"
"Very pretty," said Shorthouse.
"I'll show you somethin' mighty queer any-ways," she drawled, "if you'll
come upstairs a minute. I've heard the steps and voices lots of times;
they don't pheaze me any. I'd just as lief hear so many dogs barkin'.
You'll find the whole story in the newspapers if you look it up--not
what goes on here, but the story of the Germans. My house would be
ruined if they told all, and I'd sue for damages."
They reached the bedroom, and the woman went in and pulled up the edge
of the carpet where Shorthouse had seen the blood soaking in the
previous night.
"Look thar, if you feel like it," said the old hag. Stooping down, he
saw a dark, dull stain in the boards that corresponded exactly to the
shape and position of the blood as he had seen it.
That night he slept in a hotel, and the following day sought new
quarters. In the newspapers on file in his office after a long search he
found twenty years back the detailed story, substantially as the woman
had said, of Steinhardt & Co.'s failure, the absconding and subsequent
arrest of the senior partner, and the suicide, or murder, of his son
Otto.
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