The Halifax Comet. — 1893-04-22 (Halifax, West Yorkshire, England)

THE COMET.  "What do you mean " inquired both ladies, while Captain Peel stopped short in - investigp.tions and echoed the inquiry. "Well, sir, if you will wait just a minute while I quiet the other lodgers—they are opening their doors to see what's the matter —l'll tell you. "It is four years inquiries she said, when, having answered all with the fiction of a "lady tabu in a fit," she returned to the waiting group, "just four years to-night, since a young lady came and engaged that room. She was tall, with long, dark hair." "Ye.," interjected Miss Sinclair, with a shiver.  his  " I was helping them just as lam now. She was a nice young lady, but in trouble about something, for when I took her a can of hot water, as she asked for before going to bed, I saw she had been crying. That night we shut up as usual about eleven, and went to bed—that is, everybody but me, and I'd got a fearful toothache. It was so bad that at last I threw a shawl round me and went downstairs for some stuff out of the kitchen. I was coining up again, and had got nearly on to this landing, when the most fearful orj- ra ever heard rang through the house. It was the cry of a woman, and it came from this room. In the awful fright it eve me I dropped the candle and stood for a minute as if ra been turned to stone, and in that minute I heard the door open and felt somebody brush past me down the stairs. The next minute I'd pulled myself together like, and being pretty brave, I sprang up the remaining stairs and into the room. The gas was low, and I couldn't see anything distinctly; but when rd turned itlup—oh " She paused and shuddered, as if, even now, the recollection overcame her. "I hop, please God, I may never see such another sight 1 There, lying across the bed on her back, as if she'd been forced down again when she'd started up to scream, was the young lady, her long black hair all loose about, her eyes wild and staring, and blood streaming over her white gown from a big gash in her throat ! " The two ladies gave a little cry, and clung closer to each other, while Captain Peel's bronzed face grew perceptibly paler. "There was no need for me to call for help," continued the chambermaid. "All the people on this side the house had heard the scream, and had come out of their rooms. We sent for the doctor, and tried to stop the bleeding, but it was of no use. She never spoke, and died as we stood watching her." "And the murderer ? " inquired Captain Peel, huskily. "He was never found, sir. Of course when the police came I told them about hearing the door open, and feeling somebody brush by me on the stairs, and they searched everywhere, and even offered a reward; but nothing ever turned up. It was a good thing for me that, through the house being so full, one of the servants was sleeping in the kitchen that night, and could prove that I was down there at the time the murder was committed, or they might have accused me." "And was nothing ever found out about the poor girl herself ? ' "Nothing, sir. There was no name on anything she wore, and she'd no luggage. She paid for the room when she t, saying she most likely shouldn't want it more than one night." "And has this—this figure—appeared here ever sinoe ? " inquired Miss Sinclair, hesitat