The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-03-25

'r9e B<rr .McCutcheon.
 the Rotnhoefens for sixty yearsy' sob bed his wife.
 .And still are, I suspeet!' I cried angri1y.
 Mr. Poopendyke's common sense came in very handily at this critical juncture. He ceunseIed me to let the matter rest until the next morning. when it was reasonable to expect the lady herself would explain everything.
 However, we forced something out of Schmick before his stalwart sons came tramping up the stairs to rescue him. The old man gave US touch of inside history concerning Schloss Roth hoefen and it's erstwhile powerful bar oHs
 About the middle of the nineteenth q century the last of the real barons- the powerful, Iandowning, 6espotic barons, I mean-came to the end of his fourscore years and ten and was laid away with great ponp and glee by the people of the town across the river He was the last of the Rothhoefenss for he left no male heir. His two daughters had married Austrian noble men, and neither of them had male descendant The estate, already in SI419 O1 0AdAC4d1 dS well as R-J 9A-1-- disintegratfon, fell into the hands of women and went from bad to worse so rapidly that long before the last quarter of the century was fairly be- gun the castle and the reduced hold ings slipped away from the RothhOef ems altogether and into the control of the father of the count from whom I purchased the property. The counts father, it appears, was a distiller of great wealth in his day and man of action Unfortunately he died before l he had the chance to carry out his projects in connection with the reha- biIitation of Sehloss Rothhoefen, even then a deserted, ramshackle resort for paying tourists and a Mecca for ans tique and picture dealers
 The new count, my immediate pre- decessor, was not long in dissipating tue great fortune left by his father, the worthy distilIer. He had run through with the bulk of his patri- mony by the time he was twenty five and was pretty much run down at the heel when lie married in the hope of recoupiLg his lost fortune.
 The Schmicks did not like him. They did not approve of him as lord and master, nor was it possible for them to 1 resign themselves to the fate that had put this young scapegrace into the shoes, so to speak, lof the grim old barons Rothhoefen, who, whatever else 1 they fnay have been in a high handed sort of Way9 were men to the core. This pretender, this creature without brains or blood, this sponging repro ] bate, was not to their liking, if I ann to quote Conrad, who became quite forcefuI in his harangue against the recent order of things.
 He, his wife and his sons, he assured me, were full of rejoicing when they learned that the castle had passed from Count Hohendahrs hands into mine. I at least would pay them their wages, and [ might, in a pinch, be depended upon to pension them when they got too old to be of any use about the cas- tie
 All attempts on my part to connect the lady in the east wing with the history of the extinct Rothhoefens were futile He would not commit himself
 Well said I, yawn1ng in helpless coliusion- with the sleepy Gretel. ''Hell l let it go over till morning. Gall me at i T, Britton."
 went to Betl,sjBut znot to sleep. It was very clear to me that my neigh l Dor was a disturber in every sense i of the word. She wouldn't let Ine sleep. For hours I tried to get rid of her, but she filtered into my brain and prodded my thoughts into the most violent ac- 1 tfvity. She wouldn't stay put But I finally dropped off. l I was aroused from my belated sleep by the sound of mighty cataracts and the tread of countless elephants Too late I realized that the tourists were upon me. ,T9pn late P remembered that ! the door to my room had been left un- locked. One hundred and sixty-nine were huddled outside my door, drink ing in the monotonous drivel of the guide who had shrill, penetrating voice and not the fa1ntest notion of a conscience
 I listened in 'dismay for a moment aad then, actuated by something more than mere fury, leaped out of bed and 1 prepared for a dash across the room to lock the door. On the third stride I whirled and made flying leap into the bed, scuttling beneath the covers gith the sneed and accuracy of craw- 1 fish. Just in time, too, for the heavy door swung slowly open a second later and the shrill, explanatory voice was projected loudly into my lofty bed chamber.
 (Continued.l