The daily Alaskan., 1907-06-12
THE OLD STONE
 HOUSE.

been shut mp for twelve years. Six blocks away a tailor named Shayne ! had am apprentice named Bascomb. 1 The lad was the son of a widow, and, though only fourteen years of age, she could not control him. He was To- mantle and adventurous rather than vicious. The tailor was a practical man, and when his apprentice showed lack of energy and zenI he gave him Fhrasnng. He had done this five or six times when Joe, as the boy was ! familiarity cu.eL quietly slipped out one night a.bI set uul on an adyen- ture.
 The mystery of the olI stone house had strongly appealed to young Bas- comb Just after dusk of an evening ! in May ha bought candles, matches, ! bread. sausuge and butter of a grocer and carried them into the alley behind 1 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 mp one side and down the other. The grounds were a tuuglc of vines and shrubs and grass. and the old house loomed up dur5Iy with every door and blind nail pl. There was u0 ruwarliyo in the boy. He sat down on a rutllug door step and made his supper and rheu lay down among the weeds and slept soundIy uuul daylight When he had his breakfast. Ie st about breaking In. He accomplished the feat by climbing to the roof of a shed and forcing a blind and pryiug up sash When he
 was once inside. he closed the blind again. Then be lighted a candle and went on a tour of discovery.
 From a lot of moth eaten bedding JAc hoy selected the hest and set mp house keeping in servants. room in the second story. He explored the house to md only grimueSs and dust and
 darkness. He slept as souudly on his first night Iu the old house as he had
 ever done at the taior's On the sec
 ond night he was awakened by a per
 sisteut noise. lr sounded like two pieces of metal being sUuck together. He got mp. lighted his r@ulle0ud pass ed through the upper part ut the
 house. He found nothing to explain the noises Then he descended ro the ground floor He was in his bare feet and moved without sound. He had to move carefully. too, as the floors had .lrr rutted and become sh1by. Down
 here the noises came to him more plain. and he located them as coming from the cellar. This was a part of trr house he had not visited yet He la moi go down now. He had more
 .ourag. thuu uiupty-uiue men in a hun Ir.J but he Talked at that He knew ual it was like a dungeon down there auI if fuucanuy things were to be met wf.n lt would he below stairs. He re- turned to his bed and his sleep saying m.- Ga would investigate when day light came.
 Alter breakfast next morning the l t9v lighted his candle and started on his trip lie had found the cellar door fastened ou his. first exploration through the house. What had struck | him as curious was that the fastening rns on the other side. An iron he found in the Kitchen was usod as a rry. and ar.nr ten wiuu,r% work the tuar was uIe1gG
 ....H..r... fr. HRHr..N |..f.Fl 50 cellar and a sunca..ar @al clown ia ] tlr latter were the wine vaults Thn .Il mfst have looked frr f.vl a.n on de- snrrlug the sra.ms. b.. .a.e was nouo. There was the burErSr kind of l darkness u the cellar with the heat ing apparatus aud It's pipes wr~rnd away and fallen apart. he door to ] tle suhcelIar was uls, fastened on the l other side The boy did moi even stop to wonder how the person who had made these doors fast on the down | side could have ar,erward left the | house. but forced the second as he had | tnr first Tn the subueIl|r were seven ! large wine bins and a large square room. The air down there was purer ] than on the parlor floor. A detective would have paused ro cogirate over this. but the boy didn't He entered 1 rle big room after mousiug among the
 wine bins for awhile. and thea be got
 his explanation of the cIlukiug noises l hn had heard the night before.
 ! The room was the workshop of a sang of rounterrcitcrs. There were
 bogus gold and silver coins lying about almost by the busheI. 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 oC the room was a small door. but this was locked with
 a key and could not be prIel open. l Joe had seen bogus coins and heard | all about c0unterfeitcrs. and he was soon aware of the importance Of his find. When he had used up couple | of hours looking about. he returned upstairs, fastening the doors behind him as well as he could. He had no impulse to rush 0ff to tue police. AS a