ears."

"I should move," I dryly responded.

"Would you? Many good people have moved from the place I speak of, but
that has not helped matters. The disappearances go on just the same and
the mystery continues."

"You interest me," I said. "Come to think of it, if this street were the
scene of such an unexplained series of horrors as you have described, I
do not think I should move."

"I thought not," he curtly rejoined. "But since you are interested in
this matter, let me be more explicit in my statements. The first person
whose disappearance was noted----"

"Wait," I interrupted. "Have you a map of the place?"

He smiled, nodded quite affectionately to a little statuette on the
mantel-piece, which had had the honor of sharing his confidences in days
gone by, but did not produce the map.

"That detail will keep," said he. "Let me go on with my story. As I was
saying, madam, the first person whose disappearance was noted in this
place was a peddler of small wares, accustomed to tramp the mountains.
On this occasion he had been in town longer than usual, and was known to
have sold fully half of his goods. Consequently he must have had quite a
sum of money upon him. One day his pack was found lying under a cluster
of bushes in a wood, but of him nothing was ever again heard. It made an
excitement for a few days while the woods were being searched for his
body, but, nothing having been discovered, he was forgotten, and
everything went on as before, till suddenly public attention was again
aroused by the pouring in of letters containing inquiries in regard to a
young man who had been sent there from Duluth to collect facts in a law
case, and who after a certain date had failed to communicate with his
firm or show up at any of the places where he was known. Instantly the
village was in arms. Many remembered the young man, and some two or
three of the villagers could recall the fact of having seen him go up
the street with his hand-bag in his hand as if on his way to the
Mountain-station. The landlord of the hotel could fix the very day at
which he left his house, but inquiries at the station failed to
establish the fact that he took train from there, nor were the most
minute inquiries into his fate ever attended by the least result. He was
not known to have carried much money, but he carried a very handsome
watch and wore a ring of more than ordinary value, neither of which has
ever shown up at any pawnbroker's known