Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1896-05-19
A SUBURBAN MYSTERY.

The purpose of this story is to clear
up 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
it is no discredit to them.
| 1t was two years ago this last Febru-
airy, and on a 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 sifted itself evenly and
chung wherever it touched.
There were but few trees in Morton's
Grove. In the christening of the SUBJ
urb the real estate Napoleon had an
tlclpated 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 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 We're darker and more fantastic
than ever against tho white. One by
one the windows winked themselves to
darkness, and several hundred nice peo
pie slept, not realizing that a mystery
was upon them.
IL 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 from the 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 We're 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
to the stove to warm herself, still caz-
lag ut 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
at which she had been standing. That
was not the worst OF it. The footprints
led from the street to the window. but
there We're 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!
There was pit-a-pat of slippered
feet on the stairway, and the second
MSS Eaton gave a gasp and discon-
neeted account of her discovery to the
hrst Miss Eaton, who was still in bed.
The first Miss Eaton couldn't UNDER
stand what was meant, but she became
conTulsed With fright, merely through
sympathy.
Christine, the Swedish girl employed
as man-ot-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 in the house and
there was no sign that any man had
been there during the night, although
Miss Eaton discovered, to her horror,
that he snow on the window sill had
been disturbed as if by a man crawling
in at the window.
What large tracks, shivercd the first
Miss Eaton as she surveyed the hideous
tlail across the front yard. Obi"
The tracks were rather large for
fact. y foot that measures IS inches
from heel 10 toe goes above any known
average and is supposed to belong only
in burlesque literature.
Hut these We're real tracks.
The Eaton sisters, or the "Eaton
girls as they We're 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, and then he walked on with his
eyes fixed on the snow-covered ground.
The Eaton girls rushed to the door and |
the first Miss Eaton shouted: "Oh, Mr..
Johnson, have you seen those tracks,
too2"
He turned, apparently somewhat con-
fused, and replied: "IIuve l? Why.
those trucks lead up to my front win
dow. l thought at first some ona had
got into the house. Did you ever see IL
man with feet as big as these tracks?"
NO, but they're real tracks. What I
can't understand is how the man ever
got away again after walking up TO our
window. My, Pm so scared
We'll, I'm going to follow these
tracks and see where they go to-
The first Miss Eaton closed the door,
and MIR. johnson continued to follow the
trail, leaning forward like an alert In
dian scout.
Mr.. johnson had not proceeded far
before he met Mr.. Morton, who discov-
cred the suburb before the first house
was built.
Are you looking at these tracks ?" in
quired Morton.
Yes. Have you noticed them?'
They beat anything ever saw. l
traced tham IN the Straet from, ,,..