The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-12-21
A Wrcstle with the Enemy.

1t really is not surprising that in a
house with such grisly architecture
there should be uncommon experiences.
spooks is thus narrated. it being per-
haps necessary first to say that each
inquirer took a separate room for the
night. under instructions to signal to
the Others for help II necessary:
Half a hundred times, nearly, I would
doze for an instant, only to awake with
start. and find my pipe gone out. Nor
did the exertion of relighting 1t pull me
together l struck my match mechanical
ly. and with the first pL dropped off
again. 1t was most vexing. got up and
walked around the room. 1t was most
annoying. MY cramped position had al
most put both my legs to Sleep. could
hardly stand. felt numb, as though with
cold. There was no longer any sound
from the other rooms, nor from without
] sank down In my window seat. How
dark IT was growing! I turned up my Ian
tern. That pipe again, how obstinately 1t
kept going out! and my last match was
gone. The lantern. too, was that going
out? ] lifted my hand to turn 1t iIp gain.
1t felt like lead. and fell beside me-
Then 1 awoke absolutely. tried to rise.
to cry out My body was like lead, my
tongue was paralyzed. could hardly
move my eyes. And the light was sgoi ng
out There was no question about that.
Darker and darker yet: little by little the
pattern Of the paper was swallowed up by
the advancing night. A pr1ckling numb
ness gathered In every nerve, my right
arm slipped without feeling from my lap
to my side, and / could not raise tit
swung helpless. A thin, keen humming
began in my head like the cicadas on a
hillside In September. The darkness was
coming fast
Yes. this was It. Something was SUBJ
5ecting me. body and mind, to slow paraly-
SIS. physically I was already dead. II
could only hold my mind, my conscious
ness, l might still be safe, burt could i?
Gould resist the mad horror Of this ST.
sence. the deepening dark, the creeping
numbness?
1t had come at last My body was dead
could no longer move my eyes. They
were nxed In that last look on the place
where the door had been, now. only a
deepening Of the dark
Utter night; the last flicker Of the Ian
tern was gone. ] sat and waited: my mind
was still keen. but how long would it last?
There was limit even to the endurance
Of the utter panic of fear.
Then the END began. In the velvet
Olacloess came two white eyes. milky,
opalescent. small. far away.-awf,,f ewes.
AXE q dead dream. More beautiful than
] can describe, the fakes Of white flame
moving from the perimeter inward. dis
appearing IN the center, like a neyer-end-
ing flow Of opal water into circular turl-
mel. I could not have moved nv eyes. mad
] possessed the power; they devoured the
fearful. beautiful things that grew slow
1y. slowly larger. fixed on me, advancing.
growing more beautiful. the white flakes
Of light sweeping more swiftly into the
blazing vortices, the awful fascine tion
deepening In Its insane iptepsity as the
white. vibrating eyes grew nearer. larger.
Like Q hfdeous and ifnpacable engine Of
Geath the eyes Of the unknown Horror
ewesaed and expanded Until they were be-.
Ind felt q slow, cold. wet breath pro.
belled with mechanical regularity aEainst
my face, enveloping me In it, fetid rnIst.
~ IT. charnel-houss deadliness. Again and