The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-11-12

A QUEER SHADOW.

A QUEER SHADOW.
The Weird Story of . western Mountain.
"You couldn't stop man 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 came in 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 nicknamed Satan, was worse
than any dozen of them put together.
The way he would curse God and man
was something awful to hear, and we
sometimes wondered why the wrath OF
Heaven was not visited upon him. We
0stracised 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 had temper like
a 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
70 constant that we built him shanty
on the rocks half mile away and led
aim to it, Three times a 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 any body 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 wayT
Eyes
'How's the nights now, Jim?'
Full moon and bright as day.
THAT was about all that was said,
but i 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, a 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 a shadow on the Top Notch trail.
1t was as light as day, and there was
queer shadow. 1t had the shape of a
little old woman bent over with age,
and it hoated 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
snd by it foated over the rocks and
shrubs toward Satan's shanty, and every
man of us followed 1t to the door and
beyond with his eyes.
Its a woman-an old womanp |
whispered a score of men.
But what can a woman be doing |
here?
Zone or two suggested that somebody
20 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. 1t
passed over the same ground, in the |
same peculiar way and as it reached the |
trail it halted moment as if looking |
back. Our eyes followed it up the |
plain, broad trail until it grew fainter
and fainter, and finally dissolved.
"'What did it look like to you? asked
one man of another
"A little old woman, bent and fee |
BILE was the reply. I
''All had seen alike. You may ask |
why some one didn't pursue. No man |
had ever seen a living woman on that /
trail. or expected to. This was
and yet it was not Its pres
ence cast an awe upon every body. /
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 crowd to Satan's .
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
looking and looking, and
his face had softened and smile had
crept over it and been held there by the
fingers of death.
LIT 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.
conn 1NnlAN