Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-06-08

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A strange looking figure staiked into the
room.
robust, clothed In the old Flemish
fashion. He had on q kind of short
cloak, with garment under II, belted
round the waist; trunk hose, with great
punches or bows at the knees; and pair
of russet boots, very large at top. anG
standing widely from his legs. His hat
was broad and slouched. with feather
trailing over one side. His iron gray
hair hung in thick masses on his neck,
and he had u short grizzled beard He
walked slowly round the room as If ex-
amining that all was safe, then. hanging
his hat on a peg beside the door, he sat.
down in the elbow chair, and, leaning
his elbow on the table, he fixed his eyes
on Dolph with an unmoving and deaden-
ing stare.
Dolph was not naturally n coward;
but he had been brought up In an i'm
plicit belief in ghosts and goblins. A
thousand stories came swarming to his
mind, that he had heard about this
building; and, as he looked at this
strange parsonage, with his uncouth
garb, his pale visage, his grizzly beard,
and his fixed, staring, fish like eye, his
teeth began to chatter his hair to rise on
his head and cold sweat to break out
all over his body. How long he re-
maincd in this situation he could not
tell for he was like one fascinated. He
could not take his gaze off from the spec
ter; but lay staring at him with his
whole intellect absorbed in the contcm-
plation. The old man remained seated
behind tho table without stirring or
turning an eye, always keeping dead,
steady glare upon Dolph. At length tho
household cock from neighboring
farm clapped his wings, and gave a loud
cheerful crow that rung over the fields.
At tho sound the old man slowly rose
and took down his hat from the peg; the
door opened and closed after him; he
was heard to go slowly down the stair
case - tramp - tramp - tramp! = an
when he had got to the bottom, all wa
again silent. Dolph lay and listened
earnestly; counted every football: lis
tened and listened if the steps should re-
tirn--until, exhausted by watching and
agitation. he fell into troubled sleep.
Daylight again brought fresh courage
and assurance. He would fain have
considered all that had passed as mere
dream; yet there stood the chair in
which the unknown had seated himself;
there was the table on which he had
leaned; there was the peg on which he
had hung his hat, and there was the
door, locked precisely as he himself had
locked it, with the chair placed against
it. He FASTENED down stairs and exam
ined the doors and windows; all were OK
actly in the same state in which he had
left them, and there was no apparent
way by which any being could have en-
tered and left the house without leaving
I.l, ,,,.I Il, 4 .l..l
to himself, lit was all dream;"-but it
would not do; the more he cndeavored
to shake the scene off from his mind, the
more it haunted him.
Though ho persisted in a strict silence
as to all that he had seen or heard, yet
his looks betrayed the uncomfortable
night he had passed. 1t was evident
that there was something wonderful hid
den under this mysterious reserve. The
doctor took him into his study, locked
the dooS and sought to have full and
confidential communication; but he
could get nothing out of him. Frau
1lsy took him aside into the pantry, but
to as little purpose, and Peter de Groodt
held him by the button for full hour in
| the churchyard, the very place to get al
tho bottom Of a ghost story, but came ofl
! not whit wiser than the rest. 1t is al
concealed makes a dozen current lies
| 1t is like a guinea locked up in bank
that has dozen paper representatives
! Before the day was over, the neighbor
| hood was full of reports. Some said
that Dolph HeyliGer watched in the
| haunted house with pistols loaded with
| silver bullets; others that he had o long
talk with the spectcr without head
others, that DIR. Knipperhausen and tho
sexton had been hunted down the Bow
! cry lane and quite into town by legior
OF ghosts of their customers. Some
shook their heads, and thought it {
shame that the doctor should put Dolpl
TO pass the night alone in that disma
house, where he might be spirited
away, no one knew whittier; Will,
others observed, with shlug, that if tn,
devil did carry OFF the youugster, i
would lie but taking his own.
These rumors at length reached thu
ears of the good Dame Heyliger, and, a
may be supposed, threw her into terri
! bic alarm. For her son to have opposed
himself to danger from living foes woulC
have been nothing SO dreadful in lie
eyes as to dare alone the terrors Of tn
haunted house. She FASTENED to the doc
tors, and passed great part of the da,
in attempting to dissuade Dolph from re
peating his vigil; she told him score O
tales, which her gossiping friends ha,
just related to her, Of persons who ha'
been carried of when watching alone il
old ruinOus houses. 1t was all to n
effect. Dolph's pride, as well as curiosity
was piqued. He endeayored to calm th
apprehensions Of his mother, and to as
sure her that there was no truth in al
the TumorS she had heard; she looked a
him obviously and shook her head, bu
finding his determination was not to b
shaken, she brought him little thic
Dutch Bible, with brass clasps, TO tax
with him, us a sword wherewitb to iigh
the powers of darkness; and, lest tha
might not be sufficient, the housekeepe
gave him the Heidelberg catechism b
way of dagger
The next night, therefore, Dolph too
up his quarters for the third time in til
old mansion. Whether dream or not ul
same thing was repeated. Towards mid
night, when everything was still, th
same sound echoed through the empt
-tramp-tramp! The stair
were again asccndcd; the door agai
swung open, the old man entered, wake
round the room, hung up bis hat an
seated himself by the table. The sam
fear and trembling came over poo
Dolph, though not in 50 violent degree
tie lay in the same way, motionless an
fascinated, staring at the figure, whic
regarded him as before, with a dead
fixed, chilling gaze. Ia this way the
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