Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-08-31

l hanging over the fireplace. It was the
 we'll known one, in Washington at l least, of Benjamin Franklin at the court of France, interesting, no doubt. in general way. but scarcely calcu- lated to hold the eye at so critical an instant. Neither did the shelf below call for more than momentary atten- ton, for it was absolutely bare. So was the time worn, if not blood stained
 hearth, save for the impenetrable shadow cast over it by the huge bulk of the great settle standing at it's edge
 have already described the impress by this ancient and characteristic arti- cle of furniture.
 It was intensified now as my eye ran over the clumsy carving which added to the discomfort of it's high, straight back and as I smelled the smell of its moldy and possibly mouse haunted
 cushions. A crawling sense of dread
 took the place of my first instinctive
 repugnance, not because superstition
 had as yet laid its grip upon me, al- though the place, the hour and the near and veritable presence of death were
 enough to rouse the imagination past the bounds of the actual. but because
 of discovery I had made-a discovery
 which emphasized the tradition that all
 who had been found dead under the
 mantel had fallen as if from the end of
 this iaonstrous and patriarchal bench.
 Do you ask what this discovery was?
 It can be told in word. This one end and only this end had been made comfortable for the sitter. For a space
 scarcely wide enough for one the seat and back at this special point had been upholstered with leather, fastened
 to the wood with heavy wrought nails.
 The remaining portion stretched out
 bare, hard and inexpressibly forbidding
 to one who sought ease there or even
 moment of casual rest.
 The natural inference was that the owner of this quaint piece of furniture
 had been very selfish man who
 thought only of his own comfort But
 might he not have had some other req son for his apparent niggardliness :?
 As asked myself this question and
 noted how the long and embracing
 arm which guarded this cushioned re- treat was fattened on top for the con- venient holding of decanter and glass, feelings to which can give no name
 and which had fondly believed my self proof against began to take the place of judgment and reason. Before realized the nature of my own i'm pulse or to what 1t was driving me found myself moving slowly and stead 1 fly toward this formidable seat under
 an irresistible desire to fling myself | down upon these old cushions and I But here the creahing of some faroff 1 shutter, possibly the one I had seen 1 swaying from the opposite side of the I street, recalled me to the duties of the hour, and, remembering that my in vestigations were but half completed 1 and that might be interrupted any moment by detectives from headquar- l ters, I broke from the accursed charm,
 which mortified me the moment es-
 capped it, and, quitting the room by a 1 door at the farther end, sought to find
 in some of the adjacent rooms the def
 mite traces I had failed to discover. on
 this the actual scene of the crime.
 1 It was dismal search, revealing at l every turn the almost maddened haste with which the house had been aban-
 doned. passed out into the kitchen
 and so on by close and narrow pas
 sage to the negro quarters clustered in
 the rear. Here made a discovery.
 One of the windows in this long dis
 used portion of the house was not only
 unlocked, but partly open. But, as I
 came upon no marks showing that this outlet had been used by the escaping
 murderer, made my way back to the The candle in the tumbier
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