The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1909-02-19

"Good heavens! What was that?"
Three of the men at the green-baize
card-table dropped their cards and
leaped to their feet with blanched
faces.
A wild screech, the screech Of man
In the last extremity Of terror, still
echoed through the passages of the old
Cornish mansion, and made the very
marrow shrink in their bones
The shrek ended suddenly, as
though the throat from whence it had
sprung had been suddenly clenched.
And almost as suddenly the three
men dropped Imply back into their
chairs, and gazed open-mouthed at
their host.
He had paled somewhat, but had not
moved, and returned the stare of his
guests with somewhat cynical, but
obviously forced, smile.
For a few moments only the flutter-
ing Of moth against the lampshade
broke the silence, then, laying his cards
upon the table with affected nonchal-
ance, he spoke.
You're three nice fellows to ask here
to keep me company, must say. Why,
It nearly startled me as well to see
you jump" and he laughed uneasily.
II must say 1 expected more from
you, Robert" he added in a playfully
poy ,vf,,, nd Inf h0o n
and shaking finger towards his part
ner, huge, broad-shouldered giant of
q man.
"I'm awfully sorry, Trevelyan," an
somewhat ashamed Of his fears; "but
1t was so sudden and unexpected, you
know. And when you asked Kerr and
Huntley and myself to stay with you
in this old place, you didn't give us
to understand that we were going to
hear anything like that. We thought
your pet family ghost was fairly
harmless, respectable sort Of customer,
but shouldn't like to meet the thing,
whatever it was, that made that
noise"
THAT was not the ghost" answered
Trevelyan seriously; there may be no
ghost, as you choose to call 1t, for all
1 know Nobody has ever seen 1t, any
how, during all the generations my
family have lived here. All l know
is that no one who passes night in
the room, the door Of which pointed
out to you last night, ever lives to see
daylight. And l have heard, If one
can judge by the expression on the
faces of those who have attempted it,
that the death is not a pleasant one,
by any means"
'Then whose cry was that?" asked
Robert, nodding his head In the direc-
ton of the room referred to-, from
which the cry had proceeded.
IT do not wish to brighten you," an
swered Trevelyan; 'fn fact, it Is most
inconvenient that it should have hap
pened at all tonight, considering that
often it is not heard for months to-
Rether: but that was the cry Of the last
man who attempted to stay In the
ROOM"
cit was during my grandfather's
time, when my father was young fell
low, that he came to grief.
Father had a little party Of his
friends here. These fellows had heard
about the haunted room and were rath-
er sceptical, as you probably were un-
til Just now SO on their way to their
bedrooms one night, father took them
past the door, which was always
locked.
ITO fathers boundless establishment,
there stood the door wide open.
ut is inexplicable, as none Of the
servants would dare cross the thresh-
old.
Then one Of the guests, big Cor
nishman from bit farther west than
this, namd Tregasgis, man with a
nerve Of iron, said: We'll, an open door
means welcome, SO I'm going to pay
the ghost visit and. with his lighted
candle in the hand. in he walked.
Then one Of the others, fof joke,
pulled the door behind him, and he was
shut In. But when they tried to open
it they were in blue funk, I can tell
you. The door would not bulge. Meth
er Of them had locked it either.
'They kicked and pushed and bang
ed, but it was all Of no use. All this
time Tregasgis had been talking to
them quietly from within. Then sud-
denly they heard cry Of horror, then
that shrek that you have just heard.
That was all. Then they got q Ratchet