The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1875-06-18
THE PHANTOM TOE,

~, could not help thinking, directly had
taken survey of my chambcr, that I
should never quit it without going throrsb
strange adventure. There Was some.
ttihg in its immense size, hea~ihess and
gloom that seemed to aflnihilate Mt one
blow all my resoiute skepticism regards
supernatural visitations. 1t appeared to
me totally impossible TO 30 into that room
and disbelie~e in ghosts. The fact is.
had incautiotsly partaken at supper Of that
favorite Dutch dish, sauer-kraut, and I
suppose it had disagreed with me and pue
strange fancies into my head.
BE that as it may, only know that aftef
parting with my friend for the night grad
nally worked myself into such a state of
fidgetness that at last wasn't siire whether
I hadn't become ghost myself
The old, cunbrous hanpings of the he'd
appeared to my diseased mind to be swelled
out as with a whole army of poblins-in-
decd; almost thought | saw them move of
their own accord--.and the carried figurea
upon the fi1anteLpieces seemed to have en-
tered into some devilish compact on pur-
pose to plague me. Everything; In short.
had suspicious look, and my nervousness
was increased when; upon turning to the
door to fasten it found neither bolt nor lock
This new discovery raised host of ne-
fears in my brain; and thousand recollec-
tions of midnight robbers shot through IL,
the landlord himself should be a practis.d
robber; and should have ia ken the bolt fruul
the door for the purpose of entering hero
in the dead of night; abstracting all my
property. and perhaps numbering me. I
thought the dog had very cut-throat air
about him.
Now, nevet had ATTY stieh An idea un,;,
that moment, for my host was fiat, stupid
looking fellow, who 1 don't believe had
sense enough to know or understand what
robbery or murder meant: But somehow
or other whenever We have arythinp to
really annoy us (and it certainly was not
pleasant to gU to bed in a strange place
without being able to fasten ones door we
. are sure to asgravate it by myriads of Chi
. meras Of oit owr brain. So on the pres
ent occasion, in the midst of a tl,ousatid
dlsagreeable reveries, some of the most wild
absuidity; jumped very gloomly into bed,
having first put otit my candle, for total
darkness was far preferable to its flicker
if:g, ehostly light, which transformed Oh
Jects, aud soon fell asleep, perfectly tired
out with my days riding.
How hong lay asleep don't know, but
/ suddenly awoke from disagreeable
! dream of cut-throat ghosts aud long wind
ing Passages in haunted inn, an indescri-
e. bable feeiing-such us | never before ex-
Perienced-being upon me. 1t seemed as
If every nerve III my body had hundred
spirits tickling 1t. And this was accompa-
MED by So great a heat that, inwartIly
cursing my hosts sauer kratit, and won
dering how his guests could endure sucif
poisoni l Has forced to sit up in bed to cool
myself. The whole Of the room was prs,
found's dark efceptiug at one place, where
the moonlight, peerinG through a crevice
in the shutters; threw . straight line of
about An itch or thick upon the floor.
clear, sharp and intensely brilliant AGAINST
No IA 1 la,y ha
cei~e my Horror when, upon looking at this
said line of light, | saw there naked hu-
man toe! Nothing more. For the first
instant | thought the vision must be some
effect of the inUotilight, theh that was on
ly half awake, and could not see distinctly:
30 ! rubbed my eyes two or three times
and looked again. Still there was the ac<
cursed thing plain, distinct, imnovable
-marble-iike in Its fixedness and rigidity,
but everything else horribly human!
am hot an easily frightened man. No
one who has travelled SO much, and seen So
much, and been exposed to SO many dan
gers as |; can he. But there was some
thing 30 mysterious and unusual i'm the APP
pe3rante of this single toe that for a short
time could not think what to be at SO I
did nothing but stare at it in a state of ut
Ter bewilHermeiis:
st length, however, as the toe dio not
vanish under my steady gaze, / thought
/ might as well change my tactics and re-
nicmbering that all midnight invaders,
be they thieves, ghosts or devils, dislike
nothing so much as good noise, shouted
oht ih a loud voice." Who's there ~ The
toe instantly disappeared in the darkness.
Almost simultaneously With my words
leaped out of bed, and rushed toward the
place where [ had beheld the strange ap-
peararice. The next instant ran against
something, and felt an iron grip found my
body After this, | have no distinct re-
collection of what occurred, exec; ting that
fearful struggle eusued between me and
my unseen opponent; that every now and
then we were violently hurled to The floor,
from which we always rose again in an nI-
stant, l6tked III deadly embrace that we
tugged aud strained, and pulled and pushed
Il in cODvulsive and frantic energy OF q
fight for life-he (for by this time had
discovered that the Intruder was a human
being) ac;uated by some passion of which
Twas ignorant that we whirled round and
round and round, cheek to cheek, and Al a
to arm, in fierce contest. until the room ap-
peared to whizz round with us and that
at least dozen people (my fellow-travelcr
among them); routed, L suppose, by our
repeated falls, came pohffhg into the room
with lights, and showed me struggling
with man who had nothing ON but a shirt
whose lotIg, tangled hair and wild, unset
tied eyes told me he was insane. And
then, for the first time, l became aware
that had received hi the Conflict seve. al
gashcs from knife which my opponent
still held in his hand.
I TO conclude my story In few words. it
turned out that iIiy midnight visitor was a
madman who was being conveyed to n
lunatic asylum at the Hague, and that lie
and his keeper had been obliged to stop at
DELI: on the way. The poor fellow had
c6ntrived; during the night, to escape from
his keeper who had carelessly forgotten to
lock the door of his chamberl. aud with
that Irresistible desire to shed blood pecn-
liar to many insane people, had possessed
himself of a pocket-knife belonging Il, the
man who bad him in charge, entered my
room which was mnst likely tbe only one
.,l,lv rnadi& In. A. c...l L