The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-06-11
A
Sornnannbulist
By ALBERT J. KENYON

IN only child, daughter. Alice. She
was much younger than |, and | saw
very little Of her, for when she was ten
Gears old I went to college. and after
completing an academic course stud
ed Il profession. When returned
after having finished my education she
| W;;S Il girl Of seventeen. One day my
.uvie called me into his study and said
| - me:
AS you know, Alice has Inherited q
.urtune from her mother. If the prop
rrty were mine to will ! would leave
:,Alt OF it to you. wish that you and
Alice would make match. for l con-
>;drr you both as my children and
wuuid like you to enjoy the fortune in
common. l can do nothing to bring
about such result and shall not men
i.'u my desire to Alice. am her
Guardian under her mothers will. with
ppWrr to appoint successor to take
lny place if l should die before Alice
:o.n"s Of age 1 have appointed you to
~ position in case Il successor be-
rn'nes necessary, for know Of no ono
rt>t. in whom l have the confidence
Save in you
Ny uncle died about a year after
speaking these words to me. and l be-
rA;nr Alice's guardian. After her
mot hers death her father had taken
IN Il woman to care for the child
%ul the house at the same time. My
ln,e on his death had told us all that
II fter his demise we had better keep
everything as it was. living in the
htuSe rs we had been doing There
fore we made no change. in a meas
urt' filled my uncles place. and this
was facilitated by my being Alice's
Guardian. since it gave me the control
ST the funds. Mrs. WitherS. the house,
hopper, had had little to do with,
since had been SO much Of the time
away.
The weak point in the accomplish
nlent Of what my uncle had desired
was that l was obliged TO antagonizo
MS. Withers, who. having brought up
Alice from a child. had great influence
over her. She cndcavortd to poison
Alice against me. but Alice had always
been very fond of her big brother"
rs she called me. and the poison proc
e>s was not easy. Nevertheless the
al, between myself and Mrs. Withers
wilpned as time passed and poor Alice
WAS constantly obliged to listen to at.
tacks upon me by the holSpkeeper.
When every other aritice failed the
latter began to insin,iate that l was
managing Alice's estate badly. and
from that it was intimat"'l that was
gradually appropriatin= it 10 myself.
| 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 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 I
looked for another paper. and. not find
!= it in its place, it began to appear
10 me that either was becoming very
''are!ess or some one was purloining
my papers.
When boy had been caught once
or twice walking in my sleep. fear
cd that the habit had returned to me-
ara that I was taking papers from the
~: e myself while asleep. This view
WIS partially confirmed by my wax.
ing up one night beaboring the furnl.
':!re with cane. dreaming that l was
driving burglars from the house. ar.
";,ph that IL l had been a somnambu-
|. II on this occasion might have been
one before.
began to notice change in Alice's
herring toward me. Something seem.
ri' to pain her and cause her distant:
trn"tment of me at the same time.
make a special accounting of my stew.
ar!ship for Alice's estate found
that so many papers had disappeared
frnn the safe that it would be impos-
si!,ie for me to make a satisfactory
accounting. At this time Alice acted |
il, such way toward me that was
convinced she was in the secret Of my
trt,'ble. or. rather. that she had been |
Io.l about it to my disadvantage.
Ky securing duplicate receipts for |
nrtun expenditures managed to |
satisfy the court for the time being. |
Eat it was not long before | began
10 miss other papers and was in an
,-nny because saw ruin staring mo
IN the face. l was convinced that
While asleep I was making way with
HE papers, and since they were not
I, he found it was likely that had
destroyed them.
'>ie night was awakened by q |
s'...ick. was standing in the door
,e the room containing the safe. in my
niuhtshirt Mrs. Withers was kneel.
". before the safe. which was open,
stirring at me. 1t was her shrek at
,riny discovered that awakened me.
Tad she known l was asleep she