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Show I found an entrance into this last named sealed up space from the cellar, and there I found what I had anticipated. . I found a powerful argand lamp, with a polished concave reflector, and also two large mirrors set at a proper angle for throwing a reflection upward; and directly di-rectly in the line of this reflection was the sliding panel in the wainscot of my chamber. I also found here a long white robe; and it was no longer a mystery how the ghostly spectacle had been produced. The reflection of the operator below had been thrown up through the open panel upon the white curtains at the foot of I the bed, and those curtains had been I carefully arranged to perform their part I in the optical illusion. And one other thing I found in this secret place; I found speaking tubes leading upward, and upon returning to my chamber I found a point at the head of the bed where the wall paper was perforated, and upon putting my finger through I found the end of the tube. And thus the dreadful whispers were accounted for. Seth Dabney had spent both time and money in perfecting his arrangement for frightening tenants away from Maple-wood, Maple-wood, and he had hoped that for a mere nominal sum he might in time be able to purchase the estate; but his hopes were crushed when I appeared before him with the proofs of his wickedness in my possession. ' To save himself from a public trial and certain condemnation he finally confessed con-fessed to me all his iniquity. He showed me how he had arranged wooden troughs under the eaves and deep down in the cellar in which to roll cannon balls for the production of thunder, and he showed show-ed me other speaking tubes leading from a single point below to various points above, by means of which he could cause the same voice to sound in different differ-ent parts of the mansion at the same time. He confessed also that his wife and his son's wife often appeared to female fe-male guests in ghostly guise, which accounted ac-counted for my wife's fright upon the 1 landing. i I sent for Lillie Atherton, and in the : depth of her gratitude for the regained estate, she allowed Seth Dabney and his family to depart free of justice, and we ' heard of them no more. New York j World. ... a month, 8he got frightened at strange things which had happened there and moved away, and ere long afterward she died. And so Maplewood came to be the property of'Lillio Atherton, the widow's daughter. But Lillie would not go there to live. She lot old Soth and Hester , Dabney hold the place in charge, direct-! direct-! ing Seth to find good tenants if ho possi-I possi-I bly could. Parties came and hired the ', mnnsion, but they did not remain. I Capt. Ralph Severn had been dead three years, and nearly n score of people had triod to live at Maplewood, and had failod, when my attention was attracted by the beauties of the place. I had just come home frojn sea, and had promised my wife that 1 would try and settle I down and become a sober landsman. My : wife and Lillie Atherton were bosom i friends, and it was partly through this ' friendship for the young heiress for ! Lillie was only 19 that 1 was led to I Maplewood; but having once seen the ' place and admired the beauties of itssur-i itssur-i rounding. I was anxious to make it my 1 home. 1 found Seth Dabney to be a man of CO or thereabouts, and his wife of the samo age. Thoy were meek and humble and soomcd very anxious to serve me. In fact, Seth was altogether too meek. lie was an old sea dog; and if Capt. Ralph had ever been a pirate, as had been whispered whis-pered since his death, it was not hard for me to believe that Seth Dabney had been his accomplice. On our first night at Maplewood we kept up until rather lute. It was almost , midnight, and my wife Molly and myself my-self worked at arranging our library. The clock had just struck 12 when Peter's wife her name was Lucy-looked Lucy-looked in and informed us that the bedchamber bed-chamber was arranged. I was hanging a picture, and wished to finish it before I left it. Molly's dressing case was in a small dressing room upstairs, and she said she wonld run and get it while I hung the picture. She took a lighted , candle and went. I had finished my work to my satisfaction, and had jnst I folded up my stepladder when my wife came rushing in with her candle extinguished, extin-guished, and as she dropped her dressing case upon the floor I caught her in my arms. She was pale and frightened, and looked over her shoulder as though expecting ex-pecting that something had followed her. As soon as she could speak I heard her story. She had gone to the dressing room and fcu. nei case, and as she reached the head of the broad staircase on her return re-turn she had seen upon the landing at her right a female figure robed in white, with blood upon its ashen face and with dabs of blood upon its snowy drapery. ' "Oh, it was dreadful!" said my wife. "TJie specter waved its hand in a threat-: threat-: ening manner, and said to me, in an ; awful whisper, 'Woman, there is a ' curse upon this house, and upon all who i follow in the footsteps of Ralph Severn!' I And then she pointed to a gaping wound : upon her forehead, and with a cry of ter- ror I fled down the stairs." I Suroly this was not a pleasant