The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1888-05-31

The chain is rather useless now,
The hand won't get away.
.'Sir John replied, seriously: It's
always wanting to get away. The
chain is necessary. :.
II gave him quick look. wondering
whether he was mailman or prac'
tical joker. But his face remained un.
moved, calm, and kindly. l changed
the subject, and examined his guns. !
noticed, however, that three loaded
revolvers lay in different places on
the furniture. as if the man lived IN
constant fear of an attack.
II called on him several times, and
then went no more Every one had
grown accustomed to his presence,
and consequently wholly Indifferent
to him.
"A whole year went by, when ono
morning my servant awakened me
with the news that Sir John Roweil
had been assassinated in the night.
Half an hour later entered the Eng
lishman's house with two police offici-
ais. The French valet, frightened
and overcome, was wrjnging bis hands
! at the door. He was tie man l first
suspected, but he was innocent.
1.-THE murderer was never discover
ed.
"Entering Sir Johns drawing. room,
at once perceived his body lying
stretched on the floor in the middle
OF the room. His coat was torn, one
sleeve was wrel,ched off and hanging,
everything gave evidence of q terrific
struggle The Englishman had been
straneled to death. His black, swollen
face expressed the most horrible fear;
he held something between his clencb-
ed teeth, and his throat was pierced
with five bleeding holes as if made by
iron points A surgeon joined us.
and examined the finger. marks IN the
flesh. He uttered the singular words:
"I should say he had been stran-
gled by a skeleton
II felt the chils run down my back.
and glanced up at the wall where ]
had seen the horrible flayed hand.
lit was there no longer! The chain
hung broken.
Il bent over the corpse. and found
in it's teeth one of the fingers of the
vanished hand, cut, or rather shaved
off by the teeth lust at the second
joint.
''The inquest was held, but nothing
was discovered. No door had been
forced, no window opened, no furni'
ture displaced. The two watch dogs
had not wakened.
1.-The servants testimony was about
as follows: For a month past his
master had appeared troubled. He
received great many letters, which
he burned as fast as they came. Often
picking up a Kidding whip in a rage
that approached insanity, he would
lash the dried hand that was fastened
to the wall, and which had been re-
moved so mysteriousIy the night of
the crime lie went to bed very late,
locked himself in carefully, and always
kept weapons close at hand. He
would often speak out loud at night
as ii he were quarre!ling with some
one. On the night in question, AS it
happened, he made no sound, and it.
was only when the servant came to
open the windows that he discovered
Sir John had been assassinated. He
had no suspicious OF anybody. l re-
ported the whole matter to the prop
er authorities, and the island WAS
infinitely searched. Nothing came to
light.
Now, one night, three months after
the crime, l had a frightful nightmare.
dreamed saw the hand, the hideous
hand, running like IL scorpion, or
a spider, up and down my
walls and curtains. Three times
awoke, three times | went
to sleep again, and three times | saw
the feshless horror crawl around my
room. moving its fingers like le.s.
| Next day the thing itself was brought
| to me. 1t had been found i'll the
graveyard on Sir John Rowelfs tomb.
He had been buried there because his
family could not be traced.
"The hand lacked its first finger!
"rhat is the story, ladies. There is
nothing more to it,"
The terrified women were pale and
| trembling. One Of them exclaimed:
THAT is not q solution, nor an ex-
PLANTATION. We shall none Of us sleep
| tonight unless you tell what you
| think really took place.
The magistrate now smiled severe
~.
ooh, I shall certainly spoil your
terrible dreams, ladies'" he replied;
II simply think that the legitimate
owner of the hand WAS not dead at
all. and that lie came to get his severed
hand back with the one he still pos.
sessed. But certainly never discover
| ed how he managed it. The whole
! thing was a vendetta.
One of the women murmured:
Il don't believe it was that way at
ALL"
And the great lawyer continuing to
| smile, concluded with:
Il warned you, you know. that my
explanation would not suit you.'-
Translated by the Argonaut, from
the French OF Guy de Maupassant, by
! Annie Lake Townsend.