Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-10-03

.shaIl we tryG" I returned, suiting my
tone to hers, and before long we both
had our heads on the pillows, and silence
reigned in the haunted room.
So complete was the silence that
believed Molly to have gone TO sleep ale
most Immediately. was rather restless
myself, but was just doing off at last,
when Molly turned over so violently two
or three times that she left me absolutely
without bedclothes. was obliged to
demonstrate. although reluctant to do so
because Of her good nature in coming
into my haunted room with me.
"You pulled all the bedclothes of
when you turned over the last time,
DEAR" I protested, gently. ST really
should not have disturbed you about it if
you had left the sheet, but"
"Pray take them ALL" she replied
shortly (Mollv's temper was rather short
sometimes). "This is a most uncom-
Portable arrangement.
"Do not be cross" suggested
calmly.
"Let US go to Sleep" she agreed.
This time nothing happened to disturb
US, and We both did go to sleep, and
slept for several hours.
When 7 next woke I did so with
start, and, trembling all over, sat bolt
upright in bed.
My breath came in quick, spasmodic
gasps, my heart beat wildly, and my
eyes became fixed in a horrid stare upon
the curtain which covered the secret
door.
Undeniably there were footsteps COM
ing slowly and stealthily down the hidden
staircase!
The fire burnt dimly in the crate,
casting an unnatural, ghostly light over
the scene, and horribly weird did that
large, oak paneled room look by that
feeble, Pickering light. Utterly power
less to move or speak, I sat there in
waking nightmare as those footsteps
came nearer and nearer, until at last they
stopped just outside the door.
tried to close my eyes; but, no! some
strange uncanny influence seemed to hold
them riveted upon the curtain, which
presently was slowly drawn aside.
Terry stealthily the thin emaciated
figure of tall woman entered the room.
Slowly and noiselessly this black-robed-
figure crossed over to one of the windows,
pulled back the curtains with long,
blue-w hite hand, and stood gazing out
ward in the soft brilliant light of the full
moon.
Still unable to stir finger or utter
single word, seemed to live lifetime,
while that shrouded figure stood there in
that weird light with its back toward
me.
Suddenly it moved, turned toward
me, and began to rapidly move across
the room toward the bed in which I
lay.
Murder and insanity were plainly
visible upon the face of the woman who
approached me. Her long cloak was
thrown back, and in her right hand she
held large and extremely awkward
looking knife. But, ah, Heaven! the
relief of it! 1t was living woman with
whom had to deal!
Another second aud I had reused
Molly, and was out of bed, struggling
with my friend, whom I SO much sur
prised by the quickness of my movements
that, with only the matter of two I'M
pleasant gashes, one on my hand and
another on hers, I succeed in wrestling
the knife from her and throwing it far
away out of the open window.
Then it merely became case of phys
ical strength, and, as I was luckily a
strongly-built woman, I held my own
satisfactorily against her, until Molly
brought everyone in the house into the
haunted room, by her screams in the cor
ridor outside it.
1t proved to be the housekeepor. who
had lived at Warneford for nearly fifty
years, and whom no one had ever con-
nected with the ghost in the haunted
room, although the servants declared
that they had always known that she
suffered from fits of insanity, but that
they had never cared to mention it,
knowing that she was a favorite and a
valuable old servant. They had believed
her to be quite harmless.
A little mistake, by the way, which
might have been awkward for me.
Heavy Damages for Railroad Injuries.
The heaviest damages that were ever