, 1880-05-10

poor thing has become mad from fright.
Oh, dear, what shall we do "ejaculated
Mrs. Jafae.
"I'm very sorry I asked her to sleep
here" stammereG Ca. tain JafHe apollo
getically to his guests, but I had no
idea that she was timid."
Who wouldn't be timid against q
ghost ?" exclaimed cne of the ladies',
moving toward the door with shud-
der, as if she feared to see the sprite
who had frightened Miss Mac Winkle
start up suddenly again. The other
ladies concurred, and, after another
quarter of an hour had been expended
in conjectures, the party filed back to-
ward the breakfast room. Appetites
had no. been destroyed, though they
were partly blunted by what had hap
pened, and Capt. Jafae requested his
wife to stay and do the honors of the
board.
He himself went to help his grooms
look after Miss MacWinkle. They
hunted high, low, far and nesr they
summoned the police to assist them
they set the telegraph wires to work
but all to no purpose. Miss MacWinkle
could not be found. Then river which
flowed near the house was dragged ;but
this, again, served nothing. 1t became
too obvious that poor Miss Mac Winkle
must have met with bad end.
Before two days had elapsed, the
whole country was made acquainted
with the sinister affair, and one more
was added to the list of mysterious
disappearance. There were some
frivolous. wags who did not scruple to
suggest that Miss Mac Winkle had eloped
with some adventurous swain who had
obtained ingress to her chamber by
means of rope ladder but this un-
generous rumor found small credenoa.
The most common opinion was that
Miss MacWinkle had jumped ont of her
window in fright, run to the river and
got drowned.
One peculiarly, however, struck the
police who were Investigating the case,
viz, this: That if the unfortunate
! lady had jumped out of the window
she must have fallen upon freshly
| turned hower-bed, a1d have left marks
on the mold. Now there were no
marks; and this puzzled the detectives
not little.
A certain member of the police force,
named Timsot, had been specially in
trusted with the conduct of the Mac
Winkle case and when all his re-
searches had proved Intellectual, he
asked that he might come and spend
few days in Capt. JafRs's house and
sleep in the apartment which Miss
Mac Winkle had occupied. This re-
guest was acce2ed to, and the detective
announced that he would lay himself
out to discover whether there really
was anything of a ghostly nature that
haunted the room.
He was rather tired when he went to
bed on the day of his arrival at Grab
tree Hall, but wishing to be ready for
action, he did not undres. he simply
threw himself on the bed with his
clothes on, revolver in his breast
pocket and lighted candle on the table
beside him. As his eyes were about to
close he wondered what the time was,
and, half rising to look at his watch, he
caught sight of clock placed on q
bracket in the wall just over the bed.
There was a peculiarity about this
clock, for it was surmounted with
wooden negro's head, whose tongue-a
very red one-protruded from his
mouth in a hideous grimace. Mr..
Timsot's curiosity was always excited
by little things as well as great, SO he
stood up on the bed to examine the
clock, and, doing so,- he pulled the
negro's head to see if it were movable.
Instantly giddiness seized Mr.. Tim
sot. The bed gave way under his feet,
darkness encompassed him and with
a horrible plunge he went head over
ears into black, icy water, which closed
above him with whirling noise.
Luckily Mr.. Timsot was good swim
mer, and he did not lose conscious
ness he struck out with both arms,
saw light, struggled on, and present
ly found himself swimming in the
river. "Ah," said he, as he reached
the shore, and regained his foothold
sit seems an armlet of the river runs
under Crabtree Hall, and Miss Mac
Winkle toek the same cath, expect, as
I did"
This proved to be the case. A few
days later il was ascertained that the
| crew OF lighter, steaming down the
river, had picked up the apparently
lifeless form of q lady who was floating
down stream in the dark. They had
picked her up, restored her to con-
sciousness and put her to bed. But as
| she was found to be in high fever they
were unable to ascertain who she was
until she became cured, some ten days
later. By this time. however, the
Lighter had got across the Channel and
was in foreign waters. It was from
Holland that Miss MacWinkle eventu
ally returned, clothed asd in her right
mind, to explain the accident that had
| befallen her and to VOW eternal enmity