The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1898-06-14
IN THE MIRAGE.


had grown chilly and fire had been lit
there. Wax candles burned in brass
sconces on each side of the fireplace
The girl was in white Gas she had been
that morning in the church). She lean
ed back in her chair, still smiling and
showing pretty white teeth. One hand
played with the pearls at her throat, a
gesture showing the beautiful curves of
her bare arm. The man stood watching
her. He was middle aged, tall, lean,
wiry and clean shaven. His face was
tanned. His eyes were exceptionally
dark and striking AS she looked down
at the tiger skin rug in front of the fire
she said:
Ibid you kill that?''
The man nodded.
Eyes, killed it. -
"You never tell me enough" she
went on, half jestingly, "about things
that you have done. What is the use of
being a traveller if one does not come
back laden with stories Of wonderful
things?"
Zone tiger story" the man replied,
sis generally very much like another. "
But there are other things" she
said. "Have you never been captured by
brigands, have you never been nearly
killed, or experimental with wonderful
drugs in Chinese dens or been dying of
thirst or seen the mirage?'
He sat down in the chair facing her.
His expression was one of habitual mel
ancholy, just as hers was one of con-
tinual light heartedness.
EYES," he said, ST think can lay
claim TO all those things. have been
captured by brigands, have experiment.
ed with hasheesh, have been practically
dead, have seen the mirage, and"-
He paused
"Well?' she said eagerly.
ST have also, he said, ''been in the
mirage"
''How can that be?'' she said. "I was
taught about the mirage in my govern
ess days, all about the density of the
air and the temperature and SO on.
Sometimes it is lakes of water, some
times it is city with houses and tenn
pies and people, sometimes it is feath-
cry palm trees, sometimes ships that
sail across the sky, keel upward, but it
is never real How could you be in a
thing which practically does not exist?"
"We had been marching four days"
he said dreamily. "The sun was awful
by day, but the nights were cold. 1t
was on the morning of the fifth day that
they turned ON me. They took what
there was and went, off. | was left on
the sand for dead-indeed, for some
hours must have been dead.
go ON, 4" said the girl leaning for
ward now, watching him intently, no
longer smiling. How long ago was it?'
"Ten, dozen years ago-when you
were bowling your hoop in Kensington
gardens And most of the story is very
wearisome, but the fact is interesting
that l was actually in the mirage
"What was it like?''
1T was a city of ghosts. They moved
silently about the gray, ghostly streets.
They wore the costumes of all ages and
all countries. 1t had weird and bizarre
effect. When first came to conscious
ness in the mirage, the first thing that
saw was a city man, silk hat, frock
coat, expanded waistcoat, all the same
gray tint, all shadowy. He was talking
with the ghost of a beautiful Egyptian
woman. They spoke in whispers. Ev-
cry one spoke in whispers. :"
Ibid any of them speak to your
Eyes; hesitatingly at first, just as
strangers do among the living. They
told me that l was dead, that all these
cities of the mirage were cities of the
dead They floated and drifted through
the air, settling down now and then on
the sand, as a bee might alight on a
flower, passing onward again through
space when any living being approach
ed them. Every ship that is sunk sails
again through the sky, manned by its
drowned crew.
''You are saying this seriously?" she
asked.
"Quite l know the scientific ex-
PLANTATION that the ship is merely the
image of vessel out of sight. I dare say
the scientific explanation is true, but
cannot believe it because have expert
enced the other thing. was just as GER
tain of the existence of the shadow city
and of myself as shadow In its midst
of the buildings saw, the streets I trav-
ersed, the people to whom 1 spoke.
was just as certain Of those things and
Of the fact that was dead as am now
that 1 live, that 1 am in this particular
room, that 1 touch your hand. F"
She drew her hand away, watching
him, half frightened.
why" she asked, "did you not tell
me about this before?''
sit seemed useless The story is in
credible to every one except myself Be-
Sides it is little uncanny. thought
it might scare you.
Now she laughed again, but rather
nervously.
81 am not SO easily frightened, but
you must not go ON believing it,
"Belief, " he said, lis not matter of
will Twas there in the mirage for some
time. have the most distinct recollec-
ton of it. could take my sketchbook
and draw you pictures of it. -
"What was 1t like7 What did you do
thereT she asked.
"There was no work and no amuse-
ment. One neither ate nor drank; nei-
ther slept nor made love. The houses
were not really inhabitated; they were
like ghosts of houses, perpetuated
through some strong human association
The doors stood open. Sometimes one
wandered through them, but one did
not live in them. Most of the time one
1ropdorad M opd Joxr-y, +ba o+,,oo+e Cool
ing no fatigue unconscious of heat or
cold 1t was all dead; everything was
dead There was not even very much
talking; when one spoke one spoke of
the past"-
He broke off his account suddenly.
''Now." he said, "let me tell you
about something more cheerful. {"
He told her story after story of his
travel, all that was most amusing and
most commonplace. Her laughter and
her color returned, but at the end of the
stories, when the silence came, she
abruptly said:
go oni Tell me more about the mir
age"
"You have heard enough, I" he said,
land, BESIDES the rest snot very pleas
ant. -
81 don't care for that. u she said;
'you must tell me. / want to hear it
am not bit frightened. -
And then for AN hour he went on
with the story When he had finished,
she made him take his sketchbook and
draw for her some of the faces that he
had seen there. She held the book in
her hands and sat staring at them in
tently. Suddenly she dropped the book
and shivered.
II have to do all that you ask, " he
said, "but do not think should have
let you have your own way in this
thing. You are really frightened. f"
He stepped across the tiger skin to
-. LID