The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-11-12
SEARCHING OUT A MYSTERY.

The hair of all Middleton stood Oh
end with excitement. A box contain
ing the dismembered skeleton of a man
had been dug up in the cellar of an old
house back of the hotel; and until the
mystery thereof was solved, no inhabit
ant of middleton could enjoy an
hours mental repose.
Business was neglected in Twiddle-
ton. Men congregated at corners to
discourse upon the all absorbing topic;
and women lett the dinner pots to boil
over, while they discussed the mystery
above their yard-fences. The parson
had made the murder of Abel, the sub
ject of his last sermon, and at the vii
lage Lyceum, the question "Ls there a
Eugene dram amongst u.s." had been
treated in a manner to curdle the blood
of the hearers, and inspire each with a
dark distrust of his next door neighbor.
Still, no one had taken any actual steps
to the discovery of the murderer, I'M
til Mr.. Soloman Slocum publicly an
nounced his intention of taking the
matter in hand, and in his own words,
'' sitting it to the bottom"
If any one short of No. l detective
were competent for this task, it was
Soloman Slocum. There had never
been mystery in middleton that he
had not ferreted out; never secret act
of lawlessness, from the burning of
Squire Rennie's barn to the tying of a
cat to Mrs. SINNERS brass door
knocker, but that he had succeeded in
identifying the culprit. He also in
terested himself in matters of more
private and innocent nature. He knew
the history of every family in the
county, with most of their domestic
affairs; had ascertained the age of every
single lady, and would tell without
hesitation who wore false hair and teeth,
and when silk dress had been dyed
and made over.
Slocum went to work in a very me-
thodical manner. First, he ascertained
from corporation deeds that the house
containing the mysterious cellar { now
occupied by an estimable single lady,
who had tainted on the discovery that
she had been ''living over adead MANY
had been built nearly hundred years
ago by an ancestor of the Harker
family. Thereupon shadow fell upon
the Harkers, and several persons were
led to the discovery that they had al
ways seemed sly and underhanded
set. Job Harker, however, proved
that the house had been sold some
twenty years after its completion to
Captain Womble, whereupon the
Wombles came in for a share of the
shadow; and young Timms, the village
poet, whose Fourth of July Ode Tom
Wombles had ridiculed, asserted that
he had always had mysterious repul.
sion to the latter individual, and had
clearly seen " n1urde''' upon his brow
Tom and his father then came for
ward, the former with horsewhip and
the latter with a paper. which proved
that in the days of the Wombles' oc.
cupancy of the house no cellar had ex.
listed beneath it.
Following this clue, Solomon Slocum,
after much investigation, succeeded il
satisfying himself that the cellar in fact
was a comparatively modern addition,
having been excavated in the year 1915
just after the property had passed into
the hands of the Bowans.
This discovery, of course, at once
placed that family under ban of the
darkest suspicion. Solomon, whose
only son, Joe, had been paying partic.
ular attention to pretty Jessie Bowan,
found himself notproof against the gen
eral prejudice.
mo, Slocum," he remarked, with
virtuous resolution, "shall marry into a
family in whose veins runs the black
blood of murderer.
And though it was not evident to The
hearers OF this speech that the blood O
murder must necessarily be black
they nevertheless approved of the sen
tlment-all save Joe, who sturdily de
clared his intention of marrying tn,
girl he loved. though her veins SHOULD
run ink and ivory black"
1.-The case having been narrowed
down to this int" observed Solomon
looking gravely around upon an inter
ested audience in the tap-room of tn
hotel, OF which, blythe. by, his father
Christopher Slocum, had been TO
many years previous to his deaf
the popular proprietor-''the cas-
having, as said, been narrowed dow
to the year 'forty-five, it remains fo
us to discover what men folks hev onaC
countably and mysteriously disappeare
since that date; and then to ascertain
If possible, what relations the missin
men had with any of the Bowans.n
Thar was the Yankee notion pee
der" suggested Slocum's particula
chum. who kept the store and postoffic
opposite. HE was missin' more
three weeks"
'His body was found and decent
buried" Slocum replied.
'Then that swell chap who was s
flush o. greenbacks," said another.
''Bogus. No wonder he mysteriou.
lly disappeared-with the police artt
him." -