Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1890-04-11

elephant hunting, and even gorilla
hunting.
al remarked that such animal were
dangerous game.
'He smiled: oh mol man is the
worst Then he laughed outright. q
big Englishman laugh. I've hunted
men good deal, too. he said. Then
he spoke Of weapons. and invited me
into his house 60 show me different
kinds OF guns.
"His parlor was hung with black
elk embroidered with gold. Great
| yellow flowers sprawled over the SOM
bre material. as brilliant as a fire. He
ann ouuced that it was Japanese
stuff.
But in the middle OF the largest
panel strange thing caught my eye.
On square OF red velvet there WIS a
black object. drew near; it was a
| hand, q mans hand. Not n skeleton
hand, white and clean, but n dried-up
black hand. with yellow nails, start
ing muscles, and traces OF blood that
was like mud on the clearly cnt off
bones. severed as with an AK near the
middle OF the forearm. Around the
wrist an enormous iron chain, riveted
and soldered to the uncleanly limb.
fastened it to the wall by staple
strong enough to hold an elephant.
al asked what it was. The English
man cody answered.:
THAT was my dearest foe. He
came from America. That was cut
off with a sword, and the skin scraped
of with flint and dried in the sun for
eight days. Pretty good for me,
wasn't it.
81 touched the remnant OF human.
ity, which must have belonged to q
Colossus. The immoderately long
fingers were attached by enormous
tondons. to which shreds OF the skin
still adhered. The hand was trightiul
to behold, flayed as it was; it natur.
ally suggested a barbarous revenge.
1.-The man must have been very
powerful said /.
"'Oh. yes said the Englshman,
! gently, but ! was stronger than he
was. put that chain on it to hold
it,
"Thinking he was testing, said:
The chain is rather useless now.
! The hand won't get away
"Sir John replied, seriously: It's
always wanting to get away. The
chain is necessary.
al gave him a quick look, wondering
whether he was mailman or n prac.
teal Joker. But his face remained un-
moved, calm, and kindly. | changed
the subject, and examined his guns.
noticed, however, that three loaded
revolvers lay in different places on
the furniture. rs il the man lived in
constant fear OF an attack.
81 called on him several times, and
/ then went no more. Every one had
grown accustomed to his presence,
and consequently wholly indifferent
to him.
"a whole year went by, when one
morning my servant awakened me
with the news that Sir John Rowell
had been assassinated in the night.
Half an hour later entered the Eng
lishman's house with two police ofiici-
ais. The French valet, frightened
and overcome, was wringing his hands
at the door. He was tie man l first
suspected, but he was innocent.
1.-The murderer was never discover.
ed.
Entering Sir Johns drawing. room,
i at once perceived his body lying
stretched on the floor in the middle
oil the room. His coat was torn, one
sleeve was wreuched of and hanging,
everything gave evidence OF a terrific
struggle. The Englishman had been
strangled to death. His black, swollen
face expressed the most horrible fear;
he held something between his clench-
! cd N.aAh ,,1 hio thrnaf MI r,a1
with five bleeding holes as if made by
iron points. A surgeon joined us,
and examined the fincer.marks IN the
flesh. He uttered the singular words:
al should say he had been stran-
gled by skeleton
al felt the chi'ls run down my back.
and glanced up at the wall where /
had seen the horrible fayed hand.
ut was there no longer! The chain
hung broken.
81 bent over the corpse. and found
in it's teeth one of the fingers of the
vanished hand, cut, or rather shaved
of by the teeth Just at the second
joint.
"The inquest was held, but nothing
was discovered. No door had been
forced, no window opened, no furni.
ture displaced. The two watch dogs
had not Weakened.
1.-THE servants testimony was about
as follows: For month past his
master had appeared troubled. He
received a great many letters, which
he burned as fast rs they came. Often
picking up ridding-whip in a rage
that approached insanity, he would
lash the dried hand that was fastened
to the wall, and which had been re.
moved SO mysteriously the night of
the crime. He went to bed very late,
locked himself in carefully, and always
kept weapons close at hand. He
would often speak out loud at night
as il he were quarrelling with some
one. On the night in question, as it
happened, lie made no sound, and it
was only when the servant came to
open the windows that he discovered
Sir John had been assassinated. He
had no suspicious OF anybody. I re-
ported the whole matter to the prop
er authorities, and the island was
minutely searched. Nothing came to
light.
Now, one night. three months after
! the crime. had n friphtful nightmare