Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1895-03-27

tip Of the hat now clustered together
and chatted eagerly.
''Do you know, mOnrieur?"
"1t is very extraordinary"
"Simp.y unheard Of"
'sThe proprietors lowered myrent!"
.One-third. is it not? Niue also."
"As Gushing! 1t must be a mis-
take"
And despite the affirmations Of the
Bernard family, despite even the
"bit of writing under cover" there
were found among the tenants doubt
ina Thomases who doubted still in
the face of eTerything.
Three OF them actually wrote to
the proprietor to tell him what had
passed, and to charitably warn him
that his concierge had wholly lost his
mind. The proprietor responded to
these sceptics, confirming what Bern
ard had said. Doubt thereafter was
out Of the question.
Then began reflections and COM
mentaries
"Why had the proprietor lowered
his rentss"
''Yes, why?"
"What motives" said they all, 'ac-
tuate this strange man? For GER
| tainly he must have grave reasons
for a step like this! An intelligent
man, a man OF good sense. would
never deprive himself Of good fat rev.
enues, we'll secured, for the simple
pleasure of depriving himself. One
would not conduct himself thus with
out being forced. constrained by
powerful or terrible circumstances"
And each said to himself:
'There IS something under all
this!'
But what"
And from the first floor to the
sixth they sought and conjectured
and delved in their brains Every
lodger had the preoccupied air of a
man that strives with all his wits to
solve an impossible cipher, and
everywhere there began to be vague
disquiet, as il happens when one
finds himself in the presence of a sim
lister mystery.
Some one went so far as to haz.
zard:
This man must have committed a
great and still hidden crime; remvrse
pushed him to philanthropy.
1T was not pleasant idea either,
the thought OF thus living side by
side with rascal-nO, by no means;
he might be repentant and all that
but suppose he Yielded to temptation
once more?"
1.-THE house, perhaps, was badly
built?" questioned another anxiouslY.
'.Hum-m, $3.50! no one could tell,
but all knew one thing-it was very,
/, very old"
''True, and it had BEEN necessary
to prop it when they dug the drain
last year in the month of March"
maybe it was the roof then, and
the house is top heavy?" suggested a
tenant on the NTH floor.
''Or perhaps" said lodger in the
garret, there is press for coming
counterfeit money in the cellar;
! have often heard at night a sound
/ like the dull, mufiied thud OF coin
stamper."
The opinion of another was that
Russian, maybe Prussian, spies had
gained a lodgment in the house,
while the gentleman Of the first story
| was inclined to believe that the pro-
prietor proposed to set fire to his
house and furniture with the sole ob-
ject of drawing great sums from the
insurance companies.
Then began to happen, as they all
Irightlul tninga On Ihe slAth ana
m q a q Pd IN
! strange and absolutely inexplicabic
noises were heard. Then the nurse
of the old lady on the fourth story,
going one night to steal wine from
the cellar, encountered the ghost of
the defunct proprletor-he even held
In his hand a receipt for rent, by
which she knew him.
And the refrain from loft to cellar
] was:
There is something under all
this"
From disluietude it had come to
fright; from fright it quickly passed
to terror, SO that the gentleman of
the first floor, who had valuables in
| his rooms, made up his mind to 20
| and send in notice by his clerk.
Bernard went to inform the prC-
prietor, who responded:
'All right, let the fool CO."
But next dav the chiropodist Of the
second door, though he had naught
to fear for his valuables, initiated the
gentleman beneath him. Then the
bachelors and the little households
on the 6fth story quickly followed
this example.
From that moment it was a gen.
eral rout BY the end Of the week
every body had given notice. Every
one awaited some frightful catastro-
phe. They slept no more. They Or
Ranizcd patrols. The terrified do
mest!cs swore that they, too, would
quit the accursed house, and re-
malncd temporarily only on triple
wages.
Bernard was no more than the
ghost Of himself; the fever of fear had
worn him TO a shadow.
Meanwhile three and twenty 'for
rent" plscaIds swung against the IA
cade Of the house, drawing an &C.
casional application for lodgings.
Bernard-never g;un6ltnR now
climbed tho staircase and ushered tho
visitor from apartment to apartment
You cen have your choice" said
he to the people that presented
thcmsclveS 'thc house Is entirely
vacant: all the tenants have given
uotlcc as one man. They do not
know Why exactly, but things have
harpeno oh yes, things! a
mystery such as was never before
knOwn-thc proprietor has lowered
the 'ents.'
| AMI the would DO dodgers fed away
aHrlghtcd.
The term ended, three aud twenty
vans carried away the furniture OF
the s1sae and twenty tclan&. Every.