The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-11-21
THE PHANTOM TOE.


@ strange adventure. There was some
i thing IN its immense size, heaviness and
I gloom that seemed to annihilate at one
/ blow all my resolute skepticism as regards
supernatural visitations. Tt appeared to
! me totally impossible to 60 into that room
and disbe15eve in ghosts
The fact is, had incautious1y parta ken
at supper Of that favorite Dutch dish,
sauerkraut, and suppose it had disagreed
with me and put strange fancies into my
head. Be this as it may, I only know that
after parting with my friend for the night
/ gradually worked myself up into such a
state of fdgetiness that at last wasn't
sure whether hadn't become a ghost my
self
Surprising" ruminated T. s.supposing
the landlord himself should be practical
robber and should have taken the lock and
bolt from off this door for the purpose Of
entering here in the dead of the night, abb
stracting all my property, and perhaps
numbering me! / thought the dog had
very cutthroat air about him. = Now, had
never had any such idea until that mo
ment, for my host was tat (aH Dutchmen
are fat), stupid looking fellow, VINO I
don't believe had sense enough to under
stand what robbery or murder meant,
but somehow or other, whenever we have
anything really to annoy US land it cer-
tainly was not pleasant to 60 to bed in a
strange place without being able to fasten
ones door,, we are sure to aggravate it by
myriads Of chimeras of our own brain.
So, on the present occasion, in the midst
Of a thousand disagreeable reveries. some
Of the most wild absurdity, I jumped very
gl0olniIy into bed, having first put out my
candle 9for total darkness was far prefera-
bic to its Pickering, ghostly light, which
transformed rather than revealed objects)
and soon fell asleep, perfectly tired out
with my days riding.
How long lay asleep don know but
I suddenly awoke from a disagFeeabIe
dream Of cutthroats, ghosts and long,
winding passages in haunted inn. An
indescribable feeling such as I never be-
fore experienced hung upon me. 1t seemed
as if every nerve in my body had a hum
bred spirits tickling it, and this was ac-
c0mpanied by so great heat that, in
wardly cursing mine hosts sauerkraut and
wondering how the Dutchmen could en-
dure such poison, I was forced to sit up in
bed to cool myself The whole of the room
was profoundly dark, excepting at one
place, where the moonlight, falling through
O crevice IN the shutters, threw straight
line Of about an inch or 50 thick upon tho
foor-clear, sharp and intensely brilliant
against the darkness. leave you to con
ceiye my horror when, upon looking at
this said line Of light, I saw there a naked
human toe-nothing more.
For the first instant I thought the vision
must be some effect of moonlight. then
that I only half awake and could not
see distinctly So I rubbed my eyes two or ]
three times and looked again. Still there
was the accnrsed thing-plain distinct,
movable-narblelike in its dxedness I
and rigidity but in everything else horri- +
bly, human.
am not an easily frightened man. No
one who has Travelled 50 much and seen 50 /
much and been exposed to SO many dan
gers as / can be, but there was something f
SO mysterious and unusual in the appear
ance Of this single toe that for d short time {
I could not think what to be at, 50 I did 4
nothing but stare at it in q state Of utter
bewilderment.
At length. however, as the toe did not
vanish under my steady gaze, I thought +
might as well change my tactics, and re
mem berlng that all midnight invaders, be i
they thieves. ghosts or devils, dislike moth
Ing 50 much as a good noise 1 shouted out +
in q loud voice:
who's theres''
The toe Immediately disappeared in the 4
darkness.
Almost simultaneously with my words .
I leaped out Of bed and rushed toward the .
place where had beheld the strange ap
pearance. The next instant ran against
something and felt an iron grip round my
body. After this | have no distinct recoI-
lection of what occurred, excepting that q
fearful struggle ensued between me and
my unseen opponent; that every now and
then we were violently hurled to The floor,
from which we always rose again in an
instant, locked in deadly embrace. that
we tugged and strained and pulled and
pushed, I in the convulsive and frantic en-
l had discovered that the intruder was q
human being) actuated by some passion
Of which I was ignorant; that we whirIed
round and round and round cheek to
cheek and arm to arm, in fierce contest,
until the room appeared to Tvhiz round
with Us and that at last a dozen people
(my fellow traveller among them) reused, T
suppose. by our repeated falls came pour
ing into the room with lights and showed
me struggling with man having nothing
on but shirt. whose long, tangled hair
and wild, unsettled eyes told me he was
insane And then. for the first time, I be-
came aware that I had received ID the con
dict several gashes from a knife, which my
opponent still held in his hand.
To conclude my story in few words
(for dare say all of you by this time arc
getting very tired), it turned out that my
midnight visitor was a mailman who was
being conveyed TO a Iunatic asylum at The
Hague, and that he and his keeper had
been obliged to stop at Delft on their way
The poor fellow had conrrived during the
night to escape from his keeper (who had
careIessIy forgotten to lock the door of his
cham ber1. and with that Irresistible desire
to shed blood peculiar to many insane peo-
PIE had possessed himself Of 2 pocSerknite
belonging to the man who had charge Of
him. entered my ROOM which was most
likely the only one in the house unfasten-
cd, and was probably meditating tile fatal
stroke when / saw his toe in the moon
light, the rest Of his body being hidden in
the shade.
After this terrible freak Of his he was
watched with much greater strictness, but
ought to observe, as some excuse for the
keepers negli gence, that this was the first
act Of violence he had ever attempted
Exchange.
A rronhet