The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-05-14

- 00@N
81 am ready to admit that / was
startled, but as there was nothing really
frightfulin the appearance Of my strange
visitor, l raised the window and adj
dressed him with careful politeness.
"fWell, SIR / asked, what is your
wish?
'My question met with no response,
but the figure raised his hand, pointed to
his lips and then seemed to beckon me
toward him. The window was a low
one, and / leaped out, but as l landed in
the SNOW, the figure turned, and with
one wild gesture, a I. / started in pur-
suit. A few rods from the house, upon
the other side of the street, was an old
graveyard, its broken shafts and head
stones plainly discernible in the moon
light
"For a moment 7 stood still, awed by
the silent majesty of the scene.
"Above me rose the sky, like the dome
of some spacious temple, its sapphire
roof supported on every side by pillars of
cloud, white like marble, O purple in
the distance like porphyry.
"Just opposite the house was a gap in
the fence which surrounded the deserted
burial place, and my ghostly visitor at
once showed his familiarity with his
surroundings by turning his steps toward
the only place where one could gain adj
mittance.
81 hurried after him, but he was feet
of foot, and as the tall figure of the old
man glided in and out amongst the
broken grave stones he seemed Of no
more substantial essence than a slim,
gray shadow driven by the wind.
"Once l came SO close to him that l
put my hand to lay hold of his robe, but
my foot slipped upon a piece of ice, and
| fell PROSTATE across a grave.
ga strange, discordant laugh fell upon
my ear. I rose to my feet. The tall,
gray figure was just beyond, still beck
oning with its weird white hand, through
which the pale light of the 10 seemed
to shine.
81 made one more effort and dashed
forward recklessly, conscious of nothing
but that dim, shadowy figure, forever
eluding, forever knocking me.
Suddenly the ground beneath my feet
gave way. I felt myself falling through
space. All around me was darkness-a
darkness so absolute, SO dense that I
tried to grasp it as I fell in an unreason-
ing effort to lay hold of something solid
and substantial.
"By a quick instinct / perceived that !
had fallen through the top of some ruin
GUS old tomb. / groped wildly in the
darkness, felt the damp brick walls that
shut me in, the stone steps Shiny with
mold, and saw far above me, through
the opening in the roof, a white face,
distorted with laughter, peering down
at me. In vain l tried to scale the wall;
then / felt biindly for the door, every
faculty absorbed in one wild idea Of
escape. The melting snow oozed through
the broken walls and fell upon my head.
I was knee deep in water, and plunging
about in a fruitless effort to find the
door, vaguely conscious all the while
that / was not,the only occupant of that
loathsome place.
sat last my hands cam in contact
with cold iron.
81 had found the door, but could I
open it? With the desperation of. de-
spair I threw myself against it. 1t yield
ed, and I found myself outside in the
snow.
Glow I ever got back tothe house and
TO bed 1 cannot tell. Three weeks after,
I woke as from some fearful dream, and
found myself in the same room where I
had fallen asleep after that eventful
night. A gentleman whom I recognized
as the village physician, and a young
lady in a blue dress, sat / n front of the
fire, conversing in low tones.
"sWhy am I here?' 1 asked, and was
astonished to find my voice SO weak and
thread like. For an instant l had an i'm
preston that /, too, had become a ghost,
in which case I should probably brighten
the young lady who sat by the fire.
"But she looked up and answered,
quietly: DO not talk, or you will be i'll
again. You have been very sick, but
you are better now. You must get WELL
"'I will get well,' I remarked, idiot
ically, if you will go on sitting there by
the fire.
"Then I fell asleep, and when I woke
again I was strong enough to recount the
incidents of the night preceding my ILL
ness, and to listen to an explanation of
my remarkable experience"
"Ahi then there was an explanation,
after all. 1t was an Observation-Disclosures
ply brain fever in an incipient states"
"Not at ALL" said De Wolf. my
friends followed my footsteps through
the snow, found the broken tomb. and,
w~ell-yes, captured the ghost"
"Ah, the ghostl"
"Yes. 1t happened that the man who
had died had a twin brother who was a
deaf mute and harmlessly insane. He
had wandered away from his home, and
but for kindly hands who found and res
cued him would no doubt have become
a veritable ghost on that eventful night"
"And the young lady in the blue
dress?"
"De Wolf ran his fingers through his
white hair and laughed.
"Are you acquainted with Miss Clara
Wright?"
"Clara Wright! My own cousin. and
she spent last winter in Gilsum. l see it
all now. She wrote me only Last week
that she had just become engaged. And
you are the MANI" she added, with sud
den fash of inspiration.