Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1907-08-16


And just at this time the Griersons were
too much occupied with their own diff
culties to think of thwarting him.
Before he had resided at the Castle
month, there was not man upon the
estate whom he had not made suffer bv
some act of oppression or petty tyranny.
Notices were served upon the tenantry
that rents would be raised; laborers and
fishermen were expelled from cottages
that they and their ancestors had inhab-
tied for scores of years. All was con-
fusion and discomfort.
Poor old Daniel, from the time of his
expulsion from the Castle had gradually
broken; but he still continued to haunt
the precincts, and on the very day that
it passed away from the old family, he
was found lying dead in the shrubbery-
most probably he had fallen down in a fit,
and no help being at hand, had thus ex-
pired. From his childhood every thought
and feeling had been. devoted to the
PenrhyddJ ms, and he did not survive their
downfall, even va day.
About the end of February, Just before
the time appointed by Mr.. Wylie for the
commencement Of his improvement
scheme, strange female might have been
seen lettering about the woods and
grounds of Penrhyddyn, and. as often
as she could do so unobserved, reconnoiter-
ing the Castle upon all Sides 1t would
have been difficult to guess her age by her
face, it was so terribly pitted and seam
ed. She might have been twenty or for
ty, but the glossy black hair, worn in
the plain, old-fashioneu oands, and the
light, graceful figure, would have inclined
the observer in favor of her youth-more
especially as her face was usually covered
with thick black veil.
This woman had arrived Ia Dodmin
from London on the sixteenth of Febru-
ary, and had taken up her quarters at a
small inn on the road between Bodmin
and Penrhyddyn. She never rose until
midday, and then, having partaken of a
substantial breakfast, left the house and
did not return until long after dark.
This went on without interruption or
variation for upwards of fortnight. One
night-it was the first of March, and it
had been rough and tempestuous through
out the day-she did not return at the
usual hour. The landlady sat up until
midnight, and still she did not return.
The next morning acknowledgement
still no news. Weeks, months, years
passed away, but Miss Freeman was
never seen again within the walls of the
"Pilchard Inn," and to this day her mys-
terious disappearance is a subject of con-
versation over the winter fire.
The first of March. At about half
past 5 on the evening of that day, one
of the side doors of Penrhyddyn Castle
stood wide open. 1t was an unusual cir
cumstance for any outward door to be
open since Mr.. Wylie had been master,
for bringing his cockney suspicious down
to that remote district, he feared in ev-
cry bush thief" and had visions of area
sneaks stealing the skins and mats out
of the hall as acutely as though he were
living in Belgravia instead Of Cornwall.
1t was the wind, however, and not a
servant, who was to blame for the open
door.
Through this entrance, after looking
carefully around her, stole the woman
of the "Pilchard Inn," and closed it after
her. 1t was quite dark in the long stone
passage in which she now stood 1t was
a disused part of the Castle, and there
was little fear at present of her encoun-
tering any of the inhabitants. Pausing
every moment to listen. she crept along
until she came to narrow window. BY
the dim light she perceived little In ad-
vance Of her on her left hand winding
staircase; she considered for a moment,
and then crept up the stone steps in the
same noiseless manner as before.
At the head of these steps was a spa
cious corridor, lit, at the end al which
she stood, by large window; there
were doors on each side opening into diff,
ferent chambers.
After little consideration and hesita.
tion. she entered chamber on the right
hand. There In the great, old-fashioned
armchair, In which she had brooded over
the fire scarcely more than three months
back, in all her youth and glorious beau.
ty, she sat herself down, with her SCARED
and hideous face her life a wreck, shat
tered and hopeless; not to dccam Of love,
but to brood over one awful purpose, for
which alone she consented to live.
The Castle clock struck eleven. That
was the hour, she had ascertained, at
which the servants and all, save Wylie,
retired to rest. She lit dark lantern
which she took from about her person.
After which she divested herself Of bon
net and cloak and boots. From large
pockets in her cloak she produced, first,
short, thick, heavy looking stick; Sec
ondly, two small coils of thin but strong
cord, a gag, and, lastly, long, glittering
knife. All these various objects she trans
ferred to other large pockets about her
dress except the knife, which she stuck
In her waist belt.
She stole along the corridor, and, at a
certain point, branched into narrower
passage, that led into the picture gallery.
She threw the rays of the lantern upon