The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-01-28
Copyright, 1910. by Meredith Nicholson

Pepperton's office, but Miss Octavia met my gaze unfinchingly.
 'SYou are a clever man, MT. Ames, and I have every confidence that you will not only solve the mystery of the library chimney, but find the ghost that switched off the lights on the stair last night. 1 prefer that you should ac- complish these feats without any help from the plans. I myself have no sug- gestions. 1 am gratified that you are meeting the emergencies that have aris- en here with so much determination, but it is what I should expect of the son of Arnold Ames of Hartford. Op- portunity is all that any of us need to find ourselves truly great, and if in the ordinary course of our lives the gate does not open freely we are justified in picking the lock- When I determined to seek adventures in my old age, re- solved that I should miss no chance and that I should be prepared for any beckon1ng of the hand of fate. An odd fancy struck me at the beginning of my new life that Boston would some day be the starting point of some in teresting experience. This has not yet developed, but in order that I may be prepared for anything that may occur I keep a blue silk umbrella constantly checked at the Parker House. The presence of the little brass check in my purse is a constant reminder that Bos- ton may one day call me-
 A discussion of the Parker House umbrella followed, Cecilia and I join ing, and it proved so fruitful a topic that it carried us to our coffee.
 Three suitors were announced a little later, and I slipped away without ex- cuses, while Miss Octavta and Cecilia adjourned to the library.
 The ghost, I had sworn, should not baff1e me another night.
 As I crossed the second floor hall I passed the Swedish maid walking to- ward Miss Octavia's room I was somewhat annoyed to find on looking over my shoulder to make sure of her destination that she, too, had paused, , her hand on Miss Octavia's door; and was watching me with interest She vanished immediately, but to throw her off the track I went to my own room, closed the door noisfly and then came out quickly and ran up to the third floor.
 Bassford Hollister's mysterious exit had fingered in my mind as the most curious incident of the eventful Friday night Having been baff1ed in my eff fort to get hold of the architects plans, my thought now was to await in the upper part of the house a repe- | tition of the various phenomena that had so puzzled me. By the process of exclusion I had eliminated nearly ev- cry plausible theory, but if the ghost manifested himself with any sort of 1 periodicity (and the hour of the chiIn- ney's queer behavior had been mine) I was now prepared to meet him in the regions he had chosen for his exploits 1 I had a pretty accurate knowledge by this time of the position and func- ton of all the electric switches be tween the lower hall and the fourth 1 floor, but tested them as ascended, l glancing down now and then to make sure I was not observed. From the sound of voices in the library judged that most of Cecilia's suitors must now have arrived, and so much the better, I argued, for, with Miss Octavia and her niece fully occupied, I could the better carry on my ghost hunt above stairs.
 At quarter before switched off the lights on the third and fourth l floors and established myself at the head of the stairway and quite near the trunk room door. This door I had opened, as I fancied that if Bassford HoIIister were at the bottom of the business he would probably wish to find his way to the roof again. So far as I was able to manage it the stage was in readiness for the entrance of the goblin.
 The clock below struck g, and al most upon the last stroke I heard a sound that set my nerves Hngling. I Erouched in the dark, waiting. Some one was coming toward me, but from | where? The bottom of well at mid night was not bIacker than the fourth floor, but the switch lay ready to my hand and my pockets were stuffed with matches of the sort that light any where. The stairways were all carpet ed, as I have said, and yet some one was ascending bare treads, lightly and with delays that suggested a furtive purpose. Meanwhile, as a background for this unreality, murmurs of talk and
 occasional laughter rose from the Ii | brary.
 This concealed stairway, wherever il
 was, could not be of interminable
 length, and I had counted, I think, if | teen steps of that strange ascent when l it ceased. l heard fumbling as o1 l some one seeking latch, and sudden
 1y a light current of air swept by me
 but its clean fresh quality was not in itself disturbing. I stopped and struck
 match smartly on the carpet and al
 the same time clicked the switch.
 should say that not more than ten sec
 onds passed from the moment the soft
 rush of air had first advertised the
 opening of a passage near me until the
 hall was flooded with the glow of the
 electric lamps overheard. My match
 had also performed it's office, but, find
 ing the electric current behaving itsel1 1 normally, I blew it out. What I saw norz interested me immensely