The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1881-02-11

did manage to push on further and
further into the wilderness, and was only
arrested by suddenly sinking up to my
waist between gap in the rocks, as
stepped on to what looked like q piece
of smooth greensward. This, in fact,
was nothing but soft, messy under
growth, which, yielding the moment !
trod on it, let me in and left me with
one foot jammed tightly in cleft of the
granite. Some minutes elapsed ere ]
could extricate myself, and I had great
trouble and difficulty scrambling up on
to my former level.
" Standing still ther for while, ]
gazed dreamily into the depths Of the
impenetrable thicket, my head only a
little below the level tops of the trees,
whose bare and twisted branches spread
out net-like above and around me. Now
that was, in q measure, in their midst,
more than ever did they resemble mis-.
shapen and petrifed skeleton. Like avery
sepulcher seemed the place, with its
ominous calm. and damp, deadly chill.
The density of the thorny underwood,
and the rank luxuriance of the ferns,
ivy and creeping plants growing thickly
over the blocks of granite and on the
lower part of the tree-stems and here
and there entangling some of the lower
boughs with fantastic festoons of pale
and yellowish green, lent, by contrast,
an additional look of ghastliness to the
barer portions of the old dead goblins of
the forest.
ga shudder more than once ran
through my veins as l remained auto
matically surveying this mysterious
spectacle. 1t seemed that was rooted
to the ground as firmly as the trees!
The haf-terrifying, half fascinating SEN
satiOns which at first lured me on now
became intensified. and kept me motion
less, for frightful thought entered my
head. What would have been my fate
had l been unable to extricate myself
from that cleft of the rocks? or suppos-
ing l had fallen into a deeper place and
been jammed by shoulders or hips be-
tween a smaller assure; should l ever
have got out unaided? No help could
have reached me in such wilderness,
and l must have been held there pris-
Oner until starved to death-never per-
haps to be discovered, or not until my
rotting and bleached bones had begun
to look like the other bare skeleton
forms surrounding them. Treachery
now seemed added to the other perils of
the place, and when at last l began
slowly retracing my steps, I struck my
stick on each piece of ground ere VEN
tured my foot upon it.
GAS 1 turned back by the way had
come, the first breath of air that had
been felt for an hour or more blew
across my face; it was but a slight
puff, but it was sufficient to create a
little stir among the boughs, and to send
a dismal, wailing sough through the
wood. Faint as it was, it nevertheless
gave an additional melancholy to the
place, and increased the fascination
with which it had beset me. I again
stood still, now to listen. The wind
by degrees increased, rising and falling,
and creating with every breath more
and more sound. 1t seemed now as if
the weird forms of the trees were
endowed with voices, and were moaning
and whispering sadly to each other.
One particular wall especially caugh hit
my ear, and the longer listened the
more definite it became. It might
easily have been mistaken for the voice
of a human being in direst misery.
Presently, wrought up as. my magma
ton was, I began to fancy I could
almost hear the very words it uttered.
wait for NEE! Wait for
me-e!' it seemed to say, now family,
now quite audibly; and at length so
actual, so real did the utterance be-
come, that turned back toward the
spot whence it appeared to proceed.
This was not far from where had been
brought to standstill, but as advanced
the voice grew fainter, and when l had
got few more yards the wind died
away, and it ceased altogether.
"Evening was coming on apace by
this time, and again began retracing
my steps. No sooner did 1 do so, how
ever, than the wailing whisper recon-
menced: sW-a-i-t for NEE! Wait
for meet a long-drawn-out wailing
whisper. Once more I turned back,
drawn on by a sort of supernatural
power which, against my.reason, moved
me 10 Inc D6llcl IudL WIS UclIiS Gil
treated to return. Such an implOring,
heart-breaking appeal, SO inexpressibly
pitiful and touching, had never heard
before. But lit stopped again as neared
the particular spot whence it seemed to
arise. After listening over and over
again, and going to and fro nearly
dozen times, always with the same re-
suit, a conviction stole over me that the
effect was merely due to an echo, and
that the reverberation was only audible
in one especial spot. 1t was but my
morbid fancy, 1 said, which made me
attribute it to any other cause, and 1
was recovering something like healthy
tone of mind, when, as l was taking
last long look into deep recess of the
wood, beheld sight which half para
lyzed me, and instantly brought back
with renewed force that sense of the
weird and supernatural which 1 was
lust shaking off. Yonder, within a
narrow cleft in the rocks, moss
grown, and covered with the eternal
underground, there was a spectacle
about which there could be no doubt;
no tree could assume such shape as
that Evidentlv pOsitiVelV. it was q