Connecticut western news., 1886-07-28

made before he went on in 8 lower | voice.
 'That was the feeling I had when ] suddenly woke from sound sleep to full consciousness with chilling shudder of horror. I was sitting before the fire. place, with my back to the door that led from the office to the shop. I had pur poseiy left the door ajar. The fire had died down to dull glow, and it seemed to me that breath from the Arctic zone had penetrated the room. cannot des- cribe the kind of cold it was. My very bones seemed to be ice. And then felt that presence.
 The undertaken seemed terribly affected even now by his rccollec.ions of that night. It was impossible to resist the infection, and my own flesh was creep. ing in very uncomfortable way. He made strong effort to recover himself and steady his voice, but in spite of all, it trembled with an ever deepening terror as he went on, curdling my very blood in sympathy
 'I had turned the gas out when.J sat down in my chair to sleep, so that the only light in the room came from the dying fire. became aware of that pres ence the very instant l awoke. Mind, sir, this is not a dream. l was as fully awake as l am at this moment Tho thing was there! It was at the back of me. It was between mo anl the door. had got to turn my head to sec it. But knew it was there! Who it was, o, what it was, didn't know; but I was sure that some living thing was standine behind me motionlcss in the dim, ghost light, and was looking at me- My God, sir! it was awful to sit still and feel this thing, and try to make up my mind to turn my head toward it! I am pretty we'll accustomed to corpses, but can tell you that did not feel just then. that the corpse out in the other room was any company for me.
 ''Wcll, there sat-fceling that holr,. l ble gaze fixed upon me in utter silence, Eand the death-like cold creeping through my veins-striving, struggling to nerve myself to look around and to face the thing, whatever it was.
 "Were you ever locked up in tomb at night2' the undertaken suddenly asked me. l could only shake my head in response; could not speak.
 '1 have been," he said, "but it was nothing nothing to those few minutes, while sat palsied with terror, with that thing behind mel At last, in kind of nervous spasm, sprang to my feet and turned toward the door, The sight froze me! There is no other word for it-l was rigid. I could no more stir than l could arrest the m ton of this train now and instantly. My very heart stopped its beating. wonder I did not drop dead myself, for there-not six feet from ] mc-with the livid pallor of death on its face, and it's glassy eyes glued to mine, stood the corpse! "Then it began to approach me. It did not seem to walk-it glidcd; and not till it reached me did it make a single apparent movement. Thcn-just stand up, will you2 I can illustrate bet ter what occurred" did so, anl he rose at the same time, and we stood facing each other in the compartment. l W. ,1v xl, we were crossing Battersea bridge. The undertaken, as he went on, repeated upon 1 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 shoulders, pressing hard against me all the time on either side, as I do now on you, and wherever the hands lay they seemed to draw the very life out of the flesh be- meath them. Slowly-oh, how slowly they glided on downward from my shoulders to my breast, beneath my coat, like this. Try to conceive it-try, if you can. Wherever they touched they drew something away from mc-somo virtue seemed to go out of me. And then the frightful thought came to me that was dying by piecemeal !-that I was parting with something dear to me as lifc-bit by bit l could feel it ebbing-ebbing, and at last the horror grew to convic- ton. This ghoul was drawing my life's blood into his own veins! was sucking my substance! What I lost he gained 2 He enriched himself by making me poor, and it would end"
 ''Victoriar' shouted guard, opening the carriage door.
 '.Bless my soulw exclaimed the under. taker, fare we in2 must hurry to catch my train out" He seized his satchel, and was on the step before I could get my breath to say: But the story! I want to hear the end of it."
 He was on the platform now. "Oh! there isn't much more," he called back. ''The ghoul succeeded-that's all !'- and he was gone before could say an. I other word.
 As followed a porter to a cab, and all the way home, I tried to conceive what the undertaken could mean How could the dead man have succeeded Here the undertaken was, alive and we'll, and telling me the story. It was very annoying and disappointing to be SC baulked after being so wrought upon. The undertaken had left me no address,