Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1888-10-26

back by the wind during the storm.
Then, without speaking, he beckoned to
me to come to him, which | did, and
pausing before the open easement,
looked, as he had done, into the room
beyond.
Never, to my dying day, shall l forget
the horror of what saw.
Upon low bed, at the further side Of
the little chamber, lay the corpse of an
aged man, unwashed, unshorn and un.
Strengthened for the grave. His clothes
were the rough, soiled garments of his
everyday life and toll. He lay on his
back, his limbs contorted, as though the
! parting soul had left its tenement amid
pain and struggling. But the most fear
full element of that dead spectacle lay in
the fact that above the half-open mouth
hovered cloud of pale, luminous vapor,
that steamed continuously upwards, and
broke and quivered and floated away
with the slight disturbance of air caused
by our presence at the window. | was
about to utter an exclamation of horror
when DIR. Melfort laid his hand upon my
ips.
"Silencep he whispe ed in my ear.
"Our very lives depend upon our making
no sound, on our giving no warning of
the discovery we have made. We are in
the house of murderw
'That strange light"
''ls symptom that the dead man has
been poisoned with phosphorus drug
common in crime because so easy OBJ
tanned from ordinary matches. Back to
our room! We must get away from here
us quickly as possible"
We stole back to our allotted chamber.
The storm was rising again. One of the
sudden gusts of wind had blown out our
candle, and we looked in each others
faces by the pale CLEANS of the light
ming.
After brief pause, to make certain
that all was quiet in the house, we
clambered down one of the rough hewn
pillars of the porch, and, making our
way to the shed, we unfastened the
horse and waited till a long roll of
thunder came to cover the noise of the
wheels. Then we started, turning our
horses head, not towards Claynor, but
in the direction of New Ninevch, trust
ing to the animals instinct to find his
way home through the woods. As we
plunged into the forest, shout in the
distance, followed by rifle shot, were
audible
"They have found out that we are
gone" muttered the doctor between his
teeth. "Now, Paul for drive for life :"
He whipped up the horse as he spoke,
and we dashed, along at breakneck
speed. The road lay down hill, and if
we were pursued, we were soon out of
reach of the pursueTs. We saw and
heard nothing further of the brothers.
In fact the tempest, which had broken
forth again in redoubled fury, was
enough to check the progress of any one
who had striven to follow us. Amid the
continuous blaze of the lightning, the
violent gusts of wind, and the binding
rain, we made our way, thankful when,
at last, we emerged from the fnraat AS
we did so, red light shone on our
path, reflected from the lurid clouds
overhead-tho light of distant con-
fagration.
It was not till we were comfortably
established in the best room Of the hotel
at New Nineveh, our wet clothes ex
changed for dry garments, and Wine
and cigars on the table before us, that
DR.. Melfort told me one of the causes of
his sudden fight. In the brief alterca-
tion between the brothers, held outside
the kitchen while we we finishing our
supper, he had heard Ludwig essaying
to pacify the other by promise that we
should never Quit the premises alive.
When we were nearing New York, on
IL hof fol do
my friend, without a word, passed to
me the paper he had just purchased,
pointing as he did so to particular
paragraph which ran as follows: ''Ter-
rible Catastrophe. "A House Struck by
Lightning and Consumed-A Whole
Family Perish in the Flames.-During
the great thunderstorm of Thursday
night the house of Mr.. Jacob Gruber, on
the road between New Nineveh and
Claynor, was struck by lightning and
entirely consumed. -Four persons,
namely, Mr.. Gruber, his wife, and
Johann and Ludwig Schultz (the two
sonU of Mrs. Gruber by former mar
riage), inhabited the house at the time,
and all lost their lives in the flames.
The building was constructed of wood,
and must have burned with great
rapidity, thus entirely cutting off the es-
cape of the inmates. 1t is probable that
the brothers Schultz, who were well
known in the neighborhood as hard
drinkers, were intoxicated when the fire
broke out, and so were unable either to
take measures to extinguish it or to make
their escape Be this as it may, the re-
mains of four human bodies were found
amongst the ruins, thus proving con.
clusively that the whole family had
shared the fate of their home"
Thrice, therefore, in the space of q
single day had sudden death-by rail
road disaster, by lightning, and by mid
night assassination-come close to oul
path, and had passed us by. And or
Sunday morning, when, with bowed
head, listened to the petitions of the
Litany, my heart responded with al
unwonted thrill to those wellknown but
newly impressive words, "From sudden
death, good Lord, deliver us"-Fran1