The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1890-07-24
HERALD. HI1LsBoRo, o.-THuRsDAY, JULY ~, 1890.

Bojardo's eyes ~ he turned half around,
but It might have been . mere refiec-
tion from the lamp. Lifting the slender
stick, capped with o padded chamois
ball, he struck single blow on gong.
The brazen reverberating note with its
overtones touched the chord Of fear in
my bosom. A few words from our host
to the native who answered the sum-
mons caused him to salaam deeply and
then retire.
We waited perhaps half an hour. I
did not feel like talking, and neither of
the others spoke. What was IL? Had
they quarreled2 What was the causep
What was this mysterious something?
BY degrees became conscious that
some strange presence was in the room.
At first did not see any thing, but the
native pipe-bearer arose, salaamed to q
figure, which perceived for the first
time, and then withdrew. The outline
OF this figure was plainly discernable
against the dark background. It was
that OF Hindoo. The face was stril-
ing, the eyes piercing, the skin shriv-
eled and wrinlkled like uncompressed
parchment: high cheekbones, long
silvery beard, and the head surmounted
by large white turban, completed the
picture. His robe was Of pure white,
and evidently concealed spare, though
tall, frame.
Stanton, as he half reclined on the
couch-like divan near the center Of the
room, could not see him. Bojardo sat
cross-legged little to the rear, to the
right, and the white-robed figure was
near the left corner. Bojardo asked
Stanton If he was ready, and receiving
reply in the affirmative, took q curious
green bottle, richly cut, from his vest
ure, and carefully wetting the tips Of
his fingers with the liquid it contained,
touched each of Stanton's eyelids.
Even as he did 50 the lids closed.
"Can you open your eyes?" asked Bo-
jardo.
"No; yet can control my WILL" was
Stanton's reply.
The miracle-worker, as Bojardo called
the man in white, stepped between
Stanton and myself. He made one or
two passes with his hands, and Stanton
sank back on the divan apparently
asleep. Then the strange figure began
low, grooming nasal chant in some un-
known tongue. He kept this UP for
what seemed to me an hour. /, too, be-
gan to feel sleepy, and believe should
have gone into trance had he not sud-
denly stopped. Taking a box from
under his robe he placed powder in
Stanton's nostrils, and after low in
cantation withdrew from the room. It
seemed as II l were under some spell.
could not speak to Bojardo nor feel in
clined to action Of any kind. I noticed
Stanton's face was Of ashy pallor, and his
veins were invisible beneath his deathly-
white skin. Finally Boiardo slowly
rose. Going over to Stanton he placed
his hand under the loosely-buttoned
coat over tho heart. Something in the
action aroused me, for stepped beside
him.
"IIis heart does not beat" said Bo-
jardo. Quickly grasped Stanton's
wrist. could not feel any pulse.
tore open his coat. After minute Of
breathless waiting found his heart had
ceased beating. He was dead!
"Wretchw I gasped, as, turning my
face toward Bojardo, saw his swarthy
Southern features illuminated with a
cruel smile of triumph, and realized in
an instant how easy it would be for this
man to wreak vengeance on Stanton for
giving him the lie; how easy it would
be for him to commit any crime in this
country, where the British authority was
purely nominal, and where no inquiry
would be made concerning tho fate Of
two unknown Americans. What more
/ might have said l do not know, had
not the awful old man again entered the
room. After the exchange of few low
| spoken words with Bojardo, the part Of
| which heard enough to translate was,
"return of Al Borak," the weird coniur.
| er again made few slow passes with
his bony hands over Stanton and with
drew.
All! there was movement; the mus
cles of his face were terribly distorted;
could see the blood slowly come into
the veins, and as it crcpt along each
| muscle seemed to knot itself into
iron-like stiffness. 1t was terrible.
I never witnessed so much dumb suffer
ing. The hands clinched, then slack
ened, the fingers nervously twitched,
shook loosely, rapidly and vibrated as II
under tho influence Of an electric cur
rent. could not look upon my friend.
turned my face away. When again
ventured to look around he was lying
with his eyes wide open, but apparently
in dazed condition. Isprung to his
side. He motioned me to silence. ]
helped him to sit up Bojardo bowed
and withdrew.
palmer" he said, 81 could not be-
lieve it possible; ask me nothing about
it," was all Stanton said, and, rising
from his couch, he bade me goodnight
and retired.
The affair was never afterward re.
ferred to between the two men in my
presence, and we left Bojardo's place the
next week. 1t may have been year
later when, one night in New York,
Stanton asked me to relate what
happened while he lay there in a trance.