The Wichita daily eagle., 1894-12-09
THE PHANTOM TOE.

1 1 j
had taken survey of my chamber. that
| should never quit it without going through
q strange adventure. There was some
/ thing in its immense size, heaviness and
/ gloom that seemed to annihilaue at one
blow all my resolute skepticism as regards
/ supernatural visitations. 1t Appeared to
me totally impossible to so into that room
+, and disbelieve in ghosts
The fact is, had incautiousiy partaken
| at supper of that favorite Dutch dish,
sauerkraut, and suppose it had disagreed
with me and put strange fancies into my
| head. Be this az il nay, only know that
! after parting with my friend for the night
gradually worked myself up into such
state of fidgetiness that at last / wasn's
sure whether hadn't become ghost my
self
"Supposine, ruminated !, "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, alb
stracting all my property, and perhaps
numbering me, 1 thought the dog had
very cutthroat air about him." Now, ! had
never had any such idea until that mo-
ment, for my host was fat (all Dutchmen
arc fat), stupid looking fellow, who I
don't believe had sense enough TO under
stand what O robbery or murder meant,
but somehow or other, whenever we have
anything really TO annoy us (and it GER
tainly was not pleasant to 60 TO bed in q
strange place without being able 70 fasten
ones door,, we are sure to aggravate il by
myriads of chimeras Of our own brain.
So, on the present occasion, in the midst
OF thousand disa2reeabie reveries. some
of the most wild absurdity, 1 jumped very
gloomily into bed, having first put out my
candle (for total darkness was far prefera-
bic to its Pickering, ghosuy light which
transformed rather than revealed objectsl
and soon fell asleep, perfectly tired out
with my days riding.
How long lay asleep don t know, but
] suddenly awoke from a disagreeable
dream of cutthroats, ghosts and long,
winding passages in a haunted inn. An
indescribable feeling, such as L never be-
fore experienced, hung upon me. It seemed
as if every nerve in my body had hun
dred spirits tickling it, and this was ac-
companied by so great a heat that, in
wardly curSing mine hosts sauerkraut and
wondering how the Dutchmen could en-
dure such poison, 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
a crevice IL the shutters, threw straight
line Of about an inch or so thick upon the
6oor-clear, sharp and intensely brilliant
against the darkness. l leave you to con-
ceive my horror when, upon looking at
this said line of light, l saw there a naked
human toe-nothing more.
For the first instant thought the vision
must be some effect of moonlight, then
that was only half awake and could not
see distinctly. So rubbed my eyes two or
three times and looked again. Still there
was the accursed thing-plain, distinct,
mmovable-marblelike in its fxedness
and rigidity, but in everything else horri- /
bly, human.
/ am not an easily frightened man. No
one who has travelled so much and seen so
much and been exposed to so many dam
gers as can be- but there was something
SO mysterious and unusual in the appear
ance of this single toe that for short time
could not think what to be at, so did
nothing but stare at it in state of utter
bcwildeTment.
At length, however, as the toe did not .
vanish under my steady gaze, 1 thought
might as well change my tactics, and re-
membering that all midnight invaders, be
they thieves, ghosts or devils, dislike moth /
ing so much as a good noise l shouted out /
in loud voice:
Who's there:'
The toe Immediately disappeared in the |
darkness.
Almost simultaneously with my words |
| leaped out of bed and rushed toward the |
place where 1 had beheld the strange ap- |
pearance. The next instant l ran against !
something and felt an iron grip round my
body. After this have no distinct recol-
lection Of what occurred excepting that a
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, in the convulsive and frantic en-
ergy of fight for life, he (for by this time
had discovered that the intruder was a
human being) actuated by some passion
of which / was ignorant; that we whirled
round and round and round, cheek to
cheek and arm to arm, in fierce contest,
until the room appeared TO whiz round
with Us, and that at last dozen people
(my fellow traveller among them) reused,
/ suppose, by our repeated falls, came pour
ing into the room with lights and showed
me struggling with man having nothing
on but a shirt, whose long, tangled hair
and wild, unsettled eyes told me he was
insane. And then, for the first time, be-
came aware that had received in the con
fict several gashes from knife, which my
opponent still held in his hand.
To conclude my story in a few words
tfor dare say all Of you by this time are
getting very tired), il turned out that my
midnight visitor was a madman who was
being conveyed TO a lunatic asylum az The
Hague and that ne and his keeper had
been Obliged 70 stop at Delft on their way.
The poor fellow had contrived during the
night 10 escape from his keeper (who had
carelessly forgotten TO lock the door Of his
chamberl, and with that irresistible desire
to shed blood peculiar TO many insane peo-
pie had Possessed himself Of pOcketknife
belonging TO the man who had charge of
him, entered my room. which was most
likely the only ore in the house unfasten-
ed, and was probably neditating the fatal
stroke when l 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 negligence, that this was the first
Bet of violence ne had ever attempted
Dangerous Experiment
a curious incident happened 10 the late