The morning times., 1897-01-31

LII liz ES-A
| the foot of the cellar stairs and count
something, and that one, two and three
were somehow mixed together. /
started 10 descend to the cellar. but the
stairs had rotteI away. As l moved
about | also heard some animals stir
ring down there, and fearing l might
| get into trouble I left the house and
| the grounds. When | made inquiries
| in the town | found that the old soli-
| cit0r had been dead for years, and that
/ his papers and accounts had been
transferred to a firm living in a town
/ ten miles away. | decided to go and
| see them and claim my own, but there
was no hurry about il. All that after
noon and evening l kept trying to re-
member the cellaT-whether ii was one
| open space or divided. This thing
preying on my mind naturally brought
about the dream which followed. 1
/ dreamed that the cellar was one large
| room. and that the floor above was
1 supported by three brick pillars. The
| words in the will also stood out clear
1 ly-"count one and three and take
/ two" | woke while yet dreaming, and
! leaping out of bed wrote down the
1 words. When morning came l decid-
| ed on an investigation of the cellar,
/ and about mid-afterno0n revisited the
/ house. / gained entrance to the cellar
/ by an outside passage and after driv-
| ing out a dog who had taken up his
! quarters there l located the spot
where the foot of the stairs had been.
: The cellar was one large room, and the
| floor was supported by three pillars,
I 'ho1 H,e., nl
tance of about forty feet across the cell
| lar, and pillar No. 2 was exactly in the
| centre opposite the stairs. Count one
and three and take two" Two was
| the centre pillar, of course, but why
| take it? 1t looked exactly like the
other pillars. 1t was there 70 support
! the centre beam on the floor. as any
/ one could see, and where was the mys-
| Stery in that / looked it over with
great care, but could see nothing diff
! ferent from the others. The architect
! had planned it, and the same hand had
built the three and used bricks from
the same lot. l was provoked with
my father for writing the words, and
with myself for attaching any signifi-
cance to them, and after awhile climb
ed out of the cellar and went walking
| in the town. l tried TO dismiss the
whole affair sfrom my mind, but it
clung to me, and an hour after dinner
| was back in the cellar. If there was
any mystery about the pillar l could
solve it only by attacking the bricks.
After hesitating for long time
looked about, and CHANGED upon por-
ton Of an iron bar, and, removing my
coat, | began work. After a few
bricks had been lOoSened the rest was
easy enough. The pillar was seven
feet high and two feet square and was
perfectly solid until I was within two
feet of the bottom. Then / found q
hollow, and this hollow was covered by
Il sheet of tin. When l reached this
point l was SO excited that ! had TO
stop work and sit down for n while,
and it was we'll that things happened
thus While l was resting l heard
people moving about outside, and
caught enough of their conversation to
know that | had been seen proWling
around and had o aroused suspicion.
After the people had departed l pulled
away the cover, and there was the
treasure which had been left to the last
of tine Hiltons. The receptacle was
Iuil VI ,Oiti DOuAAli VI II 4AA y
low metal My grandfather had re-
sorted TO usury and half-starved him.
self to leave it to my father. and my
father had pinched and saved for life
time to leave it to me. | took the mon
ey. piece by piece, and counted 1t into
my hat, and when the hat was full
I carried it out among the shrubbery
and emptied its contents on the
ground. There was f12.000 there-f12,-
600 and something over, and some OF
the pieces must have been saved up for
over a hundred years. That evening
hired a cart for a couple Of days, and,
having possessed myself of a strong
leather bag, l transferred the gold
from the garden 10 the cart and drove
to Shropshire and put it in a safe
place. Later on | hunted up the soil
citors who had the will, and in due
time and without returning to Went
worth / came into my own and dis
posed Of the house and lands for q
small sum. Some one who visited the
house discovered the work | had done
there. and the amount of money / took
away has been variouSly estimated al
from FL 600 to $4,000. 1t has been as
serted that | also secured many arti
cles of jewelry, but l have given you
the true particulars. At first they
were mystified as to my identity
When they came to know that the
stranger was the last of the Hiltons
they had 1T that | escaped from prison
and was a more desperate wretch thar
ever That you may do ME justice
: will say that for years l have lived ar
honest, upright life, mingling with the
best of my fellow-men on equal terms
and though the race will die with me
!. the last of the Hiions will die witt