Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-10-08

slowly but surely, and some day the last
drop of the vital element will he drained
from me, and then the thing upstairs will
turn to dust, at last, and God, God, Godl
have mercy upon me. and blot me utterly
out of eNistence--let it be rs if / had never
been!
u have written this for someone else to
read when the end comes. The end, say |?
1he hcgintng rather, of an eternity of re-
morse Tor my sin. ] sought TO battle God.
dar"d to raise my voice against the de-
cree OF Omnipotcnce, and terrible has the
punishment been. Pity me, | was mad.
knew not what did. But | know now
= nave lost Alice | have lost my soul.
On pity mel But | ask no one to pray for
me, Prayers would avail nothing for my
punishment is lust
The manuscript dropped from my trcmb-
ing hands As | finished reading it. A
strange terror took possession of me.
caught sight of nv face in the glass as 1
| went to the door. 1t was white as the face
OF the dead man p-Stairs.
went TO Alice's father and put the
strange narrative in his hands. Somehow
could not feel that it was not true, and
yet, could such things be2
! When he had read it he rose up from his
chair, but his limbs shook so that he could
hardly stand. His face was pale as | felt
my own to be.
1T reads like n madman's fancies, but It
1mprcsses me with the awful sense of
having been written by man whose con-
science forced him to tell the TRUTH" he
said. "Of course though, he was insane
and imagined these things" he added.
This story cannot be true Experience,
+ &c inc
/ it, But'--with sudden start-"he says
| he stole her body on the night of his re-
turn. We do not know what became of it.
| There may be some truth in this, at least
shall we go up to his room in the tower,
ana see what evidence that has to give,'
! bowed could not speak The spell
! OF an indescribable terror was upon me.
We went up stairs, and through Max
Cramer's room. | dared not look at the
white shape that knew was lying on the
bed in the corner, We seemed to be in the
! chamber Of an awful mystery, a mystery
OF the invisible world more than of this. It
was not the idea of death that terrified us,
but the strange and improbable story we
had read had been powerful enough in its
influence to make MS feel in a measure, as
It's writer must have felt. 1t had taken
| possession of our senses with its weird I'M
realty.
We paused in silent dread ut the door Of
the tower room. We felt as if we stood be-
fore the door of the other world. What
! lay beyond its threshold,
A gust Of wind came shrleking up the
stairway as some door below was opened,
and the door before MS swung open as il
by invisible hands. With frightened eyes
we looked in. The room was in shadow,
and at first we could but dimly discern
anything in it, Gradually a shape in the
center of the room seemed to emerge from
the gloom, as our eyes became accus-
TONED to the dim light-a long, awfully
suggestive shape lying on low couch,
and covered with white sheet. Beneath
that drapery was distinctly outlined a he-
man form.
We never once looked at each other.
The shape before us held our eyes cap
tives. 1t drew them to it in awful fear
and fascination.
Suddenly my companion stepped for
ward, and, with shaking hands, lifted the
cloth. Instead of the skeleton face we
had expected to see, we saw a face from
which the blood seemed to have but re-
Gently receded in the ebb-tide of life. The
body Of Alice Leith was before us, SEEM
ingly but n few hours dead-Eben +.
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