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

Yes, can tell you story of my dear ole
friend Bayle; no one better. Some of my
friends here may have heard it before, bu
it will bear telling again. l can't say In
proud to tell it, because it's too sad an end
ing, as far as he was concerned, poor tel
low, though l myself had lucky escape.
James Bayle was a very peculiar man.
don't think any one understood him but my
self. He was certainly more open with MT
than with any of his other friends or ac
guaintances. 1t was three years ago, in
November, when he came up to London tC
stay with me in this very house. He used
to 60 out on long walks by himself every
day, and knew his object. for he had con
fided to me the fact that he was going to
marry a young girl somewhat below him
in station, and he was looking up house in
London, as he intended to work hard on
two or three journals. to the staff Of which
he had been attached.
The sort of house that he looked for was,
as you may believe, not very dear one.
He naturally wished for very quiet situa-
ton, and, as he was man who had always
lived in the country. and was very fond OF
flowers, he said he would put up with any
piece of ground to himself. He told me the
sort OF house he required. and told him
the districts in which he would most prob
ably find one. 1t was on Wednesday, re-
member, four days after he 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 a
little uneasy. He was a very shy man, as
YOU know, and very particular: the last
thing he would be very likely to do was to
be purposely late tor dinner, without giving
us any warning. We waited twenty minutes
and then sat down without him. He never
came back at all that night. nor the next
day. nor the next day after that: in fact, as
YOU all know. he never came back at all.
We went to the police office at once, and /
was very much amused at the theories set
up by the excellent detectives to account for
the disappearance. l told them l believed
it very likely that he had been looking for
house, or, if not, that he had gone to the
British Museum; but they got it into their
heads that he had been decOyed into the
slums of st. Giles or Westminster or he had
committed suicide; and nothing would dis
.suade them, at first. from these two inge-
NOUS theories.
studiOus, solitary habits, and rather eccen-
trio.
Yes, certainly" l replied.
Then, depend upon it," said the ser
geant, "he is in Regents canal or the
Thames"
The reasoning was SO unanswerable that
did no att,tapt to answer it; but deter
mined 10 test my own theory first.
Hitherto we had been able to find nobody
who had seen him. He knew very few peO-
pie i'll London, and he was not the sort of
man to attract attention. | began my en-
.deavOrs to discover his movements in rather
q novel manner.
| started every morning from my OWL
house at the same hour he had done.
stood for about five minutes in the street.
and then l set out in whatever direction
chance suggested to me. For eight days
walked almost fifteen miles day, looking
everywhere for any honest house to let
which would have bsen likely to attract
Bayle's attention, but did not get any
clue | found several which he had been
to, but not on the day upon which he disap-
reared. On the ninth day | started at the
same hour; this day / selected district
which knew to contain one or two houses
such as he required. | walked on in the
same unpremeditated manner, turning down
any street as chance led me- | was sery
much dispi,ited. SO much So Vh.tt haa for
gotten was hungry. when found myself
in very quiet part OF one OF the western
suburbs. l was just golug - 'Fy and ind
some place whore / could lunch, which
promised to be no easr matter, as there
seemed no shops or public houses ear,
when my eye caught very crazy-D"iing
board which was peering over the tInsy
corner of dead wall straight in front of
me. | walked up to it and read: This
eligible villa to let, unfinished with one
acre of ground stabling, etc. Terms very
moderate. Inquire within
l could only see the top of the house.
which seemed very low, and some little
way from the road. The front looked on