Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1885-05-11

habitable, except to have them clean
ed. He put up kitchen and parlor,
and leveled the ruins between here
and the stable. Otherwise he did
little to the place. But l never heard
it was haunted. What put such
thing into your head?"
"Oh! nothing much?" replied
Cousin John.
But this answer only served to
rouse the old mans curiosity, for in
reality he was very superstitious.
"Have you ever heard or seen any
thing?" he asked.
"Well, to tell the TRUTH was the
answer, 81 have seen and heard.
For several nights / have heard foot
steps in the passage after we have re-
tired, and last night 1 arose to dis
cover whence they came. Gently
opening my door, glanced along the
passage and distinctly saw some per-
sons standing at the top of the stairs.
The next moment the figures disap-
peared."
"This is very singular" the Qua
ker said, ''for with the exception of
Margaret, the cook, we are the only
persons in the house."
After further remarks the CONVEX
sation was dropped. Later on in the
day the draper informed his cousin,
with very serious air, that box of
old family silver, left with him as col
lateral on loan, was missing from
his counting-room, small recess in
the rear of the shop Cousin John
expressed unbounded astonishment,
and instituted search.
The only window in the room was
grated outside, and there was no sign
of the bars or the strong paddock on
the shop-door having been tampered
with. That light extra care was TAX
en- to make everything fast, and the
next morning nothing was disturbed.
The morning after that however,
the draper's strong box was found
forced open and several hundred
pounds in gold and silver were gone.
The Quaker was greatly alarmed,
but declined to ask the interference Of
the authorities, as he thought a
knowledge of the fact might induce
those who had deposits with him to
withdraw them. Hitherto the money
belonging to the depositors was un-
touched, as it was placed in vault
under the shop, the entrance to which
was known to the Quaker and his
cousin alone. The Quaker, however,
after the second robbery would have
called the constables to his aid, but
it so happened that the very day a
mortgage was taken up, held by one
of the Quaker's chief depositors, and
$4,000 was placed in his hands. 1t
was placed in the vault, and the old
man and his cousin expressed little
fear of its being reached by thieves.
On their entering the shop next
morning, however, they found the
counter torn aside and the trap-door
to the vault, which 1t had covered,
open. The f5, 900 and over "a, 900
additional was gone. After this, for
the first time, it was discovered by
Cousin John that the window of a
pantry had been left open. Through
this, evidently the thieves had enter
ed, and no doubt the noise heard by
the cousin while coolly reconnoiter-
ing the premises, and the person seen
on the top of the stairs, was doubt
less one of the marauders.
Two Bow street runners were sent
down from London and made thor
ough investigation. The theory that
the thieves had entered the pantry
was exploded, for it was only two feet
square, and right across the aperture
was stretched spiders web, which
evidently had been there for months.
Furthermore the pantry had no con-
nection with the counting-room.
1t was discovered that over FL 900
worth of goods had also been remov-
ed from the store, but at what time
| could not be decided.
When the Quaker had made good
the losses sustained by his clients he
was still comfortably off. He was
far from satisfied, however, with the
result of the investigation. Soon af-
ter, the cooks daughter, a strong
country wench, was permitted by the
Quaker to spend few months with
her mother. She was very shy, and
kept pretty much of the time in the
kitchen. AT night, however, she
was very lively and wide awake, and
often stood with the door of her bed
room ajar and listened. On more
than one occasion she saw that Cous-
in John was evidently doing the same
thing.
After about a month of patient
watching the cooks daughter saw the
cousin come out of his room with
dark lantern, and 60 down stairs.
She followed and looked over the
ratings. The cousin went up to one
of the large panels IN the wainscoted
hallway and, reaching up to the top
of it, pressed it. 1t slowly turned
on pivot and disclosed a passage,
into which the cousin passed. Then
the panel was again closed; The
country wench-or detective, for such
/ she was-drew dark lantern from
beneath her garments and went down