The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-04-26
NUMBER 2 MELROSE SQUARE.
A STORY IN TWO CHAPTERS.

was Us Stllt ana Sllent as III sne, tOo, Hdu
dozed herself off to sleep. 1t was, there
fore, an unpleasant shock to me when l
hfted the latch of the front door, expect
ing next ment to be in the street, to find
that it was locked and the key gone.
The dining-room, too, was in darkness,
the shutters being still up and barred;
and feeling Of nervous dread prevented
me from giving more than hasty glance
into it. preferred to boldly invade the
kitchen regions, and if l saw Mrs. Cath
ers, desire her to let me out by the area
door. She could hardly refuse, and if
she did, there were enough passersby at
'this time for me to easily attract some
ones attention. went down stairs ac-
eordingly. They were narrow stairs,
and though clean enough at present, had
evidently not been kept SO by previous
tenants, for they were stained with
blackish spots and patches nearly all the
way to the bottom, as though something
had been spilled on them, and soaking
into the wood, remained there. l no
noticed that the wall on one side had
been whitewashed for about three feet
up at much later period than the rest.
To my surprise, Mrs. Gathers was not
In the kitchen below; nor in her own
room, which adjoined it, and the door of
which standing open, showed me that
her bonnet and shawl were gone from
the peg where, on my previous visits to
the basement, I had always seen them
hanging. It flashed upon me then that
she had gone out on some errand of her
own, trusting to my being sound asleep,
and probably meaning to return before
the influence Of the narcotic had worn
off; and when, to my intense relief and
thankfulness, / discovered that she had
omitted or forgotten to fasten the area
door behind her, / felt as though heavy
weight had been rolled off my heart, and
q sudden resolution came to me to profit
by her absence, by endeavoring to dis
cover some clue, if any existed, to those
horrors nightly enacted upstairs. 1t
did not seem likely that I should; but
at least I had courage to try.
The kitchen and lower offices generally
had examined before, and found them
all alike, dreary in the dreariness Of dark
November days, rather bare, and very
clean. Mrs. Gathers room remained;
but that came under the same category.
There was not even anything lying
around in it. She, kept all her posses
sions in small trunk, which was locked.
There was no looking-glass in the room;
and the key was inside the door. Did
she fasten herself in at night, and remain
10, unmoved by any shrieks or cries for
help from up-stairs3 There was nothing
to be learned here.
had only one more place to visit, a
small yard at the back Of the house.
Originally, perhaps, it had been for
garden; for there was couple Of lilac
:. bushes and holly at one end of it; but
these had evidently not borne leaf for
years, and being coated with thick gar
ment of SCOT, stood up against the dark,
mildewed walls like specters. They were
high walls, 80 high that even if there had
been any sun it could hardly have forced
an entrance; and the ground beneath
was black, too, and sodden with moist
ure.
AT one side there was huge tub for
rain-water, and pile Of old bottles; at
the bottom, a worm-eaten, tumbling-to-
pieces summer-house. l do not know
what took my steps to the last-named
place. Standing there under the low
leaden sky, and half hidden by the spec
tral lilac-bushes, it presented an appear
ance even more gloomy, sinister and des-
olate than the rest; yet something within
me, something which l could not resist,
seemed to force me to the door and COM
pel me to look inside. There was moth
ing to be seen here at frst-nothing at
least, but pile of wood heaped up on
one side, and a rusty old chopper lying
across some billets, with which Mrs
Gathers had evidently been chopplng
them up for her fire; but as / stood gaz-
ing, something living seemed to move at
! one end of the woodstock; and to my
Y unutterable horror-a horror which must
\ have been felt to be understood there
hcame out large yellow cat very gaunt
|tand rough skinned, with an unusually
Psbig head and only one eye. -.-..
n For the moment ! thought should
have tainted again. This animal, hid
leous in itself, and the very fac-simile of
that whose horrible gambols had wit
apessed the previous night, seemed like a
ubart of that ghastly scene risen up again
I'm proof Of its reality; and for minute
br two the walls Of the building seemed
Ito swim around with me, and I was
forced to lean ON the wood-stack to save
myself from falling. Then I saw that
the ground where the animal had been
|rcrouching was followed into hole, part
Wy by her own claws, partly, perhaps, by
Ichopping bilIets on it; and at the pres
aent moment she had returned there, and
was licking and growing over bone,
which, from its whiteness and the earth
ION one end had been disinterred in the
aprocess. 1t was very small bone, not
ltbigger than that in q rabbits fore-leg or
| q human finger; and close by I saw q
/ CLEAN of something else, also white,
showing through the loosened mold.
Conquering my repugnance, / stopped
down, and with a shrinking beyond all
words, and which gives me a sick feeling
now to think Of it, drew out this white
r.. "a L. l..