Birmingham age-herald., 1894-08-10
FLUNG OURSELVES AGAINST TIE DOOR"

FLUNG OURSELVES AGAINST TIE DOOR," door, made the entire place as bright as day. Twelve o'clock came We could hear the neighboring church clock chime the hour, but nothing happened The stiffness of death reigned in the old place. Mark ham was intensely disappointed, the doc tor seemed relieved while Mitchell evi- dently considered us a party of fools and himself the greatest fool for coming. "Why, Mir. Markham,'' he said, i've never had sell like this before We haver f had 3von as much as some table rapping. The ghost hasn't given us fair run for OFT money.'' After some discus sion we agreed to again reconnoiter tho cellar, and without lighting our candles we groped our way from passage to pas sage, but found, to our surprise the cellar door closed. Mitchell, looking through the keyhole, announced in an awestruek whisr per that something pecul inr seemed to Do swinging ill the center. Tho doctor shiy cred. He remembered that the only thing that could b, in the center was that ghast ly trophy oi death Markham was tho next to peep through We could see n tremor pass through his body, and, white as sheet, he turned away. Neither the doctor nor myself cared to take his place; so drawing back, we made way for Mitch ell, who was preparing to burst tho door open. Just as he was about to spring, however, it suddenly swung back, and tho sight that met our eyes almost paralyZed ollr senses.
 Swinging in the moose of death hung the figure of the monk. His face, ghastly and horrible, seemed to grin at us in agony, white and awful contrast to the zl-.I -e seemed rooted to the spot, but we sudden ly became conscious of new terror, and one rapidly approaching. There were steps coming behind us. The sound of slip shod sandals came nearer and nearer. We turned. My heart failed me- my knees shock as if with ague Coming steadily toward us in the moonlight was another figure of the monk. In few seconds he would touch us; but, swift as lightning we almost threw ourselves into an empty room on our right, and shaking with fear we four strong men flung ourselves against tho door to keep it closed while that aw ful thing went past.
 The shuff1ing sandals came nearer and nearer. They passed our door We could hear them enter the cellar where the ropc hung, and then once more the stiffness of death occupied the place. For few mo ments we did not dare to speak. Then Mitchell softly opened the door, and peep ing out informed us that there was noth ing in sight, and that even the swinging body of the monk had disappeared. With out word he led the way. We followed, one by one, and in few minutes we were outside the house and on our way to Ap- plcton's. There was very little said about the matter. We had all mentally deter mined at least to let our ghost alone for the future; consequently no further resolu- tions were passed the next morning, and barely mentioning the subject we re- turned to town to the different walks of life to which we belonged
 One day, three months later picking up the morning paper, read:
 STARTLING DISCOVERY AT BLACK
 HEATH.
 SUPPOSED HAUNTED HOUSE THE RESORT OF
 coINERS.
 An, this is interesting, thought, and was not disappointed It turned out to be an account of raid by the police on the house we visited Our ghosts were nothing more than desperate gang of coiners. The terrible noise had been pro duced every night by their letting fall in the basement a tremendous iron weight upon the foundation stone of the house. The body of the monk that we had seen hanging by the neck in the cellar was nothing more than we'll made dummy with its clothes steeped in phosphorus.
 And such was the end of the Black heath mystery. CHEIRo THE PALMlsT.