Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1885-07-10

GlGnuull III ADtlDlAs
"What is thatP" 1 asked.
"That is my worst enemy" replied
the Englishman, calmly ale came
from America. It was cut off with a
saber, skinned and dried in the sun
for a week. It was a pretty good
piece of work for me-"
1 touched that human fragment,
which must have belonged to a giant.
The fingers, disproportionately long,
were attached by enormous tendoAs,
to which shreds of skin still chung.
Scorched as It was, It was a frightful
thing to behold, suggesting irresistibly
some savage revenge.
ale must have been very strong
man." said 1.
"Oh, yes" said the Englishman,
gently. "But I was stronger than he.
l had that chain put on to hold him."
thought he was jestIng, and said:
"The chain is wholly useless now;
the hand will not run away"
But he gravely replied
"The chain was necessary. 1t was
always trying to get away"
With rapid glance questioned his
countenance, asking myself:
ais he a lunatic or an ugly Jester ?"
But his face remained impenetrable,
calm, and benevolent. talked Of other
things, and admired his guns. l no
ticed that three loaded revOlvers lay on
the tables, as if this man lived in con-
slant fear of an attack.
visited him several times and then
went there no more. People had be-
come accustomed to his presence and
grown Indifferent.
A whole year passed. Then one
morning, toward the end Of Novem-
Der, my servant awoke me with the
announcement that Sir John Rowen
had been assassinated in the night.
Half an hour later, with the central
commissary and a captain of the sol
dlery, I entered the EnglIshman's
house. His servant, bewildered and
despairing, was weeping before the
door. suspected him at first, but he
was Innocent. The guilty man never
could be found.
AS entered Sir Johns sitting-room
1 saw at the first glance his body
stretched out on its back in the middle
of the floor. His waistcoat was torn,
one torn sleeve of his coat was hang
ing; all told that O terrible struggle
had taken place.
He had died of strangulation His
terrible countenance, black and swOl-
len, seemed to express an abOminable
fear he held something between his
set teeth, and his neck, pierced in a
hundred spots, as If with iron points,
was covered with blood.
A physician joined us. He examined
long and closely the marks Of fingers
in the flesh of the dead mans throat,
and spoke these strange words:
"One would say that he had been
strangled bya skeleton"
A shudder crept over my back, and
I raised my eyes to the wall, to the
place where had formerly seen the
horrible, shrlveled hand. 1t was no
longer there The chain hung broken.
Then I leaned over the dead man,
and found in his distorted mouth one
of the fingers of that missing hand,
cut, or rather sawed, off by his teeth
close to the second joint.
They proceeded to make investiga-
lions, but discovered NOTHING, No
door or window had been d, no
article of furniture moved. The two
watchdogs had not been awakened.
The testimony Of the servant could
be summed up in a few words.
His master had seemed agitated for
month past. He had received and
burned many letters. Often seizing a
horsewhip, with fury that resembled
madness, he had dashed that dried hand
chained to the wall, which had been
removed, no one knew how, at the
very hour of the crime.
It was his habit to retire early at
night and to lock himself in with care.
He always had weapons within his
reach. He often talked very loud in
the night, as # quarrelllng with some
body.
That night It CHANGED that he had
made no sound, and it was only on
coming to open the windows in the
morning that the servant had found
Sir John assassinated. He suspected
nobody.
l reported to the magistrates and
public officers all I knew about the
death, and a minute inquiry was pros
ecuted over the whole island. Moth
ing was discovered.
One night, about three months af-
ter the crime, had a fearful night
mare. l seemed to see that hand,
running like a scorpion or spider
over my curtains and walls. Three
times awoke, and three times on go
ing to sleep again saw the hideous
member running about my room.
moving its fingers like feet.