The Portland daily press., 1881-01-22

l syuptOule VI uuG lOuUl
the Joiner a sensible man, and inclined, after
what told him, to take similar view will
myself OF the situation, namely, that We were
being made the subjects of some diabolica
| trickery, in order to drive us out of the
house. He asked about Mrs. Weevil, and il
had ever been in her rooms. said had
not. He proposed at once to visit them
The door of her apartments was, as usual
locked; but the blacksmith had little diff
Guilty in successfully picking the lock, and
effecting an entrance for us-Andrew being
meanwhile sent to keep a looko ut in the
garden that no one approached the house
unawares.
There was nothing to attract attention in
Mrs. WeeviPs apartments. The joiner care
fully examined 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 dis
arranged; and any piece of furniture or APP
! parel which we had occasion to disturb was
| replaced exactly as found. Previous to this
| should have mentioned, both the joiner and
| blacksmith had made a particular examina-
| ton of the bow-window of my bedroom; but
| had failed to find anything to awaken sus-
| Iicion in the slightest. Our search had so
| far been entirely fruitless; and 1 was be-
! ginning to feel more perplexed than ever, as
| after what Andrew 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 appearances which had given it
such bad fame.
We were in the act of quitting the house
keepers sitting-room, afraid that she might
return before we had time to refasten the
door, when | noticed the blacksmith kneel
| down on the floor of the inner apartment and
examine the foot of one of the bedposts. 1t
was an ancient EliZabethan, with heavy faded
hangings, and stood on floor covered with
carpet. out of which long use had extracted
almost all traces of its original pattern. At
signal, the joiner stopped down beside him;
and then observed that the castor at tle
foot of the bedpost was glistening with oil as
if it had but recently been fabricated; and
we all three then noticed that there was a
distinct dark oily streak along the carpet. as
| if the bed had been moved forward oblquely
| for few feet from where it stood, and then
been moved back again. The joiner at once
rose; and taking hold of the bed, he found
that he could pull it forward easily and with
out making the slightest noise, till it was
about foot from the wall against which it
stood. AT this point, we noticed that the
bed seemed to dip to one side, as if something
were yielding to its weight; and at the same
moment we observed a pannelling silently
open in that part of the wall which had form
erly been hid behind the hangings.
was in a 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 1 presently
brought them; when we found that the re-
cess was small place, about five feet high
and two deep, and that it was formed of SOL
i'd mason-work on all sides but the front.
A box, large enough to fill the whole space,
of the bottom, was attached to the wall by
strong iron staples, as if to prevent its re-
moval; curiously enough the box itself was
not locked, though supplied with hasp and
paddock. The lid was at once lifted when
we saw stuffed into it, as if hurriedly, a mass
of white garment, which we found to be an
old chasuble or surpice, that must have
formed at one time part of the ceremonial
rope of 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 I
had picked up in my bedroom on the previous
evening. This was evidence il disputable
that whoever my visitor was here at least
was the garment that had been worn on that
occasion; the more 80, that attached to the
upper part of the garment was kind of hood
which, when drawn over the head and face,
would give in dim and uncertain light the
grim aspect that l had seen on the previous
evening. l felt within me a burning ndig-
nation that for years the peace and happiness
of successive families in the house should
have been destroyed by the wretched trick
cry of this depraved old woman, in her mali
cious desire to injure the young lady who
owned the house, by dep-iving her of the in
come that would otherwise have been derived
from it.
My first impulse was to leave things as
they were in the apartment till the arrival
OF the old lag and confront her at once with
the evidences we had discovered of her ma
levolent practices; but ON second examin-
alton of the box it was found that it con-
tanned false bottom, easily removed, under
which were found a pair of loaded pistols.
with the idea that Mrs. Weevil alone was
cognizant of the mischievous operations
which had been carried on here for so many
years. They were rather the weapons of
person who was both able and willing to use
them should an emergency offer. And what
was still more puzZling, while we had thus
far discovered the means by which the ghostly
reputation of the house had been main
tanned, there was as yet no trace of the
manner in which access was gained, either
to the bedroom which l occupied, or to any
other parts of the house which had been so
mysteriously visited. In these crcum-
stances, it was agreed at once to replace
everything as we had found them, except
that the blacksmith took the precaution of
drawing the charge out of both pistols stuff
fling the barrels afterward to the required
depth with paper, so that on being probed
they might still appear as if loaded. This
done, the bed was moved back to it's place,
when the panelling of itself closed as before.
We than loft tho rtn a,t fJ,a of
which was, though not without some diff
Guilty, so fastened as not readily to excite the
woman's suspicion that it had been tempered
with.
1t was now two hours after noon. and
Mrs. Weevil might return at any moment
The two men therefore departed, but first
arranged with me that they should return
after dusk, bringing the village constable
along with them, to await with me the
events of the evening; as I felt certain
somehow that the 'ghost'' would again ap-
pear with the object of driving me from the
house, as other tenants had been driven be
fore.
Like his namesake in "Rob Roy" the old
gardener Andrew was not good keeper of
secrets; hence it was proposed that the join
er and blacksmith should take him along
with them to the village, and keep him I'M
der surveillance till the evening. | was glad
when 1 saw them all out of the rlace, with
out, so far as l knew, being seen by any one.
and still more glad when the ayah shorty
afterwards returned with the children, as 1
could not help feeling timorous and alarmed
in the house by myself, considering what we
had discovered, and especially what we had
failed to diss over, namely, how the person
playing the ghost could obtain access to diff
ferent par9s of the house as freely DIS report
represented, and as I had myself in one in
stance PEACEFULLY experienced.
Unlike her usual practice, Mrs. Weevil
did not return to the house that day till far
on in the afternoon; and after she had en-
tered her rooms could hear her bustling
about with an activity and noise quite un-
precedented in my experience of her habits
This rather alarmed me. was afraid she
had suspected from the appearance of her
rooms, Notwithstanding our care in remov-
ing all traces of our presence, that some one
had been there in her absence; and this
might be sufficient to defeat my hopes of
bringing to light the trickery that had be IN
so long and so Systematically practiced. But
l was still more astonished when about an
hour after her return she sent message to
me by the ayah that she wished to speak
with me, if 1 would grant her an interview
At first, scarcely knew what answer to
make. Were to refuse to see her this MIGHT