Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1895-04-20
A CURIOUS DREAM.

to stay mt Cullingham for n few weeks and
pursue our literary avocation, In which we
oqllaborated.
Ho made no favor Of IL. "Only too glad
% sec you" he said. 1--WE are very lonely,
and there IL little TO 10; no birds In the
covers, for i can't afford gamckecper,
but II you want 10 work tho place IL quiet
enough. shall not bc Mt home for day
or two, as i am going TO town and shall
pick up my daughter from "a friends house
on my way back, but william knows the
place and can show you all there IL 10 see"
Howard conducted me TO my bedroom
the first night.
II say," he said, "thcrc IL n curious
point about your room-of conrse you
don't know this rambling old place yet
you can walk round your bedroom"
"Of course / can, you crock" re
ttffncd. II can walk round any room"
"Ah, but mean on the outside. You
see, this room Is I'm tho middle of the
house, between four intcrsecting corridors,
80 that you can walk right around the four
walls"
There was nothing else remarkable
about my room. II was comfortably fur
nishcd. Against the wall opposite my bed,
and nearly under the skylight stood
large sofa, which seemed an unusual piece
of furniture for u bedroom. 1t was too big
to go through the door, and was inclined
TO think that IL must have been lowered
into tho room by derrick before the roof
was put on,
turned into bed, but found IL imposs-
BILE to sleep. A strange bed always means
several wakeful hours to me, and i Jay
with my eyes closed, listening to the old
stable clock as it savagoly changed out its
quarters and practiced every effort Of me-
chanical repetition that seemed likely TO
soothe my restless brain.
AT length gave up the attempt at sleep
IN despair and lay on my back wide awake.
began to picture to myself the most
horrible phantoms could imagine, to sec
If could make myself nervous or fright
ened thought Of figures with rolling
eyes and gibbering lips, phanooms that
carried their heads under their arms shad-
owy formless objects Of mist, but all to
no purpose. My ghosts were feeble frauds.
could not invest them with the nameless
dread, and / laughed at them.
must have fallen asleep as was thus
meditating, for when 1 next awoke the
moon was high in the heavens and shone
brightly through the skylight into my
room. My eyes at once fell on the face of
II beautiful young woman who was ar
ranging her hair mt mirror that. stood on
a table which seemed to mo to have not
been in the room when l retired. / was
about to utter an exclamation, when a
look Of terror came into her face, terror
so intense as to freeze me into an unspeak
able silence. She seemed to be listening to
noise without u the next strained mo-
ment the figure vanished.
AS was turning over to sleep again
heard light footstep in the corridor at
the head of my bed. 1t passed along the
wall and was followed by heavier though
yet stealthy tread BY this time my fac
ulties were fully aroused, and sitting up
listened intently.
Suddenly the first footsteps broke into a
rapid pattcring, as though in flight, and
the pursuer' s heavier tread was correspond
ingly accelerated. Twice they sped around
my chamber, and as they passed along the
corridor nearest to my bed I thought that
/ could hear their painting breaths
At the third round my bedroom door
flew open, and the young lady>I had seen
before dashed in and dropped exhausted
upon the sofa. She was followed by man
dressed In black, who carried a murderous
looking knife in his hand. She looked at
him imploringly as he stood over her for
an instant, but spoke never a word.
In that moment of time I could see their
faces with great clearness in the moon
light and have never forgotten them. The
girl was fair, with long hair streaming
down her shoulders, and her lovely face
was contracted by mortal terror. The man
was Of medium height, with low fore
head, a dark mustache and an expression
that reminded me, grOtesqnely enough, Of
the trademark upon the "D0mon" tennis
rackets.
was summoning up courage to spring
out of bed when the man raised the hand
that grasped the knife. saw the weapon
uplifted above his head, saw the girl
throw up her hands in despair, and then n
thick cloud passed over the moon and
placed my chamber in total darkness.
The next point in my memory following
that awful scene was loud hammering
upon my door, and William Howard s
cheerful voice demanding to know If l
meant to sleep all day. 1t was 0 o'clock
upon clear October morning, and my
bedroom looked as commonplace in the
daylight as though 1t had boon situated in
aLondon hotel. must confess that 1 cx-
amined the sofa, but found no traces of
disturbance and I dressed, feeling ashamed
OF myself for being so frightened Mt an or
,dinary nightmare. A trashy ghost story
OF Howard's, walk around the corner by
candle light and an uncomfortable bed
were materials enough to furnish 90 sim
liar dreams, and went down to break
last resolved to say nothing of my expert
ence.
During tho morning we attempted to
work at our novel, but Howard was fidgety
and restless, with the result that we nc
complished very little After lunch wo
ordered a trap from the village inn to fetch
Mr. Grosvenor's luggage from the station
and walked thither to meet his train.
Mr Grosvenoc was too poor to keep a
carriagc, his income being limited to tho
revenue from ore or two farms and his
large garden. The station, however, was
but half a mile distant, and the day being
flno we should have preferred to walk,
even had we been able to ride.
The train came In, and Mr.. Grosxenor