The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-02-14
A STRANGE sroRY.

.
I am a poor lawyer in a small town in
the mountains o Kentucky. Or W n
ter's s night in 1S-I was sitting in my
o nee reading over my well-thumbed
copy Of the Code, hunt ng up the law of
murder. 1 was smoking my pipe and
ha 2 ptten Up to stir up the eTnbers in
my stove when saw from M window.
which fronted on the public square. a
man walking along in what seemed to
be deep me Iitation. His hands were
locked behind him. his head dropping
on his breast an his step was slow and
weary. A log followed al his heels.
The dog was q fierce looking bulldog.
1t was clear, cold night=bitterly COLI
and the moon shone with su b bril-
iancy overhead as to light up the
square The rays of the moon. ad Ell
to the whiieness of the snow which COW
ed the ground q foot IN depth. nia8e
the night as clear as day. The hour was
late and / was Surprised TO see any one
out of doors at such an hour. The vii
layers were long since at home an not
a light from any window could be seen.
My curio ity was aroused, and having
mart ed my page and placed my book on
the table, went to the window. /
watched the man with q great deal of
interest. As in all Western towns, the
court-hou stood in he middle Of the
square. It was q solid old stone build
in with immensely thick walls which
were sup orted by buttresses that jutted
out at each corner of the four walls. A
tail s0ire rose from the building, in
which the old brazen bell had ng out
its various calls for a century or more.
This spire cast a long. slender shadow
over the square. The shape of the
shadow being tr angular. the apex OF 1T
reached directly under nv W ndow. In
nv desir, to satisfy my curiosity about
the solitary man whom | had seen,
walked to my door,so as to be out of the
shadow of the spire. stepped out on
porch and saw a stranger figure than
before creeping along in the darkness
of the shadow of the spi e. every
now an then with 'ty movement
gliding intothe corners where the but
tresses were. My establishment and in
terest arose 70 q great degrse- softly
stepped back into the threshold of nv
door so as 10 be hidden rom the view OF
both men, but where co1ld plainly see
everyth ng. It was growing exciting
now, and my heart thumped against my
breast with noise, rs thought, that
could be heard by DO b men. When
the man with the dog had reached the
town pump and had stopped to DIR nix
from the nozzle. the person who had
been creeping along in the shadow
stepred suddenly out into the moonlight
and with an oath rushed upon the first
man. The man at the pump turned
qI ickly at the sound of rapid footsters
approaching, and. seeing q man with
arm upraised and fTrandishing . large
eknife rushing toward m. He'd with .
loud ream or terror. The dog ia ed
the pursuer. He seemed to be trans
formed from dog into fend. ith
ewes fairly dart ng fire. every brs'le on
his body standing up Ike quills on a
porcupine, he waited for his approach.
With growl of fierce anger he sPrang
at the throat o. the man with the knife
But the dog was beaten dowI by the
man. who rushed on in pursuit. My
tongue was paralyzed; / tried to call
out With my eyes almost starting
from their sockets and all power OF mo-
ton having left my body, saw the
pursuer gain his victim and with
another oath plunge his weapon up to
the hilt three or four times into the
body of the screaming man; the muir
dered one fell and the murderer cast
his knife into the snow and fled. By
that time had regained my senses 1
am an old man and easily exc ted. /
rushed toward the body of the muir
dered man. and when / had nearly
reached it the body and the dog. which
had crept to its masters side and was
licking the dead mans wounds. had
disappeared. stopped and stared at
the snow where / had seen the dead
man lying. With every nerve in my
frame quiver ng with pain and excite
ment. reeled and fell fainting in the
snow.
When regained consciousness was
living in the snow where l had falre n,
Dazed and ia MT with cold and the ex-
citement of the scene had witnessed,
arose and crept to my office Nearly
stupefed, could not recall ior the mo-
ment why had tainted crouched
over nv stove and tried TO collect my
thoughts. My brain whirled amidst a
chaos of con letting emotions-doubt
fer and belief. The sto ha ing
warmed nv hilled body, with q name
less dread went to my door and peered
cautiously out. fearing lest / should zee
repet on of that awful scene But all
was quiet. not a soul could be seen. 1t
was nearly two o. clock. and the illagers
were asleep. The moon was still shin
ing brightly and made each flake OF
snow shine with the luster OF a pri eless
marred the white carpet Of snow that
covered the ground. Ne erthele g.
when closed my door doubIe-locked
il and rolled m table q ainst it
pulled my window-b blind down. and
lighting NV pipe sat down to think over
the startling inc dents of the night
never had used liq or. cold not at
tribu e it to that Nv m,nd was per-
fectly clear at the time. had never
experienced an optical delusion
would swear on my dying bed that
saw these men. heard the screams oi
the murdered man at each stroke Of the
knife, heard the growl OF the dog and
even the crunching the crisp snow a
the men ran o er it i saw the body a
itl4y there with red blood gushing from
the wounds and staining the snow
do not believe in the supernatural: and
as / relate this. years afterward-, I be
Eeve now a. firmly as I did then that
these strange things took place. But
let me go on and relate the incident,
that followed this strange occurren e
On the next morning went to ole
Squire Harris to dinner. The 'Sau n
and b 8 family were the aristocrats o
the pace. Their home was a grand ole
mansion on a high hill that overlooke
the lovely little alley in which the vii
lage ne tied It was the hah { of the
Squire to give dinner once monll
to al of his friends in he villaTe. !
was one of his particular friends an
owed many q k ndness to the good ols
man. On that morn'ng trud red nj
thu steep path to the ha l. as il was al
ways called by the village folks. On m,
way up heard noise in the thick un
dergrowth that bound the path ol
either side stopped. tn hiking
might surprise marauuer IN In IN