The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1872-01-12

rang it. Five minutes elapsed before
any one answered the summons, and
then a man opened the door, and asked
me what | wanted. He was cunning,
sirty-looking fellow, with very peculiar
eyebrows, growing in patches, as if he
had had the mango. He looked as if
he had been drinking, but he did not
speak quick, nor was his gait or hand
unsteady, but the blood-shot eyes and
blotchy face made me feel sure that he
was not man should care to leave in
charge of ahouse. One other popularity
| noticed then, and that was the great
length of mis- arms, which gave him the
appearance of great ape.
He led the way down damp gravel
walk, overgrown with weeds, through
what had been a little garden. On the
right.hand side noticed large patch
of very rank grass round broken old
| sun-dial. | remarked to the man that
the soil seemed pretty rich there.
eyes," he answered, with kind of
hoarse chuckle, "the grass do grow
very thick and sweet just there; and it
ought to, considering what's under
meath"
"Why, what is underneath there?"
Clay, of course" he answered, with
another chuckle, and by this time
found myself at the front door of the
house.
1t was a singular little place. The
windows of what was probably the din
ingroom opened into a rickety, mouldy
verandah, which terminated at the
porch. This porch projected some little
way from the house, and at once struck
me as space very ill.utlized, since there
was no room above. Two urns, that
looked as if they were afflicted with
gangrene, surmoupted the front door;
the lattice-work that had once been put
up for the creepers was nearly all rotted
away. One or two chimneys were quite
ready to drop, and the whole place
looked asif it was builtof moldy cheese.
Not in very good repair this house,"
| observed to my hideous guide.
ooh, quite good enough. Only
wants little touching up here and
there
/ can't tell you when it was that the
peculiar feeling, which had taken pos
session of me ever since looked at this
uninviting property, pronounced itself
so strongly as to become a distinct sense
of horror. But it was so now, and as |
looked up at the puckered face of this
ape.like man, | saw something that
made me almost utter cry of dread.
But | restrained myself; | should not
have been such a fool any other
time, but | had been walking about for
seven hours, and my breakfast had
consisted of one cup of tea.
We entered the house, and in the
passage we found a woman waiting for
US. my wife," said the man, she
will go through the rooms with you ;"
and then he disappeared through the
house into the back yard.
The woman took me into the rooms
on the ground floor. | observed moth
ing remarkable about them, except that
they were very gloomy. There were
no rooms on the basement, except cell
lars. The kitchen, scullery, etc, were
on the ground floor. | saw that there
was yard, with stables and wash
house in it; went into the stable, and
found that it was little more than
shed; the wooden back abutted on
some waste ground, enclosed by the
low wall of the lane which have men,
toned before. Altogether, never
saw such lonely house so near the
busy part of the west end of London.
asked the woman how far it was to
Piccadilly, and she told ne only fifteen
minutes walk. She turned out to be
quite right, for | had wandered round
and round so much in that days ex-
petition, that | was much nearer
the civilized region Of Belgravia than |
thought.
The peculiar feeling which I have
mentioned was still strong on me.
was perfectly sure, that somehow or
other | had lighted on the real clue to
my friends fate. | dare say YOU will
laugh at me, practical old money-get.
ting fogy, when | tell you that felt,
as | 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 struggling
sort of building. The woman took me
through a sitting-room, which she
called the drawingroom, but which in
its present state was much more like a
lumber.room with nothing in it, and
through this, across passage to q
smaller room, which she and her hus-
band used as their dwelling room.
There were two children, Of very un.
prepossessing appearance boy and a
girl. They were fighting for something
when we entered, and we had hardly
got inside the room before saw that
the boy had wrested from his sister a
small pencil case.
What have you got there, my little
man ?" / said. Let me look" He
showed it ME with some pride. There
was no installing it. 1t was a some
what peculiar one, made of ebony and
silver, and | recognized it at once as
having belonged to James Bayle.
suppose my face must have betrayed
my agitation, for the woman looked at
me closely, and then remarked:
cts pretty little thing as little
Johnny picked up the other day when
he was out; if | could find who it be-
longs to, should be glad"
"Oh, it's not worth much," | said !;
" it's we'll it has fallen into such honest
hands"
We now went up three steps, and into