Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-23

"But not tonight, not tonight" he pleaded. "She
will be very angry Aeh GoM She will drive us out,
and so unhappy and kind to all of us! Il can
not-I cannot!
Poopendykes commonsense came in very handlly at
this critical iuncture He counseled to let the mat
ter rest until the morning when it reasonable
to expect the lady herself would explain everything.
Before they finished they had convinced me that was
meek futile suppliant and not the master OF eudal
stronghold. Somehow l made to feel that if |
didn't behave myself stood in considerable danger OF
being turned off the place.
However, we forced something out of Schlnck before
his stalwart trampng up the stairs to
him. The old man gave touch of inside history
concerning Schoss Rohhoefen and its erstwhile power
full Barons.
ABOUT the middle of the nineteenth century the
last of the odtime Barons to the end OF his
four years and ten, and was laid with great
pomp and glee by the people of the town across the
river His two daughters had married Austrian noble
men, and neither of them produced male descendant.
The estate, already in state of financial well as
physical disintegration, fell into the hands of
and went from bad to rapidly that long before
the last quarter of the century was fairly begun the
castle and the reduced holdings slipped away from the
Rothhoeens altogether and into the control of the father
of the Count from whom purchased the property
The Counts father a dister of great wealth in his
day, and of action. Unfortunately he died be-
fore he had the chance carry his projects in
necton with the rehabilitation of Schoss Rothhoefen
even then a deserted, ramshackle resort for paying
tourists and Mecca for antique and picture dealers
The new Count my immediate predecessor not
dSSlpatng the fortune lett Dy MS ne
had run through the bulk of his patrmony by the time
he twenty-five, and pretty much run down at
the heel when he married in the hope of recouping his
lost fortune.
7 WAS aroused from my belated sleep by the sound
of mighty cataracts and the tread of countless
elephants Too late realized that the tourists were
upon me. Too late remembered that the door to my
room had been left unlocked The hundred and sixty
nine were huddled outside my door, drinking IN the
monotonous drive of the guide, who had shrll pene
trating and the aintest notion of conscience
listened in dsmay for a moment, and then, actuated
by something more than fury, leaped out OF bed and
prepared for dash the to lock the door.
On the third stride whired and made flying leap into
the bed scutlng beneath the covers with the speed
and accuracy of crawfish Just in time too; for the
heavy door swung slowly open second later and the
shril explanatory voice projected loudly into my
lofty bedchamber.
"Come little closer, please" said the morose
with the cap. "This occupied for centuries
by the masters of Schloss Rothhoefen. 1t bedcham
ber See the great baronal bed 1t has not been slept
in for than two hundred years The later Barons
refused sleep in it because of their ancestors had
been assassnated between its sheets at the tender
of six. He stabbed by stepuncle who played him
false This room is haunted Observe the curtains of
the bed They of the silk and have been there
for three hundred years coming from Damascus in the
year 1895. Now will pass to the room occupied
A resoute beholder spoke up "Cant step nside?"
aft you choose, Madam. But must waste
time"
al do so want to see where the old Barons slept"
@Pease do not handle the bedspreads and curtains
They will fall to pieces
l heard no more; for the vanguard had pushed him
aside and was swooping down upon me-. A sharp-nosed
led the way. She within three feet of the
bed and stretching out her hand to touch the
scrbed fabrics when | sat bolt upright and yelled
"Get outl'
Afterward was told that the guide the first to
reach the bottom of the stairs. and that he narrowly
escaped death in the avalanche of Mortified humanity
that piled after him. pursued by the puissant ghost of
a sx-year-old ancestor.
CHAPTER w. Meet the Foe-and Fall