Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1881-02-12

ollll.
"What do you mean"
Instead of answering he repeated the
strange question which he had put to
me downstairs.
"Do you call it quiet night"
Considering the time of year and the
exposed situation of the house, the night
was almost preternaturally quiet.
Throughout the vast open country all
around us not oven breath of air
could be heard. The night birds were
away, or were silent at the time. But
one sound was audible whom we stood
still and listened-the cool, quiet bubble
of little stream, lost to view in the
valley-ground to the south.
at have told you already" l said.
$50 still night never remember on
this Yorkshire moor"
He laid one hand heavily ON my
shoulder.
"What did the poor boy say of me,
whose brother I killed?" he asked.
"What words did we hear through the
dripping darkness of the mi,t?"
"I won't encourage you to think OF
them. I refuse to repeat the words"
He pointed over the northward para
pet.
"It doesn't matter whether you ac-
cept or refuse" he said. 81 hear the
boy at this moment-thereP
He repeated the horrid words, mark
ing the pauses in the utterance of them
with his finger, as if they were sounds
that he heard.
"Assassin assassin where are you?"
"Good God~ I cried, "you don't
mean that you really hear the voice?"
"Do you hear what say? 1 hear
the boy as plainly as you hear me. The
voice screams at me through the clear
moonlight as it screamed at me through
the sea-fog. Again and again. It's
all round the house. That way now,
where the light just touches on the
tops of the heather. Tell the servants
to have the horses ready the first thing
in the morning. We leave Vange
Abbey tomorrow"
These were wild words. If he had
spoken them wildly, might have
shared the buffers conclusion that his
mind was deranged. There was no un-
due vehemence in his voice or his man
ner. He spoke with melancholy re-
signation-he seemed like prisoner
submitting to sentence that he had de-
served. Remembering the cases of men
suffering from nervous disease who had
been haunted by apparitions, L asked if
he saw any imaginary figure under the
form of boy.
81 see nothing" he said; Il only
hear. Look yourself. 1t is in the last
degree improbable but let us make
sure that nobody has followed me from
Boulogne, and is playing me q trick. "
We made the circuit of the Belviderc.
On its eastward side the house wall was
built against one of the towers of the
old Abbey. On the westward side the
ground sloped steeply down to a deep
pool or tarn. Northward and southwark
there was nothing to be seen but
the open moor. Look where might,
with the moonlight to make the view
plain to me, the solitude was as void Of
any living creature as if we had beer
surrounded by the awful dead world oi
the moon.
"Was it the boys voice that yor
heard on the voyage across the channel ?
I asked.
"Yes I heard it for the.frs time
down in the engine-room rising ant
falling, rising and falling, like the sount
Of the engines themselves"
"And when did you hear it again ?"
"I feared to hear it in London. 1t lei
me. l should have told you when W
stepped ashore out of the steamboat.
was afraid that the noise of the traffic il
the streets might bring it back to me
As you know, passed quiet night.
had the hope that my imagination ha
deceived me-that I was the victim of
delusion, as people say. 1t is no delu
sion. In the perfect tranquility of thi
place the voice has como back to me
While we were at tabe heard it agai
behind me, in the library. I heard |
still when the door was shut. I ran VI
here to try if it would follow me int
the open air. 1t has followed me. w
may as we'll go down again into tn
hall. I know now there is no escaping
from it. My dear old home has becom
horrible to me. Do you mind returning
to London tomorrow ?"
What / felt and feared in this miser
able state of things matters little. Th
one chance that 1 could see for Ro
mayne was to obtain the best medica
advice. sincerely encouraged his ide
of going back to London the next day.
We had sat together by the hall fir
for about ten minues, when he took on
his handkerchief and wiped away TIL
perspiration from his forehead, DRAWN,