The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-07-02
"a GAIA BLACK CATY'
How She Brought a Murderer to
the GallOws.


It was past eleven o'clock when l
opened the door and the black cat
walked slowly out and down the steps,
waiting to see if I followed. 1 turned
up the collar of my coat, for the air
was chilly, and went out again into the
beautiful October night. The street
was as 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, 1 do not know. Two
nights before l had walked up from my
Office late with a friend. 1t was long
past midnight when we turned into the
quiet street where 1 lived, talking
about 1 know not what. Suddenly
there stepped out of the shadow of a
huge tree "a black cat. Looking neither
to the right nor the left, she walked
deliberately before us.
"Har' said my friend, with a tragic
air, ga cat!-a black cat! Let US follow
the cat.
And then he laughed, and even as he
walked the echoes down the street,
can not tell why-I shivered. The cat
walked silently along past the lower
steps of the flights leading down from
tho houses, keeping a pace or two
ahead of us. My friend left me at his
door, saying: Goodnight. Beware
of the cat. I went on to my house,
not far beyond. At the steps the cat
stopped, hesitated for a moment, and
then walked up to the door. Some
what surprised, I followed.
not like cats. They seem to me
TO be treacherous, dangerous brutes,
and l am even half afraid of them.
But when the black cat stopped at my
door l determined, for some inexplica-
BILE reason, to admit her. She seemed
20 know my room, for she walked up
the single flight of stairs before me and
entered the room as opened the door.
] found her stretched out on the floor
when l had lighted the gas, and if she
had lived in my room all her life she
could not have appeared more at home.
For the same ineNplicable reason that l
admitted the cat to my house 1 allowed
her to remain in my room.
The next evening l came in earlier;
&c may have been ten o'clock. The
black cat met me at the door and darted
by me as / stepped over the threshold.
Then, as 1 turned to see whittier she
had gone, / felt a pull at the leg of my
trousers, and saw that the cat had fast
ened a claw there and was certainly
irving to draw me from the house.
stopped down and softly strOked the
nimal's back, at the same time olsen
.saging her claw. Then / turned and
inferred the house, and the cat, after a
moment Of irresolution, followed me,
mewing strangely.
The next night she again met me at
the door, and the effort to draw me
from the house was repeated. The de-
sire was so apparent that ] was puz-
Zled, and, / own. a little disturbed.
The cat went with me to my room,
and, sitting there in the freight, with
her bright eyes staring at me, formed
a purpose to yield to this curious within
If 1t were again displayed. l tried TO
reason with myself, but reason seemed
60 have given way to an impulse as
uncomfortable as it was mysterious.
passed an uneasy night and then a
day, half hoping that when evening
came my unbidden and unwelcome
guest would be gone. l heard the
clocks in the houses along the street
where / lived strike eleven as walked
down toward my door. AS / stepped
over the threshold 1 saw the fiery eyes
of the cat in the dark hall. A cold
SILVER passed through my frame.
trembled with an excitement as intense
as il was sudden. My heart began to
beat so loudly that 1 involuntarily held
my hands over il as il to still il. Then
slmmoning my resolution l followed
the cat down the steps and strobe after
her as she fitted down the street.
TIC was a 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 l lived were silent
and deserted. Now and then q gust OF
wind swept and swung some shutter
back upon It's hinges with a hOarse,
grating sound. The moaning of the
wind was full of strange meanings e
me. My thoughts wandered Off through
the black arches of that dismal night
and as / strobe down the street drawn
irresistibly after the nOiseless black cat,
there came up before me vivid picture
of the tragedy which had come into my
life only year before, when had com
pleted my college course.
L saw my fathers house large
white building, surrounded BY spacious
piazzas and standing in the middle of Q
wide, velvet-like lawn. / saw nv
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 al
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 a large
sum Of money, put there to pay bis
workmen on the following morning
The door between the library and the
room 10 which we were was open, and
occasionally he spoke to US. Their
came long silence, and we heard only
the soft patter of the rain ON the
piazzAs.