The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-05-07

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EpNCLUDEp.

+ 1fSPEang 70 my feet, and TuShed
towards her, but as I reached. the
window, the fs;r appafissiion seemed
to vanish into the stormy darkness.
and i was left. ,alone.e, AT the self-
same instant, the sharp report of d
pistol -souudedAI could see the iiara
ged stream of fire above the pillow
straight straight through the very
spot where. ten second since, my
head had lain. ft' :,
With an instantaneous realization
of my danger. I swung myself over
the edge of the window, linmpina
some eight or ten feet into the
tangled fose-bushes below, and asAI /
crouched there, d recovering INV
breath, I heard the tramp OF foot.
steps into my room.
els he dead?" cried a voice nm the
ladder-the smooth. dscss;;.ssaal deceit III voice OF
the woman with the half-closed ewes.
"Of course he is" growled a voice
back; .'that charge would have killed
ten men!iiA light there, quick! and
tell Tom to be ready to dispose Of Il. T"
w q coid, agonized shudder ran
through me as / recalled what sit'p'
meant What den of midnight murder
ers had I fallen into? And how fear
fully narrow had been my escape.
With speed that only mortal terror
and deadly peril can give, rushed
through the woods, now illumined
by faint glimmer of starlight. T
knew not what impulse guided my
foot-steps-I never shall know how
many times I crossed my own track,
or how close 7 stood to the brink of
the deadly ravine; but some merciful
Providence compassed me with guild
ing and protecting care, for, when
the morning dawned, with faint red
bars OF orient light against the East
ern sky, 1 was close to the high road,
some seven miles from B
Once at the town, I told my story
to the local police, and detach-
ment was sent to the spot. After
much searching and many false
alarms, we succeeded in finding the
ruinous old shanty; but it was empty
and deserted. Our birds had flown;
nor did I ever recover my valise and
watch and chain, which latter I had
left under my pillow.
'Its Drew's gang" said the leader
OF the police; ''apd they've troubled
us these two years. I don't think,
though, they'll come back here just
ut present."
Nor did they.
But the strangest part of my story
Is to come yet. Some three weeks
subsequently, I received letter from
my sister, who was with Berenice in
her Italian home-a letter whose in
telligehce filed me with surprise.
81 must tell you something very,
very strange" wrote my sister, "that
happened to us on the night of
the 17th of October. Berenice had
not been so well for some time; in
fact, she had been confined to her bed
for nearly week, and I was sitting
beside her reading. It was late; the
clock had just struck l, when all of q
sudden she seemed to faint away,
growing cold and rigid as a corpse.
L fastened to call assistance, but all
our efforts seemed vain to restore
life or animation. I was just about
sending Antoine for the doctor, when
her senses returned as suddenly as
they had left her, and she sat up in
the bed, pushing back her hair and
looking wildly around her.
'Berenice, I exclaimed, show
you have terrified us oil! Are you
in?" ','.-.''
"'Not i'll, she answered, but I feel
SO strange. Oracle, I have been with
my husbandp"
''And all our reasoning failed to
convince her of the impossibility of
her assertion. She persists to this
moment that. she saw you, and was
with you, on the night of the 18th of
October, or rather on the morning of
the 18th. Where and how, she can
not tell; but we think it must have
been some dream. She is better
now; and I wish you could see how
fast she is improving"
This is my plain, unvarnished tale.
[ do not pretend to explain or ac-
count for its mysteries. I simply
relate facts. Let psychologists un-
ravel the labarynthical skein. lam
not superstitious; neither do 1 be-
lieve in ghosts, wraiths and appari-
tions; but this thing I do know-that
although my Italian wife was Mt
Naples, in the body, the morning of
the 18th of October, her spirit surely