The record-union., 1894-12-22

VIII IkIdb VI LhC oRCohOR
''we came prepared"
The magnate worked his lips pitifully.
ITO put your murdered Victims
! Launcey Pellew's head shook discour-
agedly ana his hands tiuttered implor-
ingly before his face.
| I'm evidence ~
Never had two words been so thrill
lngly spoken within the Great Central
ottlce building.
Never before had so ghostly a mani
festation as the one which now followed
! occurred within its walls. For scarcely
| had the solemn words "In Evidence" "
been uttered when the white faces of the
manned claimants blended into the pitchy
! black OF their garments, and as if spring
ing from among and behind and above
them, stood vast phalanx of the mangIed
dead.
More dreadful than all else was the
! hldeous mingling of limbs and bodies.
| There was scarcely a single pallid form
/ IN Its mortal entirety. One frighttul
form held leg under either arm.
Another had a leg and an arm slung Sc
curely over its shoulder. Another kepJ
It's severed form together with desperate
might with its hands. Another had
hastily adjusted an arm for leg and q
! leg where an arm should have been,
| Another seemed to possess the power 10
| nave patched itself together with its eyes
/ - AAS -JOlItSs It's ears OH IlS SHOul-
ders, and its nose beneath its chin, while
one CHASTITY phantom held its head care
! 1ully croodled beneath its shattered arm.
"Ihe President Of the Great Central to
| the tart"
The dread summons was as the one
voice OF the desperate living and the
avenging dead.
! A nlmble pair of ghostly legs attached
TO some fragments of arms, in a sort OF
| cartWheeP' movement, flew to one side
| OF the railway President, and headless
trunk, by quick somersault at the same
instant, gained his other side. Between
them they shook the now half-liieless
ofnclal INTO standing posture; while a
| collectlon OF detached and livid hands
and arms were as instantly thrust up out
! OF the darkness against his back, as if to
! Holu hlm there hard and fast.
The railway Presidents arms had al
ready lost their cunning of gesture. They
| new out aImless1y, wildly, strugglingly.
! Els erst bland face twisted and writned
IN awful contortions, in his efforts at inn
! ploflng speech; while from his blanched
and qulyering lips came hoarse gurgle
Whlch held the gaSping modulation OF,
| Mercy mercy !"
| NO more oratory, Launcey," came
from some ponderous voice among the
| specters. That was my little card, too,
before | passed over in that burning car,
SIX winters sincer'
NO; no more stories, either, Laun-
cey," was heard from another quarter OF
| the ghostly throng. "You outranked
me as story-teller before my tinis came.
when those two trains telescOped; and
I've never quite forgiven you. Well be
on equal footing, in a few moments now.
Launcey. Wen have you with us ali
for the quietest Christmas you ever
| knew, Lauucey -
Mercy! mercy :" chokingly whispered
| the railway President.
that's special pleading" offered a
thifd wrath In droniug, legal voice.
! "'llsn't recognized in our present nrac-
tlce. mat was my line, before the bridge
accident. Begging the courts pardon,
were rather quick in our present envi-
ronmenI, IN noticing these little mortal
peculiarities of Launcey."
| Mercy! mercyr' still seemed to be
volcelessly shaping by the despairing
officials lips.
"HtS gR6neSS has Rurtured despair. His
| trt0tdLttteS hare licensed untold mockeries
| 0fJWsttce. HIS SOphiStyieS haze pernttted
| the ram Of countess homes. Where has
he, or get anyone ike him, used his qyeat
CUce aid po,0er for Just c,1ld 7nercifltL
! ends"
AS one awful voice came this brief and
| dlreiul arralgnment from the phalanx OF
the dead, and still as one voice. mingling
/ the bitter Wailings of countless broken
| hearts, rose out of the darkness a cry of
lneXpresslble vengeance aud condemna-
| ton.
| Above this rose again the single voice
OF the united ghostly company.
| o~ tch0 stu hage! an ntungLed mortal
shape, 1elta th1S o6durate being as by the
! cruShiag tires Of has otgH cdY-1U6ee{s. as by
! the shattering crashing Of his o1cn rdiLiCay
| 6radgeS, and Sedr han as 6u the cruel
flames Ct h1S Olra burning cars INSTANTLY
! TRANSFORM ham into Chdt nluU eUel'
hereafter be ateiUerSaUy En0aCn GS-Ou1.
| Lduncey, tie UHreCOgRieG6te Cy0jHdlt' -
There was fierce, mad rush toward
! THIS selt-lmmolated victim upon the
BeliaL altar of colossal cooperate inhu-
| manity.
! Among the paling and flashing lights
/ where stood the hlmy dead in their mex
tricable confusion of discovered mem
| bers, every perfect finger, hand or arm
| which could be so utilized pointed in alb
horrent scorn to the now struggling and
| almost maniacal official
! The white faces OF the startling claim
| ants, rehabllltated in their repulsive sable
| forms, were flaming and scintiIIating
| with fendIshly eager expectancy and
| joyousneSs.
| Inc frantic surging upon him impelled
! the little woman i'll black against him
| first. She snatched hand from its wrist,
| tossed 1t gleefully about and toyed with it
| gloatlngIy. Scores of skinny talOnS
clutched from behind, when an arm rico
! cheted back over the heads of the mad
dened thrOng. With quick movement
the sentinel figures beside him spun him
! In the air above them like deftly tossed
| Pantaloon, and as be descended his feet
! portions of his legs and his other arm
| disappeared within the human maelstrOm
around him, while through the wailing
clamor andlbodily writings of the multi
tude, more awful than WalpurgIs Night
irrevocably gone mad, Case 799 came
vauJtlng over his companions heads like
binding, resistless fury, skirling
| shrilly: His head is mine Tor toast and
| tea! What royal fare for Launce and
met' and in an instant more the railway
Presidents head was given a violent
| wrench which sent it whirlingly un-
! screwing from his shoulders with incred-
! ible velocity; indeed, with such incon-
ceivable speed that it emitted a shrieking,
| mut11ed yell more terrible than the most
| horrible scream ever sounded from a
| Great Central yard-engine and, luckily
| for the railway President and this Christ
mas story, so indeScribably appalling
/ that both the dismembered dead and the
truncated living avengers were whiSk ed
away like the impalpaDle presences OF
some swiftly changing, unhappy dream
| 1T seemed TO Launcey Pellow that he
| had lnvoIuntarily taken on some OF the
! IrrepreSSlble qualities of his inQuistOrS:
that ne had himself become bounding
| cavorting, lim bless, headless, Unrecog-
nizable Claimant, powerless to do aught
but leap and writhe and scream; until
the whirring yell from his spinning head
at last faded out in an expiring, PIN
wheel sort of sputtered moan. And then
| followed the blessed sense of notningness
| and utter peace.
Whatever faithful Porter Bob, who
found the railway President screaming