Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-02-27

when asleep out of bed, do look. A nice
invigorating potion, indeed! I wish to
heaven that | had gone aur .f4naeurs, or
even with that cavalcade of nursery
maids and unwholesome-looking babies,
Gor DANES scales, next door. At all events,
am not at all sleepy myself-that is a
blessing. | shall see what happens. Yes,
by the by, must see what he meant to
happen; | must affect to fall asleep, too.
| close my eyes, and gradually sinking
my chin on my chest, try to droop my
jaws and hang my cheeks, with sem
blance of bona tide slun,ber. Apparently
succeed pretty well. After the lapse of
some minutes distinctly feel two hands
very cautiously and carefully lifting and
removing my feet from tie dressing box
A cold chill creeps over me, and then
the blood PUSHES to my head and ears.
What am | to do? | have always thought
the better of myself ever since for it;
but, strange to say, | keep my presence
OF mind. Still affecting to sleep, give
a sort of kick, and instantly the hands
are withdrawn, and all is perfectly quiet
again. | now feign to wake gradually,
with a yawn and stretch; and on NOV
ing my feet little, find that, despite my
kick, they have been too clever for me,
and have dexterously removed my box
and substituted another. The way in
which | make this pleasant discovery is.
that whereas mine was perfectly fiat at
the top, on the surface of the object that
is now beneath my feet there is some sort
of excrescence-a handle of some sort
OF other. There is no denying it-brave
| may bel may laugh at people for
running away from bulls, for disliking to
sleep in room by themselves for fear
of ghosts, for hurrying past tramps but
now | am most thoroughly frightened.
look cautiously, in sideway manner,
at the man beside me. How very still he
is! Were they has hands, or the hands of
the man opposite him? [ take fuller
look than | have yet ventured to do,
turning slightly round for the purpose.
He is still reading, or at least still holding
the paper, for the reading must be farce.
| look at his hands: they are in
precisely the same position as they were
when | affected to go to sleep, although
the pose of the rest of his body is
slightly altered. Suddenly | turn ex-
tremely cold, for it has dawned upon me
that they are not real hands-they are
certainly false ones. Yes, though the
carriage is shaking very much with our
rapid motion, and the light is shaking
too, yet there is no mistake. | look in
deed more closely, so as to be quite sure
The one nearest me is ungloved, the other
glOved. | look at the nearest one. Yes,
1t IS Of an opaque, waxen wh:teness. I
can plainly see the rouge put under the
finger nails to represent the coloring of
life, [ try to give one glance at his face
The paper still partially hides it, and as
he is leaning his head back against the
cushion, where the light hardly pene-
trates, | am completely baffied in my eff
forts
Great heavens! What is going to hap
pen to me? what shall do? how much
Of him is real? where are his real hands,
what Is going on under that awful cloak?
The fur border touches ne as | sit by
him. | draw convulsively and shrink
ingly away, and try to squeeze myself as
close as possible to the window But alas
to what good? How absolutely power
less | am! How entirely at their mercy!
And there is Watson still sleeping swim
ishly-breathing heavily, opposite to me.
Shall try to wake her? But to what
end? She being under the influence of
that vile drug, my efforts will certainly
| be useless, and will probably arouse the
man 10 employ violence against me.
Sooner Or later IN the course Of the night
l suppose they are pretty sure to murder
me, but l had rather that il should be
later than sooner.
While | think these things, am lying
back quite still, for, as I philosophicanv
reflect, not all the screaming in the world
will help me; if | had twenty-ung power
| could not drown the rush of an express
train. Oh, ii my dear boy were but here
my husband, | mean-fat or lean, how
thankful | should be to see himl Oh,
that cloak, and those lorrid waxv hands!
OF cOarse-I see it now; they remained
stuck out, while the man real ones were
fUmbling about my feet. In the midst of
my agony of fright thought Of Nine.
TussaDd flashes ludicrously across me.
| Then they begin to talk Of me- It is
plain that they are not taken in by nav
felnt Of sleep; they speak in clear, loud
voice, evidently for my benefit. One of
them begins by saying, "What q good
looking woman she is. Evidently in her
| premiere jetlnesse toO''-reader, I struck 80
last May-'and also there can be no
| doubt as to her being of exalted rank-a
Duchess, probably" CA dead Duchess
by morning, think I, grimly) They go
on to say how odd it is that people in my
! class Of life never travel with their own
! jS''Sio, DeAt NV afS WIN itdStc cltCS, ltlc
real ones, being, meanwhile, deposited at
the bankers. My poor, poor sapphires
! good-by, long goodb to you. But in
| deed will willingly compound for the
loss Of you and the rest Of my ornaments,
will go bare-necked and bare-armed, OF
! clad in Salviati beads for the rest of my
! life, SO that | do but attain the next stop
! ping-place alive.
AS am so thinking, one Of the men
looks, or | imagine that he looks, rather
| curiously toward me. In paroxysm of
fear lest they should read on my face the
signs of the agony of terror | am en-
during, | throw my pocket handkerchief
"a very fine cambria one-over my face
And now, oh reader! | am going to
tell you something which | am sure you
Will not believe; | can hardly believe it
myself; but, as I so lie, despite the tu-
multi Of my mind-despite the chilly ter
ror which seems to be numbing my feel
ings-in the midst of it ali drowsiness
keeps stealing over me. am now con-
WINGED either that vile potion must have
been of extraordinary strength, or that |,
through the shaking Of the carriage or
the unsteadiness of my hand, carried
more to my mouth and swallowed more-I
did not mean to swallow any-than in
tended, for-you will hardly credit it, but
I fell asleep!
When | awake-awake with bewilder-
ed, mixed sense of having been lopg
| time asleep-of not knowing where | am