Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1882-01-09
Searching a Mystery.

man had been dug up in the cellar
of an old house back of the hotel;
and, until the mystery thereof was
solved, no inhabitant of middleton
could enjoy an hours mental repose.
Business was neglected at Twiddle-
ton. Men congregated at corners to
discourse upon the all-absorbing top
| ic, and women left their dinner pots
to boil over while they discussed the
mystery above their yard fences.
The parson had made 'tThe Murder
of Abel the subject of his last SER
mon, and at the village Lyceum the
question, "Is there a Eugene Aram
amongst us?' had been treated in a
manner to curdle the blood of the
hearers, and inspire each with dark
distrust of his next neighbor. Still
ON one had taken any actual steps to
discover the murderer, until Mr.. Solo
mon Slocum publicly announced his
intention of taking the matter in
hand, and, in his own words, ''sift-
ing it to the bottom
If any one short of No. detec-
tive were competent for the task, it
was Solomon Slocum. There had
never been mystery in Middleton,
that he had not ferreted out; never
a secret act of lawlessness, from the
burning of Squire Rennie's barn to
the tying of cat to Miss SINNERS
brass door knocker, but he had sue
ceeded in identifying the culprit. He
also interested himself in matters of
a more private and innocent nature.
He knew the history of every family
in the county, with most of their do
i, mestic affairs had ascertained the
age of every single lady, and would
tell without hesitation who wore false
hair and teeth, and when a silk dress
had been dyed and made over.
Slocum went to work in very
methodical manner. First, he ascer-
tanned from corporation deeds that
the house containing the mysterious
cellar (now occupied by a single lady
who had tainted on the discovery that
she had been ''living over a dead
man. had been built nearly a hun
dred 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 always seemed sly and
underhand set. Job Harker, however
proved that the house had been sold
some twenty years after its compile
ton 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 Womble had ridiculed, as
serted that he had a mysterious re-
pulsion to the latter individual, and
had clearly seen ''murder upon his
brow"
Tom and his father then came for
ward, the former with a horsewhip
and the latter with paper, which
proved that in the days of the Wom-
bles' 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 a comparatively
modern addition, having been exca.
waited 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 load OF
suspicion. Solomon, whose only son
Joe, had long been paying particular
attention to pretty Jessie Bowan
found himself not proof against the
general prejudice.
"No, Slocum,'' he remarked with
virtuous resolutions, 'sshall marry in
to family in whose veins runs the
black blood Of murderer -
And though it was not evident te
the hearers of this speech that the
blood of murderer must necessari
ly be black, they nevertheless approx
ed of the sentiment-all save Joe
who sturdily declared his intention Of
marrying the girl he loved, though
her veins should run ssink and ivory
black"
"This case having narrowed dowI
to this point,'' observed Solomon
looking gravely around upon an in
terested audience, in the tap-room O.
the hotel of which, by the way, hi
father, Christopher Slocum, had beer
for many years previous to his dealt
the popular proprietor-"the case
having, as | said, been narrowed
down to the year 'forty-fve, it re
mains for us to discover what mel
, folks have unaccountably and mys
: teriously disappeared since that date
/; and then to ascertain, if possible
what relation the missing men ha'
with any of the Bowans."
9sThar was the Yankee-notion ped
: dler.' suggested Slocum's particula