pronounced itself so strong
| ly as to become distinct sense of horror.
Bnt it was 80 now, and as looked up at
the puckered face of this ape-like man, l
saw something that made me almost utter
| a cry of dread. But l restrained myself.
l should not have been such fool at any
| other time, but l had now been walking
! about for seven bOurs, and my breakfast
| had consisted of one cup of tea.
We entered the house, and in the passage
we found woman whiting for US.
"My wife," said the man; ''she will go
| through the rooms with you," and he then
| disappeared through the house into the
| back yard.
The woman took me through the rooms
| on the lower floor. l observed nothing re-
narkable about them, except that they
were gloomy. There were no rooms in the
basement. except cellars. The kitchen,
culinary, etc., were on the ground floor
/ saw that there was yard, with stables
and wash-hOuse in it. l went into the
stnhl ovl hat 10
than shed: the wooden back abutted on
some waste ground, inclosed by the low
walls of the lane, which / have mentioned
before. Altogether, l never saw such a
lonely house SO near the busy part of the
west end of London. l asked the woman
how far it was to Piccadilly. and she told
me only fifteen minutes walk She was
quite right for had wandered round and
round SO much in that days expedition
that l was much nearer the civilized region
of Belgravia than thought.
The peculiar feeling which l have men,
toned was strong In me. was perfectly
sure, somehow or other, that had lighted
on the real clue to my dear friends fate.
dare say you will laugh at me. practical
old money-getting fogy, when tell you
that l felt, as L assembled the staircase of
this house, that James Bayle was clOse be-
side me.
AS | said, there were only two stories to
the house, but it WAS 9. struggling sort of
building The woman took me through
sitting room. which she called the drawing
room. and which. in its present state, was
much more like lumber room. with moth
ing in it, and through this, across pass
age. to a smaller room, which she and her
husband used as a dwelling room. There
were two children of very unprepossessing
appearance boy and girl. They were
fighting for something when We entered,
and we had hardly got inside the room be-
fore saw that the boy had wrested from
his sister small pencil case.
"What have you got there, my little
man ;" said. "Let me look
He showed it to me with some pride.
There was no installing it. 1t was a some
what peculiar one, made of ebony and sill
yer. and l recognized it at once as having
belonged to James Bayle.
l suppose my face must have betrayed
my agitation. for the woman looked at me
closely. and then remarked:
''It's pretty little thing as little Johnny
picked up the other day when he was out;
if could find who it belonged to should
be glad, ~
well it has fallen into such honest hands,
We now went up three steps and into a
larger rOOm-a bedroom.
This is the best bedroom she said. |
L
servant, or the nurse and maid, could sleep
very comfortably"
saw nothing in the room worth noticing, |
and followed my conductress into the next |
one. These rooms all had doors opening
into the passage. I thought l heard the
handle of the door move as we came in. |
There was peculiar smell here-a very |
sickly smell.
began to feel uncomforta BILE, and was |
at loss how to act. There was no reason |
to disbelieve the wOman's statement about |
the pencil case, and yet felt sure that it |
was not true. l went to the window in |
order to gain time. heard the passage |
door open, and when l turned round the
man was standing there.
Il hope the gentleman likes the house,
he said. ''It's little damp. but it's very
cheerful in the summer, and SO quiet
Il suppose there is not much more to see.
It's rather gloomy place..
well, you see it's a dark sort of day,
but with little trouble it might be made a
beautiful villa"
The man had moved to the door leading
into the bedroom, as if he was going
through. When he said this. he turned
round from the door; he had one of his long
arms in the pocket of his coat. which was
open. noticed tat many of mis- waistcoat
buttons were torn off.
stood rejecting moment-calculatin
the chances should have in struggle with
him. They seemed in his favor.
II think may as well be going: if YOU
will give me the address of the landlord,
will write to him."
Here's two more nice sleepin g-rooms on
this floor, said the woman, and she opened
door at the further end of the room which
had not seen. l followed her down two
steps, into fair-sized room. The sickly
smell was stronger there. There was stain
IN the middle Of the floor which looLad -. |