Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-11-30
A MYSTERIOUS CASE.

pdTUIl6uU HI bu0 eApISSS bIdlu HUH 1OhuOh to Folkestone. My companion was in deep mourning He was not what you would call an intellectual looking man, and on thinking it over afterwards l remember that he had a narrow and retreating fore head. never can quite make up my mind whether what my fellow traveller told me was the absolute truth; whether his conf dence was caused by the natural yearning of his soul for human sympathy; or whether, to use an Americanis1n, he was merely filling me up."
 It was not only my fellow travellers re- | treating forehead, but the nature of his trav- cling literature, that caused me to look upon him as something other than an in | tellectual giant. In the first place he was | reading ''Isis Unveiled" The 'Proceedings | of the Psychical Society" was there, too, and a fat book in very large type was labeled, "Fragments and Remains of Madame l By"
 He was good enough to offer to lend me one of his books, and, like an ass, I gave snort l of indignation and waved it off.
 II have no sympathy with such things" | said.
 "A szeptic, I perceive" said he politely. "1 l-ok upon the whole thing, sir,' re- piled, "as bosh and humbug, miserable trash, wretched balderdash unworthy of notice" And then I glared at him.
 tried to silence the little man in deep mourning by looking as much like the Cor gon Medusa as possible. Far from being turned to stone, he simply began to sit on the backs of his hands, than which nothing is more undignified and irritating
 1T was like you once," he said with pity; | ''yes, I was a scoffer once; but have been | bitterly punished-in fact, my incredulity was the cause of my bereavement" and he | pointed in q solemn manner to the deep black | hat band he wore.
 When looked up at his hat band I saw the mans name printed in little gold letters upon his travelling bag, which lay on the rack above his head-'Mr. Augustus Boo- | byer"
 When had heard the name before? Of course it comes back to me in @ flash. Boo i byer! that was the man who ran off with little Hetty Stareley, of the Frivolty theatre. l am not 0 theatrical man, but l saw Miss Stareley in the celebrated ballet of "The Swallows" and very pretty indeed she looked with her big eyes, her curly black hair and her dot of mouth She was pretty plump little nonentity till she married Boobyer, when she became a nine days wonder. Then she left the stage; disappeared from the pho tographers' windows, and nobody ever heard any more of Miss Hetty Stareley.
 ''It's not so very long ago." he began, ''that it was my privilege to lead to the altar an ex- ceedingly lovely girl. I worshiped the very ground she trod upon, sir. My wife was so excessively good looking as to attract con- siderable attention wherever we went. was proud of it at first, bat after while it began to pail. My wife, sir, was young, inexperienced girl, and she felt it bitterly. Mine was a runaway match" he went on, ''aud it made considerable amount of noise at the time. 1 live at Wimbledon-close to tho Coo,n 1,ufortrnately for and when we returned from our honeymoon the volun- teer camp was in full swing. It seemed to me that when they were not actively engaged in drill or shooting for prizes, the greater portion of the volunteers occupied their time in walking up and down in front of my house in order to get a glimpse of my beauti- ful wife. I'm not exaggerating not the least bit. At last, however, it became un- bearable to both of us. We determined to seek solitude, and found it at Herne Bay.
 "Herne Bay is the most solitary place know. It is frequented by persons of limited means with large families. There is pier a mile long. We passed delightful fortnight at Herne Bay, but it was dull, terribly dull We were both feeling rather bored, when made an acquaintance while was fishing for bass with rod from the pier head. used to fish there the greater part of the afternoon. I had never caught anything | put dU u plaCC lIkS 1lSIhS Day Ou0 uAuSG ul something. He was Q very decent young fellow, and took great interest in my fish ing If I had known at the time who hG was, perhaps shouldn't have been quite SC ready to foregather with hsH. The fact is he was q professional con jurer, but he was c most gentlemanly young fellow and decid edly good looking. He talked about spirit ualism; he was an advanced thinker and from the lofty pinnacle of my crass ignor , ance, looked down upon the whole thing as tbosh, humbug and halderdash.'
 Here, still sitting on his hands, he smiled impertinently at me.
 ''Monsieur Kardec for that was his pro fessional name) tried to convince me- but 1T vain. Our stay at Herne bay was drawing to closs. I'm going to give little seance here tomorrow night said Monsieur Ker dec. I shall be greatly pleased if you would come and look at the wonders the spirits vii perform. Don't humiliate me by offering tx pay at the door. Here arc a couple O tickets
 "I was about to decline, but my wife gav' me one appealing look from those great eye of hers, which did not appeal in vain. 'We1 ' come with pleasure,' said I, and thought nt
 moro about the matter.
 "As we walked home we stopped to reas one of the posters. It was the ordinary pro ! gramme-spirit rapping, thought reading clairvoyance, and then followed a rather ex traordinary statement: Monsieur Kardee after part the first, will give an illustration of modern conjuring and prestidigitation without apparatus or accomplices. Tn :. whole will conclude with the mysterious dis = appearance of lady selected from among the audience.' We both rather looked for ward to the entertainment as a break to tn dull monotony of our daily round at Hern bay.
 "Punctual to the time, we presented our selves at the assembly rooms, and were tn sole occupants of what were termed the re served fauteuils, which were two rows of or S dinary cane bottom chairs. 1 don't thinl | there were fifty people in the room altogether The first part of the performance was deepl. . interesting. Looking back upon it calmly a |. do now, and speaking with the authority o one who knows" said the little man tand tn IC. Fl. BRONSON.
 Ei,o ifo 2 henidnn4 Ineuronoo