Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1907-05-15
THE OLD STONE
HOUSE.
Lcopyrlght. 1s0s. By c. 4. sutclIffe.I

eide In the old stone mousse, anu IL uhu
been shut up for twelve years. SIX
blocks away tailor named Shayne
had an apprentice named Bascomb.
The lad was the son of a widow, and. |
though only fourteen years Of age, she
could not control him. He was ro-
mantle and adventurous rather than
vicious. The tailor was a practical
man, and when his apprentice showed
lack of energy and zeal he gave him
thrashing. He had done this FIVE or
six times when Joe, as the boy was
Familiarity called. quietly slipped out
one night and set out on an adven-
ture.
The mystery of the old stone house
had strongly appealed to young Bas-
comb Just after dusk of an evening
| In May he bought candles, matches,
| bread, sausage and butter Of grocer
| and carried them into the alley behind
| the house.
| There was a wall twelve feet high.
but back of the florists place he found
a board ten feet long. This he used to
yet HlIISCll LIS puIShoSVS UP OhN
| side and down the other. The grounds
were tangle of vines and shrubs and
! grass, and the old house doomed up
! darkly with every door and blind nail
/ ed There was no cowardice in the
boy He sat down on rotting door
step and made his supper and then lay
/ down among the weeds and slept
soundly until daylight. When he had
his breakfast, he set about breaking In.
| He accomplished the feat by climbing
to the roof of shed and forcing
blind and prying up sash. When he
was once inside, he closed the blind
again. Then he lighted a candle and
| went on tour of discovery.
! From lot of moth eaten bedding the
boy selected the best and set up house
keeping in a servants room in the
second story. He explored the house
to find only grimness and dust and
darkness. He slept as soundly on his
first night in the old house as he had
/ ever done at the. tailors. On the sec
| ond night he was awakened by per-
i sistent noise. 1t sounded like two
pieces of metal being struck together.
He got up, lighted his candle and pass
ed through the upper part of the
house. He found nothing to explain
j the noises Then he descended to the
ground floor. He was In his bare feet
and moved without sound. He had to
move carefully, too, as the floors had
dry rotted and become shaky. Down
here the noises came to him more
plain, and he located them as coming
from the cellar. This was part of
the house he had not visited yet. He
did not 60 down now. He had more
courage than ninety-nine men in hun
dred, but he baked at that. He knew
! that 1t was like dungeon down there
and II uncanny things were to be met
with 1t would be below stairs. He re-
turned to his bed and his sleep. saying
that he would investigate when day
light came.
After breakfast next morning the
! boy lighted his candle and started on
his trip. He had found the cellar door
fastened on his first exploration
through the house. What had struck
him as curious was that the fastening
was on the other side. An iron he
found In the kitchen was used as a
J pry, and after ten minutes work the
door was opened.
Descending the stairs, he found below
; a cellar and a subcellar, and down In
J the latter were the wine vaults. The lad
might have looked for foul air on de-
; scending the stairs, but there was
: none. There was the blacklist kind OF
darkness In the cellar, with the heat
Ing apparatus and its pipes rusted
away and fallen apart The door ia
: the subceIlar was also fastened on the
other side. The boy I'D not even stop
TO wonder how the person who had
made these doors fast ON. the down
: side could have afterward left the
house, but forced the second as he had
the first. In the subceilar were seven
. large wine bins and large square
room. The air down there was purel
than on the parlor floor. A detective
would have paused to cogitate ovel
this, but the boy didn't. He entered
the big room after housing among the
] wine bins for awhile. and there he gol
his explanation of the clinking noises
he had heard the night before.
. The room was the workshop OF Q
gang of counterfeiters. There were
bogus gold and silver coins lying about
3 almost by the bushel. There were
. molds and dies and presses. There
, were a furnace and several melting
pots! There were Jars of acids and
: hundreds of pounds of metal. There
were a table, chairs. lamps and dishes
, At the rear end of the room was q
i small door. but this was locked witt
/ a key and could not be pried open
e Joe had seen bogus coins and heard
D all about counterfeiters, and he was
: soon aware of the Importance OF his
. find. When he had used up a couple
I OF hours looking about, he returned
: upstairs, fastening the doors behind
him as well as he could. He had nc
! Impulse to rush off to the police. AS 8
- e.. l.