Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1886-08-05
MecAancsown Frederick County, Maryland Thursday Aug s. 1885,

where | lived strike II as | walked
down toward my door. AS l stepped
over the threshold | saw the fiery eyes
of the cat in the dark hall. A cold
shiver passed through my frame. /
trembled with an excitement as in
tense as it was sudden. My heart be-
gan to beat so loudly that I involun-
tarly held my hands over it as if to
still it. Then summoning my resolu-
ton followed the cat down the steps
and strobe after her us she fitted down
the street.
1t was black night. Heavy, swol-
len. gray clouds had been hanging low
in the sky when darkness came on, and
now they drew an impenetrable veil
between the earth and the stars. The
old, winding streets of the quarter of
the town in which l lived was silent
and deserted. Now and then a gust
of wind swept down and swung some
shutter back upon its hinges with a
hoarse grunting sound. The moaning
of the wind was full of strange mean
irgs to me. Ny thoughts wandered
off through the black arches of that
dismal night, and as | strobe down the
street, drawn lrresistibly after the
noiseless black cat, there came up BE-
fore me II vivid picture Of the tragedy
which had come into my life only a
year before, when l had completed MY
college course.
saw my fathers house-a large
white building, surrounded by spacious
piazzas and standing in the middle of
a wide, yelvet-hke lawn. l saw my
father sitting in his comfortable libra
rv, from which two low windows open
ed upon the piazza. He had left my
sister and mother and myself in an ad-
Joining room, and was sitting at a
table facing one Of the open windows.
4 students lamp cast soft, mellow
light over the room Behind my father
stood his safe, which contained a large
sum of money. put there to pay his
workmen on the following morning.
The door between tAc library and the
room III which we were Was open, and
occasionally he spoke to MS. Then
came long silence, and we heard only
the pattcr Of the rain on the piazzas.
"What can father be doing?' asked
my sister at length, "that keeps him 20
quiet?'
"Wrltins, suppose said my moth
err "He is making up the pay rolls,
you know"
"Then he'll never get through re-
piled my sister, "for he has fallen
asleep, I'm sure"
We listened again. We heard only
the steady, monotonous patter Of the
rain.
"Well,' said my sister, rising, "don't
you think ought to wake him up,
mother?"
"Yes,' answered my mother.
Ny sister went into the next room.
Father, wake up; it is growing late v
she said.
There was no answer. The next
moment piercing shrek rang through
the house.
"My God! He is deadl'
Horror stricken, we rushed into the
room. The safe had been robbed and
my father shot through the heart
while he sat not thirty feet away from
us and we had not heard Il sound. At
the post-mortem examination they
found in his body curious missile
more than an inch long ond shaped
partly like a bullet and partly like a
dart. The point was sharp, and three
sharp faces ran back toward the body
of the missile. Experts said the mis-
sle had been projected by some force
other than powder, else my mother and
sisters would have heard the report,
and they ealked very learnedly about
the application of compressed air and
even limited at electricity. But what
manner of weapon the murderer used
none could say.
had mechanically taken the dart
and put it in my pocket. l always
carried it there in the vague hope that
some day it might help me to unravel
the mystery of my fathers death, which
had slain my mother and had rested
upon my soul like great pail. | had
that dart III my pocket even then.
And there | was following myster-
ious black cat out Of the suburbs OF
the city in the gloomy night and down
country road, moved by some impulse
which l could not explain, and which, 1,
ctr,ncelv enouuh did not want eX-