The Press. (Stafford Springs, Conn.) 1883-1935, 1899-03-09
THE GRAVES DOOR.

We were lolling in a couple of easy
chairs on the veranda one evening after
dinner. Stanfeld and I, when my friend
sent the glowing stump of his cheroot
pirouetting down the steps, and, turn
ing in his chair, said abruptly:
"Do you know, Dick, man was ehot
once just where you're sitting?'
Naturally was startled, and, instead
of replying to Stanfeld's remarks
glanced uneasily down the long. ghost
~ veranda, of which the outer edge lay
in bright moonlight, while the inner
portion was wrapped in the dense
shadow Of the partly drawn bamboo
jalousies.
81 know the feeling said .Stanfield,
noting my uneasiness II never sit here
of an evening without getting creepy
sensation all over me. The servants say
the old bungalow is haunted, and ]
shouldn't wonder il they are right.
Anyhow, If it ism It, it ought to be, for
the story connected with it is an uncan-
ny one altogether. 0ee that hole in the
jalousies there ON your right?''
''Do you mean that oblong slit just
above the balustrade? Pom my word,
against the moonlight, it looks for all
the world like malignant eye!''
$50 it u.s. said Stanfield, with a
slight shiver. "It was through that
hole Judge Robertson, my predecessor,
was shot,
"Ah, I've heard there was a strange
story connected with his death, but /
know none of the particulars. Suppose
you light.another weed and talk me out
of this creepy fit
"Talk you into q worse one, more
like" retorted Stanfield. striking a
fusee. "I'll wager you never heard a
weirder story. But you shall have the
facts and then judge for yourself.
With that be settled himself in his
chair, anil after putting refeotively at
his cheroot for some seconds went on to
tell me the story of the shot through
the jalo1eies:
Robertson, you must know, was an
Elton boy, like myself. We were chums.
in fact in the old days, and that is how
/ came to know of a peculiar tradition,
if may SO name it, that is said to have
been in his family for centuries.
81 don't know whether you believe
in death warnings, Dick. but it seems
that for hundreds of years no Robertson
has ever died without first having dis
tinct premonition of his approaching
end, and, what is more remarkabl still,
the warning always comes in the form
of an edor, an earthly smell-the smell
of a new dug grave.
"Well, about week before his death,
when he was on his way to take up his
appointment here, in fact, Robertson
passed through Malariabad, where ]
was at that time stationed as collector,
and of course put him up for the night.
After dinner we were sitting smoking,
just as you and 1 are new, when pres
emily he says:
'Stanfield, says he, there's dew
ilish queer smell about. Been havina
any diggzng done on the premises:
emo, said !. i haven't, and. for the
life of me can't smell anything OK.
oept these Dindiguls we're smoking
Perhaps that's what it is, then,
said he doubtfully, and for half an
hour or SO the subject was dropped.
"Just as we were making move TO,
bed, however, he suddenly grips my
hand, and. 'Stanfield, says he hoarse
ly, for Gods sake tell me that your
people have been digging somewhere
near or that there's been a shower.
can't get that earthly smell out of my
nostrils. It's like standing over new
made grave.
"Just a week later, to a day, wal
at work in my office one morning whel
peon brought in a telegram. Dick
that telegram brought the news tina
Robertson had been shot dead by hi
own butler at O'Clock the evening be
fore -
"By his own butlerp' exclaimed
Mortified {; for while Stanfield was relat
ing this tragic tale had hear.l thu
voice of his butler giving orders to thu
table boys in the dining room at oul
back.
eyes, by his own butler" resumet
Stanfield, land on the very spot wher
you sit. Indeed, consulting his watch
"it happened just at this time, for it,
now 8 O'Clock to the minute.''
But" cried, glancing apprehen
sively at the eyelike aperture in tn
jalousies. "why by his butler? Fo
heavens sake. explain!''
ST WILL" continued Stanfield, '.bu
first must bark back bit and tell yol
that the telegram ordered me to proceed
at once to this station as Robertson
successor. Well, did so. and almos
1 l.