Sistersville daily oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1902-1905, 1903-08-21

| EVEN i SlCh dI lLO obS0SS
ton. The new will practically disin-
herited the son. He knew of the long
| standing document that named him
his fathers heir. He was the only
person benefited by the disappearance
and dissipation had dulled his sense
of honor. The pain in my fiancee's
eyes neryed me to speak out the
thoughts that had harassed me since
discovered the all-important docu'
ment missing.
Maize, no reed must be rejected
as too slender to lean upon now. Per-
haps your brother and / are both in
nocent, both truthful. l am not super
stitious, you know, but after our last
weird argument your fathers will, sud
denly, mysteriously missing, brought
with it an uncanny thought l have
been unable to shake off with reason.
Remember the promise made by the
conscientious business man, whose
word was equal to bond, that he
would communicate with me from the
| spirit world.
perhaps he has," I continued in
| hushed voice. perhaps this is the
promised proof" l paused again TO
weigh my words carefully, IF it is, IL
he will dispel your grief, my darling,
by directing us to or returning the
paper that will vindicate your brother
| of attempted fraud, l will"
She interrupted my declaration OF
| a new faith eagerly. 1T is possible,
Maurice" she said. Mind reckons
not distance. If we both earnestly
pray, our united concentration will put
us in communication with my father,
my real father, who is not buried I'M
der lakewood leaves, but living in his
next higher sphere, for prayer, you
know, is the precipitation OF Individual
will into the mysteries that surround
the Godhead."
I gasped with establishment, for my
fiancee had never before expressed
| her concurrence with her fathers pc
| culiar beliefs, but so strong was her
suggestion that under it's reflection l
lived the night on mental altitude
| till then undreamed, floating as II
were on waves of ether high above
| the material plane. l went down TO
my office next morning prepared Tor
anything, and of course found nothing
new bearing on the case. My unwonted
mental tension broke, as it was sure
! to. under the days cares, and lett me
| irritable, disinclined to work. About
II o'clock / closed my desk and
went out, carefully locking the door
behind me. When I returned in half
an hour, although the door was locked,
| to my great amaZement the top OF my
! desk was rolled back, and legal docu-
| ment lay like white basis on the tidy
green baize l crossed the room with
| a bound, and stood with my arms be-
! hind me- regarding the lost will with
bullying eyes. And something else.
| Written across it in the unmistakable
chirography of my fiancee's father, l
read:
$50 much for the phenomena Of spir-
itism! Yours for telepathy, Gilbert
Weir"
4 message from the dead. The
supernatural seemed to have posses
sion of my practical workshop, the
, air was dense with wraithy, floating
shapes. Maurice Brice, you are an
imbecile or the victim Of some clap
trap hoax" I declared in hollow
voice, but the ghostly chill refused to
leave my spine.
But if it was a joke, who could
gain entrance and depart again
through locked door? And the door
was locked on my return" "The same
hand that filched it from a locked
box" chuckled the dim shapes. eve
of the spirit reckon not distance nor
locks"
To assure myself was not suffering
from an optical illusion, lifted the
paper and gravely pronounced my own
writing genuine. But that pencil in
dorsement in a familiar hand which 1
knew was three weeks dead? let it
fall again with SILVER.
From too much brooding have be-
come imaginative" L reasoned. Il
will leave it here. just so, and go out
again. If find it on my return 1 will
believe something-if it is gone will
know l dreamed it ALL" And glad to
escape the -shadowy occupants Of my
office 1 again locked the door, trying
the knob to make sure the key was
not a trickster.
If l had only relied on my own
judgment and kept the strange pro-
ceedings to myself! But half an hour
later 1 again inserted my key, pale
and tremulous, and with Maize at my
heels. There" I triumphed, as the
door swung in. "Of course T was
dreaming. There is no will on the
desk" The top was closed as had
left it when I first went out.
Maize dropped into my pivot chair
with a burst of tears. "It Is your cyni.
cism, your unbelief. Maurice" she