Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1891-02-06
PLOTTED BY A GHOST.
A LOST MAN AND A STARVING BABY
SAVED BY A SPIRIT.

wandering Horseman to the DesOlate
Home Where II Little Girl Was Slowly
Famishing-A True Story.
I checked my horse, and after one long,
straining look around owned to myself
that I was lost. l had suspected the fact
some time since, but had stubbornly fought
down the suspicion, though my horse evil
IDENTIFY realized. With patient endurance
he plodded along, resignation plainly ex-
pressed in the droop of his tail and ears.
In place of the ranch, the hearty welcome,
pleasant words, bed, supper and fire I had
expected to reach by sunset, there was
nothing to be seen before, behind, on either
hand, but the dead level of the plain.
There were paths in plenty; in fact, the
trouble was there were too many-all mar
row and winding, for whose ~meandering
there seemed not the slightest excuse, eX-
cept the general tendency to crookedness
most things, animate and inanimate, alike
possess. But it would lave taken the in
stinct of n bloodhound or a trailing Indian
to have said which paths had heen made
by horses feet or those of cattle.
Now that the sun was gone, l found my
knowledge of the point of the compass
gone with it. AS I sat perplexed and wor-
ried the gloom of twilight gathered fast,
and the chill of coming rain smote me
through and through, while in the distance
there was the roll of thunder.
SPIRIT APPEARS.
1t was now quite dark, and very dark at
that, though at short intervals close to the
horizon a faint CLEAN of lightning showed,
too distant to cast brightness on my path
and only sufficient to intensity the black
ness about me.
All at once l saw a man walking about
fifteen feet in front of me. Yes, I know I
said it was intensely dark, but all the same
l repeat it. | saw a man walking in from
of me, and, furthermore, l could see that
he was a large man, dressed in rough but
we'll fitting clothes; that he wore a heavy
red beard, and that he looked back at me
from time to time with an expression of
keen anxiety on his otherwise relaxed feat
ures.
"Hallo!" I cried, but as he did not halt l
concluded he did not hear me. As a second
hail produced no result spurred my weary
horse up to overtake the stranger. But,
though the gray responded with an alac-
rity most commendable under the circum-
stances, I soon found that this strange Pc
destrian did not intend to let me catch up
with him. Not that he hurried himself.
He seemed without any exertion to keep a
good fifteen feet between us.
Then l began to wonder how, with the
intense darkness shutting me in as four
black walls, l was yet able to see my
strange companion SO clearly, to take in
the details of his dress, and even the eX~
preston of his face, and that at Il distance
more than twice my horses length, when
I could hardly see his head before me. l
am not given to superstitious %fancies, and
my only feeling was of curiosity.
FOLLOWING 4 GHOST.
We went on in silence for nearly half an
hour, when, rs suddenly as he had appear
ed, he was gone l looked around for him,
half afraid, from his instant and complete
disappearance, that l had been dreaming,
when | perceived that | was close to a
small, low building of some sort. I reined
in and shouted several times, but not the
slightest response could l hear, and at last
l rode boldly up and tapped on the wall
with the butt of my riding whip. Then,
as this elected no sign of life, | concluded
that | had stumbled on some deserted
house or that it was the abode of my &C.
centric friend: so, dismounting and tying
the gray, | resolved to spend the rest Of
the night under q roof or to find some good
reason for continuing my journey.
felt my way along the wall till l
reached Il door, and trying this and finding
that it yielded to me, | stepped inside,
striking a match as l did so. Fortunately,
l carried my matches in an air tight case,
aad as it was dry the one l struck gave me
a light at once. found myself in Il large
room close to a fireplace, over which a rude
shelf was placed, and on this mantle l saw
an oil lamp to which l applied my match.
On the hearth was heaped n quantity of
ashes, and over these crouched a child, a
little girl of ) or 6. At the end of the
room, which was plainly and scantily fur
nished, lay a man across a bed, and as I
raised the lamp / saw that he was the same
I had been following, but there was some
thing in his attitude and face that struck
me as peculiar, and I was about to GO for
ward and look at him when the child, who
had at first seemed dazed at the light, fair
ly threw herself upon me.
"Have you anything for Nelly to eat?"
she said, and then, ooh, Nelly so hungry!!''
H DEAL MAN.
l ran my and into my pocket and drew
forth what had been a paper bag of choco-
late candy, but was now a pulpy, unap-
petizirNf II ass. | must confess to a child
ish fondness for sweets, which I usually
carry in some form about me. I handed
the remains of my days supply to the
child, and then walked over to the bed.
Yes, it was the same man, red beard,
rough clothes, but setting off the magnifi-
cent frame to perfection; the same man,
but dead, long dead.
took his hand only to find it stiff and
cold, while his face had the dull gray as
pect never seen in the newly dead. AS I
stood gazing down on him a little hand
touched mine. -
"Nelly so hungry!' said the child. -,
Have you eaten all the candy9" I asked
her.
ayes, yes! But me hungry, for me had
no dinner. no brekkus, nc supper, and
papa won't get up"
The house, which consisted of the large
room, a smaller kitchen and a shed, where
I found a quantity of hay and fodder,
seemed quite bare of food, but by dint of
searching in the hay I discovered a nest,
which Nelly informed me was there, and
in it two fresh eggs. These I boiled for
her. When she had finished I soothed her
to sleep on a bed I made for her before the
fire. Then after / had put my horse in the