The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1868-07-02

mlnd grew mcrD1Qly active, and
Esoon /. was lost to Consciousness in
| the bewiIdered perpiexities Of my
own reflections. ~ - 'saia -
For an hour I might have brood
ed thus When I at length started,
as out Of a vision, r was conscious
Of a chiiliness, and of its being very
late put my hand to, my waist
for my watch. : It wanted three min
utes to two. Was that right by The
clock or, the mantle piece? I asked
myself, Tnstinctively I looked up.
Tie leaning oval glass reflected me
as I sat. / saw my own face and
figure and I saw more There was
another t;atce looking over my shoul-
FderA ether figure standing at my
/. Yes, clearly and. I'M ,lnrllmnistakabies, 1
saw benefactor, Rodney. Gauntlet.
standing there and bending over me
with a strange plying look In his
face. 2" - q - - i'7'ais,ii '9iAs
Fntt.Y on Here, gifrI!! irI!s' I cried, turning I'd
round fIigh tened Il knew not why
|" There was no answer! p = 'A'
laiiT baIf; rroso hsTf5'I99 EsToiss3Ig
As 7 did SO, the form reeeded. 1t
went slowly, With tile shutting gait
Of an elifeebled man. The face was
toward me, even. when there was the
width Of the room between us.-
Theh It turned away. Tt turned to-
ward the Japanese cabinet, and
saw an up1ifted foresfnger .beckon-
| ing me to observe. what followed.
The. movement was so natural, SO
real that it scared away the fears
which were beginning to paralize
a.speak to me- SIRE I cried out,
fstepping forward as spoke, TOR if
|, you are too lllL'' = rs" 1Ss = :. s.'l 80
The finger was was raised again, pa g. this
time as ii. to. silence me. Then the
face half turned I could catch the
depression Of the eyes, and followed
them, They seemed to single out
a spotAa rose bud in the flower pat
tern Of the 7cabinetl2 and then the
pointing finger went 7t:.zt straight to that
point y isfda 1888 la7''t ! sa>s'aI 3if
7 Unless I dreamed, the bud yielded
under the pressure of the finger tip.
I saw it sink and spring back:to
itsaplacea Then almost Instantly, q
Hong narrow panel fell out and drop
ped ON the ground II91 ,3Tf2t
+ You wish to show me- the secret
of this ~ I gasped, 10 oking up from
the spot where the panel lay.ijF
lnn Tosiny surprise i addressed va
eaficy. The figure was gone. 8ss73
T 4 My alarm; was intense. Had
seen the ghost of Rodney Gauntlet
My conviction was that had. Yet
I the finger had touched the spring,
the rose-b bud had yielded, and there
was the result before me. Could a
spirit have done that? IF so, for
what purposea While, more dead
| than alive, [ Iaasked7 of myself this
second question, my eyes involun-
tarily turned toward thatipart Of the
cabinet from which the panel had
fdropped.i Asmall aperture had been
laid bare; evidently assecret recess
and what it contained was clearly
revealed to my gaze. .i'a froG
Itswas q folded paper s=#l
sc Here again was something real
and tangible.J Itshelped me to fight
against thet conviction that what I
;haa seen was supernatural, though
my frame shook with the terror of
a ghostly Visitation. With trem.
ulous, handI sna.ched at the paper
and tore it open. Casting my eyes
over it / saw it was a will-Rodney
Gauntlett's will. Through mass
of blurred letters gathered that by
means of 1.-THE revoked all former
wills; and then I lighted on these
words, glowing, as they seemed in
letters of fire: - all my real and
personal estate, amounting at this
present writing to three; millions
sterling, to- Julia Gauntlet, other
wise known aand designated by me
as Julia Wyvern, my own true and
lawful daughter--a' gga
T Icould read no more. Thewords
swan before my eyes. Nasi.
What! ,WasI Rodney Gauntlett's
own child? Was it fiction that he
had reared me out of the love he
bore his old friend {? What mys
terry was here What could have
prompted SO strange, SO cruel a
course? !? And now, why did he seek
to atone for all by securing to me a
fortune vast beyond computationr
f. These questions crowded to my
lips. The awe: the marvel, the mys-
tery. Of what was passing confound-
| ed me. My only proof Of the real
1 ity of all was the cracking Of the
paper / grasped in my hand: That
was real, that and the, cabinet from
which I had taken it. Yes, and
hark!! The great hell Of st. Paufs
was Ginning. Real enough that 1
stoed and counted the quarter
chimes, and then the first for the
hour-one; the second-two,
As the last echo died away, 1 glanc-
ed again at the viii. In the act of
doing SO, and STOPPING my head for
the purpose, I suddenly fell heavily
forward with crashing sound in
my ears A blow had been dealt
from behind, by an unseen hand,
and under the force of it dropped
bleeding and senseless.
More than week had elapsed be-
fore the sense of life returned to me-
was in my own bed, q Bridget's
kindly face was bending over me.
Pain racked my brow, and l was
conscious Of having suffered intense
ly 1t was sometime before was
permitted to ask questions, or to re-
ceiee. information as to what had