The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1879-02-13

barricading the lockless door with two
chairs, | extinguished the light and lay
down.
At first I was very wakefnl, but grad
ually soft drowsiness seemed to steal
over me ike q misty mantle, until, ell Of
a sudden, some startling electric thrill
coursed through my veins, and ] sat up,
. excited and trembling.
A luminous sOftness seemed 20 glow
/ through the room--no light of the moon
or stars was ever so penetrating-and by
the little window saw Alice, my wife,
dressed in floating garments of white,
with her long, golden hair knotted back
by blue ribbon. Apparently she was
coming TO me with outstretched hands,
and eyes full of wild, anxious tenderness.
/ sprang to my feet and rushed toward
! her, but as | reached the window the
fair apparition seemed to vanish into the
! stormy darkness, and [ WAS left alone.
/ At the self-same instant the sharp re-
/ port Of the pistol sounded. [ could see
! Jagged stream of fire above the pillow
straight through the very spot where ten
/ minutes since my head had lain
With an instantaneous realization of
my danger | swung myself over the edge
OF the window, jumping some eight or
ten feet into tangled bushes below, and
as | crouched there recovering my breath
| heard the tramp of footsteps into my
room.
rs he dead?" cried a voice up the
ladder-the smooth deceitful voice of
the woman with half-closed eyes.
"Of course he is" growled voice
back; "that charge would have killed
ten men. a light there, quick; and tell
Tom to be ready"
a cold, agonized shudder ran through
me. What den of midnight murderers
mad | fallen into And how fearfully
narrow had been my escape.
With the speed that only mortal terror
ard deadly peril can give, / rushed
through the woods, now illuminated bv
a faint glimmer of starlight. I know not
what impulse guided my footsteps-I
never shall know how many times I
crossed my own track, Or how close I
stood to the brink of the deadly ravine:
but merciful Providence encompassed
me with a guiding and protecting care,
for when the morning dawned, with
faint, red bars of orient light against the
stormy eastern sky, I was close to the
high road, some seven miles from R
Once at the town, / told my story to
the police, and detachment was sent
with me to the spot. 81
After much searching and many false
alarms, we succeeded in finding the ruin
ous old house; but it was empty-our
birds had flown; nor did [ recover my
valise and watch and chain, which latter
| had left under my pillow.
'It's Drew's gang" said the leader of
the police, ''and they troubled us these
two years. I don't think, though, they'll
come back here just at present"
Nor did they.
But the strangest part of my story is
yet to come Some three weeks subse-
quently / received a letter from my SIS
ter. who was with Alice in her English
home-a letter whose intelligence filled
me with surprise.
81 must tell you something very, very
strange wrote my sister. ''that happen
ed on the night Of the 18th of October.
Alice had not been well for some time;
in fact, she had been confined to her bed
for nearly week, and | was sitting be-
side her reading. 1t was late-the clock
had just struck one when all at once
she seemed to faint away, growing white
and rigid as a corpse. | FASTENED to call
assistance, but ali efforts to restore ami
nation were in vain. [ was inst about
sending for the doctor, when her senses
returned as suddenly as they had left
her, and she sat up in the bed, pushing
up her hair and looking wildly around
her.
"Alice, l exclaimed, how you have
terrified rs all. Are you ill?''
Not Ill, she answered, 'but I feel so
strange. Oracle, have been with my
| husband"
And all our reasoning failed to con-
vince her of the impossibility of her as
sertion. She persists to this moment
that she saw you and was with you on
the 18th of Qctober-or rather on tie
18th. Where and how she can not tell,
but We think it must have been a dream.
| She is better now, and T wish you could
see how fast she is improving
! This is my plain unvarnished tale. [
do not pretend to explain OF account for
| its mysteries. L simply relate facts.
/ Let psychologists unravel the labyrinth
cal skein. l am not supeTstitions, Meth
er do / believe in ghosts, wraiths or ap-
/ partitions; but this thing ! do know
| that, although my wife was In England
in body on the morning of the 18th of
1 October, her spirit surely stood before
me in New York in the moment of the
deadly peril that menaced me. 1t may
/ be that to the Subtle instinct and strength
of wife's holy love all things are posi-
bic: but Alice surely saved my life.
The colored engineer of train in
! Georgia saw a COW on the track few
hundred yards down the line, whereupon
he stopped the train, got out with a
shovel in his hand, and striking the
beast on the back, yelled: "Git off dar,
/ dye heah; git off or III squirt steam all
over yer.