Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-01-15
IN TIE MIRAGE.

One tiger story" the man replied,
is generally very much like another "
''BuJ 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 den5, or
been dying Of thirst or seen The mi
rage?'
Yes, he said, 4 think I can lay
claim to all those things. l have been
captured by brigands, have expert
mented with hachish, have been prac-
tically dead, have seen the mirage,
and
He paused.
"Well?" she said, eagerly
Il have ALSO" he said been in the
mirage"
How can that be-" she said. 4
was taught about the mirage in my
governess days, all about the density
of the air and the temperature and so
on, but it is never real. How could you
be in a thing which practically does
not eXist?"
I'VE had been marching four days
he said, dreamiIy; 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" said the girl, leaning for
ward now, watching him intently, no
longer smiling. How long ago was
it?"
"Ton q dozen vporc aoO-whnn van
were bowling your hoop in Kensington
gardens. And most of the story is very
wearisOme, but the fact is interesting
that | was actually in the mirage"
What was it like?'
cit was a city of ghosts. They NOV
ed silently about the gray, gh0stIy
all ages and all countries. 1t had a
weird and bizarre effect. When I first
came to consciousness in the mirage,
the first thing that l saw was a city
man, silk hat, frOck coat, expanded
waistcoat, all the same gray tint, an
shadowy. He was talking with the
ghost of a beautiful Egyptian woman;
they spoke in whispers. Every one
spoke in Whispers"
Did any of them speak to yOu?"
Yes hesitatingly at first, just as
strangers do among the living They
told me that | was dead, that all these
cities of the mirage We're cities of the
dead. They fioated 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 expla-
nation, that the ship is merely the
image of a vessel out of sight | dare
say the scientific explanation is true.
but l cannot believe it because I have
experienced the other thing. | was
just as certain of the existence of the
shadow city, and of myself as shadow
in its midst of the buildings I saw. the
streets | traversed, the people to whom
| spoke. | was just as certain Of those
things and of the fact that | was dead
as l am now that l live. that 1 am in
this particular room, that | touch your
hand
She drew her hand away; watching
him halffrightened.
Why she asked, Ibid you not tell
me about this before?"
1T seems useless. The story is in
credible to every one except myself.
Besides, it is a little uncanny; l
thought il might scare YOU
Il am not so easily frightened, but
you must not go on believing it"
Belief" he said, is not a matter of
will. | was there in the mirage for
some time. l have the most distinct
recollection of it. l could take ny
sketch-book and draw you pictures vi
it."
What was it like? What did you
do there?" she asked.
There was no work and no amuse-
ment; one neither ate nor drank, Meth
erVslept nor made love. The houses
were not really inhabited; they were
like ghosts of houses perpetuated
through some strong human asSocia-
ton; sometimes one wandered through
them, but one did not live in them.
Most of the time one wandered up and