Litchfield enquirer., 1881-01-27

1 rOrDldQen the house where his mother lived the young man changed. People spoke of hi l black looks, of his hard ways, of his cruel
 cynical speeches, and some predicted 6 bal 1 end for him. 4 , ,;
 Meanwhile. Miss Roupel, now left alone b, her mothers death, married MT. Egerton, man. from monetary point sf view, scarce 1 lY more eligible than the steward. He was Lieutenant in the Navy; | but as he had noth ing in the world but his pay, they carried ou I Mrs. Roupel's plan of letting their house fur l nished, believing it would bring them sufi
 cient income to enable the young wife to liv, in comfort while her husband was away iron her. But, as Andrew remarked, if this wal her belief, she must have been often 'ssore pinched," for the house could have brought ir very little. 4-'-E I thanked him for his story. 'sNow," ]
 said, "you must do something more for me Go to the village at once. Find the csrpen
 ter and blacgsmith. Tell them I want then lay l will pay them we'll for their work
 Doyou understand?" For the old man wa
 staring at me as if he thought had takel
 leave of my senses.
 T understan'," he said slowly. But wha will you be wanting with them, masam ?"s
 'sYou will know all in good time. They
 must bring their tools. Now go, Andrew, gt quickly. And mind, Andrew" added, '.say
 nothing to anyone of your errand, and bring
 the joiner and the blacksmith by the back en
 trance, for do not wish them to be seen com
 ing here to-day by everybody" ,..a...., ....
 Notwithstanding these bold words, must confess that when Andrew started on his mes
 sage, and was left alone-for the ayah had gone down to the 4village-I felt a little uu. easy did not believe in spiritual presences. but did believe in wickedness driven to des
 peraton. was bidding defiance to a foe of
 whose resources was utterly ignorant. What if my defiance shonld be taken up ? Mentally, scious of being weak, but l set about the per. formance of my household duties, which oc. cupied me fully till the return of Andrew.
 I took him, as also the joiner and black. smith, into the parlor, and told them my ex. periences of the previous evening Andrew exhibited symptoms of alarm 1; but found the joiner sensible man, and inclined, after what told him, to take similar view with my self of the situation, namely, that we were be- ing made the subjects of some diabolieal trick cry, in order to drive us out of the house. He asked about Mrs. Weevil, and if I had ever been in her rooms. I said l had not. He proposed at once to visit them The door of her apartments was as usual, locked but the blacksmith had little difficulty in successfully picking the lsck, and effecting an entrance for us Andrew being meanwhile sent to keep a lookout in the garoen,s that no one approach ed the house upawares. .t y.T 1s.s
 There was nothing to attract attention in Mrs. Weevil's apartments. The joiner care tully examiHed them, but no means of egress from either of the rooms could be discovered, save the door by which we had entered, the windows having iron. gratings. outside We took the utmost care that nothing was disar- ranged; and any piece of furniture or appa- rel which we had occasion to disturb was re- placed exactly as found. Previous to this. should have mentioned, both the joiner and blacksmith had made particular examination of the bowwindow. of my bedroom; but had failed to find anything to awaken suspicion in the slightest Our search had so far been en >tirely fruitl' ss; and was beginning to feel more perplexed than ever as, after what An. drew had told me of Mrs. Weevil, and of her sons former relations to the owner of the house, had somehow begun to connect her in my mind with the mysterious appearance which had given it such bad fame. s'.{
 We werein the act of quitting the house
 keepers sitting room, afraid that she might return before we had had time to refasten the door, when I noticed the blacksmith kneel down on the floor of the inner apartment, and examine the foot of one of the bed posts. It was an ancient Elzabethan, with heavy faded hangings, and stood on floor covered with carpet, out of which long use had extracted almost all traces of it's original pattern Ats signal the joiner stepped down beside him i; and then observed that the caster at the foot of the bed post was glistening with oil, as if it had but recently been fabricated; and we all three then noticed that there was distinct dark oily streak along the carpet, as if the bed had been moved forward obliquely for few feet from where it stood and then moved back again. The joiner at once rose, and taking hold of the bed he found that he could pull it
 forward easily and without making the slight est noise, till it was about foot from the wall against which it stood. At this point we noticed that the bed seemed to dip slightly to one side, as if something were yielding to its weight: and at the same moment we ob- served a panelng silently open in that part of the wall which had formely been hid be hind the hangings ...-
 l was In high state of excitement and with difficulty could suppress my feelings, but stood silent as the two men went round and looked into the opening thus discovered. They asked for candle, which presently brought them; when we found that the recess was small place. about five feet high and two deep. and that it was formed of solid mason-work on all sides but the front A box, large enough to fill the whole space of the bottom, was at. tached to the wall by strong iron staples, as if to prevent it's removal but curiOusly enough, the box itself was not locked, though sup piled with hasp and paddock. The Ind was at once lifted; when we saw stuffed into it, as if hurridly, a mass of white garment, which we found to be an old chasuble or surplice, that must have formed at one time part of the ceremonial robes of a priest. We brought it forth to the light, and examined it !; and there, in the skirt of the garment, we found that piece had been torn out, which was exactly fitted by the bit of white embroidered cloth which l had picked up in my bedroom on the previous evening. This was evidence indiss putable that, whoever or whatever my ghost ly visitor was, here at least was the garment that had been worn on that occasion; the more so, that attached to the upper part of the garment was kind of hood which, when drawn over the head and face, would give in 8 dim and uncertain light the grim aspect that had seen on the previous evening felt within me burning indignation that for years the peace and happiness of successive fam flies in the house should have been destroyed by the wretched trickery of this deprayed old woman, in her malicious desire to miure the young lady who owned the house, by depriv- ing her@f the income that would otherwise have been derived from it.
 Y My first impulse was to leave things as they were in the apartment till the arrival of the old bag, and confront her at once with the evidences we had discovered of her malevo- lent practices bur on second examination of the box, it was found that it contained false bottom, easily removed, under which were found pair of loaded pat ,Is This struck ua aa being scarcely in kee ling with the idea that Mrs. Weevil alone was cognizant of tie mischievous operations which had been carried on here for 80 many years. These were rather the weapons of . person who was both able and willing to use jhem should an emergency offer. And what was still more puzzling, while we had thus far discovered the means by which the ghostly reputa ion of the house had been nlaiDtaned, there was as yet 10 tsace of the manner in which access was gained, either to tke bedroom which oc. cupied. or to any other parts of the house which had been 80 mysteriousIy visited. In f fhooa asr