Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-04-16
DAILY STORY
THE OLD STONE HOUSE.

IueTe Hdu Deeu II HluTueF anu d SUI
eide in the old stone house, and it had
been shut up for twelve years. Six
blocks away a tailor named Shayne
had an apprentice named BascOmb.
The lad was the son of 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 practical
man, and when his apprentice showed
lack of energy and zeal he gave him a
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 canCles, matches,
bread, sausage and butter of 4 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
get himself and his purchases up one
side and down the other. The grounds
We're a 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 i'll the
boy. He sat down on a 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 iii.
He accomplished the feat by climbing
to the roof of Il shed and forcing Il
blind and prring up a sash. When he
was once inside, he closed the blind
again. Then he lighted candle and
went on tour of discovery.
From a 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 n per-
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 10 explain
the noises. Then he descended to the
ground floor lie was in his bare feet
and moved without sound. He had 10
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 n part Of
the house he had not visited yet. He
did not go down now. He had more
courage than ninety-nine men in Il hun
bred. but he baked at that. He knew
that it was like dungeon down there
and if uncanny things were to he met
with it 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 Il
pry, and after ten minutes work the
| door WAS opened.
Descending the stairs, he found below
cellar and a subcellar. and down in
| the latter were the wine vaults. The lad
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 to
| the Subcellar was also fastened on the
| other side. The boy did 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 Subcellar were seven
| large wine bins and large square
room. The air down there was pureT
| than on the parlor floor. \ detective
would save paused to cogirate over
this, but the boy didn't. He entered
|
wine bins for awhile, and there he got
his explanation of the clinking noises
he had heard the night before
The room was the workshop of Il
gang of counterfeiters. There were
bogus gold and silver coins lying about
almost by the bushel. There We're
molds and dies and presses. There
We're 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 4
small door, but this was locked with
a key and could not be pried open
Joe had seen bogus coins and heard
all about counterfeiters, Snd he was
soon aware of the Importance of his
find. When he had used up a couple
of hours looking about, he returned
upstairs, fastening the doors behint
him as well as he could. He had {
| impulse to rush off to the police AS :