Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1873-01-31
THE HAUNTED CLOSET.
TcoyTINUED FROM YESTERDAY.


instinctively started up and crossed
over to the opposite side OF the fireplace.
What is it. Louisa? ?" said Emma. ner'
vously. Il saw the door of the closet
OPEN"
Mr.. Walton closed his book and sat
looking attentiyely at the cupboard. And
it was while we were all thus, perfectly
silent and motionless, that sound broke
the stillness.-at first what seemed the
lingling of phials, and rafting OF chains.
and then the faint, uncertain sound OF
mufied voices which had heard more
than once before, all coming Enthusiastically
from the little triangular closet in the cor
ner.
40 Richard, do you hear?n gasped
Emma, Selling fast hold Of her husbands
arm. For myself, i came very near
screaming outright.
Hush be quiet" said Mr.. Walton,
And taking the lamp he advanced to the
cupboard, threw wide open the door, and
surveyed it infinitely.
1t was simply closet built OF deal
boards against the naked whitewashed
walls of the room. Three rickety ink
stained shelves were all it contained. Be-
tween the lower and middle shelves was
a strip of wood nailed against the wall, as
if to cover place, where, as we could
see, the plaster had fallen away; and be-
meath this strip could be discerned part OF
what seemed to be a rat hole. Besides
these, not thing was visible in the closet.
And yet as live, while we three stood
there gazing into the empty closet, from
its recesses came hollow laugh, and a
low, childish voice said plaintively:
"Three-all dead-poisoned y
Emma sank down, half swooning. Even
Mr.. Walton'sHface as fancied, became a
shade pale; and1hen we heard the voice
again:
BURY them-grave under the walnut I"
I looked again at my brother-in-law,
and saw his lips compress and kind OF
desperation appear in his face. He adj
vanced close to the closet, put his head al
most within, and shouted loudly and dis
tinctly:
WHO are you? Who is it that speaks ?''
In answer came shrek, loud and APP
palling, ringing in our very ears. Then
the same breath of cold air swept past,
followed by the violent shutting of door
and grating of key in a lock. We look
ed at each other aghast, but before we had
time to utter word, we were again star
tied by a different sound-that of chill
dren's cries, and footsteps hurrying along
the gallery to the room in which we were.
The next moment the door burst open,
and in rushed nurse, bearing baby in her
arms, followed by her assistant, dragging
the three elder children after her, all pale
and terrified, and Freddy in particular,
shrieking shrilly.
.'What is the matter? What has hap
pened!" screamed Emma, forgetting her
own recent terror in alarm for her chill
dren.
'Oh, master oh, missus!' gasped
nurse, piteously, her eyes rolling white in
their sockets, "a ghost! a ghost in the
nursery
"a ghost?"
''In the corner closet in the nursery. |
heerd it. we all heerd it! Master Fred
dy was looking in that closet TO see if
there were any mice in the trap that he'd
set, and somebody in the closet hollered
out, who are you? What are you talk
ing about? We all heerd itr'
Mr.. Walton turned around and once
more looked into the closet. Then TAX
ing the tongs from the hearth, he inserted
them behind the bit of board which l have
mentioned as nailed to the wall, and
wrenched it away, exposing, as he did so,
q small aperture surrounded by metal
lie ring.
II have discovered the mystery at last -
he said, turning to us with q smile. at
is no ghost, but simply speaking-tube.
Stay here, and when you hear the spirits,
place your month to this and answer
Them
lie left the room, and in few moments
we again heard the mysterious, sepulchral
voice in the closet, only much more dis
tinct now, since the board had been re-
moved.
'sHow are you all?"
summoned courage 10 answer, ''Mucli
better - And then there came low
laugh, ghostly enough, certainly. 20 have
caused our blood to curdle, had we not
been aware of the identity OF the appar-
ent ghost.
Aud so il was all explained, and the
mystery OF the haunted closet cleared up.
There was, as Mr.. Walton had said, a
speaking-tube communicating between
the office-room and the distant nursery
placed there doubtless by the eccentric
naturalist, DIR. Mather, for his own con-
venience and he on leaving the house,
had simply boarded over the mouth of the
tube. not dreaming of or Indifferent to
the consequences of this negligence.
The explanation of the various sounds
heard by as in the office-room is very sim
pie. The corresponding mouth of the
lube was in closet in the nursery, pre-
.cisely similar to that in the office. Nurse
stored in this closet the various cups,
phials, and so forth, used in the nursery.
and to secure these from the children
the closet was generally kept locked. 1t
was the opening and shutting of this clo-
set door, with the grating OF the key in
the rusty lock, that had SO often alarmed
me; and when it was open, and search
going on among its contents for some
special article, the noises thus made and
the words spoken in the closet, could be
heard, more or less distinctly in the office.
Also, when the closet door was suddenly