Nevada County picayune., 1888-12-19
4 TERRIBLE NIGHT

MY DARLING AuCE.-I will try and be with you tonight. My bus mess takes me to a small town about twenty miles from your house. and could not bear to he so near without looking into your sweet eyes and hearing you say that you are true to me. So shall ride over in the af- ternoon, and, God willing, hold you in arms tonight,
 GoCR OwN JACK.
 Having despatched my day $ busi- ness, and sent this letter to my sweetheart, I. the Jack therein men, toned, hastened to hire horse for the purpose of riding the twenty miles which separated me.trom Alice, my betrothed wife. As my business, which was that of q travelling agent for a prosperous house. obliged me to be often away from home. chance like this, to see Alice, was very pre- cious to me.
 It was 6 o'clock in the evening when started on my horse from the door of the inn where l had been stopping, In vain was It that the landlord tried to dissuade me-. his account of the lonely road and of the frightful things which had happened on 1t, of the murders and midnight horrors which hung over it, could not turn me from my purpose. Even the thought that l must pass by the haunted rock in the dark alone, and with no hope Of aid, should 1 require 1t; that l must ride through passes which the village legends peopled with spirits and ghosts of the de- Esrtvu travellers, could not deter me. l spurred onward, and the dark fore bodings of those assembled to wit ness my rash departure, my lgnd- lords prophecy of sudden and vio lent storm ringing in my ears as 1 went. l treated these superstitious tales as merely the invention of igno. rant villagers and the sounds which were reported to issue from the haunted rock, as, at best, coming from the throat of some human ene- my, against whom pistol would he most effective.
 There was still two hours of day light before me, and as rode along was lost in thoughts of my sweet heart, seemed to see her standing on her yine-coyered porch, ready to welcome me with her bright smiles. The dainty figure, with it's blue eyes and waving hair, rose before my eyes, and 50 vivid was the vision that spoke her name half aloud. The sound oi my own voice startled me, and, looking up for the first time, l 1 saw that the sky was growing black the wind was bowling and rumbhng, and distant thunder was in the air. i It had come-the storm which my landlord had foretold. | spurred on my horse a big drop of rain splashed over my face then darkness thick ened, and at the same time, through the distant, Doomed up the outlines of the huge powder, which a turn in the road had before hidden from my sight. slight shiNer crept over me as recalled the tales connected with it., and thought upon my own lonely situation. Something of this feeling seemed to enter into my horse, for as we heared the rock, shrouded in darkness, he trembled from head to foot.
 Using all my strength l forced him past it, and at tue same time there sounded upon my ear Q loud burst of lau hter so peculiar in its tone as to send an icy shudder through me. A something that was not human sounded in it. It was fendish--dey- ilish. Conquering my momentary weakness strained my eyes to pierce the darkness, in the hope of discov- ering the shape from which these sounds proceeded, but all was silent and deserted as the grave. The form must have been swallowed up in the darkness, for l saw nothing.