The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-09-15

terror IN her dark eyes as suddenly he
raised the great knife in one hand, hold
ing the other over her mouth--to stop her
screaming, / suppose.
But he did rot, as | expected, plunge
the knife deep into her heart. No, he
lifted the pillow. like another Othello,
and pressed IL down, down upon her, till
| felt as IL myself were being suffocat-
ed Then be lifted II up again and lail
her down, and as he did so and turned
away. laying the knife beside her on the
bed, l saw .his face-a dark, evil, devils
face. 1t seemed to glover at me out of
the brilliantly lighted glass just for sec
ond, and then | saw his every feature
the black, evil eyes, the hard mouth, the
low forehead, oyer which straight lock
of black hair fell | saw how he lifted his
hand to. push the hair out of his eyes
and then, all at once, the light faded out
OF the glass and could see no more.
The room Was ~ darkness, and, sick
with horror. shiyering with horrible
dread, erept into bed dgain. l did not
sleep another wink. could only lie and
puzzle over the grewsome thing / had
seen and speculate over again as to its
cause or its object. But arrived at no
solution, and never in my life have /
been so thankful as i was that morning
to see. the gray dawn steal through the
veGetians and to hear the birds calling to
each other in the garden below.
My wife remarked on my appearance,
which was certainly not altogether fes-
tive. Avoiding rs best could my wife's
anxious questions, I dressed hurriedly,
being above all things anxious that she
should never know of the horror l had
seen in that hateful glass. | went down
stairs as soon as l could and sought out
the owner Of the hotel
He was not master of my language,
but fortunately / am familiar vita his,
and asked him quietly, but with a good
deal of lordly severity, to explain my
extraordinary experience Of the previous
night
l think he meant at first to deny all
knowledge of the phenomenon. but he
had turned yisibly pale at my allnsion to
It and obviously knew all that was to
be told. And, with a little more brow,
beating, got it out of him. He apollo
gized most humbly and profoundly for
having put US into that room; but, as he
explained, the hotel was so full that it
was unavoidable. He then went on to
tell me that some time before an Italian
lady and gentleman, husband and wife,
had occupied the room we had slept in
and the one next to it, whose door was
opposite to my wife's bed. On the morn
ing after their arrival the husband had
reused the whole hotel, declaring wildly
that his wife had been murdered, which
had indeed proved to be the case There
lay the lady, stone dead, knife beside
her on the bed-one of the hotel knives,
my host explained in an injured voice
and her husband nc w mad with grief
and horror But tn VIC thing was
that, though the knife lay u e, no sign
was visible of its having been used. The
poor lady bad evidently been suffocat-
ed. The husband, who had slept in the
room next to his wife's, said that the
door between their rooms had been open
all night; but he swore he had heard no
sound. How the murderer had come,
where he had vanished to and, above all,
why he had murdered the poor. inne-
cent lady Remained 5afe Il.