The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1897-12-16
was suffering deeply from some undis-


| covayable malady.
The next extraordinary thing which
! he die was to visit one evening mot SO
clandestinely as to escape my watch) a
| spirit medium-eXtraordina because
he always had scoffed at the idea of
spirit communications I saw him as he
was leaving the mediums rooms. His
! face was purple, his eyes were bullying
and terrified, and he tottered in his
walk. A policeman, seeing his distress,
advanced to assist him, whereupon the
soldier hoarsely begged:
| 'Call hack. -
! Into it he fell and asked to be driven
| to his quarters. hastily assembled to
| the mediums rooms and found her ly.
| ing unconscious on the floor Soon, with
| my aid, she recalled her wits, but her
conscious state was even more alarming
than the other. At first she regarded
me with terror and cried
/ st is horrible, for you to hound him
| SOP yg nans4tfE
1 assured her that was bounding no
one. ~ - 3 @
"Oh, thought you were the spirAI
| mean-I-oh, but it was standing ex-
actly where you arep' she exclaimed.
81 suppose So" agreed, "but you
can see that am not the young mans
spirit However, I am familiar with
this whole case, madam, and if l can.
be of any service in the matter should
be glad if you will inform me. am
aware that our friend is prosecuted by
spirit which visits him frequently,
and l am positive that through you it
has informed him that the end is not
far away and that our elderly friends
death will assume some terrible form
Is there anything that can do to avert
the tragedy"
The woman stared at me in Mortified
silence. GLOW do you know these
things?" she gasped
"That is immaterial. When will the
tragedy occur? Can l prevent it?''
eyes, yes!" she exclaimed "It will
happen this very night, but no earthly
power can prevent it. -
She came close to me and looked at
me with an expression of the most acute
terror.
"Merciful God! What will become of
me? He is to be murdered, you under
stand-murdered in cold blood by
spirit-and he knows it, and l know it
If he is spared long enough, he will tell
them at the garrison, and they will all
think that had something to do with
it. Oh, this is terrible terrible, and
yet dare not say word in advance
nobody there would believe in what the
spirits say, and they will think that I
had hand in the murder!"
"Be assured that he will say nothing
about it, said, land if you keep your
tongue from wagging you need fear
nothing
With this and few other hurried
words of comfort I soothed her and has
tened away.
For bad interesting work on hand.
It is not often that one may be in such
a murder as that. l ran to a livery sta
BILE, secured swift horse, mounted him
and spurred furiously for the reserva-
ton. The hack, with it's generous start,
had gone far ON it's way, but my horse
was nimble, and his legs felt the prick
ing of my eagerness. A few miles of
this furious pursuit brought me within
sight of the hack just as it was crossing
dark ravine near the reservation. AS
came nearer imagined that the hack
swayed somewhat and that fleeing
shadow escaped from it into the tree
banked farther wall of the ravine.
certainly was not in error with regard
to the swaying, for it had reused the
dull notice of the driver. l saw him
turn, with an air of alarm in his action,
and then pull up with heavy swing
upon the reins. At this moment dashed
up and halted. +
Anything the NATTER" I asked.
81 don't know he answered, getting
down. 81 felt the carriage sway, and l
see that the doors wide open. Guess
! my load thought he'd sobered up enough
to get out and walk without troubling
me or his pocketbook. -
Meanwhile l, too, had alighted. Then
struck match, and by its light we
discovered through the open door the
"load" huddled confusedly on the floor
| of the hack, face upward and looking
altogether vulgar, misshapen and miser-
ably unlike soldier. 1t neither moved
nor spoke when we called. We hastily
clambered within and lifted him upon
the seat, but his head rolled about with
an awful looseness and freedom, and
another match disclosed CHASTITY dead
! face and wide open eyes that stared hor-
ribly at nothing.
"You had better drive the body to
headquarters, / said.
Instead of following I cantered back
to town, housed my horse and went
straightway to bed, and this will prove
to be the first information that l was
the mysterious man on horse" whom
the coroner could never find.
About year afterward | received the
| following letter-which is observed to
be in fair English-from Stockholm:
DEAR SlR-For some years l have been read
ing your remarkable psychological studies
with great interest and take the liberty to
suggest theme for your able pen. | have
I just found in library here newspaper dated
about year ago. in which is an account OF
the mysterious death of a military officer in a
hack
Then followed the particulars as l
| have already detailed them, and the