The Washington weekly post., 1899-12-19

Il
But what on sarih can it be. manT' he
said
We'll" I replied. 81 have some sort Of
| Idea. but at present l won't state it les
| should prove 10 be wrong. | propose
| that you watch with me tonight. Mr..
Brag, and together wen see If We can't
uEmask the ghost
But do you think il will come again to-
| nlght?-'
Il can't say Perhaps not. II may be
| that the trickster, whoever il may be.
has had a fright and viii delay further
| operations for awhile. 1t Is some one in
| the house. / am convinced of that. When
l announced that would watch. nothing
was seen OF it. But directly | said |
would give up watching. Lady Marian ap-
pears What We must do is to watch
| regularly Mr. Brag, even should IL not
appear for week or more"
II turned out that / was right. Night
| after night We concealed ourselves behind
the curtain, ! with my revolver. Brag
| with a large dinner-bell. with which he
| intended alarming the house when Lady
Marian was captured This went on for
! no less than zen nights. Then l took Mrs.
Brag and Helen into confidence, and ar
| ranged a pretended departure from the
| house. / went off TO London with great
fuss and ceremony. But l got out OF the
train at the first station and returned 10
the hall by road secretly. And at Il
o'clock that night Brag and | were in our
hiding-places once more. And IL was
Christmas eve. the very time when
ghosts should be abroad. according 10
| legend.
Now" I whispered, 'the ghost Is of
its guard; take my word for it he or She
whichever II Is, will come" Brag said
nothing. but gripped viciously at the han
die of his dinner bell
1t fell out as / had anticipated. Shortly
after midnight Lady Marian reappeared
in the same guise as before. / could hear
Brag's teeth chattering as he saw the ap-
partition. The moonlight was as strong as
IL had been on the previous occasion, ana
Lady Marian, clacking and tapping as be-
fore, moved through it in precisely the
same way. She glided along by the pic
lures and fingered the frames. Suddenly
We heard her give a joyous exclamation.
and there was a sliding sound as of some
thing pushed back. A portrait vanished.
and black cavity was seen in its place.
Now was the time. 1 jumped up, and
poising my revolver fired as truly as
could, and at the same moment Brags
bell changed out vigorously. There was
Shrek and a hurried scamper. Then as
before the ghost of Lady Marian vanished
before we could reach the spot.
Where the deuce has she gomez cried
Brag. who was still ringing his bell hard.
Through a sliding panel" / replied,
guessing the means of exit was through
the cavity.
As l lighted the lamp there was more
noise and pattering of feet, and the half
dressed servants in all stages of deshabille
and alarm came crowding into the gall
lery. Some carried lights, others pokers
and sticks, but one and all were as fright
| ened as they well could be-
And no wonder; for the clamor of
Bras's bell was enough to wake the dead
Then came Helen and Mrs. Brag fully
dressed for they both had waited up 10
witness the success of my scheme.
And ii was a suCcess-greater than l
had dared to dream. As / said, a picture
that of Lady Marian-had vanished: that
is, II had slid back into the wall. leaving q
| cavity which We proceeded to examine
| Therein we found an iron box fast locked.
But Brag soon had it torn open. to find
| that 1t contained velvet-lined drawers and
trays all heaped with the most splendid
Jewelry Gold, diamonds. rubies. emer-
alds-the mass glittered like a rainbow.
See, Helen, your mothers long lost
jewels. So this is what the ghost of Lady
Marian came for"
My gracious!' cried Mrs. Brag dron
ping on her knees. Look. my dear. all
my Lady's jewels! You'll wear them at
your wedding after ALL"
But Helen did not look at them. She
just stared al me, nervous and shaking.
Geonrey, who is the ghost?''
Cannot you guess? Jane Riordan."
impossible! Isn't she hereY'
NO. miss" said Parsons, glaucing round
al the servants, "she amt with us "
oh' GeoHrey, hope you haven't shot
her" S''o'
Serve 'er right If e AS" cried Brag
but dont cry. my pretty, she went
through another sliding panel. Come
Geoffrey, let us look"
The spring is in the frame. Mr.. Rrag
| am sure of that =
instantly dozen hands were busy with
the frames, and We soon came rpon a
spring In that Of picture at the far end
OF the gallery. 1t opened noiselessly. and
stepped into the open space followed by
Brag bearing the lamp. We proceeded
along a narrow passage, ascended flight
or stone steps, and finally emerged
through another sliding panel into the
Ddck part OF the house. On our wav W..
picked up the tall cane, the gray wig. and
head dress and the brocade skirt.
she stripped herself to get aWav." said
Brag, nodding. Let Us go to her room
She has one to herself, you know. Asked
my old woman TO give her one as spe-
clal favor; and for Eliza Craik's sake she
got it
The room was reached and we found II
empty, with the 'ast remnants Of the dis
guise on the floor On going to the back
door we discovered that 1t was open. and
through II Jane Riordan had vanished into
the night never To return.
SO ii was that | exercised the ghost of
Lady Marian. On Christmas Dav AT
breakfast We discussed thoroughly the
stirring events OF the night Mrs. Brag
was filled with anger at the Way in which
Jane Riordan had tricked her.
Il wonder how she knew about my
lady'S jewels she said
"Oh, there's no difficulty in guessing
tnat, L replied. THE father must have
told his wife where he had hidden them.
l daresay he intended to fetch them him
oCAl llC NdlilC OuN Oh SaOl But he
died before his sentence expired. How
ever. he let his wife know, and she. of
course, told Jane, who came here and
tried TO get them by masquerading as
Lady Marian's ghost"
And Eliza must have told her that
story, GeOnrey. We often talked Of the
ghost. Oh, vnat d wicked womanr'
But | wonder why Mrs Craik, being
poor, did not try to get the Jewels for her.
self. She would hardly wait twenty years
before doing So"
1t was Helen who sid this, and 1 who
replied.
"Wel, / expect Mrs. Craik was either
afraid or did not learn from her husband
behind which picture the jewels were hid
den i expect her reason was the last:
for Jane, IS told you, went up and down
the wall lingering the frames In order to
ind the right one. That was why she ap-
pesred so often in the gallery. Had she
known the trUe hiding place, one appear
ance and visit would have done / see
now that she feigned fear 10 me In orQer
TO ward OF suspicion. From her looks |
never thought she would Dl llAyer