Litchfield enquirer., 1873-02-27

aged. worn, and dead there in the hospi- 1 tai six months since. The scowl Tn the
 dark fierce face changes into mocking
 sheer, as he looks me straight in the eyes. That face-cold and still-but the eyes
 open and staring at me, and seeming alive l with vengeful hate. My God, how re- ! member ttdt look! I remember trying to banish the horrid vision from me, but I
 was held firmly entranced by horror as one is when in nightmare. | closed my
 eyes to shut out the hateful face peering I into mine; my senses seemed in a whirl. l Then I felt there was another change, and
 looked again. The spectral freebooters were gone-the racks of arms and old | fashioned cabin fittings had disappeared;
 in their place I recognized the we'll known l furniture of our own little steamer. I could hear the engines working, and the
 rush of water along the sides of the ship. Seated round the cabin-table were five of my companions. was about to spring | forward and accost them, when an inde- scribable something arrested me- I looked closer; the light from the cabin
 lamp heightened for mont, as it swung
 to and fro with the motion of the ship, and, for few seconds, fell on the face
 of the one nearest to me. It was the face
 of corpse =. With a suppressed
 gasp of horror I awoke, chilled to the | bone and cramped; but with an intense feeling of thankfulness that 1t was all but
 a dream. The night had somewhat ad-
 vanced, and the moon, now nearer the
 horizon, was throwing broad belt of light across our camping ground near the
 roots of the giant tree, leaving the spot where sat still in deep shadow. The fire was almost quite out, nothing left but a mass of white ashes-whiter still in the ,moonlight-with one thin column of trans
 parent smoke rising straight up from the
 centre and losing itself in the darkness of
 the tree-top above. ] was on the point of
 rising to throw Oil some fresh branches when my attention was riveted by glimpse 1 caught of some moving object
 projected beyond the bole of the tree Iii
 another moment human figure was out
 lined dimly against the dark starlit hori-
 zon. I knew 1t could not be one of my
 friends, for they all four were sleeping in
 the full moonlight before me. With a
 noisless step the figure approached the
 sleepers till it reached the edge of the
 belt of light 1t then sank to the ground
 and commenced to.crawl forward on hands
 and knees. Then as it came into clear light, in moment recognized the dead
 ly peril that hung over one, at least, of my sleeping friends. The figure was that
 of negro, and an old man at that; but of
 all the big black niggers I ever saw, that one was the biggest; he must have been six feet six, and had shoulders on him like 8 buffalo bull. He wore no cloths but a
 tattered old piece of canvas; but in his teeth he held @ long narrow bladed knife
 near as long as Q Da0chette. l should say
 he was creeping straight towards the nearest sleeper, and his purpose was writ ten as clearly in his face as ever mur- derer's was. Such face, too If ever fiend's and living human beings were combined, they were so in that old ne-
 gro's; but hadn't much time to admire
 him, for he was within ten feet of my friends. Quickly drew my pistol and sighted him. As did so, he took the knife from between his teeth and raised it in
 his right hand then l pulled. l never heard such 8 yell as he gave. He was just on the spring as l fired, or think, I'd have, thrown him. As it was, he bounded clear over the boy nearest him, and landed in the ashes of the fire, kicking up 8 cloud of dust and sparks, and scattering the smoldering embers ill all directions. l couldn't get another shot, as the boys sprang mp between us, and before they were fairly awake, he was
 off into the woods. To follow him was useless so We stayed where we were, not knowing what was coming next-the rest not even knowing what had happened, in fact. In half a minute we heard rock disloged from the steep face of the hill go bounding down little way; so, taking the sound as guide, we sent half dozen rifle whizzing through the trees, but nothing came of 1t, and not another sound was heard.
 "We didn't build the fire again, you may bet, but sat there i'll the darkest shade at the foot of the tree, and never closed an eye all the rest of the night; for the idea of the island being inhabited had never occurred to any of us till now, and we didn't know but we might be att lacked in force before our mates could arrive. Slowly enough the night wore on but nothing happened; and glad were we when, after the hour of intense darkness. that succeeded the setting of the moon, the faint gray morning light began to make things visible; and not till then, or rather till we had light enough to shoot by, did we rebuild our fire and begin to talk about breakfast Before sunrise our friends arrived from the steamer; and all, 1 think, felt more or less uncomfortable at the idea of there being others on tho island besides ourselves, who might per haps be watching us at that very moment or might even have some inkling of our secret. There was another cause for anx- iety. The two. who had complained of sickness the day before were worse this morning, and had to be left on board, together with a third one of the crew who had exhibited the same symptoms. The Doc, however, made light of it, and ex- pected them to be all right in day or two; but somehow I didn't feel easy, for I re- membered the five figures had seen in my dream sitting round the cabin table; and two of the three now on the sick list were certainly there. ... , .E
 "Impatiently We waited till the sun was high enough in the heavens to project the shadow to the great jiccatybar tree into the valley below. Slowly the minutes passed, till the nearest trees (which stand ing some 150 feet below us on the hillside, raised their topmost branches above the level on which we were standing) were stouched with golden light. Then the boys cheered, and every man took to pointing out the exact spot where the the shadow would fall in half an hours time, which would give us the exact hour at which to, take our observation. But every one quieted down as the important moment drew near. Then the Doc stood at the foot of the three just in front of the spot where the copper bolt had been driv- en in, with the compass fixed upon a tri- pod, ready to get the bearing the moment the time arrived, When it did, and when the Doc had read off the exact direction, we went to work with will-most of us hacking away with axe or D1achette, and others scouting out in advance and on each side of the working party, with shoot ing-irons ready, with shooting irons ready, and eyes skinned in case of trouble: but none came; and in less than an hour We had cut trail through the bush and measured the distance. Then we set to work with picks and crows, spades and even knives, every man burrowing like a musk-rat. What work It was, down in that deep gulch! The heat towards noon was stifing, and not a breath of air but we worked on as if our lives were staked on our york; ;-and so some s were, though