The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-08-05

"oh, whatn do at all, at all!" he whispered. T can't get out now, an the peddlers goin be rnur dhered before me two very eyes; an if I wait to it. it's dead and spacheless I'll be walking home to Ballnderg in the morning"
 While Bin was speaking the specter soldier had risen into full view and was beckoning covertIy to some below. Instantly another soldier flashed into the room, standing beside the first For a moment the pair hesitated and then went croucnins and gliding like two cats across the floor to their unconscious victim
 Bill braced himself body and soul. for the ordeal; but when the first soldier drew his bayonet from its scabbard and lifted the glittering steel high above the peddler's stopping shoulders, flesh and blood could endure Without waiting for the de- scendng blade strike, the tinker let shriek out of his stiff lips that split the stiffness of the summer Instantly the dry irthess laugh which had greeted his entrance to the mill echoed from the room below
 In two great leaps, Bill was at the head Of ,, ne quick he was when he reached the bottom. the ghosty murderers were already there, waiting for him.
 Then followed heroic action the dramatic recital of which earns for Bill to this day, a hot supper and comfortable bed in whatsoever house hs cares to honor by his presence Without stopping to think of the consequence and governed by natural impulse to the right then to the left at his shsdowy advsr- saries. AS might have been foreseen, his hsts en-
 Ills long arms waving around and around Ike fails, the tinker dashed wildly for the door: and then were proven true beyond all doubt the reports fury of the ghosts of the old mill. As the tinker poised for aElast wild jump from the tarssho4 to back between the shoulder blades and Bfh cav 6s sleamng point sticking through hs ysry besasf- dn even fse the blade and before his feet toassd the ground 1t had disappeared leaving no mark upon
 Without needing the distance the direction, and hardly touching foot 4 to the 5 ground as he % went sns ss at s M to hans still When he reached me big tree wnas De had sat few hours be before sne s ss aaos dropped like an empty potatosack to the ground. and lay there unconscious
 coupled with many fierce maledictions. was being shouted from somewhere in the distance. openins sh his asd with sSW shock of sa ~s should see clambering frantically up the hu and shouting faced little Michael Callahan, the distiner.
 But Bill full of his story, and 1t was impossible ing wonder of such news; and so it was reffsshsns cup of inspiring mountain dew the haunted rnan re Hi wSee he was the awe-stricken distilIer said:
 ana %s s ha @s pone
 And that's how it came that at high noon, when the whole world was cheerful with & varblin9 and tiously over the quiet threshold of ChaTtres Mill and tiptoed wide-eyed and alert across the broken as as y sey reached the thsy s clare that some unseen thing brushed past them oz by the window. behind which the peddIer had hid his grip on the tinfer's arm. Then the two, sheiI hearts in their mouths and silent themselves az ng down 1n rsacR of the fun throbbing minute before Bill found courage enough ough M h,s hs rers nutne n mto bong Wass h reached forth his g.imy fist.
 Great drops of sold sweat gstened on the anzieua brow of little Michael Callahan. The groping fingers of the tinker almost touched the beam, when the two men electrified by a weird sound in the harsh, mirthless cackling laugh-the very sound Bill had heard the night before he entered ths mill
 Come away, Bill" whispered the distfller weakly; Have it to thim. wouldn't touch fardin' of 1t The moneyd only ,ndns bring us ,ts bad ,s. luck"
 Fave it to thin; in no. g away yithou. ,ss F velous to relate, there was not a sign of pouch or money.
 jumping to his feet; they've taken it away"
 As if in answer to his words, the strange mocktna laugh broke out again louder than ever, and ended in dry, sardonic squawk.
 The two men clutched each other and olunz Imply together: Again came the sound only shriilee 1he indignant, and now grown strangely facnA3ar
 It was the tinker who first ssinsd courage sneust and then the eyes almost lsaped out of his head And no wonderi Over in "a corner of the room near the great wheel was a heap of brown leave. and rubbish from the center of which protruded slim black neck surmounted by red comb. A trim little head was cooked defantly to side, anc ore round yellow eye stared unwinkinsIy up at Bn through the hole in the floor. yard away, in an other heap of leaves, cuched similar appaEftion trembling with with excitment. Be the bones of Peths1 White I'm looking at the shupernatural ghosts O Mrs Bradys two black Spanish hinsl"
 Michael looked long and searchingly into the yel low eyes and then said, with warm conviction:
 By vartue of oath, Wullum, doubt whethe the rapscalons are ghosts at ail at all
 moment later the two fortune-hunter5 emerget from the old mill. Michael Callahan first, car ; rying gingerly, two hats filled with white eggs Bothered Bill Donahue followed stepping high Under each the tinker firmly held fustered consolidating witness to his innocence of the theft
 In the gratifying chorus which greeted BiIIs tri umphant entry into the village we are sorry t chronicle two discordant notes: Narrow-m mindet that eventful night had met with nothing wors than the cackIe of Mrs. Bradys hens; while tn, plundered Mrs FIannigan maintained that ''the onI, spurrits the owdacious william ont of m, jug"
 As for Bill he bore no malice toward the tWt calumniators his fame secure.