opening, but I urged it upon my wife that she had not been hurt, and furthermore, that a respectable ghost would have appeared ib me rather than to her. f - ! It was half an hour after midnight when we retired. The chamber which we had selected was the pletisantest room in the mansion a large square room, with a deep bay window looking down upon the lake. The hangings were of green velvet, hoavily fringed with gold, and the curtains, though slightly yellow from time, were clean and of finest lace. 1 left a small lamp burning upon the dressing table, and being very tired I fell asleep soon after touching the pillow. How long I slept I cannot say, but it , could not have been an hour, when I was ! awakened by my wife, who was clinging , to mo in fright, and as I awoko I heard I a low moaning sound as of some one in 1 deep distress, aud presently a whisper as though the speaker were close to my ear i a whisper awful aud distinct and these wore the words that were spoken: i "A curse there is upon this house and j upon all who would follow in the foot-i foot-i steps of Ralph Severn!" The lamp had been extinguished, and while the foregoing words were being i whispered the apartment was pervaded by a ghostly light a sulphurous, death-! death-! ly, waving glare; and presently a female i figure appeared at the foot of the bed i the same which my wife had seen upon the landing. It was robed in white, the face pale and ghostly,' and dark spots were upon the brow and upon the robes. It was surely nothing of humau mold, for it stood upon the air, Rnd as I sat up I could see its feet treading empty space on a level with the bed frame! With a threatening wave of the harfd the figure fig-ure bowed its head, and melted away into thin air melted away with a sorrowing sor-rowing sigh and the ghostly glare faded oat, leaving only the pale glimmer of the starbeams to break the midnight gloom. As soon as I could collect my scattered senses I broke from my wife's grasp and leaped out upon the floor, and very quickly lighted the lamp. The doors were fast locked, as I had left them; the windows had not been touched; the hangings were all intact, and nowhere, after the strictest search, conld I find the slightest trace of any method of in-gross in-gross or egress to a material body. In the morning; Soth Dabney made it his business to aak me how I had rested. I told him I had been seriously disturbed; and I gave him to understand that if the spirits of .Ralph Severn's departed victims vic-tims wished to inhabit the place I should leave. I could see by the old man's face as he turned away that he was well satisfied. When left to myself I went up into our chamber, taking with me a hammer and a chisel Around the chamber was a liigh oaken wainscot, and this I proceeded pro-ceeded to sound with my hammer; and very soon I found a place opposite the foot of the bed which gave back a hollow hol-low sound. A critical examination revealed re-vealed to me the fact that at this point a panel 8 feet long by 3 feat high was loose, and I could detect slight abrasions upon its surface, as though it had been slid behind the casing; but I could not movo it without breaking it, as it appeared ap-peared to be fastened upon the other side. But that was a good beginning. UlKin going outside I found that tho wall in which was the loose panel was , toward a chamber which we had as yet , appropriated to no particular use, as its single small window left it far from I pleasant. From this chamber, next to j the outer wall of the building and tow-. tow-. ard my own chamber, opened a closet, occupying not more than four feet of the division partition, so that from this j closet to tho opposite wall there was left . a space of at least three feet between the j two rooms and this space was sealed up j and it was into this space that the sliding slid-ing panel opened, i My next field of examination was be- low, and I was not long in discovering ; that the space directly beneath the mov-. mov-. able panel, and occupying half the nn-j nn-j derlying area of the dark chamber, was also sealed up, but so adroitly cut into by closets aud cupboards that only a well directed exaniination could have revealed re-vealed the fact. Never mind the details . of my persistent search. It oc-npied time; but I succeeded in " I A MYSTERY SOLVED. ,i It was called Maplewood. There wore .150 acres in the estate 100 acres of land I aDd fifty acres of water; and this water was in a beautiful lake, upon the north-' . i em shore of which, on a gentle slope, backed by a forest of maples, stood the r mansion. : i Capt. Ralph Severn had lived in the 5 , mansion until he died. He had never married or at least he had never had .: a wife in this country, and tho only members of his household whom he had ; admitted to share at all in his compan- i ionship had been Seth and Hester Dab ney man and wife tho two servants J who had been with him in the begin- ning, and who had remained to the end. ? ; Uppn his deathbed, contrary to gen- i eral expectation, Capt. Ralph Severn had remembered a sistor whom he had not seen for years, and to this sister and i her heirs he had willed iis estate. This 1 gistar, then a widow and named Ather- ton, had come to Maplewood, bringing V with her an only daughter. But Mrs. Atherton did not remain at Maulewood . ' |