Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1896-08-02

such purposes, and their own grave
| cloths, too, for that matter, winding
| sheets and things and all. Cur!s (curi-
| ous) amt it? But, Doctor, let the
strange thing thaI happened on the
night that Placide died pass now; want
to ask you one more question in these
| still wUOds-see, the sunlight is open
| ing ahead If the soul could see with
! out eyes and hear without ears, and
| leave the body and come back again, it
| has a life of its own, hasn't it now, Doc
tor? Then the living might haunt the
! living, as well as the dead the living"
Your conclusion is logical. can see
the drift of your mind. But you have
awakened my curiosity as to what
leads you to ask these questions. What
strange thing was It that happened on
the night when Placide died?"
Il can not tell you nOw-you will know
some time, perhaps. Maybe the widow
herself will tell you all about it. See
those straw hives over in that peach or
chard-they used to go and tell the bees
when people died-Uhey have some
/ queer customs in these parts. But here
we are in the open road again. You
didn't open to me much light in the
slll woOd-what are your books for?'
I had thought of these things before
It seemed strange, however, that such
queries should be haunting the brain Of
This waXy faced man. An unsteady
! light at times came into his eyes. "A
mystery of some kind was haunting
him. and. l gathered from his sugges-
! tons that 1t concerned the appearance
OF living man TO a living man at dis
tance perhaps but certainly outside the
flesh.
such objects had long interested me.
Luther. the undertaken, was be real
| man? With whom was l riding? His
hands that he told me had Studded
] many q coffin looked like the hands OF
the dead. He would look up at me sud-
denly. and then drop his eyes. He once
said-"And he went out, and IL was
night" He repeated these words SLOW
~ with an absent tone. l can hear
them now.
We passed the Nayatt woods, and the
village or town OF Darlington, when
| lovely expanse Of meadow and water
| burst uu5n our view, and out OF it rose
I dark tower and white spire. The
! tower and spire were in Warren
! The lowered church had once been
burned by the British.
The undertaken gave me another Pc
culiar lOOk. He seemed TO Be debating
| some secret resolution.
What is it?" l asked. Your hest
I fancy makes me nervous. Tell me all.
Or. Brown, you are an honest man.
I can see that. What are my eyes for,
Ia like to know? DR.. Brown, 1 have
something in here and I can cOntaip-At
no longer" He put his hand to his
head.
"Trouble?" asked I. The head is q
store house of trouble TO many people"
NO. 1t 10 a shadow in my memory,
and | wish it had never found room
there. II pushes me- 1t Will relieve the
the pressure here, If you will just let me
! give Ii up to You N confidence
a physician dos not repeat secrets
while they can do anyone harm" said l.
"Mr. Luther. you may trust me that
nothing that YOU say TO me now Shall
ever harm you"
Il know, | knOw-what is my head
for. I'd like to know? Dr. Brown
! Grant was the man VINO made up that
story and that is why he sees mysJer-
! lou. things nights. Ii was Grant him
sslf. now. Grant-just Grant himself.
| I want you to watch him at the funeral.
| He and mis- wife will be there. What is
this?"
The horse stopped.
"Hud up or l shan't get there my
self. and there never was a funeral with
out such as me. 1t takes the living to
bury the dead, and there viii never
come a time but once when there will
not be an undertaken. That is when
! the last man dies I say such things
! lust 10 tighten my mind. A true life
/ has no secrets. and needs none. The
things that You do not hear. do not see.
! and do not know do not harm you. And
here am waiting to force a secret upon
YOU. Forgive me- doctor. but l couldn't
help Il, II isn't often that meet a man
who has studied into these things
Il did not know Of the funeral said
I. and so had no intention of going TO
il. l never go to such places from mo
tives of curiosity"
But you must, now that 1 have told
YOU"
HIS familiar talk was a mystery TO
me. a kind Of frame work Of a picture
unknown.
asked. ''Wbo is Grant? Not our
Congressman?
Yes. yes. Congressman Grant. He
was elected He himself set the story
agoing that killed poor Placide, though
no one knows that but l. and now Won.
I want you TO study him at the funeral
! TODAY. and see If you discover anything
! peculiar about him. I fancy something.
can see. There IS i cloud in his mem
I ory. can see that. Grant IS Provi-
dence man: he Is coming down TO the
funeral. I hear; he and his vile. Mrs.
| Grant was a particular friend OF Plac-
ide. Grant started the Story that caus-
ed his own election, and withered poor
Placile \ wounded heart pOlsons the
blood. don't it, Dcctor?"
"What story? Tha, is what I am be-
coming impatient to hear"
well. this is how 1t was: There has
been heavy weather in politics in this
state ever since the Dorr times; light
ming, thunder. and rain! Lying IS the
last Wea-Cn Of the candidate who sees,
or who thinks he sees that he is about
10 be defeated, resorts to here. and if
| ever black lies were invented to smutch
the white character of a candidate they
were those that Grant caused to be cir
culated about Plac'de. The meanest
and most cCwardly OF all falsehOodS, and
I the hardest TO refu,e, are those that
have some small grain Of truth In them.
Louis Placide came of an old Hugue-