The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-09-29

''Villainw exclaimed Walter, looking hard at the man, T remember you. The stranger was Houseman, and wal ter had cause to remember him. Be- fore houseman went to London to meet Aram, he and his wild companions had done d little business" by waylaying Walter on the road, robbing him and leaving him senseless from the blow or a pistol butt. The spoils had been lneagre, as the Corporal had made off to a nearby town for assistance. taking with him the saddlebags in which mosk of Walters money was contained
 The young man had not been injured seriously and when lie wrote to hls uncle of the circumstance said that the only thing he regretted was that the thieves had taken the purse Ellinor had knitted for him and begged that she make him another.
 Walters hrst thought on recognizing Houseman as one of his assailants was to seize him and turn him over to the nearest ma magistrate; but the mans dls- tress was evidently so genuine and his agony so great that, in spite of the fact that the rascal admitted himself to have been one of the highwaymen and in opposition to the protests of the (,orporal. the generous young man ex- change horses with him and bade him go unharmed.
 Walter found the horse left safely at the inn, where he learned the name of the man and also that he was an old resident of the place. He also found that his story of dying child was true.
 During the next few days the young man gathered here and there that when Clarke had disappeared there had been some talk of foul play, In which the names of Houseman and Eugene Aram had been mixed up. Aram and House. man had been much together-which was accounted for by their being rela- tives-and Houseman and Clarke had been bosom friends and fellow jewellers during the latter's stay in Knaresbor- ough.
 .Iouseman and Clarke had been seen together on the night of the latter's disappearance, Houseman's character was bad but nothing could be proved against him, and as for Aram, his blameless and open life made all seri- ous suspicion of his having hand In any crime not to be thought of-though he had been put through the form or an examination at the time.
 But all these were old stories almost forgotten by the villagers until Wal ter's inquiries recalled them. Aram had made no secret of the fact that he formerly had lived in Knaresborough but Walter had forgotten the circum- stance If. indeed, he ever had heard of 1t; and now this mingling of the name of the man for whom he had an in- stinctive disIrust and aversion with the circumstances surrounding his fathers disappearance sent a thrill of convic- ton through him for which he could not account even to himself.
 The people of Knaresborough had known Aram from his youth up, were proud of hls scholarship and praised his character. The clergyman of the place, MT. Summers. reluctantly admitted that In the minds of some who had been present at the secret examination of Aram after Clarke's disappearance a doubt had fingered as to the inner character of the scholar, and when Walter told him all he knew and all he suspected, as well as his reasons for wishing to clear up the mystery Of the disappearance of the supposed Clarke, the clergyman confded to him, though with apparent reluctance, that an old woman with whom Aram had lodged dissipated old creature had of late sometimes hinted in her cups that she