Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1892-09-19

SaDDIcr crC CWd1nS IN 60 Q1SIurD their
chat and absorb his precious Mononga-
hela The gallery had no roof, was only
five feet wide and was inaccessible except
through this one window, which the un-
sociable major had had cut down level
with the floor. ssRobbers Roost'' the
disdainful snbalterns used to call it in
the days when bluff old Blitz had occu-
pied the quarters and barred out all but
his ch1i1ns, and by the same name was it
known when Holden moved in with his
wife and olive branches and took UP his
abode there few years before the open
ing of this story.
When the Eleventh marched out and
the Twelfth came in, Colonel Farquhar,
finding the dc-6or in possession, decided
that the Holdens should not be disturbed
that there was abundant room for
others in the new quarters. The Hol-
dens entertained great deal. Pleasant
people were visiting them month after
month, and everybody in the Twelfth
blessed them for the brightness and gay
ETY. their presence lent to the garrison.
A sterling fellow was Holden, one Of the
best men in one of the very best corps,
personally and professionally, in our lit
.,
splished society woman. q St. Louis belle,
still in the heydey of youthful woman
hood. everybody in the garrison delight
ed in her friendship and kindliness.
There was no more popular parlor than
Holden's, and night after night the young
officers gathered there. But Robbers
) koost" bad fallen into disuse. The glass
door was generally shut, and the vene-
tan blinds with which old Blitz had
decorated it were ordinarily closed ex-
cept when this, one of their two guest
chambers, was occupied. Shades and
lace curtains similar to those at the rear
windows draped it within, so that from
the interior this side door presented al
most the same appearance as the win
dows. themselves. and it stood, directly
opposite the hall door. s
But Miss Guthrie had becomeenthusi-
astic over the lovely view down the
Pawnee valley from that side gallery
She was frequently to be seen there. She
had gone out for one farewell look as the
valley lay flooded in the light of the full
moon, and this was Immediately after
changing her dress. She was exclaiming
over it's beauty as arrayed for her jour-
ney she came dancing down the stairs to
Join her hostess and the excited children
in the parlor. She suddenly missed her
gloves remembered that she had left
them in her room, had scurried up the
stairs, had reached the landing at the
top. but never entered her room at all,
when there was heard that awful shrek
of terror and heavy fall. Holden at
the instant was in his own room, the
ho ifn ciH do Of
house. and was changing his best uni
form into something more suitable for
run down to the railway.
This had delayed him second or two,
so that Brewster and Randolph, two of
the most active of the Junior officers,
were foremost at his heels as he flew up
the stairs. His first care was for Nita.
but the youngsters had bounded into the
room and out on the gallery, as though
expecting to overtake some intruder
there. The side door. was wide open. the
shade up. the lace curtains drawn apart
If any one had been in the room escape
to the gallery was easy enough but from
there there was practically none except
by leap of fifteen or twenty feet to the
hard ground below. No one had run
out. either front or back. for Murphy and
the Irish cook were at the rear on the
east side. the rushing swarm of officers
at the front. Ii any one had hidden
there escape unobserved was well nigh
impossible No one was found-no trace
of any one Indeed when Nita was per-
mitted to talk she vowed that no one
had been there. She herself had left
the blinds. door and curtains open as she /
came in from the moonlit gallery. had
turned out her lamp and descended the
stairs. The gallery doorway could not
be seen from where she fell, and as all
was darkness in the room itself. how
could she have seen any one?
Out on the gallery. of course. any one
w,,ald have been revealed, thanks to the
bIilliancy of the full moon, almost as i'll
the broad glare of day: but one had to
be at the hall door or in the square room
itself in order to see the gallery at all, and
Nita declared.eas before, that she: had
not reached the. door. What she fancied
was ghost, bathed in pale, cold light,
was probably the white curtains of the
rear windows. But the Hght-whence
came that?
The possibility of any one having been
In the room was not entertained. |
Prompt and thorough search had been
made in every nook and corner of the |
the upper story. The rooms of the nurse
and children were on the westward side |
of the hall, and the nurse was in one of
them. putting on her hat, at the very
was unoccupied. Nita had chosen the@t
Ii