Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1880-03-18

ne was still, went into the front room,
piled up the fire, put OF, the kettle, found
some whisky, lit my pipe, and prepared
for the night. I had just turned the
burner down when I became aware of q
soft grating sound at the outer door.
Some one was softly opening the outer
door with key. The gas was low down.
Hurriedly I picked up my overcoat and
other traces of my presence and flung
them under the large couch at the end Of
the room. It was an old-fashioned sofa
with hanging valance which reached to
the ground. I then crept underneath,
and waited for the curtain to rise on the
drama. had hardly got into a safe
position when the outer door yielded,
and heard step in the passage that
INTERVIEWED. Then the outer door was gen.
tly closed, and I expected tosee the inner
door open in its turn and some one enter.
The minutes went by, and no one came.
| Whoever it might be was in the passage;
could hear slight movement every
now and then, and the rustic of a
woman's dress. It must have been quite
ten minutes since heard the outer door
opened when noticed that the inner one
was swinging noiselessly back on its
hinges, and something was gliding into
the room. Slowly it moved across the
floor till it stood right in the dim light of
the turned-down gas.
I shall never forget the terrible sight
that met my eyes. Iwould have scream
ed, but my tongue remained glued to my
mouth. I was looking at dead woman
risen from the grave. Her face had been
beautiful in life; now it was ashen gray.
The eyes were sunken in their sockets,
and her lips were pale and colorless. The
figure was draped in long white shroud,
| and fancied that the room was heavy
with the awful odor of al open grave.
Slowly the phantom moved toward the
next room and glidedin. For moment
all was still. Then came faint cry.
The man was awake and alone with the
apparition. "Drusilla p he shrieked,
"Mercy! Mercyl Have mercy p
I heard hollow voice answer him,
".Rise, and follow me-"
"What would you have with me9''
"Confess. -
"What shall confess" answered the
wretched man, his voice trembling in an
agony of fear.
"Confess the foul wrong you did me.
Confess where my poor body lies, that it
| may be buried in holy ground.
Again the mans trembling voice wall
ed out, 81 will confess all.
"Follow me-"
The apparition glided from the inner
room, and the man followed her.
"WriA."
The dead woman pointed to the table,
where the pen and ink were, and the man
obeyed her gesture mechanically.
"Write ALL"
could see from rent in the valance
: the whole scene. The man, white with
terror, the beads of cold perspiration on
his brow, sat and wrote.
The apparition glided behind him and
looked over his shoulder.
Once he paused in his task.
"Write all," said the white figure.
And again the man wrote.
The figure then grasped the paper
with it's waxen fingers. "Go!" it said,
pointing to the inner room. :.
With his eyes fixed upon it's livid face.
the man backed slowly for some PAGES.
With violent effort and little scream,
he seized the door, swung it to, and
bolted it on the inside.
Then, for the first time, the dead
woman trembled.
She seemed strangely nervous and agi-
tated now. She clasped the paper close
~, then put it in her bosom, and glided
from the room.
| I had got over the sudden terror in
spired by such strange sight, and had
made up my mind that I had detected
some terrible imposture. There was q
slight pause in the lobby, and the noise
of garment being drawn off; then the
outer door opened and the visitant passed
out on to the: staircase. ~ 49,
I followed as quietly as could. The
staircase was lighted with gas. AS I
trod on the second landing the ghost
heard the noise and looked up. She
was dressed in an ordinary black cos
tune now, and her face was a natural
color. To my intense surprise she
away. She stood still and beckoned nae
to her side.
'.What ore you going to do?" she
said. ...., ~...:,. =.
TO give you into custody"
"Are you friend of his p 49,, -,
81, I answered " Yes" mechanically.
"Then let me go free if you value his
life."
"If I let you 60 am your accom-
plice," murmured; '.your accompice
in some vile imposture."
| "No. If you are my accomplice to-
night, you are an accompice in the no.
lest deed a woman ever wrought. Pass
me through the gates if you doubt me-;
watch me; follow mehome; give me into
custody if you like; / don't care, I've got
what I wanted" S#s #5# ,*.#
I took her arm as though I had been
a policeman, and said: "Pass through,
the gate then, and if you attempt to get
away from me shall call for help"
She nodded to the proposition. The
man at the gate was half asleep. I rous-
! ed him, and from his box he pushed the
cord and let us pass through the wicket
door into the Strand. Ss55EISks EE$SS}5
T then listened to the strangest story
that ever mortal lips had uttered, and
there was no doubt that every word of it
was true. ~ sl341 .56jy@ !. i..:.- :: f.: :
The confession which the trembling
wretch had written at her dictation-as
he believed at the dictation of his dead
wife-I had read. 1t was plain state
tment Of how he had poisoned the poor
girl whom he had welded in a fit of mad
jealousy, and how he had concealed his
crime; how at the last moment he had
overheard q whisper that some one sus-
,Epected foul play; and how, fearing the
body might be exhnmed, he, had, with
the assistance Of an accomplice, since
dead, stolen the body that night and re-
1 buried it in the garden Of q house in a
lonely part of the American town where
this aocomplce lived. @..> Ssf
i This woman was his wife's sister, and
she had suspected foul play from. the
first. She was an actress, and was away
Ton q provincial tour when Blissett Elmer
i ton sWoed and won Drnailla and took shel
.Iabroads with him. Emert0n had never
seen this sister. The marriage had been
II aA0NoA and 4haasrsn md. hG xl.asnns.ani