The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-08-07

mefclleSS eyes were SteadfaSt warning OF
the peril to which l might expose her by
the slightest indiscretion. 1 listened fo
her breathing. could not detect the leas
murmur-not sigh. What if she should
move-awake-speak I was transfxeG
with horror at the bare thought. Sht
would be the victim; and sacrificed by my
pusilanimity and indecision. With THU
thought l involuntarily turned my eye
towards her, but Was conscious in a moment
of corresponding motion up there! Yes
Upon returning instantly to that Object
of dread, l perceived that its paws were
advanced to the very edge of the wall, and
half of its body, sleek and shining, was
visible in the increasing light into which il
had emerged, as it seemed to crouch for a
spring.
What shall l do? The question is press.
ing and must be answered particularly.
determined to leap from my bed and seize
the first thing upon which my eyes rested,
suitable for An effective defence. The
thought could not have been matured into
the first act of violation, but my eye must
have been withdrawn with the intention of
searching the room, when l caught a
glimpse Of something moment in the air,
and in the next the beast was stretched
across my throat. 1t had alighted in such
my neck and chest, while its head seemed
to be extended beyond me, as if Lucy had
been the object at which he had aimed,
and it had seized her in its ravenous jaws.
Yet all was quiet. The thing laid still
motionless and so did I. There was not a
growl, not a sound, scarcely sign of life
that could perceive as it lay there. How
strange! How horrible! What could be
the cause of it?
Ali the instinct of the brute was quicker
than my senses. Another object now ap-
peared in that recess-another head, still
panther-like, but only by virtue Of its
array in cap of panther skin. Two bold
searching eyes looked over upon US, and
gradually the muzzle of a rifle was ad-
at which l knew the creatures head was
lying. But there also lay the sleeping form
of my wife; and strange as it may appear,
this intrusive gaze of stranger lost often
siveness in the sanctity of his purpose and
the trusted accuracy of his aim. / saw his
finger upon the trigger-surely he must
see Lucy-he will not hit her-a slight
ptA, flash, sharp report, and l thrust
the bleeding, quivering, carcass from me,
and sprang from the bed to the floor.
"Well," exclaimed Lucy, "what is the
matter now. Upon my word, John, if you
had jumped out in that way moment ago
you would have made quite spectacle of
yourself fer the young girl who had just
brought some hot water for you to shave
with"
There stood Lucy in the middle of the
chamber, lacing her corsets. 1t was broad
daylight, and had been upwards of an
hour. l turned and looked at the bed.
There was no loft-no dark recess. Itwas
a square, four-w walled apartment, with a
fiat ceiling. The room was perfect as
now remembered it must have been to my
view on the preceding night, or should
have inspected such a recess as
my fancy had conjured up.
"Then," says the reader, in the e1cep-
tive tone Of one who fancies he has been
imposed upon, "the whole thing was the
delusion Of the dream"
If you please. But will you also, if you
please, help me to solution of it?
told Lucy what had gone through in
the last half hour as 1 slipped on my
clothes.
"Well," she said, "you have been lying
still in your agony. must
say you bore your impending fate-and
mine too-with commendable fortitude.
"But," exclaimed, and actually started
at the moment, as / caught sight of the
fur of an animal upon tho bed, "what is
this?'
And l pulled from beneath the clothes
which l had thrown almost entirely over
it, as l thrust them from me upon leaping
from the bed, Lucy's broad sable-a tippet,
spencer, mantle, OR something Of that sort
Il forget what she calls it. elbow came
this here?" l asked.
"Why, 1 picked it from the floor, where
it had fallen last night, and threw it upon
the bed just now"
"Upon the bed, Lucy? Did it fall upon
me ?"
81 believe it did-somewhere about your
shoulders.
eyes, and across my neck and cheek?"
every likely dear. But it certainly
could not have bit YOU"
elbow long was it before 1 sprang up
that you threw it there %
"Not half minute. Immediately after
ward the girl tapped at the door, said
breakfast would be ready in half an hour,
and she had a pitcher of hot water for the
gentleman to shave with, l took in the
water, and the door shutting rather easily
it made little slam as put it to, and out
of bed you bounced as if you had been
shot,
"Shot! Humph! l have read some
thing of the philosophy of dreams, but
never experienced anything in this sort
before. Certain it is that my imagination
must have conceived and adapted antece-
dents to the actual experiences Of the
senses. Your throwing the fur across my
shoulders and descent of the animal; but
how the mind could have held that fact in
obeyance, while the preliminary events
were being devised and enacted by the
throughout an apparently con-
siderable space of time, cannot compre-
bend. Again, the slam of the door was
the awakening cause; but it was to my
Imagination the report of rife, which l
had seen deliberately drawn up to the
leveled and fired"
"I think 1 can help you to understand
ing, my dear. That laudanum you took
yesterday for your toothache must have got
into your head; and you might have taken
else last night, while was up
stairs"
UNo DARLING unor NV HONOR,