Argosy, Vol. 1 (1882) — page 366: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE STRANGE STORY of the Mountains, Archibald Van K. Moun- tain, occurred seven months ago, he ap- pointed as his executor his brother, Peter G. Mountain, the eminent lawyer, whose offices are in the Justitia building. In the course of his settlement of the affairs of the estate, Mr. Mountain has been investing certain large sums in various se- curities under the provisions of his brother’s will and these he has been placing in the safe deposit vaults of the Justitia Company in the basement of the same building. Or rather, with the negligent fatuity too common with wealthy men of affairs, he has been in the habit of turning these secur- ities over to his oldest and most trusted employé, Constant J. Spencer, together with the key of the vault, which this clerk would return to him after he had put such ‘bonds, stocks, etc., behind the steel doors. Yesterday (Monday) Mr. Mountain hav- ing occasion to visit the vault in question, found the key to be mysteriously missing from the ring. To add to this annoyance his chief clerk, the aforesaid Spencer, was not at the office, he having wired Mr. Moun- tain on Saturday afternoon that he had been suddenly summoned out of town for a few days. Not the ghost of a suspicion entered any one’s mind to connect these two events until by chance the missing key was found upon the floor of the office close to Spencer’s desk. Hastening at once to the vault, Mr. THE STRANGE STORY OF COUNT BARENZIK. 357 Mountain found to his horror that every marketable security was gone. ; Detectives were at once put to work, and before evening it was ascertained that an individual answering Spencer's description had for days been going among the brok- ers and banks hypothecating under a va- riety of names, thousands of dollars’ worth of bonds, etc., for cash—supposed to be no less than $50,000. Detective Silver ascertained also that a man about tallying with Spencer in appear- ance boarded the Bavaria but a moment be- fore she sailed on Saturday last. It could not be found that any one an- swering the description of this person (or of Spencer) had purchased passage at the company’s ofhce, but his description has been cabled to the other side, and the late passenger will be arrested on suspicion, Spencer’s offense being, of course, extra- ditable. What adds a peculiar interest to the sup- posed presence of the thief on board the Bavaria is the fact that the late Mr. Moun- tain’s widow and her two sons occupy cab- ins on the same vessel, which fact would seem to have escaped the knowledge of: Mr. Spencer, if it be, indeed, he who boarded her in stich unseemly haste. A ring at the doorbell of Mr. Archibald Mountain’s residence in Steuben Square, brought a man servant who said that Mr. Schuyler declined to be interviewed—etc., etc. OF COUNT BARENZIK. BY ROBERT BARNES CRAMER. A tale of a Christmas Eve in Russia. The startling experiences called to mind by a long barreled pistol. | FIRST met Count Barenzik in my father’s banking house, to which place he came one day to have cashed a bill of exchange on a Russian bank. He.was a very good looking man, with pleasant manners, and an unmistakably foreign appearance and accent. His visits thereafter were quite fre- quent, and we became acquainted with- in a few weeks, and fast friends before many months had gone by. He resided in an up town hotel when I first met him, and in conversation one day I learned that he had been for sev- eral years an exile from his native land. We were sitting in his comfortable parlor, he with his legs crossed before the fire, smoking a cigar and stroking his long black mustache, and I lying full length upon a lounge close by. Two other of his friends completed the group, and joined with me in urging him to tell us a story. “ Give us something about Russia,” Dick said, taking from the mantel a queer, long barreled pistol. “Is there a history connected with this piece of artillery?” The count nodded, smiling slightly. “That is one of the few things I ecomilcooolks CO