The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-09-26
slaessuis gutslIigeaeer.
AN UNsoLvEn MYSTERY
4 Story Told by a Medical Gentleman.

There were six of us seated before
blazing fire which cast a generous glare
into the otherwise unlighted room. Out
side q winter storm beloved over the
Z chimneys, and beat seriously at the win.
dow pares. Afar off we could hear the
gust roaring among the naked hills, now
4 plunping shrillyS through the skeleton
branches of the trees, and again whirling
over head with weird shouting sound
that might well have proceeded from the
throats of evil things riding upon the
wind. The ghostly spirit of the storm
seemed to have penetrated even into our
comfortable circle, for We had got, know
not how, upon that most dismal of all
subjects, Death.
We had canvassed the theme pretty
thoroughly before re discovered that two
of our number, the Professor and the
Doctor, had taken no part in the eonvef-
sation. They we're sitting little re-.
moved from the rest of us, gazing gloom
ily into che FIRE. Their ordinarily cheer
fiil expression of ecountenance had given
place 70 sober, troubled look, and more
than once we had detected the exchange
of q strangely significant glance between
them.
s may be readily supposed, we were
not slow to press them for an explanation
Sof their conduct. But for a considerable
e tiime our efforts were fruitless. Atlength,
after much persuasion, it was the Protes-
sor who spoke:
Gentlemen, 2 said he grayely, "no man
t.ares to gain for himself the reputation
If q liar or q maniac. Yet that is exact
IL what YOU are pressing US both to do.
have no doubt thst the experience
which I am about to relate, and in which
niy friend. the Doctor, bore no unimpor-
tant part, will appear absolutely incredl.
hIe to persons of your advanced views"
There was touch of sarcasm In the
worthy Professors tone, but in our eager
ness TO hear his story we found it'con-
yenient to disregard this.
foreoyer,n he continued, Il shall
risk it. IF you choose to disbelieye IT,
ssstphy shall endeavor to have charity for
yor,r ignorance and conceit. Now, Doc
4 tor. If YOU will hand me the tobacco, and
Sirle Of those pipes-the rapEer and
blacker the bstter-I will proceed"
Having filed his pipe and settled him.
self comfortably in a chair, he began
thus
sit must be fully ten years ago that
the Doctor and myself were engaged
upon geological survey Of the northern
part of this State. We had laborcd dill
igently during the summer and fall, when
towards the close of a cold November
S,av wa shouldered our knapsacks and
turned our faces homeward.
ssOur way led through chain OF black
and rugged hills toward frontier town,
twenty miles distant, where we intended
70 take the railroad. A more forbidding
region it has never been my fortune to
see. It was perfect chaos, blackened
and warped by primeyal fires and desti-
tute of the smallest trace of vegetation.
Tall cliffs lowered q thousand feet above
our heads, shutting cut the light of the
dull November sky. Sluggish streams
filtered between the crevices of the rocks,
and poured noiselessly into deep. and
motionless tarns. It seemed that the
! blight of death had fallen upon the
whole country.
ssWell Knowing the peril of attempting
: to proceed through such region AFTER
nightfall, We halted at sunset, and build,
ing q fire at the foot of q crag, disposed
ourselves to rest as we'll as We might.
EShausted with the tolls of the day, the
Doctor was soon asleep, and / was not
long in following his example.
How long l had slumbered knew
not winen I found myself sitting upright,
peering neryously into the darkness
around me. Il seemed to me that some
one had uttered q wild appealing cry in
the very portals of my ears. For some
Eioments sat so, wondering and anx.
ions. Then I reflected that as there could
be no human being in the neighborhood
5 besides ourselves, the sound which had
alarmed me must have been the shriek
of some night bird or animal. Explain
ing the matter thus, I was on.the point
of laying down again, when was arres-
ted, by q repetition of the cry. ibis
time there could be no mistake. Wild
lollg-drawn, and, it appeared to me, full
ofintolerable anguish, it re.echoed among
the crags with fearful shrillness. With
an uncomfortable start i turned and
+ shook the Doctor to awake him.
!. a.sBe quiet he muttered, I am awake
I and have heard it all.'
What can it be 2 I asked anxiously.
Surely, nothing human; no one lives in
: tnis region for miles around. Perhaps
it is wild cat
No. he said between his teeth, Such
q sound never came from the throat of q
wild cat. There it is again. Listenp
.sThe cry was repeated. 1t. was wo-
mans voice, but it expressed such su-
preme misery as believe woman never
felt before. 1t came ringing up the gorge
with a weird and mournful intonation
that chilled the blood in my heart. By
the Doctors quick breathing I could tell
that he was as strongly affected as myself.
Neither of us spoke or moved; both
waited for renewal of the cry in the
hope of arriving at some rational expla-
nation of it.
"Again it came; but now like low
tremulous sob. am not superstitious
man, gentlemen, but confess that l sat
there shivering with species of horror
that was utterly new to me. What could
it be-? Not living woman, surely, alone
and suffering in an inaccessible fastness,
where we were morally certain nothing
human dwelt! And then what misery
was it that gave itself such uncanny ex-
preston? Not fear, nor bodily pain, but
something terrible, something nameless
: to US. While we were debating these
questions in smothered tones, the cry
came once again. This time in words
that we understood.
sHelpl Oh! God helpp
"At this Ineligible appeal to our
manhood, our superstitious weakness in
stsntly disappeared. Selling torch
from our smouldering fire, we made our
wgy hastily toward pile of rocks few
hundred yards distant whence the sound
seemed to have proceeded. Scrambling
up the height we came suddenly upon a
strange and mournful scene. Before US