The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1892-12-31
A QUEER SHADOW.
The Wee Itory of Western Mountain


The Wee. 6tory of Western Mountain
"You c" lldn't stop 1nan from stalk.
ing out claim if the ground was not
already covered, and so, though none
of us liked the looks of this new chap
who car ,lin on us at Strawberry hall,
we couldn't gainsay his stalking out and
putting up rude shanty. We soon
| discovered that his looks did not belle
him You'd expect to find some bad
men in the mines, but this man, whom
we soon niclxnamed Satan, was worse
than any dozen of them put together.
The way he would curse God and man
YVES something awful to hear, and we
sometimes wondered why the wrath of
Heaven was not visited upon him. We
ostracised and outlawed him, but he
would not go away. Only the fear that
we would string him up kept him from
| doing murder, for he he'd a temper like
wild beast. One day, after dinner,
and after spell at cursing and revil-
ing, he went down into his claim and
fired blast, which blinded him for
ever. Then he became worse than be-
fore. His cursing and raving became
SO constant that we built him shanty
on the rocks half a mile away and led
him to it. Three times day man
was sent up with his meals, and this
continued for weeks and weeks. For a
long time there was no change in his
health or disposition. Then he began
to grow thin and wan and to cease
cursing, and one evening he asked of
the man who brought his meal:
Jim, is thar trail leading up here
from camp?'"
"'No,' was the reply.
"'If anybody was comm down the
trail from Top Notch how would they
hit me?'
"'Why, strike across about forty rods
above camp
"'And the door faces that way%
"'Yes.'
"'How's the nights now, Jim?
"'Full moon and bright as day.
"That was about all that was said,
| but wish to tell you here that when
Satan was blinded his eyelids were
closed fast. He could never open them
after that, except he used his fingers.
There was an injury to the muscles
controlling them as well as to his vision.
Day and night were alike to him. On
| that very night, about half an hour
| after midnight, prowling wolf dis
turbed our camp and routed out three
or four men. They were driving the
beast away, when they looked up and
saw shadow on the Top Notch trail.
1t was as light as day, and there was
| no question in their minds was a
queer shadow 1t had the shape of a
little old woman bent over with age,
| and it foated about in an uncertain
| way. The three or four men passed
from tent to tent, and before long sixty
or seventy of us were out and had our
eyes fastened on the queer thing. BY
| and by it foated over the rocks and
shrubs toward Satan's shanty, and every
man of us followed it to the door and
| beyond with his eyes,
"'1t's a woman-an old womanr
whispered score of men.
But what can woman be doing
here?
"One or two suggested that somebody
go up to the shanty, but no one volun-
teered. There was something so queer
and uncanny that nobody felt like
| making a closer investigation. 1t was
| ten minutes after the figure entered
the shanty before it reappeared. It
passed over the same ground, in the
same peculiar way ,and as it reached the
trail it halted a moment as if looking
| ho or O,vr auao fp11ouya1 49, AZ
plain, broad trail until it grew fainter
and fainter, and finally dissolved
"sWhat did it look like to you?' asked
one man of another.
| "'A little old woman, bent and fee
ble,' was the reply.
."All had seen alike You NAV ask
why some one didn't pursue. No man
had ever seen living woman on that
trail, or expected to. This was a
woman, and yet it was not It's pres
ence cast an awe upon everybody.
Some of the men returned to bed, and
others gathered together in groups here
and there and talked in whispers until
daylight came. There were fifty men
who went up in a crowd to Satan's
shanty. They found him fully dressed
and seated in the door, and he had been
dead for hours. Perhaps you expected
that but let me tell you his eyes were
wide open, his vision seemed to have re-
turned, and he was looking across to
Top Notch trail just as any living man
would-aye, looking and looking, and
his face had softened and smile had
crept over it and been held there by the
| fingers of death.
'"It was the spirit of his mother!'
whispered the men as they looked into
the face of the dead man, and so we
have ever believed. IN. Y. Sun.
Trimming of Princess Dresses.
Graceful princess dresses of auburn