Bisbee daily review., 1903-04-07
A NIGHT WITH
 A MYSTERY

lCopyrlght, lSuS. Dy .. U. Warnet.l
 Thirty years ago a widow named
 Haynes, living in village about forty
 miles out of London, disappeared one
 afternoon and could not be traced. She.
 owned and was living in large stone
 house built hundred years before she
 bought it, and only portion of it
 was habitable.
 Here was a woman known by sight
 at least to four-fifths of the townspeo-
 pie. She lived on the best street. It
 did not seem that she could have walk
 ed block without meeting friend.
 She was in her sitting room at 2
 o'clock in the afternoon. An hour later
 she was missing. She had not dressed
 for the street-had not left the room. so,
 far as the maid could say. Scotland
 Yard men worked at the mystery for
 six months before they gave up in
 despair.
 Six months after the widows disap-
 pearance the house was for rent, al
 though stories were already current
 that it was haunted. The place was,
 first taken by grocer who was.
 known to everybody as a hard headed
 man with plenty of nerve, and yet aft
 CT six weeks residence in the house he
 moved out. He had leased 1t for a year. do not know what he may have told others. but he informed me. under promise of secrecy, that he be- ueved the house to be haunted. It was no use to ridicule his state,
 ments. for he was serious and earnest, The fact of his moving out proved that
 It was a year before any one else | took the house, and 1t was then yacat- | ed for good. Everybody now firmly, | believed in the stories of ghost, and. | though it was offered rent free to poor ! people, no one would move into it.
 When it was put up at auction sale. l there was only one bid, and 80 no sale, was effected.
 While ready to admit that half be- lieved in ''the curse" I can truthfuIly declare that the stories reaching me from time to time regarding the house excited my contempt. For several months before my opportunity came was anxious to pass night there ands see what would occur. House and grounds had long been abandoned to tramps. but yet on certain occasions these tranps had made queer state-
 ments about what had happened there. The windows had been broken, the doors torn away. and the once fine old
 mansion was bad wreck when 1 in spected it one afternoon.
 The only two doors left intact were the sliding doors separating the par lors. The others had been used for fuel In the fireplaces. l told no one of my intentions, but at 10 o'clock that night, armed with a revolver. candle and matches. I returned to the house and sat down on the floor in corner of the back parlor. There was a doorway between this room and the dining room and one between that and the kitchen. It was warm night in summer, with never breath of wind. It was as quiet as a graveyard in the house and about the grounds. You must not think me boastful when 1 tell you that
 I was not even shaky. was some-
 what excited, but not at aii nervous In the first place, I believed that all the, Edu bttu and. in the ne:t. I was cf the opinioI. that some practical joker had hand
 in the business if there was anything l in it.
 From 10 to 1 o'clock nothing hap pered = nothing except my going to sleep. heard the town clock strike | F, and heard the first quarter chime
 I didn't feel sleepy. and yet dropped of, and about minute after awoke the clock struck 1. The sounds of fooi I steps awoke me. Some one came ~ the graveled walk from the gate, pass- | ed around to the kitchen door and enI tered. It was a shuffiing. dragging
 step. It passed across the kitchen. | passed across the dining room. and l firmly expected to see person fin the doorway. It was not so dark but that | could have made out even a rat. No one appeared. l crept on hands and knees to the doorway. No one could | eseen-