Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-14

She door opened, and Tress came in again.
"By the way, Pugh, there is one thing L
might mention, especially as l know II won't
make any difference to you"
THAT depends on what it is. II you
nave changed your minG, and want the pipe
back again, 1 tell you frankly that it won't.
In nv opinion, thing once given is given
Ior good
Quite so; 1 don't want 1t back again.
You may make your mind easy upon that
point. 1 merely wanted to sell you why !
gave it you"
''You have told me that already"
"Only partly, my dear Pugh-only
partly. You don't suppose 1 should have
given you such pipe as that merely be-
cause it happened TO be drugged? Scarcely
gave 1t to you because 1 discovered from
indisputable evidence, and to my cost, that
it was haunted"
"Haunted?"
''Ees, haunted Good day."
he was gone again. 1 ran out of the room,
and shouted after him down the stairs. He
was already at the bottom of the flight.
''TresS! Come back! What do you mean
by talking such nonsense?"
"OF course it's only nonsense. We know
that that sort of thing always is nonsense.
But if you should have reason to suppose
that there is something in it besides nom
sense, you may think it worth YOUR while to
make inquiries of me. But won't have
that pipe back again in my possession on
anv terms-mind that"
The bang of the front door told me that
he had gone out into the street. let him
90. 1 laughed to myself as Ire-entered the
room. Haunted! That was not bad idea
of his. l saw the whole position at
glance. The truth of the matter was that he
did regret his generosity, and he was ready
10 60 any lengths if he could only succeed
In eajoling me into restoring his gift. He
was aware that / have views upon certain
matters which are not wholly in accordance
with those which are popularity supposed to
be the views of the day, and particularly
that on the question OF what are commonly
called supernatural yIsitations l have a
standpoint of my own. Therefore it was
mot bad move on his part to try TO make
me believe that about the pipe on which he
knew l had set my heart there was some
thing which could not be accounted
for by ordinary laws. Yet, as his
own sense would have told him it
would 90, if he had only allowed himself to
reflect 'or q moment tire move failed. Be-
cause / am not vet so far gone as to suppose
that pipe, a thing of meerschaum and OF
amber, III the sense in which 1 understand
The word, could be hauuted-a pipe, a mere
pipe.
"Hollo! 1 thought the creatures legs
were twlned right round the BOWL"
l was holding the pipe in my hand, re-
garding it with the afectionate ewes with
which cOnuOisseur does regard curio,
when l was induced to make this exclama-
tion. l was certainly under the impression
that, when | first took the pipe out Of the
box, TWO, il not three, of the feelers had
been twined about the bowl-twined
tightly, so that you could not see day
light between them and it. Now
they were almost entirely detached, only the
tips touching the meerschaum, and those par
ticular feelers were gathered up as though
the creature were in the act of taking
spring. OF course l was under a misappre-
hension. the feelerS couldn't have been
twined though, a moment before, l should
have been ready TO bet a thousand to one
that they were. Still, one does make mis-
takes, and very egregious mistakes. at times.
AT the same time, l confess that when l saw
that dreadful looking animal poised on the
extreme edge of the bowl, for all the world
as though it were just going TO spring at me-
waS i little startled. l remembered that
when l was smoking the pipe did think
sa the uplitted tentacle moving, as
though 1t were reaching out at me. And
l had = clear recollection that Just as
had been sinking into that strange state of
iUnconscIousness, l had been under the i'm
preston that the creature was writhiug and
twisting as though it had suddenly become
instinct with life. Under the circumstances
these reflections were not pleasant. ! wished
! iTress had not talked that nonsense about
7 the thing being haunted. 1t was surely
sufficient TO know that 1t was drugged and
poisonous without anything else.
! replaced 1t in the Sandalwood box. |
l.. l-.,I- IL ~ n,,s.
from the question as to whether that pipe
was or WAS not haunted, L know it haunted
me. II was with me, IN fgurative-which
was worse than an actual-sense, all the
day. Still worse, it was with me all the
night. 1t was with me in nv dreams.
Such dreams! Possibly 1 had not vet
wholly recovered from the effects of that in
sidious drug, but, whether or no, 1t was
very wrong of Tress to set my thoughts into
such channel He knows that am of a
highly imaginative temperament, and that |
II is easier TO get morbid thoughts into nv
mind than to get them out again. Before /
that night was through l wished verv
heartily that had never seen the pipe 1
awoke from one nightmare to fall into an
other One dreadful dream was with me all |
the time-of a hideous, green reptile which |
advanced toward me out of some awful
darkness, slowly, inch by inch, until it
clutched me round the neck, and, gluing its
lips TO mine, sucked the life's blood out of
my veins as it embraced me with Shiny
hiss. Such dreams are not restful. 1 awoke
anything but refreshed when the morning
came. And when l got up and dressed
felt that, on the whole it would perhaps
have been better if l never had gone to bed.
My nerves were unstrung, and / had
that generally tremulous feeling which is, l
believe, an inSeparable companion of the
more advanced stages of dipsomania. 1 ate
no breakfast. / am no breakfast eater as a
rule, but that morning ate absolutely moth
ing.
"If this sort of thing is to continue, will
let Tress have his pipe again. He may have
the laugh of me, but anything is better than
this"
1t was with almost funereal forebodiugs
that went TO the cabinet in which l had
placed the sandalwood box. But when 1
opened it nv feelings of gloom partially
vanished. OF what phantasies had 1 been
guiltyl 1t must have been an entire delusion
on my part to have supposed that
those tentacula had ever been twined
about the bowl. The creature was in
exactly the same position in which
had left it the day before-as, of
course 1 knew it would bei-poised,
as if about to spring. 1 was telling myself
how foolish 1 haG been 10 allow myself to
dwell for moment on Tress' words, when
Martin Brasher was shown in.
Brasher is an old friend of mine. We
have a common ground-ghosts. Only we
approach them from different points of view.
He takes the scientife-psychologic
quiry side. He is always anxious to hear
OF ghost, SO that he may have an opportu-
nsty of Showing it up