Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1886-08-04
"A GAIA BLACK CATr'
How She Brought Murderer to
tho Gallows.


II was past eleven o'clock when
opened the door and the black cat
walked slowly out and down the steps,
waiting to see if followed. turned
up the collar of my coat, for the ali
was chilly, and went out again into the
beautiful October night. The street
was az silent as the footballs of the 1.-the
animal softly walking down the steps
The black cat led the way and I fol.
lowed. Why, ! do not know. Two
nights before ! had walked up from my
Office late with a friend. II was long
past midnight when we turned into the
quiet street where ! lived, talking
about | know not what. Suddenly
there stepped out of tho shadow of a
huge tree Il black cat. Looking neither
TO the right nor the left, she walked
deliberately before us.
"Ha!" said my friend. with tragic
air, "a at.--a black cat! Let us follow
the cat
And then he laughed, and even as he
walked the echoes down the street i
can not tell why-I shivered. The cat
walked silently along past the lower
steps of the flights leading down from
tho houses, keeping pace or two
ahead of us. Ny friend left me at his
door, saying: Goodnight. Beware
of the cat" went on to my house,
not far beyond. At the steps the cat
stopped, hcsitatcd for n moment, and
then walked up 10 the door. Some
what surprised, | followed.
do not like cats. They seem 10 me
To bc trcachcrous, dangerous brutes,
and | am even half afraid of them.
But when the black cat stopped at my
door determined, for some incxplica-
bic reason. To admit her. She seemed
TO know my room, for she walked up
the single tight of stairs before me and
entered tie room as opened the door
j found her stretched out OH the floor
when had lighted the gas, and if she
had lived in my room al her life she
could not have appeared more at home.
For the same ineNplicablc reason that /
admitted the eat To my house | allowed
her to remain in my room.
The next evening ] came in earlier;
Il may have been ten o'clock. The
Black eat met me ut the door and daried
tr ZOE Is ] stepped over the threshold.
ILoH. rs | turned To see whittier She
had gone, felt pull at the leg Of my
trousers. and saw that the cat had fast
cned claw there and was certainly
trying TO draw me from the house. 1
stopped down and softly stroked the
animals back, al the same time olsen
Saging her claw. Then ! turned and
entered the house, and the est, after a
moment of irresolution, followed me,
moving strangely.
The next night she again met me ut
the door, and the effort to draw me
from the house was repeated. The de-
sire was SO apparent that ] was puz-
zlcd, and, ] own. little disturbed
The cat went with me to my room,
and, sitting there i'm the freight, with
her bright eyes staring at me, formed
purpose to yield to this curious within
II il were again displayed. tried to
reason with myself but reason seemed
to have given way TO an impulse as
uncomfortable as it was mysterious.
1passed an uneasy night and then
day, half hoping that when evening
came my unbiddcp and unwelcomc
guest world be gone. ] heard the
clocks in the houses along the street
where lived strike eleven as / walked
down toward my door. As stepped
over the threshold saw the fiery eyes
of the cat in the dark hall. 4 cold
SILVER passed through my frame. I
tremblcd with an excitement as intense
as it was sudden. NV heart began to
beat so loudly that involuntarily held
my hands over il as IL TO still it. Then
summoning my resolution j followed
the cat down the steps and strobe after
her as she fitted down the street.
il was black night. Heavy,
swollen gray clouds had been hanging
low in the sky when darkness came on,
and now they drew an impenetrable
veil between the earth and the stars.
The old, winding streets of the quarter
of the town in which lived were silent
and deserted. Now and then gust of
wind swept and swung some shutter
back upon its hinges with a hoarse,
grating sound. The moaning of the
wind was full of strange meanings to
IHc. wy tHOuButs WduutItu ou tnTOugn
the black arches of that dismal night,
and as strobe down the street drawn
irrcsistibly after the noisclcss black cat,
there came up before me vivid picture
of the tragedy which had come into my
life only year before, when I had COM
pletcd my college course.
l saw my fathers house--a large
white building, surrounded by spacious
piazzas and standing in the middle Of a
wide, velvet-likc lawn. / saw my
father sitting in his comfortable
library, from which two bay windows
opened upon the piazza. He had left
my sister and mother and myself in
an adjoining room, and was sitting at
table facing one Of the open windows.
A students lamp cast a soft, mellow
light over the room. Behind my father
stood his safe, which contained large
sum Of money. put there to pay his
workmen on the following morning.
The door between tho library and the
room in which we were was open, and
occasionally he spoke to us. Then
came long silence, and we heard only
the soft patter Of the rain on the
piazzas.