Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-25


to have her married daughter with her.
my dear" she had said, 'it is not much more
that can expect to see of Janet. She will have
to return to her husband before long, and am
not likely to live to have the pleasure of many
of her visits; so, if you do not mind, Salome,
should wish her to sleep in my room while she
is here, that may have her by me as much as
may"
''Salome had accordingly returned to her
chamber upstairs. She was glad that at this
time her sister was there to relieve her of at
tendance on her mother, while she went in
search of lodgings and was engaged in pack
ing.
II am expecting summons to return to
Elbeuf every day." said Janet. directly get
the news of the rout of the Prnssians Provi-
dence never intended that barbarism should
prevail over culture; and the French have such
accomplished manners, and such perfect taste
--why the German ladies have seen have no
idea how to Dress"
"You forget Janet" said the sister, ''that
the Barbarians did, of old, overwhelm Roman
civilization"
"oh-yes, but only that they might assim-
ilate the culture and become civilized them
selves. If the result of this wretched war
were that German ladies learned how to put on
their clothes tastefully, could almost forgive
Sedan and Metz"
Salome had as little knowledge of the ar
rangement arrived at between Mrs. Sidebottom
and Philip as has the reader, and for the same
reason. 1t had not been divulged. She, of
course, could ask no questions. The reader
does, but he must wait. He shall be told pres
emily. Suffice it for him to know that Mrs.
Sidebottom had, unopposed sworn to her
brothers death, without will and had taken
out letters of administration.
Philip did not have his meals with the Gus
worth party; they were served to him apart.
On this evening, after the house was locked
up, and the servants had retired to bed, Salome
was in her own room; she had been engaged
there for some hours, examining and sorting
the house bills and destroying such as were
not required to be preserved. When this was
done, she began to pack her little library in a
deal case, first wrapping each volume carefully
garden manual that Mr.. Pennycomequick had
given her on her birthday when Is. The sight
of this book suddenly reminded her of a score
of hyacinth bulbs she had put in a dark closet
under the stairs, in which to form shoots before
they were put in their glasses. The book had
advised this as corrective to the development
of leaf at the expense of flower. In this cup
board, which Janet and she as children had
named the Pummy closet-a name that had ad-
hered to it ever since-she kept as well sundry
garden requisites.
Fearful lest she should forget the bulbs if
she postponed their removal to another time,
and accustomed, on principle, to do at once
whatever occurred to her mind as thing that
had to be done, she gently opened her door and
lightly descended the staircase.
The steps were carpeted, SO that her foot was
noiseless. She had no need of candle, for
the gas, though reduced, still burnt in the
hall
She reached the bottom quickly; she was un-
willing to disturb and alarm her mother, and so
trod noiselessly through the hall to the closet
door, beneath the steps. Her garden-gloves,
some tools in little box that had been given
her by Janet, and the bulbs, were there, the
latter, in a row, showing stout horns. She gath
cred these bulbs into a chip basket, and took
the rest of her possessions in the other hand.
Thus encumbered, she closed the Pummy
closet door with her foot, put down the basket,
turned the key, took up the basket and stepped
out into the hall with the intention of re-
ascending the stairs as noiselessly as she had
come down.
But before she had reached the foot and
turned the balustrade, she was startled to see
a figure on the first landing. At first shock she
thought it was Mr.. jeremiah Pennycomequick
dressed to 60 out, as she had seen him on the
night thathe disappeared. If the hour was not
now midnight, it was nearit.
Salome could not see whence the figure had
come, whether from Philips room or from the
spare bedroom. Only from the drawing-room
he could not have issued, as that door was in
view and was shut.
Who was it?
The figure descended slowly, and with maud
ible tread. The light from the gas was sufi-
cient to show that the figure was that of man,
but not to let her see his face.
With sickening feeling at the heart, and a
chill that ran through every artery and frosted
her blood, and deprived her both of motion and
the will to move, she stood looking at the appa-
noiselessly. She recognized the great coat and
hat-they were those of Mr.. Pennycomequick.
The great coat was that in which the corpse
had been discovered invested.
Who was this coming-coming probably from
the room recently tenanted by that strange,
awful, dead man?
That was the first thought of horror that shot
through her brain, followed by another still
more horrible, "What is it?'
For a while Salome was bereft of power of
speech and motion. There was sensation in
her brain as though a handle were being
turned that had attached to it every nerve in
her body, and that they were being spun off
her and on to a reel, like silk from q cocoon.
II er hands contracted on what she held; she
could not have let them fall had she willed to
relax her grasp. They stiffened as do the
hands of a corpse. She could not cry out; her
tongue was paralyzed. She could not STIR
step forward or backward; all control over her
knees was gone from her.
When the figure had nearly reached the bot
tom of the stairs, it stopped and turned its
head toward her, and looked at her.
The light of the lowered gas Jet was on her
and off the face of the apparition; all she saw
was black shadow, as all she had seen of the
face of the corpse on the bed had been-a black
handkerchief cast over it. But she distin-
guished the hair, somewhat long behind the
ears, and frowsy whiskers about the jaws. That
was all she could make out in that moment Of
acute, agonizing horror. The figure stood
looking at her, and she heard the clock in the
hall tick, tick, tick, tick, and then begin the
premonlrory growl that preceded striking. The
figure moved down the final steps, and stole in
the same stealthy, noiseless manner to the gar
den door, and disappeared through it.
The look of the back the sit of the we'll
known overcoat, the way in which the hat was
worn, all recalled to her the dear, lost
friend and yet she knew it could not be he.
He would never have inspired her with shud-
dering dread. He would not have passed her
without a word.
In another moment the spell of rigidity was
taken off her. The blood rushed tingling
through every vein, her hands, her feet, recov-
cred activity, her heart bounded and shook off
its fear and her mind recovered its proper en-
ergy.
She ran after the apparition and found that
the garden door was actually open. Instantly,
without further consideration, she shut and
locked it, and then flew upstairs and knocked
vehemently, loudly, at Philip Pennycome-
quick's door.
He opened it, and was surprised to see Sa-
lone on the landing breathless
SIS your mother worse?' he asked, for he saw
that she was shaking and white.
"Oh, MI. Pennycomequick, do tell me. Have
you had man here with your
81 do not understand"
II have seen someone descend the stairs If
he did not come from your study, he issued
from that room in which-in which," she
shuddered. Il mean from the spare bed
room"
mo one has been with me-"