The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1886-09-03
FIVE MILLION POUNDS
ny t. wEMYss REID.

A New Story by this gifted young author.
The principal scenes are lai at celebrated
watering place
But from all these wild and wandering
fancies my mind ever returned to the same
delightful thought OF Daisys love- That
sooner or later she should be mine, / was re-
solved. AS Tor Mauleverer's millions, let
them perish with lin, il they were TO stand
between us.
was aroused from long, deep reverie by
the silvery tone of clock which stood on the
mantelpiece of the room. looked up and
10 my surprise saw that it was one o'clock.
| had spent more than an hour by myself
after Mau,everer had left me-
There was all through the house that dead
and ,lemn silence which is never so COM
plete as in large country house at that hour
of the night | could feel, as it were, all
around me the great empty rooms and the
long corridors with their mysterious wind
ings, and the worm-eaten staircases, up and
down which those who had been dust now
for hundreds Of years had once passed in the
flush of life and health
There was not sound, say, to break tho
silence; and yet as l listened that very
silence seemed to become vocal, and all the
air was filed with one rhythmic cry that
struck upon my tingling nerves with a
distinctness which spoken words could never
have attained. "There is murder to be done
here; murder, murder, murder" That was
what the awful silence of the great house
seemed 10 say to me. knew that it was
nothing more than the effect of the imagina-
ton due to the excitement of the past day.
Yet l started up in nervous terror and
lighted my candle, hardly daring to LOOK
behind me as I turned from the room to
seek my chamber.
Where or how got wrong hardly knew.
] found presently, however, that 1 had
missed the corridor through which had to
pass on my way to the staircase leading to
my room. l turned into another passage,
thinking it might lead me in the right direc-
ton. As was passing door in this cor
ridor, distinctly heard a voice raised as in
anger. 1t was Flinter who was speaking.
"Curse him! what has brought him hero to
NEEDLE with everything! You may believe
me or not, as you like, but if that Internal
boy is not put out of the way, and quicklys
too, we may as well give up the game"
/ heard no more. There was faint
murmur Us though some one responded to
Flinter, but / could catch no ineligible
sound, so l passed on, hardly thinking for
the momsnt that what l had heard could
have any reference to myself. The next
turn brought ma in some inexplicable
fashion to the head of the great staircase,
from which spot it was an easy matter for
me to find my way to my bedroom
closed the outer door opening upon the
lonely stair that gave access to my apart
ment and looked around me. l was in thu
delightful little sitting room beyond which
the bedroom was dimly visible through an
open door, A fire had been lighted in both
rooms. but in neither case was it now burn
ing. The black ashes contrasted drearily
with the sumptuous furnishing of the two
apartments. did not linger in the outer
room. crossed the threshold of tho haunted
chamber and closing the door, began at
once to prepare for bed.
And now, in the very dead of the night
and cut Off by long galleries and lonely STAIR
cases from any other human being, with
nerves shaken, too by all the exciting Incl
dents of the day, first realized the fact that
to sleep in this room with all its memories
and traditions was by no means SO pleasant
an adventure as it had seemed a few hours
earlier What was the ghost which was said
to haunt the place! l sat down and tried to
recall the legend as l had heard it after din
ner. A woman, false and cruel, who had
once been the mistress OF the hail. kept the
young heir O captive in this very room for
many years in order that she might substi
tute her own child for him. In this lonely
chamber-so the story ran-the captive boy
had only one visitor; it was his half brother,
the child for whose sake his own life was
doomed to misery. And the two had learned
to love each other, SO that day by day
H. a.
the dark staircase and find admis-
sion to the chamber where the true heir was
imprisoned. One day the younger child
was playing as usual in the room when
something attracted him TO the window 1t
was open, for it was in the summer time.
He peeped out and saw his mother standing
below him. With cry of joy he leaned
out of the window clapping his hands, and
in moment he had ovcrbalanced himself
and had fallen crushed and lifeless mass at
the feet of the cruel woman who had sinned
for him in vain. A few hours later, when the
particulars which the shock of so terrible
tragedy had produced had died away, the
lady climbed the dusty oaken staircase and
entered the room where the heir lay, over
whelmed with grief and horror at tho fate
of his little playmate. Dark vengeance was
on her face-the vengeance of woman who
has lost ell that made life worth living and
who burns with desire to make every
other woman childless There was the sud-
den glitter of knife, sharp cry of terror
from the captive and then silence. In the
morning the little prisoner was found lying
dead, stabbed to the heart, while beside him
crouched his stepmother. u gibbcring
maniac.
This was the tragedy Of nay room 1t was
the ghost of the lady that was said to haunt
it, though there were legends which told
how the cry OF a child, long, low wall Of.
misery, had been heard in the silent night
echoing through the corridors in the de-
serted wing in which the chamber stood. 1
glanced round upon the rich hangings of the
wall. Had they seen that awful tragedy
enactedl l remembered that for scores of
years, perchance q century, no one had slept
in this room before tonight. 1t needed all
my skepticism in regard to supernatural
appearances to nerve me TO that outward
show of indifference which man, even when
no one is near him, regards as essential 10
the preservation OF his self-respect. Before
i extinguished the lights 1 drew aside the
curtain of the window, the outline of which
was made visible against the background of