St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-05-12

knotted at the throat and short sack
coat, apparently of some dark gray ma
terial. He was also splotched and
spattered with mud. In his right hand
he held bowie knife, from which
the blood was dripping. The light
from our lantern shOne directly
on, and through them, where
the light did not strike the forms; the
clearly dark and distinct, but where the
full force of the rays fell upon the act
ors In this bloody and horrid drama it
penetrated through and fell on the wall
beyond, as though through pale, blue
mist, yet leaving every minute of form
and attire clearly visible. The man had
long, black hair, falling down his shout
dorS and was bare-headed. His face, as
he stood. could not be fully seen; he
stood with his right side toward us, and
head bent down toward the woman, but
as he stopped we'could see that he had
heavy. black mustache and full beard.
We gazed upon the weird scene, horror
stricken. but powerleSS to move.
10 describe the horror which had
taken hold of me is utterly impossible;
like the damp, chilly, mouldy cold Of
the room. it was so. intense and over
ton. After standing thus for how long
l could not say, as had lost all idea Of
time, OF aught else but the fearful
vision before me. the man returned the
knife to the sheath at his side, stopped
and slowly raised the female from the
floor, and, placing his left arm around
her waist, and laying her head back
upon his left shoulder, turned and faced
us, Sbiyering and fastened to the wall
as we were. | would have given all l
possessed to have uttered one good,
strong, able-bodied yell, but L was
voicelesS and spellbound. We had
fair look at the faces. Besides the full
beard and black hair, the man had
large, piercing black eyes, which glist-
ened with
A FERoCI0US GLARE.
The woman apparently had brown
hair and dark eyes, although from the
position of her head upon his shoulder
and her eyes being half-closed. could
get but an indistinct view of them. AS
l looked at the man L could plainly dis
Germ above the right eye, between the
brow and the hair, round blue spot. as
though made by pistol bullet. and a
small stream Of blood was trickling
from it. Thus they stood for awhile,
and then, OH horror of horrors. such a
sight! Even as 1 write this. feel my
blood curdle, my hair rise and my heart
beat slowly at the remembrance. A
transformation horrible to witness oe-
Cured before my eyes. The faces and
bodies of the forms before us became
bloated and livid, as of corpses fast ap-
preaching decay; the lips were swollen
enormously and drawn back from their
mouths, the lower jaws had dropped
and the eyes had become fiShy and dead,
but yet contained certain kind of gal
vanic light which gave Semblance of
life where life had fled. The eyes were
turned full upon us with CHASTITY leer,
and, though dead and hshy. they
pierced my brain like molten lead. The
bloated lips and cleaning teeth had
malicious, deyillsh grin upon them; and |
had | not been Stupefied by the l0ath-
some atmosphere and supported by the !
invisible pressure | must have fallen to |
the floor. The tiny ball of phosphor-
escent light now appeared, and grew |
in mid-air, 1t passed in front of the |!
things and moved toward the door, the |
man following, or rather gliding, after |
it. half carrying. half dragging the hor-
rible corpse on his arm. Slowly they !
passed out the door and down the hall ,
way. The pressure was lifted from us, |
and by an irrepressible influenced can !
call it nothing else-like men in a ,
trance, we followed them to the head of |
the stairs. Down, slowly, they passed,
the hOrrid drip, drip of the ghostly |
blood from the woman's neck sounding
on the stairway. Joe's lantern still !
turned upon the unearthly pair, we
followed step by step down the stair
way. down through the hallway. AS
they neared the door it opened mechan-
ically, and, still bearing his bleeding
companion,
THE PHANTOM ASSASSIN
passed out upon the porch, down, slowly |
down the steps, down through the row |
of cedar stumps, out of the gate, which |
opened for them in the same weird |
manner as did the door. Joe and l |
passed out upon the porch and watched.
They passed out of the gate, turned to
the right and fioated slowly away into
the night and vanished from our sight.
AS they faded from view, wild, I'M
earthly peal of laughter, something be-
tween the laugh of hyena and the
scream of a panther, rang through the
house, the door slammed to with bang,
and horror stricken, trembling in every
limb, the cold DerSpiration starting from
every pore. Joe and were left outside
on the porch Of the haunted house. My
legs refused to support me. and, sink
ing to the steps of piazza, 1 sat there.
Neither of us wished to re-enter the
house. Like Murray, we had had
enough, and, after recovering our
shaken nerves, we walked to the gate
and ont upon the road.
Looking at our watches, we found it
wanted but quarter of an hour to
dawn, so walking about half a mile