The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1894-06-05
Our fanlilp storp.
DIR INVISIBLE GUEST.
.4Y Il. G. DODGE.
SemenA n

5lmily. at least-that our caller would
$Prove to be @ young man and neighbor
{suppOsed to be deeply in love with me,
when our dainty waiting maid an
nounced q messenger with o telegram.
or course that unusual event In u
rural and sometimes too quiet exist
ence, caused a little commotion, and,
as the dispatch was addressed to me, l
vas watched with curious eyes while l
opened the envelope and read it's con-
tents.
"Will start tomorrow to visit you,"
1t said "have sent the trunk to-day"
signed, "Mary Norton" She was my
very dearest girl friend on earth and
had long promised to visit me. The
anticipation of Ter coming made every
n SO happy that nothing more was
said about my I" beau" for which /
vas thankful.
The next afternoon the expressman
brought the expected trunk. 1 had it
taken upstairs and placed in my room,
for / insisted that my best friend should
and not be poked away in the cold
apartment reserved for ordinary
GUESTS.
After some trouble and complaining,
for the trunk was unusually large and
heavy, the eXpressman, helped by our
gardener, carried it up and set it
against the foot of my bed, there to
welt for its beloved owner.
AS 1 have mentioned, our house and
grounds were large and handsome, for
my father, being. rich, prided himself
for maintaining a home beftting q
country gentleman. We also possessed
ures, and, for fear Of robbers, our house
was we'll protected without by dogs
and within by bolts and bars and cleo
trio alarms at each door and window.
In addition we all had large dinner
bells by our bedsides to ring ~furiously
In cas- Of necessity, and the male por-
tiOn OF the family had no end of guns
and handy pistols.
Consequently, on the following morn
ing when we discovered that we had
been robbed during the night, we were
frightened and shocked beyond meas
ure.
Almost every room had been entered
and nearly all our jewelry was gone.
Even watches from under pillows and
pocketbooks from fathers and broth
er's trousers had been taken. And
most puzzling and alarming Of all was
the fact that not the slightest sign Of
breaking in or out could be found at @
single door or window. The electric
c~Ontrivances were all undisturbed.
Who could have done the robbery ?
We couldn't suspect our servants OF
any share in the crime, for long years
OF faithful duty proved the contrary.
If q burglar had secreted himself in
seemed probable, how could he have
gotten out and left no trace? The
more We tried to solve the riddle the
more mysterious it became to us,
though the village constable, hastily
sent for, said he'd soon have q theory
to work on.
In the afternoon of that awful day
another telegram came to our house
from Mary Norton. 1t read moth
err suddenly i'll. Cannot come. Will
send for trunk. Please deliver to ex.
pressman when he calls. Will write
particulars"
In an hour following that came the
expressman and, glad that Mary was
t o be spared the unpleasantness of a
visit at such a forlorn ~time,-we again
let u man help him away with the
heavy trunk from its place at the foot
of my he'd.
For a week we did our best, assisted,
too, by city detectives, to discover u
clue to the robbers, but all in vain.
And every day We sent to the post
Office for my friends promised letter.
but none came. Then anxious for fear
her mother was seriously i'll, | wrote
to her. BY return mail came an an
swer, saying she had sent neither
trunk nor kilograms, that her mother
was not sick, and asking what it all
meant.
At once / understood our robbery.
The burglar had been in the trunk
when it came, he had passed the night,
save when he was making the round of
the house, in my room when | was
alone; then with his valuable plumber
he had been shipped away in his queer
hiding place. No wonder the trunk
was heavy and big. No doubt from
peepholes in it the robber had watched
me until certain | was sound asleep.
Then out he must have crept and
the thought made me shudder and feel
faint.
But, though we admired the cum
ming and bold trick, we Immediately
set about tracing the trunk to where it
went after leaving our house.
The expressman, whom we found to
be honest and unsuspicious in the mat
ter, had given it to the railroad, which,
on telegranhic orders, had forwarded
it to an adjacent city. There it was
called for and taken away by a dray-
man who likely was an accOmplice Of
the burglar, for no one at the station
knew him and nothing further could
be learned regarding the trunk, at
least for the time being.
Now IN the strangest and almost
incredible part OF my story.
Some months after our robbery | was
on q weeks visit at my uncle's house
in q distant town. Like my fathers,
1t was spacious, and showed evidence
Of The wealth it contained.
OneNevening after supper, and while
We yer all gathered in the parlor a
telegram was brought in and handed
to my cousin Alice. OF course my de-
tective curiosity was aroused at the
tho similarity of the event and when 1T
turned out to be almost identical In the
reading with the one sent to me the
night before our burglar, | instantly
knew what was coming. So did the
rest, for they, us you may guess, wero
not ignorant of the affair.
For some moments we gazedSat each
other in speechless astonishment. Then
Uncle John, bound TO joke, no matter
what happened, asked me- with mock
seriousness if 1 would like the expect
ed trunk set in my room, which, be-
ing the guest chamber, was the right
place for it.
My look Of terror made him smile in
spite of his straight face.
"No! no" 1 gasped. q should die
at tho sight of IT. oh, Uncle John,
do send for the police at once. I'm
sure we'll all be murdered In