Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1893-02-19

Ten minutes afterward the house in the
Rue de la Victoirie was in a state of com
motion impossible to describe. People who
for 40 years had lived on the same floor
and never honored each other with so much
as a tip of the hat now clustered together
and chatted eagerly.
do you know, monsieurg"
at is very extraordinary"
"Simply unheard ofp'
"The proprietors lowered my rentp'
"One-third, is it not? Mine also"
Astounding! 1t must be mistaken
And despite the affirmations of the Der
nard family, despite even the "bit Of writ
ingh under cover" there were found
among the tenants doubling Thomases who
doubted still in the face of everything.
Three of them actually wrote to the pro-
prietor to tell him what had passed and TO
charitabIy warn him that his concierge had
wholly lost his mind, The proprietor re.
sponded to these skeptics, confirming what
Bernard had said. Doubt thereafter was
out of the question.
Then began reflections and commentaries.
why had the proprietor lowered his
repts!"
Eyes, whyS"
what motives" said they all, "actuate
this strange MANI For certainly he I2ust
have grave reasons for a step like this An
intelligent man, a man with good sense,
would never deprive himself of good fat
revenues, well secured, for the simple
pleasure Of depriving himself. One would
not conduct himself thus without being
forced, constrained by powerful or terrible
circumstances.
And each said to himself:
"There is something under all this"
But WHAT"
And from the first floor to the sixth they
sought and copjectared and delved in their
brains. Every lodger had the preoccupied
air of a man that strives with all his wits
to solve an impossible cipher, and every
where there began TO be vague disquiet,
as it happens when one finds himself ia the
presence Of a sinister mystery.
Some one went so far as TO hazard
This man must have committed a great
and still hidden crime; remorse pushes him
to philanthropy"
1T was not pleasant idea either. the
thought of thus living side by side with a
rascal--no, by no means; he might be re-
pentant and all that, but suppose he yield
ed to temptation once moreW
THE house perhaps was badly built"
questioned another anxiousiy.
"Hum-m, so-sol no one could tell, but
all knew one thing-it was very, very oldr'
True, and IL had been necessary 10 prop
it when they dug the drain last year in the
month OF March"
Maybe it was the roof then, and the
house is top heavyp suggested a tenant ON
the fifth floor
"Or perhaps" said lodger in the garnet,
there is press for coming counterfeit
money in the cellar; have often heard at
night a sound like the dull, muffied thud of
a coin stamper."
The opinion Of another was that Russian,
maybe PrussiaH, spies had gained a lodg-
ment in the house, while the gentleman Of
the first story was inclined to believe that
the proprietor purpOscd to set fire TO his
house and furniture with the sole object of
drawing great sums from the insurance
companies
Then began TO happen, as they all de
clared, extraordinary and even frightful
things. On the sixth and mansard floors il
appeared that strange and absolutely mex
plicable noises were heard. Then the nurse
of the old lady on the fourth story, going
one night to steal wine from the cellar, en-
countered the ghost Of the defunct propri-
rent, by which she knew him.
And the refrain frem loft to cellar was:
"There is something under all this!''
From disquietude it had come to fright;
from fright it quickly passed to terror, 80
that the gentleman Of the first floor, who
had valuables in his rooms made up his
mind to so and sent in notice by his clerk
Bernard went 20 inform the proprietor,
who responded:
"All right, let the fool gor'
But next day the chiropodist Of the second
floor, though he had naught 70 fear for his
valuables, initiated the gentleman beneath
him. Then the bachelors and the little
households Of the fifth story quickly fol
lowed this example.
From that moment il was general rout.
BY the end Of the week everybody had given
notice. Every one awaited some frightful
catastrophe. They slept no more. They
organized patrols. The terrified domestics
swore that they, too, would quit the ac-
cursed house, and remained temporarily
only on tripled wages
Bernard was no more than the ghost Of
himself; the fever Of fear had worn him 10
a shadow.
NO" repeated his wife mournfully, at
each fresh notification, mo, it is not nat
urai"
Meanwhile three and twenty "for rent
placards swung against the facade Of the
house, drawing an occasional application
for lodgings
Bernard-never grumbling now-climbed
the staircase and ushered the visitor from
apartment TO apartment
"You can have your choice" said he to
the people that presented themselves, "the
house is entirely vacant; all the tenants
have given notice as one man. They do
not know why, exactly, but things have
happened, oh, yes, thingsl a mystery such
as was never before known-the proprietor
has lowered his rentsl"
And the would be dodgers fed away af-
frfghted.
The term ended, three and twenty vans
carried away the furniture Of the three and
twenty tenants. Everybody left. From
top to bottom, from foundations 70 garnet,
the house lay empty Of dodgers.
The rats Themselves finding nothinQ To