The Portland daily press., 1895-07-05

1t was after this that other things
were missing from the mayors private
and locked desk. Yes, he swore tornado
paths that it was locked and padlocked
and the one key to it in his own stout
pocket Now it was deed that disap
peared on which some grave Judgment
hung, now title to an estate. They
vanished. With his own hands the
mayor searched every servant in his en-
ploy and stationed watch over the
desk, then IN a, moments wrath dis
missed every attache valet, maid on
the place and hired an old toothless
womaE to do the work.
9TH not leave the place. +" he laughed
coarsely. "The dead rise not -
And the papers still slipped away.
| He has the dead to answer fol-, the
distant townspeople said, for tidings Of
it all had come to H, as everything
will slip out under Gods searching sun
and moon. ''Let him answer for that. -
After this my lord mayor took to
drinking heavily and to holding late
carousals With men from town who put
up for the night in the house on the
canal Their thunderous laughter shook
the very rafters across the oaken ceiling
as they pledged the ghostly footsteps in
foaming mugs of beer. But across the
orgy and shout the steps came and went
up and down the great central stair
case, heard by every man among them,
tread that whitened their faces and at
moments shook the hands that leaned
forward to grasp the goblets.
His excellence obliged the gentle
Grlselda to be present at these carousals.
The girl had grown paler from day to
day. There was gaunt, meager look
IN lip and eye and gaze gradually
coming across her face that made even
his debauched excellence start and stare
horribly. A smile that was more in
lqultous than curse was upon her lips.
1t happened one day as he turned full
round to stare again at her he saw her
move forward in time-exact time
keeping with the tread and movement
of those unseen footsteps.
This was on an evening in the heart
OF the winter. The night was quiet, for
the snow whirl was over and the salt
meadow lay still under the new made
ground. The waters of the canal were
frozen stiff, and the moon looked in.
''Fetch mo that song of the Lido
shore, :" the mayor shouted as the men
held their glasses high y pledge the
girl and her grace.
| SIT is up stairs" she answered quick
| ly, glancing over her shoulder, sin the
room where the eye of window looks.
l will 60" And the ghost tread swayed
her forward. The smile widened norri-
bly, upon her face.
by heaven, you shall notE' his ex-
cellence yelled. He grasped the girl and
laughed a terrible laugh. 'Know that
the player is long since Dead" he
chuckled, and the dead rise not? Singh"
They lifted her up amid the olang of
the mugs and the shouts. She waited,
with finger poised on lip. A shocking
peal of laughter tangled through the
room as she nointad with long, pale I'm
ger out to the great staircase where the
u mayor and his men had waited with
beads of sweat upon their brow and
had grasped but the empty air.
''By all the lights in heaven that are
now cut, his excellence roared, I'VE
will leize it. If presence of the dead
in it's shroud, of a vault that is opened
and the coming on'-
He sprang With shout che mer
seized each mrsket from the long rack
upon the wall and stood at the foot Of
the great staircase along which the steps
were coming.
| Good God! They were coming-but
there was no sign nor form-slowly,
step by step, palpable presence, but
the eye grasped it not.
The men fired. A blaze from 10 stout
muskets Fnook the air, but the footsteps
curdled through the silence. The pres
ence was coming on. The men fell
backward prone on the oaken floor, the
lock of every gun broken. The presence
came on through the untenanted air.
II X y Il
The good host of the Lion Heart stop
ped. The beads of sweat broke out upon
his forehead. He glanced hurriedly over
his shoulder.
$50 onl' l shouted, regardless OF
pipe gone out and the fire on the hearth
mere last spark, and the chill of mid
night creeping in. $50 onr'
81 may not, he said. cit was all
written out in his own hand before 1t
stands in the archives Of H. You
will learn the rest in the house on the
canal"
| I got up and walked up and down the
sanded floor several times. 1t was all
very still. IT will sleep in that house
tomorrow night"
CHAPTER II.
fLook out what you're aboutl You'll
run her agroundp' I shouted as my
good friend, the host of the Leeuenhart,
more accustomed to lift barrels of beer