St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-05-24

and yet, to save my life, L could not
have spoken or moved. / noticed that
the man on the sofa was slender and
apparently in delicate health. He had
red hair and a red beard all over his
face. He was dressed in gray clothes.
noticed that his left hand seemed to
be somewhat misshapen near the wrist,
as if it had been hurt at some time.
His face was marked with extreme SEN
sibility, and he had small features.
The other man was, physically, his
opposite. He was large, of fine ply
sique, very dark complexion, with very
thick, short black hair, and a long,
dropping black mOustache. His eye
brOws were very heavy, and had short,
thick hairs that stood straight out,
making them look like two great black
caterpillars. His cheeks and chin
seemed to have been newly shaved, yet
the beard showed through the skin
with faint blush tinge. He had a
little three-cOrnered scar near the right
corner of his mouth. He was dressed
in black, and wore an emerald pin.
Those who know me best, know that
fear is not one of my components yet
| must confess that | felt sensation
very like it. They were playing eu-
chre, and soon there arose dispute.
| heard no words, yet from their angry
looks and gestures, | saw that they
were quarrelling. Suddenly the dark
er man drew long knife and plunged
it into the left breast of the man on the
sofa. He quivered a little and then
lay still. The other stood looking at
him for moment, then took the dead
mans right hand and clasped it around
the handle of the knife, bracing the ell
bow against the table; then cOolly
gathered up the cards and, putting
them in his pocket, took up black hat
and went out.
turned to look at the dead man !;
he, too, had disappeared, and the room
was dark.
tried to think had had the night
mare, hid my head under the bedclOthes
and at last went TO sleep again.
On rising in the morning L found the
marble table standing by the lounge.
the armchair beside it, and all my pa
pers Oh the bureau by the window.
This made great impression on me
fol time. but multiplicity of occu-
patiOns during the day, and visits from
some friends, Obliterated all remem-
brance of it. Yet when went to bed
that night, it was only to be awakened
by the same horror, to see the same
tragedy enacted, and to find the table
misplaced in the morning as before.
The third night | took the table over
by the window, placed all the articles
| - Al. 4 II. Il La L..
gas turned on full /; but it was the same
| was again the unwilling witness OF
the tragic scene.
The fourth night | began to really
dread the vision, or whatever it was
and called the chambermaid. Her first
name was Kate. asked her to stay
with me that night, but she said it was
not permitted. | then told her want
ed her to pile all the chairs she could
make stand on the table and wash
stand, so that they could not be re-
moved without some force. 1t was al
the same. The chairs were on the fiool
in their places in the morning, and the
table over against the lounge.
| really felt frightened now, and sen
word down to the office to Mr.. Adams
the clerk. He came up. | asked hin
if any murder had ever been committed
in the room. He declared most une
quivocally that there had not. He saif
that the only tragedy of any kind tha
ever had happened in the hotel was the
suicide of a sick man, who had com,
there from the South, and had killed
himself, as they supposed, in a fit o
dependency. He could not remembel
how the man looked. There were Sc
many coming and going that he coult
not remember people. told him ht
must give me another room, which ht
did that afternoon.
AS Katie, the chambermaid, helped
me to change apartments, she looked AZ
if she understood something. | asked
her if she had ever heard anything re-
garding that room, and she told me thai
she never had but once during the two
years she had been there. There hat
been an invalid lady there with hel
husband, aud the lady declared she
saw terrible things, and could not b,
persuaded to remain in the room after
the third night, although her husband
had seen nothing whatever.
AS for me, there is not money enough
in New York to hire me to sleep in thai
room again. | somehow feel as if was
going to meet that visionary assassin
in the flesh, though | cannot account
for the strange but strictly true story
have related.