The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-05-20
4 MODERN GHOST.
GCONTINUED

Crack crack Mr.. Jones turned
sharply round towards the cupboard
He was in a different part OF the room
from where he had been when the door
flew ope,. before. He advanced towards
the cupboard, his hand was raised to
shut the door, when it gradually opened,
wider, wider, wider, and, as 1t did so, Mr..
Jones did not close it, and put an lmme-
diate stop to its vagarics, No; he SEEM
ed rooted to the spot. His head tingled /;
n cold sweat stood on his forehead; ev-
cry drop of blood in his body seemed to
fv to his heart; and, worse than all, a
sensation of fear he had never before
experienced caused him to stare, open
m0uthed, and with an expression halt
idiotic, half indicative OF terror, at b a
awful opening. Well might he gaze in
horror at the CHASTITY visitor who seemed
tn have risen from the grave at his COM
mand. A tall and lanky figure, envcl-
optd in a white robe, and supporting a
lrshlcSs head, whose chattering teeth he
cou!d even hen hear, extended its right
arm and long bony fingers towards hun,
and pointed them ut him in derision.
Where was now that bold spirit that had
prompted Mr.. Jones to assert that moth
inc supernatural could alarm him. for
that nothing was supernatural! Fled!
vanished rs will always vanish such
idle b~oastings, when those who utter
them are brought face to face with the
the objects they so lightly profess not to
dread. He tried fospeak, but his tongue
refused 10 utter. He tried to scream, but
the sounds stuck in his throat. Nearer
and nearer came that hideous hand
More and more sardOnic and cXulting
was the grin of hat mocking skull. The
wrctchcd man felt, though he could hard
" distinguish its approach. Still he
cannot move. His mel tai and bodily
powers seem paralysed. He is ouly con:
scinus of the proximity of something
horrible. from which there is 10 escape.
An inch more and the hand will touch
his face That inch dimipishes. The
bnny fingers arc on his neck and then,
as if reused to desperation by that I'M
earthly touch, he utterS Il frightful
scream and drops senseless to the ground
as. with a sudden inclination, the dread
spectre bends forward and clutches its
victim in its hideOus embrace.
The Trafalgar is a very large hotel. 1t
can accommodate fifty people, but i'll the
then crowded state of the house, ut least
half as many again We're sleeping in it.
But not one of these persons-nOt the
gentlemen for whom beds had been set
up in the CUifGe-rOom, not the walters
whose shake-dOwn had been prepared
in the kitchen, were proof against the
awful, CHASTITY, blood-curdling scream
forced from Mr.. Jones lips at the mo-
mcnt when the paroXysm of his agony
aud despair was at its hight Every one
heard it, and every oue-even including
the equity old Judge on the first floor
rushed from his room to ascertain its
cause. Such a sound was not the OIL
spring of an idle terror. Murder was
the word most frequently uttered 10y the
guests, as, Iii various states, more or less
scanty, OF undress, they rushed up and
down stairs and along the dark corridors,
ignorant, most OF them, of the geOgr;l-
phy Of the house, and, all OF them,
whence the shrek came.
That sound had not been repeated, and
the silence succeeding it was more sug-
gestive of violence, of murder, of death,
in some horrible form, than another
scream would have been; for its repeti
ton would have proved that he who Ut
tered it yet lived, that assistance might
vet come in time. But it is now with
beating hearts, and inward thrills OF
dread Of what they might discover. that
the braves look nervously into the differ
ent rooms us they pass, and it is %noticea-
BILE that no one remains in a passage
alone. The Judge, hObbling along a cor
ridor, sees a light disappearing round a
corner, and calls or the bearer to stop
and let him see his way. Nothing but
the fact that the candle-bearer is the
Judges confidential servant induces him
to acceed to the old gentlemau's request,
and, had not people been too much ex-
cited To notice it, they might have OBJ.
served that the legal lnminary, before
whom, later in the day, felons were to
tremble, chung To his servant closer than
could have been expected from one of
generally such a distant and naughty
bearing to his interiors.
1t is well-known that il a person is
woke out OF Il sound sleep by an unusual
or alarming noise, he has always the va
guest idea as to whence it comes. Such
was the case i'll this instance. The four
persons who slept OIL the upper floor
rushed Immediately down stairs on hear
ing the scream, unconscious of the appal-
ling drama that had been enacted at their
very doors. Ii was NOT until Il moro or
ganized search was made that the upper
regions were explored, and several min
utes elapsed before a nervous and ex-
cited crowd trooped up to the ladder-like
stairs we have before mentioned. With
that strange infatuation which seems
common sense, they examined the four
small bed rooms III the upper landing he
fore knocking mt the closed door of Mr..
Jonos-which, after all, was near the
stairs. When they did knock. no answer
came to the summons The door was
bolted; there happened to be no key, and
through the keyhole one man, a little
drawer than his comrades, ventured To
peep, and was rewarded for his courage
by percciving the bright fire and blazing
candles. The position of TIE door, in Il
recess, prevented his seeing more. Re-
assured by his description, the rest of the
party were p%raisworthy in their vigorous
efforts to arouse the inmate by repeated
ami violent knocks at the door. At last
the same high-spirited individual who
had ventured to peep in gave the door a
vicious kick. The boft rave way and the
door flew omen. Curiosity now asserted