Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1894-08-17

by man Who lives here and whose word
have every reason to believe. I have ar
ranged with him that we call at his house
on our way, all three Of us to spend the
night in the old mansion, and then-nous
verrons. J" TT
TO tell the truth, I did not quito fancy
the idea Fortunately for me, only half
believed the story, and so, stepping out
briskly, we soon reached the pretty little
house belonging to Max's friend. This
man, DR.. Appleton, was the first to revive
my fears. Markham" he said solemnly,
I'm half sorry promised. This is too
serious a business for us to NEEDLE with.
I saw that thing again today in broad
daylight, and I never in all my life saw
such devilish looking face ''Oh, bosh,
man!'' said Max. Its too late now to
turn back. We have barely Is minutes to
reach the house. A brisk walk will pull
up your courage. Come on" Making
some remark about fools venturing where
angels fear to tread, the doctor put on his,
coat, and in few moments we were again
under way.
A 10 minutes walk brought us in sight
of tho old abbey. Cold and gaunt the
ruins looked in the moonlight, like skele-
ton of the past. At it's back wood of
pines swayed in the night wind like an
army Of ghosts waiting for leader, and a
little farther on, surrounded by the shadow
of the trees, stood desolate looking
house, with empty windows and broken
panes, the very picture of all that was
haunted and uncanny. Making our way
under the shadow Of the trees, we reached
the back of the house and with little diff
fculty forced window open and were
soon inside BY the light of the moon
shining through the blindless windows
we made our way to what appeared to be
the dining room, and then, closing the
shutters and lighting a solitary candle,
we sat down on a couple of empty boxes
to await results. We had not long to wait.
Exactly as a neighboring clock struck 10
we heard sound that made our very
hearts stand STILL We sprang from our
seats and stood looking at one another in
CONSERVATION and dismay. It seemed as
if on the very stroke of 10 the house had
received some blow that shook it to it's
foundations. Every door seemed to open
and creak and bang one after another as
the wind moaned and swept on it's way
from room to room. Instinctively we
turned our eyes to the door of the chamber
we occupied. 1t was open. There was
something standing there The moon
flashed out from behind a cloud. 1t was
the monk.
could hear my heart beat like drum.
I was almost sinking with fright when
suddenly, with a hollow, grating laugh,
the figure disappeared. In a second we
had picked up our things, opened the win
dow, jumped to the lawn and were run
ming as fast as legs would carry us in the
direction Of Appleton's house. Markham
was the first to recover his composure.
What darned fools we are, - he said, 'but
upon my word never got such fright in
my life.'' That sentiment was heartily in
dorscd by Appleton and myself, and we
both SO strongly opposed the idea of fur
Their investigation that Markham gave in,
and the doctor put us up in his place for
the night. 49,
With the daylight, however, our courage
returned, and after good breakfast we
took a walk around the old house be-
fore returning to the city and vowed that
the three of us would make another at
tempt that night to penetrate the mystery
Daylight is wonderful thing for dis
polling ghosts and ghostly fears, and we
could hardly believe that we were the
same men who the night before ran as fast
as legs could carry from that very room
that the following morning we so con-
tentedly examined. 1t was exactly as we
had left it. There were the two boxes on
which we sat, there the grease Of the
candle, and there the open window
through which we had fed.
The doctor was inclined to regard the
matter in a very grave light. Up to that
moment he had not given much thought
to the domain of ghostland. He therefore
considered the apparition direct rebuke
for such negligence. Markham simply be-
lieved that his eyes had deceived him, but
how we three saw the same thing and
heard that awful laugh he could not ex-
plain. We visited all the rooms, saw the
nursery where the monk had been seen
bending over the child, and lastly turned
our attention to the basement. The eel:
lars were large and freely admitted light
except one which faced toward the abbey.
When we entered the latter and got accus-
toned to the darkness, grewsome sight
met our eyes, which startled US nearly as
much as did the apparition of the previous
night. Hanging from beam in the CELL
ing was the rope and moose by which the
unfortunate butler had hung himself.
There it had remained, white with mold,
swinging softly in the draft, grim trophy