The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-02-19

l ui l manage to push on further and |
luruner INTO the wilderness, and was only
arrested by suddenly sinking up to my
walse between gap in the rocks, as
stepped on to what looked like piece
OF smooth greensward. This, in fact,
was nothing but soft, messy under
grown, which, yielding the moment I
trou on 1t, let me in and left me with
one loot damned tightly in cleft of the
granite. Some minutes ELAPSED ere
couia extricate myself, and 1 had great
trouble and difficulty scrambling 10 on
to my former level. 2ff s9
Standing still then for while,
gazeo dreamily into the depths of the
lmPenetrable thicket, my head only
little below the level tops of the trees,
whose bare and twisted branches spread
out net-like above and around me. Now
thai was, in measure, in their midst,
more than ever did they resemble mis-
shapen and petrifed skeleton. Like very
sepuicner seemed the place, with its
omlnous calm, and damp, deadly chill.
The density of the thorny underwood,
ana the rank luxuriance of the ferns,
IVY ana 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 yelowish green, lent, by contrast,
an additional look of ghastliness to the
barer portions of the old dead COLLINS of
thesf ~sst.s
GA shudder more than once ran
through my veins as I remained auto
matically surveying this mysterious
spectacle. 1t seemed that l was rooted
to the ground as firmly as the trees!
The half-terrifying, half fascinating sem
Stations which at first lured me on now
became intensified. and kept ME notion
less, for frightful thought entered my
head. What would have been my fate
had | been unable to extricate myself
from that cleft of the rocks? or suppos-
ing had fallen into deeper place and
been jammed by shoulders or hips be-
tween a smaller fissure; should ever
have got out unaidedP No help could
have reached me in such wilderness,
and | 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 began
slowly retracing my steps, | struck my
stick on each piece of ground ere ven
tured my foot upon it. '
GAS turned back by the way I had
come, the first breath of air that had
been felt for an hour or more blew
across my face; it was but q 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. | 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 caught
my ear, and the longer 1 listened the
more definite it became. 1t might
easily have been mistaken for the voice
of human being in direst misery.
Presently, wrought up as my magma
ton was, l began to fancy l 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 had
got few more yards the wind died
away, and it ceased altogether. ..,g
"Eyening was coming on apace by
this time, and again began retracing
nv steps. No sooner did do so, how
ever, than the wailing whisper recon-
menced: 'W-a-i-t for NEE! Wait
for me-e!' a long-drawn-out wailing
whisper. Once more l turned back,
drawn on by sort of supernatural
power which, against my reason, moved
me to the belief that was being en-
treated to return. Such an imploring,
heart breaking appeal, SO inexpressibly
pitiful and touching, / had never heard
before. But stopped again as neared
the particular spot whence itseemed to
arise. After listening over and over
again, and going to and fro nearly a
dozen times, always with. the same re-
suit, 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, l said, which made me
attribute it to any other cause, and
was recovering something like healthy
tone of mind, when, as was taking a
last long look into deep recess of the
wood, beheld a sight which half para
lyzed me, and instantly brought back
with renewed force that sense of the
weird and supernatural which / 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. Evidently, positively, it was a
human skeleton, jammed tightly like
one of the treeSin treacherous fssure,
such as that into which l had just lately
slipped. .n elt
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