The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1896-10-23
EBENSBJJRG, PA. FRIDAY, OCTOBER %, 1896


your death / laughed carelessly, yet
somehow my heart misgave me, and it
was weeks before l could get over n GER
tain apprehensive uneasiness that pur-
sued me even IN my dreams.
Il spent the ensuing winter and spring
in Stockholm; but with the return of
another summer my friend in the coun-
try invited me most cordially to repeat
my visit at his fine old estate, and as |
knew he really wanted me to come, |
had neither heart nor reason to decline.
''The weather during July was eN-
ceedingly warm, and during our fire.
quent fishing trips to Lake Fryksdal
my friends and / often refreshed our
selves by taking a dip in the clear wa
tiers. One afternoon. as we were fish
ing off shore near the place where |
had shot my eagle, | said to my host
with bantering triumph: We'll, a year
has passed. and haven't seen the ghost
of that sacred eagle yeti
Never mind was the reply, you
will see it yet. Mark my words. 1t
will come TO you some time when you
least expect it
81 laughed and proposed that we take
a swim, as the sun was getting up very
all. My friends assented, SO we un
dressed and plunged into the lake. I
dove straight down, and, catching hold
of the jagged end of a large rock, opened
my eyes to look about me for mo
ment.
Never. if live to he hundred, will
the sight that met my eyes at that in
stant be effaced from memory. Coming
Il s-tla With
credible swiftness, was the bleached
and snowy skeleton of n gigantic bird,
with wings outstretched! 1t made no
ripple. no pulsation of the water. 1t
seemed to have no means of propulsion,
for the ghostly wings were rigid and
motionless. Yet on it came, swift and
still; and, to my Mortified Imagination,
in the whited sockets of the skull
CLEANED those same reproachful, con-
demning eyes which the dying eagle
had turned upon me a year ago.
ITO say that | was fairly paralyzed
with fear but inadequately describes
my condition. Though beginning to
suffer for lack of air, | could not to
save me have let go my grasp of the
rock. [ was fascinated, enchained-
Every muscle in my body was rigid and
that horrible. mysterious specter was
coming toward me, and L could neither
avoid il or ward it off.
How long / clung there, suffocating
and helpless, | know not. / only know
that, just the water-ghost was about
to strike me in the face. a 1.-THE, white
form flashed in between, strong hand
seized my arm and was dragged forci-
|. L. r, l..
Then lost consciousness. and the next
thing | remember was being rolled over
and over on the back and punched in the
ribs, and then opening my eyes on the
pale, anxious face of my friend who had
dived down and saved me.
when, an hour or two later. | told
him the story of my deep-water ap-
arition, he smiled incredulously, even
as he said: Did not tell you you would
see it some time?'
But the mystery was solved a few
days later, when, picking up a Stock
holm paper, l read the following para
graph:
"A CHASTITY TROPHY
a recent writer tells what may he
truly regarded as one of the most curious
incidents of natural history. In some Of
the Swedish lakes, he says. large birds
of prey are i'm the habit of swooping down
on the pike basking at the surface of the
water. In these cases. if the pike he more
powerful than the bird. the latter. unable
to eXtricate his talons, is borne to the bot
tom and drowned Incredible as the story
seems. Eckstrom, Rev. Mr.. MoIler, and
other writers, state that the flesh of the
pike heals with the talons of the bird ir
its back, while the bird becomes converted
into skeleton, which is carried about by
the pike one skeleton, which had long
been exhibited by a pike in Lake Wetter.
had acquired greenish tinge and was
regarded by the fishermen as 4 harbirger
of misfortune
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