Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1896-04-25
A SUBURBAN MYSTERY.

The purpose of this story is to clear
up a suburban mystery and provide the
last chapter which is to set at rest all
speculation.
For more than two years the resi-
dents of Morton's Grove have been
| guessing at the cause of the tracks,
and if they have not guessed correctly
| il is no discredit to them.
| 1t was two years ago this last Zebra
| ary, and on q certain evening toward
the end of the month that moist snow
of big, lazy flakes began to fall upon the
suburb of Morton's Grove.
There was hardly breath of wind,
and the snow siftel itself evenly and
| clung wherever it touched.
There were but few trees in Morton's
| Grove. In the christening of the sub
urb the real estate Napoleon had an
| icipated that period when all the shrubs
| and switches would have their growth.
| Therefore the snow did not lose itself
| in tangled boughs, but settled peace
fully on broad levels Of lawn and steep
| pitches of roof. Except where a wall
! or fence stood bolt upright there was
an unbroken mantle of white. Even
every picket wore a plume and every
fence-board q ruff
The snowfall eased at II o'clock, and
by that time Morton's Grove was al
most hushed for the night. The big
wooden houses stood spaciously apart
and were darker and more fantastic
than ever against the white. One by
! one the windows winked themselves to
darkness, and several hundred nice peo
pie slept, not realizing that mystery
was upon them.
| If reports be true, the second Miss
! Eaton was the first to see the foot
prints.
She arose very early in the morning
to reassure herself that the geraniums
were far enough removed fromthe win
dow and still not too near the base
| burner. She walked to the window and
| looked across the snow at the dull,
| sealed houses across the way and the
wiry bushes frozen in the front yard.
1t was the gray of the dawn, and the
| shapes outside were not distinct, but
when her eyes fell to the foreground she
saw enough. First she stared IN puzzled
surprise, and then she moaned and ran
| i:ig at the window.
No wonder, indeed. This is what she
had seen:
Huge footprints, marking the course
of man, undoubtedly, who had come
from the street to the very window
! OF which she had been standing. That
was not the worst of it. The footprints
led from the street to the window. but
there were no footprints from the win
dow to the street.
! What did that mean?
1t meant that the man had come to
the window but had not gone away.
He had come through the window into
the house! He was in the house at that
moment!
i There was a pit-a-pat of slippcred
feet on the stairway, and the second
Miss Eaton gave a gasp and discon-
nected account of her discovery to the
first Miss Eaton, who was still in bed.
The first Miss Eaton couldn't under
stand what was meant, but she became
convulsed with fright, merely through
sympathy.
Christine, the Swedish girl employed
as n man-of-all-work for the maiden la
| dies, heard the noise and came to the
| rescue. She valorously clad herself
and went through the house from end
TO end, lifting every coverlet behind
which man or boy might have concealed
| himself.
There was no man i'll the house and
there was no sign that any man had
been there during the night, although
Miss Eaton discovered, to her horror,
that the snow on the window sill had
been disturbed as if by man crawling
| in at the window.
what large tracks" shivered the first
Miss Eaton as she surveyed the hideous
trail across the front yard. "Oh!"
The tracks were rather large for a
fact. 4 foot that measures IS inches
from heel to toe goes above any known
average and is supposed to belong only
in burlesque literature.
Iiut these were real tracks.
| The Eaton sisters, or the Eaton
girls as they were still termed, out of
compliment, stood together at the win
dow after breakfast. They saw Mr.
Ballard johnson, who lived in the first
house to the east, come along the side
walk.
Occasionally he stopped and shook his
head, AID then he walked on with his