Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1912-02-16
CHAPTER III.
The Mysterious Reason

remarked that the retiring managers
looked cheerful, as Is the Paris way
The foyer Of the ballet Is the Last
place in which two men so knowing
as NJ. Debienne and NJ PoIigny would
have made the mistake Of betrayine
their grief, however genuine it might
be. And they were already smiling
rather too broadly upon Sorelli, who
had begun to recite her speech, when
an exclamation from Jammes broke
the smile brutally.
1.-THE opera ghost!"
Jammes yelled these words In q
tone of unspeakable terror; and her
finger pointed, among the crowd OF
dandies, to a face so pallid that the
| deaths head In question Immediately
scored huge success.
The opera ghost!"
Everybody laughed and pushed his
neighbor and wanted to offer the
opera ghost a drink, but he was gone.
He had slipped through the crowd;
and the others vainly hunted for him.
while two old gentlemen tried to calm
little Jammes and while little CRY
stood screaming like peacock.
Sorelli was furious: she had not
been able to finish her speech; the
managers had kissed her, thanked her
| and run away as fast as the ghost
himself. They were to receive their
personal friends, for the last time, in
the great lobby outside the managers
office, where supper would be served.
Here they found the new managers,
| NJ. Armand Moncharmin and NJ. Fir
min Richard, whom they hardly knew;
nevertheless, they were lavish In pro-
testations of friendship and received
tlattering compliments in reply.
The retiring managers had already
handed over to their successors the
two tiny master-keys which opened
all the doors-thousands of doors-or
the opera house. And those keys
were being passed from hand to hand,
when the attention Of some OF the
guests was diverted by their discov-
cry, at the end of the table, Of that
the hollow eyes, which had already
appeared in the foyer Of the ballet.
"The opera ghost!"
There sat the ghost, as natural as
could be, except that he neither ate
nor drank.
He did not speak word and his
neighbors could not have stated at
what moment he had sat down be-
tween them. The friends of Richard
and Moncharmin thought that this
skinny guest was an acquaintance OF
Debienne's or Polig US, while De-
bienne's and Polignys friends be-
lieved that the cadaverous individual
belonged to Richard and Monchar.
Minis party.
The result was that no request was
made for an explanation.
NM. Debienne ard Poligny. sitting
at the center OF the table, had not
seen the man with the deaths head.
Suddenly he began to speak.
1.-The ballet-girls are right" he said.
1.-THE death of that poor Buquet is per-
haps not SO natural as people think"
Debienne and Poligny gave a start.
SIS Buquet dead?" they cried.
YES" replied the man, or the
shadow of man, quietly. HE was
found. this evening, hanging In the
third cellar, between farmhouse and
a scene from the Roi de Lahore"
The two managers, or rather ex-
managers, at once rose and stared
strangely at the speaker At last
Debienne made sign to MN. Rich
ard and Moncharmin; Poligny NUT
tered a few words of excuse to the
guests; and all four went into the
managers office. l leave M. Mon
charmin to complete the story. In
his Memoirs, he says:
INN. Debienne and Poligny seemed
to grow more and more excited. First,
they asked us If we knew the man,
sitting at the end Of the table, who
had told them OF the death OF Joseph |
Buquet: and, when We answered In
the negative, they looked still more
concerned. They took the master
keys from our hands. stared at them
for moment and advised us to have
new locks made, with the greatest
secrecy, for the rooms, closets and
presses that We might wish to have
Theoretically closed. They said this
so funnily that we began to laugh and
to ask If there were thieves at the
opera. They replied that there was
worse, which was the
ghost They told us that they never
would have spoken to us OF the ghost
If they had not received formal Or
ders from the ghost himself to ask
us to be pleasant to him. They had
hesitated TO tell us this curious story,
which our skeptical minds We're GER
tainly not prepared to entertain. But
the announcement of the death OF Jo-
seph Buquet had served them as a
brutal reminder that. whenever they
had disregarded the ghosts wishes,
some disastrous event had brought
them to a sense of their dependence.
1.-THE joke became little tedious:
and Richard asked half-seriously and
half in jest:
But, after all, what does this ghost
IF yours want?'
M. Poligny went to his desk and
returned with copy of the mem-
oranduni-book. The memorandum.