Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1896-11-27

was utterly exhausted and gladly
loosod my mold.
captain Jill stood holding the ends
of he cord that bound the invisible
twisted round his hand, while before
him, self supporting, as it were, was
the cord laced ard iuterlacod and
stretching tightly around a vacant place.
lie paused for IA minute rs though
trying 10 decide what was best To he
done, and then, suddenly bending over,
he lifted the thing in his arms and
dropped il with gesture Of di-gust on
the cot. There was do souDd Of
heavy body aligh'n'g on the not over
soft couch and the strong framework
creakcd aud trombl.d. A deep impress
sion marked itself distinctly on the COW
erings.
va rcma.acd silent tor some time,
listening 70 80 lcE-. i-rerrl breath
ings Of the c,ootvrn on tho cot and
watching tho rustic f The blankets as it
imr9iontly struggled 10 free itself OF
confinement Thon Hin spoke;
Prank, this is awful.
ayes, awful.
"But not unaccountablc.
Not maccountablel What do you
mean? Such a thing has never before
occurred since the creation of man. Cod
grant that ! arn not mad and that this
is not an insane fantasy"
"Let as reason little, Frank Here
is solid holy which we touch, bat we
cannot see. The fact is so unusual that
1t strikes Us with terror Is there no
parallel, though, for such a phenome-
non: Take piece Of pure glass. 1t Is
tangible and transparent. A certain
chemical coarscncss Is all that prevents
its being SO utterly transparent as 10 be
totally Invisible. II is not theoretically
impossible, mind you, TO make a glass
which shall not reflect single ray OF
light--a glass 50 pure and homogeneous
in its atoms Jhat the rays from the sun
Will pas, through it as they do through
the air. retracred but not reflected. We
do not see the air and yet we feel it. "
That's all very well, captain; but
these are inanimate substances Glass
does not breathe air does not breathe
This thing has a heart that palpitates--
Will that moves it-lungs that play
and inspire and respirc. -
"You forget the phenomena Of which
we have SO often heard Of late, " an
swcred the captain gravely AT the
meetings called spirit circles, invisible
hands have been thrust into the hands
of those persons around tie table
warm, Aosh,y hands that seemed to
pulsate with mortal life.
"What Do you think, then, that
this thing is
81 don't know what it is, " was the
solemn reply, but, please the gods, |
Will, with your assistance, thoroughly
investigate il. "
The next morning the captain and I
racked our brains to discover some
means BY which we might get some
idea of the shape and general appear
ance Of the enigma. As we'll as we
could make out by passing our hands
over the creatures form, its outlines
and lineaments were human. There was
a round, smooth head, without hair;
nose, which. however, was but little
elevated above the cheeks; mouth and
hands and feet like those of boy
A happy thought struck me- We
would take plaster of paris cast of it.
This would give us the solid figure and
satisfy all our wishes.
But how to do it? The movements Of
the creature would disturb the setting
of the plastic covering and distort the
mold
Another thought. Why not give it
chlororform? The thing had respiratory
organs That was evident by its breath
ing. Once reduced to IA state Of insensi.
bility, we could do with it as we would
This was no sooner thought Of than
it was agreed TO and the guide dis
patched To the village for chloroform
and the necessary materials for taking q
plaster cast, and with strict injunctions
TO waste no time in going or returning
At noon Of the fourth day he returned
with the materials ordered Five min
utcs thereafter we were enabled TO re-
move the letters from the creatures
body, and the captain was busily en-
gagged in covering the invisible form
with the moist clay. III ID minutes
more we had mold, and before evening
a rough facsimile Of the mystery.
1t was shaped like a man-distorted,
uucouth and horribe-bUt still man.
1t was Small-not over feet 6 inches
in heiRht--and its limbs revealed a
muscular development that was without
q parallel It's face surpassed in hidcous-
nc,s any,n4us lAnad oSor seen. ItN,Ss
the physiognomy of what / should fancy
"A ghoul might be. Ii looked as if it was
capable Of feeding on human fcsh!
Having slti fled our curiosity, it be-
came question what was to be done
with our enigma 1t was impossible
that we should take such horror with
US ON our return TO civilization, and we
were exceedingly reluctant to turn such
an awful being "a the world again.
1t was finally decided that we would
carry il some distance down the moun
tain TO "A small lake AMI there drown it.
But fate willcd otherwise. We had not
covered quarter Of the distance 70 the
lake, when by some means the cords be-