The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1889-01-25
TALE OF TERROR.

4 TALE OF TERROR.
BY JAMES SEYMOUR.
Some years ago (said my friend, q real
estate agent) I had an office on La Salle
street, Chicago. 10 it came Mrs. Capel,
whom I had known in Boston. She want
ed = house. had one OF my list in Hal
sted street. Her family consisted of her-
self, Q child between q and I, and u SER
want. / rented the dwelling. but Was as
tonished in about ten days TO ind her
back. She stated that u port OH of the
premises which she did not require she
had lockel. by some supernatural cause
the doors would fly open: She had heard
house was haunted, but paid III attention
to such superst .tious gossip. Then she
proceeded to tell the following singular
story, which I will give in her own words:
Zone night as Margaret. the servant, md
l went up stairs I saw the door at the head
stood open. We went into the extension.
All was Quiet, the dust lay thick on the
floor aud the spiders had spun the l. webs
across the wall, and ono huge mesh work
lay directly across the narrow, crooked
stairs that led downward. remember
thinking as we descended that it would be
a terrible place for anyone to fall. At the
foot was a bit of cracked and broken
tagging, and as l looked at it 1 fancied
in~voluntarily the dull, sickening thul of a
heavy body thrown from above the stones.
The thought was SO re | that it made me
shudder in spite of myself, but I shook it
on 40 unhealthy and morbid. We secure
~ fastened both doors md l began to hope
that We should be troubled By no more
mysteries:
"On Saturday evening, wishing to finish
q piece Of work with which I was busy. 1
sent Margaret to put Alice to bed instead
Of going myself as usual. The room in
which / was sitting was o directly be-
meath my bedroom, and 1 did not hear
the girls footsteps when she left the
chamber to come down. 1 noticed that
she remained away for a longer time than
had proved wakefnI and difficult to get to
sleep, and thosght little of her absence.
The sound of II heavy fall on the stairs
suddenly startled me. Rushing out l saw
the door at their head again wide open, n
blsckness SO dense that it seemed like a
curtain, palpable to the touch, shut off
oil that might be beyond, AMI at the foot
Of the steps lay Margaret i'll II swoon.
It was the sound of her fall that 1 had
heard. As I approached her i found that
her consciousness was beginning to re-
turn, and, at the same instant, my ears
caught q faint, soft rustic in the darkness
above. and the door closed with a hard
slam that resounded through the house.
My foot was on the lowest step. l would
have reopened. il in another second, but
Margaret caught my dress.
For the love Of God, don't co. she
whispered; what you'll see there isn't
what He meant should ever be- and she
held me- with a force of which 1 would not
have believed her capable in her weak
ness.
Promise me, promise me- she whis-
pered. And seeing that it was the only
way to calm her, I promised not to at
tempt to enter the extension that night.
sIhelpedh her into her own room, shocked
ct the state in which l found one usually
90 calm and self-controlled, and I passed
the hours till daylight in watching alter
nately with her and with Alice, who wa
restless and feverish and muttered to her.
self in her sleep. Once more that night
the door opened and shut with the same
loud noise as before, but otherwise We
were undisturbed. The ~strangeness of
our situation did not frighten me. felt
myself mystiied, defiant, enraged by the
events which had taken place since ! en-
tered the house, and l was glad that Mar
garet did not seem inclined to speak or to
tell me Of the cause Of her downfall. She
did not close her eyes. but lay with her
eyes dxed on the opposite wall. Toward
dawn she suddenly broke the long silence
by saying, musingly:
1--WE don't know what has been done In
the old time by them that lived here, nor
what their punishment is
Hush, hush!' I answered, unwilling
70 encourage her talking, aud to change
the unwholesome current Of her thoughts
drew aside the window-curtain. A faint,
pallid light was already tirgeing the east,
the token Of the coming day. The
night seemed to calm the girls worn-out
nerves. She drew o long, wearys sigh like
. tired child, and in q few moments
dropped into q deep sleep. When Alice
ewoke on Sunday morning she proved SO
feverish that I kept her in bed, and a
question which she asked ME in the course
idea that she must be worse than I had
thought her.
Mamma, she asked, who is the pretty
young lady that stands sometimes in the
door at the head Of the stairs, and looks
at me 8 with her great dark eyes? I kept
thinking Of her all the time; she seems SO
Sad and sorrowful that I can't forget about
her
II supposed the child was light. headed
from fever, and gave her some trifiing III
swer. About ten o'clock, as I was passing
through the upper hall, / saw that mys-
terious door swing back upon its hinges
fat against the wall, exposing, the pail:
like badness Of the evening before. !
did not hesitate. Fortunately my feet
we're Glad in slippers which mufied my
football, aud, making as little noise as
ps possible, !. stepped 9 ao to the as.,l landing nd ! e.
opposite side, and advanced some PAGES
In the darkness along the hallway Of the
extension, when I could touch with my
hand the casing ct the top of the narrow,
crooked stairway / have before mon
toned. I paused, and, leaning against
ths xall, turned so as to command view
Of the door which ! judged must still be
open, since I had not heard It shut.
Strangely enough, I could see nothing in
any direction. I knew that . lamp was
burning dimly in u upper hall, in .