The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-04-21
the spot l indicated. A wild cry of
horror burst from him. He had feltit!

strong piece OF cord, and the next in
slant was winding and knotting it about
the body of the unseen being that I
clasped in my arms.
Frank" he said in a hoarse, agi-
tated voice-for, though he preserved
his presence of mind, he was deeply
moved" Frank, it's all safe now. You
may let go, old fellow, If you are tired.
The thing can't move"
l was utterly exhausted and gladly
loosed my hold.
Captain Hill stood holding the ends
Of the cord that bound the invisible
twisted round his hand, while before
him, self supporting, as it were, was
the cord, laced and interlaced and
stretching tightly around vacant place.
He paused for q minute as though
trying to decide what was best to be
done, and then, suddenly bending over,
he lifted the thing in his arms and
dropped it with gesture Of disgust on
heavy body alighting on the not over
soft couch, and the strong framework
creaked and trembled. A deep i'm
preston marked itself distinctly on the
coverings.
We remained silent for some time,
listening to the low, irregular breath
ings Of the creature on the cot and
watching the rustic of the blankets as it
impatiently struggled to free itself of
confinement. Then Hill spoke:
"Frank, this is awful"
"Yes, awful"
But not unaccountable."
"Not unaccountablel What do you
mean? Such thing has never before
occurred since the creation of man.
| God grant that am not mad and that
this is not an insane fantasyl"
Let us reason little, Frank. Here
is solid body which we touch, but we
cannot see. The fact is 80 unusual
that it strikes us with terror. Is there
no parallel, though, for such a phe-
nomenon? Take piece of pure glass.
1t is tangible and transparent. A GER
tain chemical coarseness is all that pre-
vents it's being 30 utterly transparent
as to be totally invisible. 1t is not
theoretically impossible, mind you, to
single ray of light--a glass 30 pure and
homogeneous in its atoms that the rays
from the sun will pass through it as
they do through the air, refracted 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 heart that palpitates-
will that moves it-lungs that play
and inspire and respire."
"You forget the phenomena of
which we have 30 often heard of late,"
answered the captain gravely. cat
the meetings called spirit circles in
visible hands have been thrust into the
hands of those persons around the
table-warm, feshy hands, that seemed
to pulsate with mortal life."
"What! Do you think, then, that
this thing is -
solemn reply, " but please the gods,
will, with your assistance, thoroughly
investigate it."
The next morning the captain and 1
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 round, smooth head, without
hair; a 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 set
ting of the plastic covering and distort
the mold.
Another thought. Why not give it
chloroform? The thing had respiratory
organs. That was evident by its
breathing. Once reduced to state of
insensibility, 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
plaster cast, and with strict injunc-
tions to waste no time in going or re-
turning.
At noon of the fourth day be re-
oulhCu WIN luutOIlhlo
Five minutes thereafter we were en-
abled to remove the letters from the
creatures body, and the captain was
busily engaged in covering the invisi-
BILE form with the moist clay. In fif-
teen minutes more we had a mold,
and before evening rough facsimile
of the mystery.
1t was shaped like man-distorted,
uncouth and horrible-but still a man.
1t was small-not over four feet six
inches in height-and its limbs revealed
a muscular development that was with
out parallel. Its face surpassed in
hideousness anything had ever seen.
1t was the physioguomy of what 1
should fancy ghoul might be. 1t
looked as If it was capable of feeding
on human flesh!
Having satisfied 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 loose on the world
again. 1t was finally decided that we