Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-12-01

just lost his CONSEQUENCES II was six
miles or more across the moor TO ms haDi-
tation, and the black expanse lay before
him, disappearing dismaily in the DARK
| ness. So that, looking straight before
| him, sky and land blended together IN an
ndistinp11ishable and awful blank.
There was silence quite unnatural over
the place. The distant murmur OF the
brook which he knew SO well, was dead !;
not whisper in the leaves above him /;
the air earth, everything about and above
was indcscribaDly still and he experienced
| that onaking of the heart that seems TO
portend the approach Of something awful.
| lie would have set out upon his return
across the moor, had he not an underlined
| presentiment that he was waylaid by some
! thing he dared not pass.
The old grey church and tower of Shack
! Teton stood like a shadow in the rear. Ills
eve had grown accustomed TO the obscure
ty. and he could just trace its outline
There were no comforting associations in
his mind connected with it nothing but
menace and misgiving. His early trimming
in his lawless calling was connected with
this very spot. Here his father used to
meet two other poachers, and bring his
son, then but boy, with him.
Under the church porch, towards morn
ing, they used to divide the game they had
taken, and take account of the sales they
had made on the previous day, and make
partition of the money, and drink their
gin. II was here he had taken his carly
lessons in drinking, cursing, and lawless-
ness. His fathers grave was hardly eight
steps from the spot where he stood. In
his present state of awful detection, no
scene on earth could have so helped TO
/ heighten his fear.
There was one object close by which
added to his gloom. About yard away,
| in rear of the tree, behind himself, and ex-
tending to his left, was an open grave, the
mould and rubbish piled on the other side.
| At the head Of this grave stood the beech
! tree its columnar stem rose like huge
monumental pillar. He knew every line
| and crease on its smooth surface. The
! initial letters OF his own name, cut in its
bark long ago, had spread and wrinkled
| like the grotesquc capitals OF fancitul en-
grayer. and now with sinister signlfl-
canoe overlooked the open, grave, as II
answering his mental question, WHO Tor
| is { grave cut?"
| He felt still little stunned, and there
was faint tremor in his joints that disin-
| clincd him TO exert himself; and, further
! he had vague apprehension that, take
what direction he might, there was danger
around him worse than that OF staying
where he was.
On sudden the stars began 10 blink
more fiercely, n faint wild light oversprcad
for minute the bleak landscape, and he
saw approaching from the moor figure at
kind of swinging trot, with now and
then ZigZag hop or two, such as men &C
customcd to cross such places make to
avoid the patches of slob or quag that meet
| them here and there This figure rescm-
bled his fathers and, like him, whistled
| through his finger by way OF signal as he
| approached; but the whistle sounded not
now shrily and sharp, as in old times, but
| immensely far away, and seemed to sing
| strangely through Toms head From habit
| or from fear, in answer TO the signal, Tom
whistlcd as he used To- do five-and twenty
years ago and more, although he was al
ready chilled with an unearthly fear.
Like his father, too, the figure held up
the bag that was in his left hand as he
drew near, when it was his custom TO call
out to him what was in it. 1t did not reas-
sure the watcher, you may be certain, when
shout unnaturally faint reached him, as
the phantom dangled the bag in the air,
and he heard, with faint distinctness, the
words, "Tom Chuff's soul"
Scarcely fifty yards away from the low
churchyard fence at which Tom was stand
ing, there was wider chasm in the peat,
which there threw up Il growth OF reeds
and bulrushes, among which, as the old
poacher used TO do Oh a sudden alarm, the
approaching figure suddenly cast itself
down.
From the same patch of tall reeds and
rushcs emerged instantaneously what he at
first mistook for the same figure creeping
on all fours, but what he soon perceived to
be an enormous black dog with n rough
coat like bears, which at first shifted
about, and then started towards him in
what seemed to be sportive amble, bounc-
ing this way and that, but as it drew near
il displayed pair of fearful eyes that
plowed like live Goals, and emitted from
the monstrous cxpanse of its jaws terri
flying growl.
This beast seemed on the point of seiz-
ing him, and Tom recoiled in panic and
fell into the open grave behind him. The
edge which he caught as he tumblcd gave
way, and down he went, expecting almost
at the same instant to reach the bottom.
But never was such lall! BOttOmleSS
seemed the abyss! Down, down, down,
with Undesirable and still increasing
speed, through utter darkness, with hair
streaming straight upward, GREATNESS, he
shot, with rush of air against him, the
force of which whirled up his very arms,
second after second, minute after minute,
through the cbasm downward he flew, the
lev Precipitation of horror covering his
body, and suddenly, as he expected to be
dashed into humiliation, his descent was
in an instant arrested with tremendous
shock, which, however, did not deprive
him Of consciousness even for a moment.
He looked about him. The place re-
sembled smoke stained cavern or cata-
comb, the roof of which, except for rib
bed arch here and there family visible,
was lost in darkness. From several rude
passages, like the galleries of n gigantic
mine, which opened from this centre cham
Der, was very dimly emitted dull glow, as
of charcoal, which was the only light by
which he could imperfectly discern the OBJ
iects immediately about him.
What seemed like a projecting piece OF
the rock, mt the corner OF one OF these
m,rkv entrances. moved on sudden, and