The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-01-24
THE OLD STONE HOUSE.
(By NJ. Quad.)

/ There was deal of. gossip about
the old stone house. which occuPleo
/ half a block of ground and was sur
rounded with a high stone wall. a
woman had been murdered there. A
man had committed suicide in the
parIor. A ghost had haunted II 1oI
years. The property had been ~
| chancery for years and years and De'ng
| finally handed over to an heir he hao
nailed up the house and declared ne
would never rent or sell 1t. some one
paid the taxes year after year and OF
| the hundreds who passed up ana
| down the street daily not one of them
saw more than a bit of the roof OF
the old stone house. The other nalt
| of the block was occupied by the low
| greenhouses of a florist.
| 1t had been IL years since the shut
ting up of the old. stone house. Six
blocks away tailor named Shay1e
| had an apprentice named Bascomb.
! The lad was the son of widow, and
| though only 4 years of age she could
| not control him. He was romantic
and adventurous, rather than vicious.
| The tailor was a practical man and
| when his apprentice showed lack of ell
ergy and zeal he gave him a thrash
! ing. He had done this five or six
times when Joe. as the boy was IA
military called, quietly slipped out one
night and set out on the adventure of
his life He had been sent to collect
a bill of $40 against a customer. He
got the money and carried 1t away
with him. The police were put on his
trail and he was hunted for, but no
was reported that he had gone as
cabin boy in a vessel making a long
VOYAGE f
The mystery of the old stone house
had strongly appealed to young Bas-
comb. From other boys he had picked
up all the details he could and what
made other lads shiver only inter
ested him. He had gone up and down
81
times and had marked the spot where
he would mount the brick wall some
day. The time came after he had been
given a severe castigation by his mas
ter. Just after dusk of an evening in
May he bought candles, matches,
bread, sausage and butter of ysa& gro=
Ger and carried them int o. the alley.
The wall was l. feet high, but back
10 feet long. This he used to get him
self and his purchases up one side and
down the other, and then he stood
among the ghosts and goblins. The
grounds We're tangle of vines and
shrubs and grass, ana the old house
doomed up darkly with every door and
blind nailed up. There was no COW
ardiceJ in the boy; He sat down on
a rotting doorstep and made his sup
per. and then lay down among the
weeds and slept soundly until day
light When he had had his break
fast he set about breaking in. He ac-
cOmpuSne0 the IedL DY CHM ping TO the
roef of a 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 a
tour of discovery.
Much of the furniture had been left
behind when the house was closed
From lot of moth-eaten bedding the
boy selected the best and set up
housekeeping in a servants room on
the second story. He had explored the
house to find only grimness and dust
and darkness, but he was not a bit
awed or frightened. He had heard of
the murder and the suicide but they |
had no terrors for him. He slept as |
soundly on his first night in the old
house as he had ever done at the tail
or's. On the second night he was
awakened by a persistent noise 1t |
sounded like two pieces of metal being
struck together. 1t could not have |
been heard by any one outside the
house, and was not very distinct to
him, but the persistency of it drew his |
attention. He got up. lighted his candle |