Connecticut western news., 1885-07-08

hand, white and clean, but dried and blackened hand, with yellow nails, naked muscles, and traces of blood old, clOtted blood, where the bones were cut short off as if with the blow of an ax. about midway up the fore arm. An enormous iron chain, rivet- ed at the wrist, soldered to this un- slightly member, attached it to the wall by ring strong enough to hold an elephant in leash.
 "What is thatP'' asked.
 "That is my worst enemy" replied tue Englishman, calmly. "He 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-"
 I touched that human fragment, which must have belonged to a giant. The fingers, disproportionately long, were attached by enormous tendons, to which shreds of skin still chung. Scorched as 1t was, 1t was a frightful thing to behold, suggesting irresistibly some savage revenge.
 "He must have been a very strong man," said I.
 "Oh, yes." said the Englishman, gently. But was stronger than he. l had that chain put on to hold him."
 I thought he was testing, and said:
 "The chain is wholly useless now; the hand will not run away"
 But he gravely replied
 "The chain was necessary. It was always trying to get away"
 With rapid glance questioned his countenance, asking myself:
 "Is he lunatic or an ugly jester ?"
 But his face remained impenetrable, calm, and benevolent. talked of other things, and admired his guns mo- ticed that three loaded revolvers Lay on the tables, as if this man lived in con . stant fear of an attack.
 I 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 Rowell had been assassinated in the night.
 Half an hour later, with the central commissary and a captain of the sol- diery, 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 I 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 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 by a skeleton"
 A shudder crept over my back, and I raised my eyes to the wall, to the place where I had formerly seen tht horrible, shriveled hand. It was no longer there. The chain hung broken.
 Then 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 tions, but discovered nothing. Nc door or window had been forced, nC article of furniture moved. The twt watchdogs had not been awakened.
 The testimony of the servant could be summed up in few words.
 His master had seemed agitated fol a month past. He had received ant burned many letters. Often seizing horsewhip, with fury that resembleC madness, he had lashed that dried hant chained to the wall, which had beer removed, no one knew how, at tn very hour of the crime.
 It was his habit to retire early a night and to lock himself in with care He always had weapons within hi reach. He often talked very loud il the night, as If quarrelling with some body.
 That night 1t chanced that he ha made no sound, and it was only o coming to open the windows in tn morning that the servant had foun Sir John assassinated. He suspecte nobody.
 1 reported to the magistrates an public officers all I knew about tn death, and minute inquiry was pro' ecuted over the whole island. Moth ing was discovered.
 One night, about three months a ter the crime, had a fearful nigh } mare. l seemed to see that hant | r,,riu~. I;Ixn o -.w... 1.