170 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



Jane 



told the story of the haliiitod house and 

 the iiiurderod Englishinau, adding that 

 the natives said that the murder was re- 

 enacted every night at the same hour. Our 

 officers expressed a lively interest in the 

 narrative. 



"Let's visit the house some night," one 

 of them suggested, "and see the show." 



"Why not tonight?" exclaimed a young 

 Dane whom we will agree to call A. "We 

 have plenty of time, and the steward of 

 the club lias the keys of the house. The 

 Englishman left them with him when he 

 went away." 



The men were all young and keen for 

 adventure. Perhaps the excellent cluh 

 punch had made them even braver than 

 usual. Anyhow tlie suggestion was re- 

 ceived with acclamations. The keys were 

 called for. t-^ome one produced a lantern. 

 The rest filled their pockets with matches 

 and candle ends. When they were ready 

 to start, they looked abotit for A. He was 

 nowhere to he found. The party set forth 

 without him. One of our officers could 

 not retrain from expressing some amuse- 

 ment that the organizer of the adventure 

 should prove the only one afraid to carry 

 it through. 



"A. afraid?" cried one of the club mem- 

 bers. " You don't know him. He doesn't 

 know what fear means. I'll wager he's up 

 to some deviltry at this moment. Proba- 

 bly he has gone on ahead to put on a pil- 

 lowcase and play ghost for us." 



They had to hurry to reach the house at 

 the intended hour. 



' ' There it is, ' ' scmie one said at last, and 

 Lieutenant B., who carried the lantern, 

 looked at his watch by its light and an- 

 nounced that they had jtist three minutes 

 to spare. The door was unlocked with 

 difficulty, for the fastenings had grown 

 rusty from disuse. 



"By George!" cried the first man who 

 stepped into the hall, "there's something 

 going on up stairs. ' ' 



"It's A.," said his friend, laughing, 

 and they all started up stairs, Mr. B. 

 walking ahead with the lantern. 



A cry of agonized despair startled the 

 Bmiles from their lips and quickened their 

 steps to a run. B. pushed open the door 

 of the room from which the sounds had 

 come. As he did so, and before he could 

 see anything, the lantern was dashed from 

 his hand and the door slammed behind 

 him. Ho stood still in the darkness for a 

 few awful, te-Tor stricken seconds. Then 

 he took a .step forward and tripped over 

 something on the floor. He stooped over, 

 and his hand encount(>red a pool of warm, 

 oozing licpiid. It flashed on his mind that 

 this was blood and that the thing he had 

 stumbled over was a man's body. His 

 heart almost stooned be;'.titi.e. He was 



an'aia to move, afraid fo bi^'aJ^ne. Tlie Tn- 

 stants during which his friends in the hall 

 were striking alight and opening the door 

 seemed an eternity. Lieutenant D. is now 

 the gray haired father of a family, but he 

 says the horror of that moment is as fresh 

 as though it had all happened yesterday. 



At last the door was opened. The young 

 men crowded in with their candles. There 

 at their feet lay poor A. with the Malay 

 knife in his heart. 



Explanations are always an anticlimax. 

 But the explanation of the foregoing trag- 

 • edy is too curious to omit, though its pre- 

 tensions to being a ghost story are thereby 

 destroyed. After this second murder the 

 authorities were aroused to a display of 

 tardy activity. The house was careftilly 

 searched, and the discovery made that the 

 walls were double, containing secret doors, 

 stairccises Jind storage chambers. One of 

 these secret doors accounted for the mur- 

 derer's er'cape and his return to get the 

 knife, which ho evidently felt would be a 

 dangerous clew. In the secret chambers 

 were found a considerable supply of arnas 

 and a lai-ge quantity of valuables of the 

 most varied description. It was evident 

 that the place had been used as a refuge 

 and storehouse by Cliiuese pirates, its prox- 

 imity to the water making it the more con- 

 venient. The owner of the knife and some 

 members of his gang were subsequently 

 captured and put to death. — Washington 

 Star. 



A BAG OF MYSTERY. 



T UPSET THE EQUILIBRIUM OF A CAR- 

 LOAD OF BROOKLYNITES. 



The Peace of Mind Which the Resident ol 

 Brooklyn Puts on With His Sunday 

 Clothes Greatly Disturbed by the Strange 

 Young Man's Actions. 



There was an odd little episode in a 

 Brooklyn trolley car of the Flatbush line 

 on a recent Sunday afternoon, which 

 gave rise to an amusing comedy of con- 

 flict between the natural curiosity of 

 human nature and the civilized obliga- 

 tion to restrain it. 



The Flatbush and Flatlands line runs 

 away out into the region of cornfield.s, 

 truck farms and forests, lately gathered 

 into Brooklyn's municipal area. When 

 the car started from the end of the route 

 it had aboard one passenger, a pleasant 

 faced young man who carried a large 

 leather handbag. E[.e was well dressed. 



