The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-10-28

Maybe not so much-considering I'm not
] rich; considering what I've done for
them This with grovelng wheedling
and shamefaced gesture Of his head in
the direction Of the old manse kitchen.
DO you wish TO know it,"
Yes, yes, yes
We'll then, it is one-half Of everything
| you now possess, transferred to those to
whom it rightly belongs; and the abso-
Lutte conveyance of your entire interest in
| Arson Kannock's invention to his NAL
treated wife and children"
'Penruth! Penruth! This is madness!"
almost shrieked 'Struther Hammock, sink
/ ing back helplessly in his chair.
For years the madness has been yours
alone;" was the schoolmaster's quiet re-
/ Spouse, as he started to leave the room.
Don't go! Don't go, Oh, let me
think; let me thinkv' cringingly pleaded
the wretched master of Kannock Manse.
1T is good to think" said Penruth pitt
lessly resuming his place against the
] chimney-piece.
The old man turned his head from the
| light Of the candle and ground it crush
| ingly into the upholstering Of the chair.
/ He held it there for a long, long time,
/ motionless as the gray eyes which now
| rested with almost fiery intentness upon
/ him. At last he spoke in a mufied way,
without turning his face to the one he
/ questioned.
''Penruth you are a scholar; man who
! digs and burrows and thinks. Do-you-
! believe-there-are-
! Implicitly"
| The schoolmaster's face lighted splen-
! dtdly as this was said. The word came
! firmly, convincingly, almost solemnly,
| from his lips. He moved a step or two
| forward toward the huddled form in the
/ old arm chair. His head was even now
/ partly turned toward him, with a listen
! ing, eager movement, almost as to
/ scholar whom he was impressively lead
| ing to irresistible conclusions and facts.
Real ghosts-ghosts that can help or
| harm?" half whispered the mufled voice
! in the chair.
Actual, tangible, palpable ghosts?' The
! schoolmaster almost stood over him as he
| spoke. l"Struther Hammock an awful
| avenging, pitiless ghost springs from the
! grave of every wrong we place among the
shadows of the past, deeming 1t hidden
and still! 1t turks beside us, haunting
us in happiness, fiouting our power, mad
dening US into more desperate eXpedlents.
| 1t is never voiceless, never hidden, never
| still! 1t is ever present; and at last
like that face of Arson Kannock there
now!-at your window, Suuther Kan
! mock"
MY God!-You ner' shrieked the fren-
zied wretch, plunging out of the chair
past the schoolmaster to the chimney cor
/ neF Wnere. ne covered W IlLHpEl MS anu
muttering in almost imbecile and mortal
| terror.
oh, I didn't mean that! Don't go!-
| don't gon he pleaded as his inquisitor
| again turned away.
Penruth hesitated, Immediately wheeled
the arm chair close to the Pickering fire
and gently forced the ghost-haunted mas
ter of Hammock Manse within it.
II must go now. I promised to help the
| young folks with their games for a little
| it's Halloween, you know; and l must
meet my brother later at his office. We
are to meet about those papers, 'Struther
| Kannockv'
Yes. yes. yes!-the papers! Oh, yes.
yes, yes!"
He clutehed the skirt of the schoolmas-
! ter's coat almost f1ercely.
I've been thinking-I told Susan that!
am thinking. I'll keep thinking. Don't
| let Judge Penruth go to bed this night!
Bring him here, here to Hammock Manse,
alsng toward midnight. Yes, yes, yes!-
along toward midnight
Penruth disengaged himself, not with
out effort, ana moved slowly toward the
! door.
"Ponrutb! Penruth! Tell susan-tell
Bert and Edith!-tell 'em all out there!-
'Struther Hammock amt against EN-.
Tell 'em all, ali now, Penruth to dance
and sing and play games and cut up,
Fenruth. cut up. Tell EN- 'Struther Kan
| mock says that. Tell EN-"
But the schooImaster had left him with
! his incoherent pleadings; left him with
| the denominations of his cruel life, while
their remerseless wraiths goaded on his
/ despair.
The deer closed but halted an instant as
| it closed. If in that instant the darkness
! Of the ancient hallway could have been
penetrated, in Charles Penruth's face
/ might have been seen Wondrous look of
! triumph, subdued by traces of compass
sionate sadness and unalterable sternness
! and resolve.
Back in the library of Hammock Manse
| the candle sputtered and flickered upon
] the desk where countless wrongs had
| been done. The palins embers in the
! ashes of the fireplace now and then shot
| feeble tongues of fame within the cavern
Gus chimney, in faint response to the echo
! ing challenges of the blast. Like ghostly
/ l1nuckles against the panes, shuf1ed and
battered dead leaves and bits of branches
which the giant dead trees tossed furi-
ously as they dashed and cried in wild
abratlon. Ghostly voices moaningly
whimpered from cracks and crannies, or
whispered ENORMOUSLY from doorways,
inches and dark corners of the shadoUy
room.
But what is that? The old man shrinlls
from it as If the sound carried WITH it
some strange and deadly hurt. There it is
| again; clearer, louder, more penetrating
than before! No wonder it beats and
pounds the miserable frame into a with
| ing mass within the age-eaten chair. It
is the sound of innocent mirth, ever a fear
some trumpeting to bigotry, envy and
greed! ringing for the first time in half
a century now merry peal of gladness
through and through the whitened skele-
ton OF old'n hate-haunted Kaphock
! NtauSC!
But listen! There is another and more
ominous sound to Struther Kannocl's
heart. It's solemn and vibrant peal is not
half through, when the old man lunges
from his chair, grasps the chimney-piece
as II for support, mods piteously toward
the ghostly window panes and staggers
through the library door into the dark
| hallway hey ond.
A moment more and a wild soughing of
the blast, as the outer door is closed
tells that the man of coward heart and
dark purpose is beating TREMENDOUSLY
against the wind and the innumerable
phantoms Of the night, drawn by illimit-
able fear, rather than by a single strand
O. of human love or reverence, toward the
gray old church beyond the moss grown
I wall