Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1890-06-06
A MAN IN THE ROOM.


There was a man in the room.
The shutters were closed and the win
dow, as had left it, was lowered for a
space of probably six inches or more.
He must have come in, then, through the
door of my bedroom. which adjoined the
sitting room
1t had been stormy night and the
monotonous drip drop of the remaining
globules of rain came from the caves in a
mournful and irregular FLASHING. My
senses at first were in a half haze-a
drowsy and bewildered stupor was what
found myself in us first walked
Gradually my mind became clearer
The room was intensely dark; so dark,
in fact, that the peculiar illusionary buz
zing of the silence sang i'll my ears
What was to be done? 1t was midnight
and there was a man in the room.
There is something so grisly-so aw-
fully suggestive of murder-in this feel
ing Of a strangers proximity to one at the
dead OF night that experience alone can
give it its true effect. So, too, there is a
very strange and as yet unsolved riddle
in this knowledge of unseen human con-
tiguity You stand in IL street car cling
ing to a strap. Somebody behind you
wishes to advance, or needs more room.
You may be reading paper and proba-
bly, have not noticed his approach, yet
instinctively you step forward.
Or perhaps you are standing at the en-
trance of some one of the great buildings
of the city conversing on matters of i'm
portance with friend Your mind is
presumably intensely occupied, your eyes
on your companion, your lips moving
Suddenly you step aside: some one
brushes past, his shoes incased in rub
beers, and turns the corner without a
sound; certainly there was nothing that
could be heard above the rumble and
rattle of the numberless vehicles which
fill the streets with their Earring and
clangor.
Yet you knew this person wished to
pass. and that you were possibly little
in his way You had neither seen,
heard, nor touched him, but you were
nevertheless aware of him.
Take it even in the solitude of the
country. Sitting on fence in some
lonely field you are all at once appraised
-
ward you and is already quite close to
you. Now, you have doubtless been day
dreaming before this conviction came
to you, watching the sheep as they
grazed quietly down near the river or
marking the sleepy circles of some
hawks flight and midaerial poises You
We're deeply preoccupied, to be sure, and
this man came across plowed field
where his boots crushed the dry soil
and passed along as noiselessly us the
underground march of mole.
But an indetinable current of percep-
tion-a wave of lntuition-had warned
you of the nearness of a human being
Everything else was calculated to at
tract your eyes and enchain your mental
faculties. However, you turned imme-
diately and saw him standing there
smiling He had message for you.
Yet the weird message. the certainty OF
the approach of human being, who
sent that? Nay. then. can not tell you
this
1t was the same feeling that had rushed
upon lie like an avalanche as | woke
1t was midnight and there was man
in the room.
Past that hour, was it not? Let Inc
consider, for the question of time may
have peculiar significance. 1t was II
o'clock when | retired. AT 1890 the
policeman on the beat had passed Hi.
club had rung sullenly on the stone
coping. and | recollect picturing him tC
myself as he passed-a sturdy, alert blue
coat, with pistol and staff; peering into
the alleys; looking curiously at the oc
casional night lights that burned her,
and there with dim and uncanny flare
whistling not infrequently; yawning
looking up at the stars, and at interval
conimuning with himself 1t all seemed
quite ludicrous. | remember, as | lay
there. but the matter is hideously seri
Gus now What would | not give t,
hear his locust" spurn the dull pave
ment with his sonorous. challenging rap
There is something menacing in tina
sound at night to the wrong doer.
says authoritatively: WHO goes there?
If it is past midnight the patrolmal
will come again in an hour or so. Deaf
o my life! Sixty minutes? Sixty min
utes? Can | contain my patience tina
long, staring into the muffied darkness
And. indeed, what will this devil be do
ing meanwhile-this man in the room?
No! the plan of waiting for the Office
was not feasible. What if he did com
by? Would not the burglar or assassi
defer his operation until the coast wa
clear Undoubtedly. Let me reaso
this problem out carefully, even coldly
1t is, let us say, matter of life or deatl
In the first place, had been FOOLS
enough to lay my revolver on the dresse
which was twenty feet from the bee
That could only be gained by scramb