South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1881-11-11
Searching Out A Mystery.

|
an old house back OF the hotel and
until the mystery thereof was solved,
no inhabitant of Twiddleton could en-
JOY an hours mental repose.
Business was neglected in Twiddle-
ton. Men congregated at corners to
discourse upon the all-absorbing top
ic; and women left the dinner-pots to
boil over, while they discussed the
mystery above their yardfences. The
parson had made the Murder of A.
beP the subject ofhis last sermon. and
at the village Lyceum, the question,
is there Eugene Aram among us?'
/ had been treated in q manner to cur.
die the blood Of the hearers, and in
splre each with dark distrust of his
next neighbor. Still, no one had ia
ken any actual steps to the discovery
OF the murder, until Mr.. Solomon
Slocum publicly announced his inten-
ton of taking the matter in hand,
and in his own words, sitting it to the
bottom
If any one short of No. detec-
tive We're competent for this task, il
was Solomon Slocum. There had
never been mystery in middleton
that he had not ferrcted ont: never q
secret act of lawlessness, from the
burning OF Squire Rannie's barn to
the tying.of u cat to Miss SINNERS
doorl<nocker, but he had succeeded in
identifying the culprit lie also III.
terestcd himself in matters OF more
private and innocent nature. lie
knew the history OF every family IN
the county, with most OF their domes.
tic affairs had ascertained the age OF
every single lady, and would tell with.
out hesitation who wore false hair and
teeth, and when silk dress had been
dyed and made over.
Slocum went TO work in very
mcthodical manner. First, he ascer-
tanned from corporation deeds that tue
house containing the mysterious cellar
(now occupied by an estinable single
lady, who tainted on the discovery
that she had been living over dead
man) had been built nearly a hun,
dred years ago BY an ancestor of the
IIarker family. Then Il shadow fell
upon the lIarhers. and several poraons
were led to the discovery that they al.
ways seemed Il sly aud underhandel
set. Job liarker, however, proved
that the house had been sold some
twenty years after lis completion to
Captain Womble, whcreupon the
Wombles came in for share Of the
shadow; and young Timms. the vii.
lage poet, whose Fourth Of July ode
| Tom WombIe had ridiculed. asserted
that he had always had inysterions
repulson to the latter individual and
had clearly seen murder vi on hi.
brow.
Tom and his father then came for,
ward. the former with a horse whiI
aud the latter with paper, which
proved that in the days OF the WON.
blcs' occupancy of the house no cellar
had existed within it,
Following this clue, Solomon Slo.
cum, after much investigation, sue.
ceeded in satisfying himself that the
cellar in fact was comparatively
modern addition, having been cxca.
waited in the year 1915, just after the
property had passed into the hands OF
the Bowans.
The discovery, of course, at once
placed that family under ban of The
darkest suspicion. Solomon, whose
only son, Joe, had long been paving
particular attention to pretty Jessie
Bowan. found himself not proof a
gainst the general prejudice.
NO Slocum,' lie remarked. with
virtuous resolution, shall marry into
n family in whose veins runs the blacl,
blood of a murderer
And though it was not evident ia
the hearers of this speech that the
blood of q murderer must necessarily
be black, they nevertheless approved
Of the CONTINENTAL save Joe. wbo
sturdily declared hisintcntion ofmar.
rying the girl Inc loved. although her
veins should run ink and ivory
I black
( The case having narrowed down
to this pint observed Solomon. look.
ing grayely around upon AN Interested
audience in the tap-room OF the hotel
of which. by.the-by, bis father. Chris.
tophcr Slocum, had been for many
! years previous the popular proprietor
the case having. "a ! said, been
narrowed down 20 the year. iorty.fve.
il remains for us 10 discover what
men folks have onaccoun'ably and
mysteriously disappeared since that
date, and then to ascertain II
possible what relations the missing
men had with any Of the Bowans.'
Thar was the Yankee notion ned
der, suggested Sl0cums particular
chum, who kept the store and post
Office opposite He was missin'
mOre'n three weeks
die Inl,. tro. T..,r, 4 ...1 ID