The Portland daily press., 1895-05-02

the road.
hated and loathed the man, and the
hatred and loathing were strong upon me
when I went to bed. was tired and soon
fell fast asleep
1t seemed long night. had passed it
in troubled dreamland, and somehow
when l awoke l was not astonished to find
again by my bedside my puzzled and in
quisitive wife,
''You must, she said, "have been again
walking in your sleep. The cook says that
at 6 O. clock this morning she found the
hall door wide open, and she is sure she
heard some one in the top room. near the
cupboard where you keep the pistol"
go up stairs I said to my wife, land
see if the case which contains the pistol is
unlocked
She soon returned to say that it was
locked as usual, and that fact satisfied her
with regard to the pistol, while the pro-
duction of the key for the drawer, where
it was always kept, induced in her be-
lief that the domestic had made mistake
''Still, the girl declares that the hall
door was open. She cannot be mistaken
on that point"
Ibid she lock it last night?"
mo" said my wife, with deliberation.
"I didl'
1t was strange. There had been no bur-
glarious entry. It looked more like a case
of breaking out than breaking in. But,
after all it was trifle and before break
fast was over we had quite forgotten it.
All this time great excitement prevailed
in the village, which was in Lancashire,
not far from Liverpool. A terrible mur-
der had taken place, and the small COM
munity was agitated to its depths. Old
Grubb, the gravedigger, had been found
dead Iear an open grave He had been
shot through the heart.
When I reached the village, the body
had been removed to an clubhouse of the
Rose and Crown, there to await the cor
oner's inquest.
In company with the police inspector, I
examined the place where the body was
found and the churchyard, but no foot
prints save those of the gravedigger him
self were visible on the loose soil that he
had himself thrown up the previous after
noon during the process of digging his
wife's grave.
No firearm was found. 1 noticed that
the ladder was against the church wall in
the spot where I saw Grubb place 1t the
day before. He had taken his spade from
it's hiding place, for it was lying near the
grave. 1t was therefore strange that he
had not removed the ladder, which caused
me inexplicable uneasiness until, Unseen
by the inspector, I had removed it and
laid it in the long grass of the churcAyard
A jury was summoned, and was ap-
pointed foreman of it. We were face to
face with a mystery, which we did our
best to elucidate. But it was all in vain.
LOT IF
were suspected of causing the death of old
Grubb, but on no other grounds save that
the gravedigger had habitually ill treat
ed her. and that they were her relatives.
The coroner's jury extended over several
weeks, and the end of it was that we re-
turned a verdict of "willful murder
against some person or persons unknown. !"
And SO the poor gravedigger and his
wife were buried in the grave-the grave
which hs had himself dug.
The following winter while returning
home from business suddenly came face
| to face with my wife. She appeared very
nervous and agitated.
'sHush," she said "This afternoon the
pistol has been discovered by which the
gravedigger was shot Some men were
IopdlIluS UAO IOOl VI uAO OuulS1As uAid III
hole where, a man says, Grubb was in
the habit Of placing his spade long old
fashioned pistol was found. I saw it,
George, and nearly tainted. y
I, too, became nervous, but said never a
word until our house was reached. A
! light was produced, and I took my trem-
| bling wife to the cupboard in the room at
| the top, to reassure her by the sight Of my
| family heirloom.
| Had she been before me? No CLEAN of
| hope shot from her usually bright face.
The key was found and the case opened.
| The pistol was not there!
I had not looked in the case since the
murder, and as it was locked concluded
that the weapon was inside.
1t now occurred to me for the first time
that the pistol was loaded when I last ex-
amined it, and that the bullet was the old
fashioned make found in the heart of the
gravedigger.
I went to the police station that night,
and with a careless air examined the
weapon.
1t was mine!
'.Do you remember, - said the inspector,
"that on the morning of the murder a
ladder was reared against the church.
The pistol was found in a hole near the
very spot where the ladder had been
placed. 1t so happened that some one re-
moved the ladder, despite my strict in
| junction that nothing in the churchyard
was to be touched 1t seems to me now
| that the ladder was not removed acciden-
tally"
| I acquiesced in the surmise and did not
blaneh. 1t was undoubtedly clew, but
nothing was ever known of the removal of
| the ladder or the person who prevented
| the probable discovery of the pistol with
which old Grubb had SO grievously met
| his end.
Years afterward we left the neighbor-
hood. Perhaps, now that the village has
grown into a town, everything connected
with the murder is forgotten. My wife
and 1 never refer to it, never hear any
thing about it, but often in the dead of
night am aroused from my slumber, and
the question comes viyidly to my mind:
| "Was it a 1nurder?'' million.
Dufferin's Diplomacy.
| Il ho cd