Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-11-16
THE DAILY
SHORT STORY.
Skeleton House.

Before the Revolution there stood
time worn edifTce of moldering brick
ID the now magnificent pleasure
ground, Central park, New York. Iso-
lated and bleak, the old house had
been unteEanted for years when Hugh
Garrbolt saw lit to make it his habita-
ton.
The last man who had lived there be-
fore Hugh Garrbolt died there alone.
Nor was he known to be dead until
wanderer, demanding shelter at Its
iron bound door and receiving no re-
ply, forced an entrance and beheld
human skeleton seated in an oaken
chair. From the very day that the man
told this tale the stunned dwelling had
been called the Skeletons House.
Hugh Garrbolt, with a sneer that had
been growing his thin, hard face for
sixty years, went alone to the house OF
the skeleton. The burghers waited for
two days and then nodded through
clouds of smoke that Hugh Garrbolt
was n fool. But when he returned on
the third day with bag of coin so
heavy that he staggered under ii the
burghers opened their eyes and whis-
tied that Hugh Garrbolt was a very
wise parsonage. Twelve months rolled
OH, and still the skeleton of the dead
buccaneer held grim and unmolested
watch over the table. when young
Albert Vandemeer- paid it n visit.
Albert was the only son of a worthy
widow whose husband had died when
Albert was but ten years old. One fine
day some phlegmatic youth, who en-
fDr
him to go and spend stormy night in
the Skeletons House.
Albert consented and chose that very
night. He walked cautiously around
the house till he found entrance in the
rear, and, cutlass in hand, entered. At
first he could discern nothing, but when
his eyes became accustomed to the
gloom he saw the silent and fieshless
sentinel still grinning in terrible mock
cry of mortality over the worm eaten
table.
Looking closely, the youth saw that
wires kept it's CHASTITY skull erect, and
as his keen eyes roved sharply around
he noticed part of the earthen floor
much more beaten down than the re-
mainder, and followed this slight path
to a small trapdoor above in the oaken
ceiling
To loosen his pistols in his belt and
ascend, with his cutlass ready for any
thing unexpected, was but the work of
an instant. A steady pressure. forced
up the trap, and flood of light poured
in upon the small apartment above
from window there wide open.
PerceiY:ng n door near. Albert boldly
opened it and found himself in the
presence of Il lovely girl of some fif-
teen or sixteen years, whose look of
terror and disgust as he entered i'm
mediately changed to one of hope and
surprise.
"Ah, you have come to take me
away" she exclaimed. But where is
he?"
He? Who?" said Albert.
THE dwarf The Red Dwarf The
monster that my uncle has placed over
me to keep me in this horrible place"
II have seen no such animal" said
the bewildered Albert
\ shrill yell, like the cry of some
fierce beast, thrilled upon the ear, and
as Albert turned the door was dashed
open, and the scream of terror that
pealed from the young girls lips told
him that the newcomer was her dread
ed jailer.
The Red Dwarf was a horribly de-
formed man, with n brutal visage, as
scarlet as vermilion; with yellow, shay
gy hair and arms so long that the
hunchbacked monster resembled a huge
ape more than 4 human being.
what are you here for? Go away!
She's to be my wife when Hugh comes
backI Go awayr'
'Oh, If you go, take me away with
you" said the girl. MY uncle stole me
from my parents in Virginia. He is
keeping me to force my father, the hus-
band of Garrbolt's sister, to sign away
all his property to him. Do not leave
me~
With a yell, the Red Dwarf was at
Albert's throat.
The dwarf was a giant in strength
and as active as a panther. He howled,
snapped his teeth, and tried to sink
them into Albert's throat, who used his
strength alone, disdaining the weapons
in his belt and having cast aside his
cutlass.
For half an hour the contest was
doubtful, but at length Vandemeer,
CASANAhG Oil PhOnCSS, Ills IOe
headlong down the trap just as the
head and face of Hugh Garrbolt was
peering from below.
The weight and impetus of the van
pushed dwarf bore Garrbolt down
with him against one of the iron spikes
used as means of ascent, and there,
hanging by the great nail, piercing IN
der his right ear, Hugh Garrbolt was
for moment suspended until a des-
perate struggle cast him headlong to
the floor below-dead.
The dwarf, senseless and bleeding,
lay gasping under the corpse of his
father-for such was the relation borne
to him by Hugh Garrbolt.
When Albert, with dozen or more
astonished burghers, returned to the
Skeletons House the next day, they