Douglas daily dispatch., 1926-06-02


the old gentleman was telegraphing
to the world the name of the man
ested in that for the man had gone
away with thirty thousand dollars,
and if the slain man knew his name
he would probably know his where
abouts and what had been done with
the money, residing as he did in the
spirit world where people know
everything.
Elmer thought he could make out
something like Morse in the rap
pings, and he was inclined to think
/ that they spelled the letters &C. W
several times over, but he wasn't
quite sure. Elmer had been fired
from his job as, station agent in Il
nearby town by superintendent
named Chester Vincent, so his story
was somewhat open to suspicion. L
also learned that the owner of the
house had been trying to sell it for
i a good many years, and had offered
it as bargain, but as all the towns
people knew the story he was not
i successful
| 4, decided that the whole business
was imagination and didn't even be-
lieve that anybody had been muir
dered in the house, but I confess
that was little troubled when
morning after morning for two weeks
| the rappings continued. There would
always be short succession of them,
sometimes repeated for ten or fiji
teen minutes. They were quite un-
! Iro III
seem to come from the back door,
sometimes from the front, some
times even from the roof
Repeatedly I got up and searched
the whole house, but at the first
sound of footballs the noise would
suddenly cease. This seemed a rather
singular thing, for if the old man
] wanted to communicate his message,
! it appeared likely that he would be
willing to keep on signalling after
he had found a listener.
| One morning Il was awakened sud
denly by the sound which was loud
er than ever and seemed to be just
outside the window. I jumped out
of bed and saw a shadow pass across
the pane and vanish 1 think my
teeth chartered. I know L felt cold
to the marrow and for the first
time I decided to get rid of the
house as soon as possible
| [ was walking to the village in
tending to see the real estate agent
and tell him to sell it, and in the
! meantime find me some place to
rent, so could move out at once,
when to my astonishment I heard
bo rap oil
my head. They seemed to come
! from a big half dead elm tree, but
1 walked around it several times and
could not locate the cause of, them.
! Again little further down the
street I heard the same rappngs,
and they seemed to precede me as I
| walked along. There was cold sweat
inside my hat band. Was the old
man trying to tell me not to sell
the house, taht the money was still
there? Why was he pursuing me
with his undecipherable message? ?
There was no doubt in my mind now
about getting out an soon as possi-
BILE. The thing had become un-
canny
Just then 1 met one of the men
who belonged to the store congrega-
tion. He wished me a pleasant good
morning, and then, glancing up he
said:
Them yellow hammers is making
lot of racket around here this
spring, amt they? 1 hear tell that
one of them has been wakin' you up
in the morning"
! 1 began to see a light. "But how
about the ghost story?" I said. What
about the old man that was muir
dered in the house thirty years ago?"
| My friend grinned.
| "Mister," he said. "That house was
only built fifteen years ago. The
Teller that sold it to you invented
that story to help him sell it. He
allowed houses sell better with a
ghost like they do with a mortgage,
and the boys down to the store be-
ing a good OF just helped him our
with it. The yellow hammers gone.
/ Probably knowned you, and was afraid
you'd sling a stone at him for
wakin' you in the morning.
Copyright 1926 by The Bell Syndi-
cate, Inc)
For Want Add Results, Phone 81 or 50.