The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1886-06-11

to sit still and feel this thing, and try
to make up my mind to turn nv head
towards it! lam pretty well accustom-
ed to corpses, but | can tell you that
did not feel just then that the corpse
out in the other room was any COM
pany for me. Well, there sat-feel-
ing that horrible gaze fixed upon me in
the utter silence, and the death-like
cold creeping through my veins
striving, struggling to nerve myself to
look around and face the thing, what
ever it was.
"Were you ever locked up in tomb
at night?p the undertaken suddenly
asked me. l could only shake my
head in response; could not speak.
Il have been," he said; '.but it
was nothing nothing to those few
minutes while | sat palsied with
terror with that thing behind me!
At last in kind of nerv-
GUS spasm / sprang to my feet and
turned towards the door! The sight
froze me! There is no other word for
it. / was rigid. / could no more stir
than | could arrest the motion of this
train now and instantly. My very
heart stopped its beating. | wonder
didn't drop dead myself, for there
not six feet from me-with the livid
| pallor of death on its face and its CLASSY
eyes glued to mine, stood the corpse!
Then it began to approach me. 1t did
not seem to walk-it glided, and not
| till it reached me did it make a single
| apparent movement. Then-just stand
up, will you? | can illustrate better
what occurred" / did so, and he
arose at the same time and we stood
facing each other in the compartment.
l was dimly conscious at the moment
that we were crossing Battersea bridge.
The undertaken, as he went on, repeated
upon me the actions he described.
Then this dead thing" he said to
me, ''slowly lifted its arms and laid its
icy fingers on my cheeks and moved
them gently downwards to my shoul-
ders, pressing hard against me all the
time on either side, as | do now on
you, and wherever the hands lay they
seemed to draw the very life out of the
flesh beneath them. Slowly-oh, how
SLOWLY they glided on downward
from my shoulders to my breast, be-
meath my coat, like this. Try to con-
ceiye TRY, if yoa can. Wherever
they touched they drew something
away from me-some virtue seemed to
go out of me. And then the frightful
thought came to me that | was dying
by piecemeal!-that / was parting
with something dear to me as life-bit
by bit | could feel it ebbing, ebbing-
and at last the horror grew to a con-
viction. The ghoul was drawing my
life's blood into its own veins! was
sucking my substance! What | lost he
gained! He enriched himself by MAX
ing me poor and it would end
"Victoria!' shouted guard, OPEN
ing the carriage door.
''Bless my soul!' exclaimed the M.
dertaker, ''are we in? | must hurry to
catch my train out" He seized his
satchel and was on the step before /
could get my breath to say: ''But the
story! l want to hear the end of it.
/ He was on the platform now. ooh!
there isn't much more" he called
back. 1.-THE ghoul succeeded that 5
all!' and he was gone before / could
say another word.
AS | followed a porter to cab, and
all the way home, / tried to conceive
what the undertaken could mean. How
could the dead man have succeeded
Here the undertaken was, alive and
well, and telling me the story. 1t was
very annoying and disappointing to be
| so baked, after being so wrought upon.
The undertaken had left me no address,
so that | was, apparently, doomed new
or to know the solution. Only ''appar-
entity" however. When | got out OF
the cab at my own door could find NO
loose change to pay the driver; yet I
had some when | took the train a..
Dover My well-furnished pocket
book-th though that too, l had at Dover
was gone as well, and my watch and
chain had followed suit. 1t is painful
to lose confidence in human nature iE
this .-Philadslphia Times.