Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-07-21


outer Office lust before eleven o'clock,
and waited. Shortly after that hour l
heard sounds which certainly came
from the direction of the treasury
scraping, grating sounds, lntermingled
occasionally with a deep groan, which,
must say, sounded inexpressibly
weird and solemn in the stiffness of the
night. They were not regular sounds.
but arose by fits and starts; and even i
could quite realize how in the native
mind they might be associated with the
struggles of an uneasy. restless spirit.
/ crept softly along to the treasury door
and listened. The sounds did not seem
to be an the treasury, but near it, on the
road side of the wall. What did it
mean? / confess 1 was mystified.
The next morning / made thorough
search in the treasury and about it for
some clew to the strange noises. That
night | watched again, and at as nearly
as possible the same hour as on the pre-
ceGing night the mysterious noises
cOmmen ced. the meaning and grooming
being heart-rending. 1t was comical to
note the effect upon the fellows watch
ing upon the veranda outside-fOr as a
concession to their fears we had doubled
the watch-they clapped their hands to
their ears, muttered prayers to the Fox
god and the Mercy goddess and the
Japanese pantheon generally, and stood
huddled together IN a corner, of about
as much use in a real emergency as
couple of women. Now curious cir
cumstance happened.
Opposite to our premises was the
compound" of a large bungalow which
had long remained untenanted and was
fast falling to ruin. One morning we
heard that the bungalow had been
taken by some Japanese-probably
men of the modern school, who imag-
ined that they could not better stamp
their fervor for the new order of things
than by taking to themselves a Euro
pean house. In times gone by there
had been pleasant garden round this
bungalow; but long years of neglect
had brought it to the condition of a
wilderness, and it was now a mere
tangled. uncared-for thicket- a proni-
nent feature was a fine shrub which
sprang up almost in a perfect cone
close to the wall dividing the property
from the main road; and upon this
shrub our manager had long cast covet-
Gus eyes, with a view to transporting
il to his own garden on the bluff, a hill
outside the settlement, whereon were
situated the private residences of our
local aristocracy.
Upon the night after nv second vigil
at the Office / was dining at house on
the Bund. 1t was fine starlit night as
| walked thereto, and ! remember re-
marking how clearly and distinctly the
pyramidal shrub stood out against the
deep blue sky. But when returned at
two o'clock the next morning the shrub
was not there. To be sure had dined.
and, after dinner, at the card-table,
may have had couple of brandy-and-
sodas, but no more; and it was as
suredly DO habit of mine to get intoxi-
Gated. SO that could only imagine that
the manager had got the shrub.
But-next morning the shrub was in
its place, From which ! had to arrive
at the humiliating conclusion that my
vision had been clouded-well, by
circumstances over which / had no
control.
/ went up-country shooting for three
or four days. When l returned ] asked
about All Moons ghost. The comprador
replied that the collies said it was still
walking, and would continue to walk
until the body was laid in its final rest
ing-place in China, but expressed his
own contempt for their fears. As l
walked down to the club that evening
/ noticed that the shrub was in its usual
place. The bungalow was lighted up;
and Just as passed the gate out came
Hal Ling, who saluted me and went on.
dined out that night, and came by the
bungalow compound wall shortly after
midnight. The shrub was still there,
SO that my suspicious as to my condi-
ton upon tho night when / had failed
to see IL were confirmed beyond doubt.
Still the mystery of All Moons ghost
continued. 1 knee that it could be ac-
counted for, and yet was utterly at q
loss to account for it. In reply to my
questions the watchmen said that the
groanings were terrible. They were
men i could trust and their fear was
too palpably genuine to be a subject of
mirth.
Up to now / had confided the affair
to no one, but / now told the manager
and the accountant. OF course they
laughed me to scorn; but agreed to sit
up with me and listen. Not a sound
broke the stiffness of that night: the
laugh against me was renewed and re-
doubled. and l was pointed out at the
club next day as the fellow who be-
lieved in ghosts.
But | had heard the sounds. and de-
termined to find out their cause. l
arrived at the conclusion that the more
quietly I went to work the better: for
it was remarkable that upon the one
occasion when | had announced my in
tention of watching, / had heard moth
ing; and that upon the other, when the
manager and accountant had been with
me, there was similar absence of
sounds. So one evening | got the du-
plicate treasury key from the mana
ger, and at midnight I slipped quietly
into the Office, which adjoined our
promenading the veranda. click-clack-
ing his pieces of wood in the old-fash-
toned, idiotic Oriental fashion.
passed him without attracting notice,
lit a dark-lantern, noiselessly opened
the treasury doors. and slipped in,
carefully locking the doors after me.
Presently the unearthly noise began.
They were closer to me and more dis
tInct than before: and if | had been
asked, | should have said that All Moon
was busily engaged in hewing out his
own grave, and that from his groanings
and lamentation he was finding the
task hard one. i raked my brain for
the cause. l thought of rats. of the