The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-11-08
contained letter, which the officer reao

2 = --As---
contained a letter, which the officer read
hurriedly.
How did this letter come into your mis-
tress' possession" he demanded.
ut was brought in, sir, by a small boy, a
mere child, and delivered into my mis-
tress' hands,
Where is your mistress now?"
''She left the house Is minutes ago. sir"
The officer handed the missive to me and
sat down with an expression of profound
disgust. The contents ran as follows:
mrs, Paskin, we hav yore husband awl rite
enuf so don't truble yoreself on that scoar
We propose to keep him until you see fit to
ransum him as folders: if you will putt 20 SOW
erins mo noats) on tho high rock twenty-one
yards due east of the spriag at Miless foard
before high noon today we Civ you our sollum
promiss to releece old paskin without no fur
Their delay2. Yores. by the sine Of the Skull,
the Black Gaps.
"You will, of course, post officers of JUS
tice on the spot named, and they will be
apprehended in the act" said.
"They-who?"
1.-THE bandits-that is, the Black Caps. !"
"Black grandmothersi Bah! Can't you
see," explained the detective, scarcely con-
cealing his contempt for my understand
ing, cant you see that this letter is all a
hoax? In fact, merely little scheme to
extract EGO from a very foolish woman.
Have you read the postscript"
p s. & warning!!! DO not dair to show this
letter to the polls if you value yore husband S
safety. Cum aloanli!
"Dear me!'' cried. "Then Mrs Paskin
is already the victim of some designing
rogue who has got wind Of the way mat
tiers stand! And Paskin has committed
suicide, after ALL Poor old Paskin! I
always told him his overlooking would
bring him to an early gravel"
''Stutf and nonsense! It hasn't done any
thing of the kinda
Paskin's voice! + had been with my back
to the door. 1 now turned and beheld a
pitiable, begrimed figure, pale under its
coating of SCOT, but clearly and unmistak-
ably the figure of Paskin.
"Paskinl'' calculated, what does this
mean?"
"It MEANS" replied Paskin, throwing
himself into the bed, all sooty and grimy as
he was, and keeping his eyes fixed upon
the counterpart, sit means that to GER
tain extent your predictions have come
true. 1t means that in a fit Of somnambul-
ism last night managed to wander down
into the cellar, and eventually to lay down
in remote corner of the coalbin. The
coalbin happened to be empty. The cause
of my awakening was the crash of falling
coal, gentlemen. was nailed into that
coalbin for some hours"
mailed into the coalbin."
eyes. saw I would have to wait until
five tons of the precious stuff had been de,
posted before could venture to move As
it was, came near being Drained at least a
dozen times. After time found myself
being buried alive. incorporation fcagnt
my way to the top. just as I vas on the
point of escaping one of the servants came
out to sweep the sidewalk. The hole was
reopened, and received small lump or
the back u the head which must have
stunned me. Gather1ocS, am finished
with cold pork and welsh rarebit forever.
Iswear i'll"
The detective, however, was right about
the ransom hoax.-Cade Gall in Million.