The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1894-11-06

as If with a brand. In second more
wild remorse filed his heart, min
gled with fear He arose and fed.
He had entered the house by one Of
tho long easement windows which
opened from the sitting room upon
the piazza at the side. To reach the
sitting room he must pass through
the front hall. Thither consequently
he rushed, careless now what noise
he made.
With an increase of panic, he per-
ceived that soft light pervaded the
hall. Casting his eyes upward, he
saw sight which froze his blood
There, on the landing at the elbow
of the stairway, stood the double of
him who lay white and still in the
room beyond. One hand of the figure
rested lightly on the stair rail-; the
other held aloft small candle, the
pale light of which dwelt mysteri-
j ously in the folds of the long white
robe that fell in straight, lines from
the youthful shoulders, gave strange
glints of gold to tho auburn hair that
crowned the head like an aureole
and caused the dark eyes to shine
with brilliancy that seemed super
natural.
Indeed under the soft flame of the
candle Mort looked the angel of light
which his mother thought him
sometimes. To the pitiable scamp,
a prey to superstitious terror, below
he was a visitor from another world,
whose beauty made him the moro
appalling.
Hodijah, in fact, found meeting a
ghost as discomposing as his fondest
fancy had painted. He felt cold
about the roots of his hair. His spine
seemed ice, his blood glacial stream.
He had no strength In his knees. His
eyes bulged out His feet seemed
fastened as with rivets to the floor,
and he trembled.
The two stood there moment
gazing Mt each other. Naturally Mort
was the first to recover his self pos
session. For HIM the encounter held
little that was terrifying
He was not indeed quite sure that
what he saw before him was a
gawky fellow who seemed badly
scared, though in the dim light it
seemed to be- Anyway, if the in
truder was frightened, he reflected
sagely, why should he himself be?
So, to make sure, he put out one
white foot and with questioning eyes
stepped down one stair.
The movement was too much tor
Hodijah. With gurgled yell he
sprang into the sitting room, crashed
through the window, cleared the pi-
azza at bound and sped toward the
grove of pines at the rear of the
house.
I Mort, stopping to comprehend no
more than that the enemy was in
full flight, uttered whoop of vic
tory.
"Come on, Max; como on!" he
shouted and plunged after the flying
Hodijah.
The candle went out. Mort flung
it away. His long nightgown both
ered him; but, like a racer who girds
up his loins, he gathered it about
him and away so excited he scarce
knew what he was doing. Certainly
in this moment he was an odd figure
of ghost.
The frightened Hodijah ran wildly
on. Once he looked over his Shout
der. There behind him followed the
white figure and seemed to his heat
ed Imagination fairly to fly over the
ground. Indeed Mort was close upon
his heels
With the energy of despair Hodi,
jah redoubled his pace and ran for
his life, where he cared not, until
hug! what clinging horror was this
in which he felt himself tripped and
fallen and hideously enmeshed as in
some exaggerated spiders web?
Mort saw the burglar crash head
long into the tennis back net. Then
poles, net, man, all came in one con-
fused heap to earth. Whooping like
an Indian, Mort circled about the
sprawling and kicking man. Then
he darted upon him as a spider darts
upon fly, and in three seconds more
had him so thoroughly wrapped up
and enveloped in the net that escape
was impossible,
Finally, to make assurance doubly
sure, he sat DOWN. solid ghost -
plumply on Hodijah's neck. From
this novel resting place, to an accom-
paniment of gasps and gurglos from
beneath, he began hallooing to his
brother.
Come On, Max" he called. I've
got him!'
Max, on recovering consciousness,
was at first decidedly dazed He did