The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1913-10-23
A
Sornnannbulist
By ALBERT J. KENYON

I NV uncle. with whom l went to live
at the death Of my mother-my father
had died when | was an infant-had
an only child. a daughter. Alice. She
was much younger than l. and l saw
very little of her, for when she was ten
years old l went to college. and after
completing an academic course stud
led profession. When returned
after having finished my education she
was girl Of seventeen. One day my
uncle called me into his study and said
to me:
LAS you know, Alice has inherited q
fortune from her mother. If the prop
erty were mine to will would leave
half Of it to you. wish that you and
Alice would make a match, for con.
slider you both as my children and
would like you to enjoy the fortune in
common. can do nothing to bring
about such a result and shall not men
ton my desire to Alice. / am her
guardian under her mothers will, with
power to appoint successor to take
my place if l should die before Alice
comes of age. have appointed you to
the position in case successor be-
comes necessary. for know Of no one
else in whom l have the confidence |
have in you"
MY uncle died about q year after
speaking these words to me. and be-
came Alice's guardian. After her
mothers death her father had taken
in a woman to care for the child
and the house at the same time. My
uncle on his death had told US all that
after his demise we had better keep
everything as it was, living in the
house as we had been doing. There
fore we made no change. l in meas
ure filled my uncles place. and this
was facilitated by my being Alice's
guardian. since it gave me the control
Of the funds. Mrs. Withers. the house
keeper, ! had had LITTLE to do with,
since l had been 50 much Of the time
away.
The weak point in the accomplish
ment Of what my uncle had desired
was that was obliged to antagonize
Mrs. Withers, who. having brought up
Alice from child. had great influence
over her. She endeavored to poison
Alice against me. but Alice had always
been very fond Of her ''big brother"
as she called me. and the poison proc
ess was not easy. Nevertheless the
gap between myself and Mrs. Withers
widened as time passed and poor Alice
was constantly obliged to listen to at
tacks upon me by the housekeeper.
When every other artifice failed the
latter began to insinuate that was
managing Alice's estate badly. and
from that it was intimated that ! was
gradually appropriating ityto myself.
l kept the papers, pertaining to the
estate in safe. where my uncle had
always kept them. Before he died he
gave me the combination. telling me
that no one but himself knew it pre-
vious to his imparting it to me. One
day l went to the safe to look for
receipt ! had taken for moneys ex
pended for Alice's estate. but could
not find it. After satisfying myself
that it was not in the safe was forced
to the conclusion that ] had failed to
place it there. Some time after this !
looked for another paper. and, not find
ing it in its place, it began to appear
to me that either l was becoming very
careless or some one was purloining
my papers.
When boy l had been caught once
or twice walking in my sleep. fear
ed that the habit had returned to me
and that was taking papers from the
safe myself while asleep. This view
was partially confirmed by my wax
ing up one night belaboring the furni-
ture with cane. dreaming that was
driving burglars from the house. lar
gued that if | had been somnambu-
list on this occasion might have been
one before.
began to notice a change in Alice's
bearing toward me. Something seem
ed to pain her. and cause her distant
treatment of me at the same time
Then one day was called upon to
make special accounting Of my stew
ardship for Alice's estate. ! found
that so many papers had disappeared
from the safe that it would be impos-
sible for me to make satisfactory
accounting. At this time Alice acted
In such way toward me that was
convinced she was in the secret of my
trouble. or. rather, that she had been
told about it to my disadvantage
BY securing duplicate receipts for
certain expenditures managed to
satisfy the court for the time being.
But it was not long before began
to miss other papers and was in an
agony because saw ruin staring me
In the face. was convinced that
while asleep was making way with
the papers. and since they were not
to be found it was likely that I had
destroyed them.
One night was awakened by 4
shrek. was standing In the door