The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-04-09
Continued from Page Twenty-Five.


Then I heard one Of them, who by the
weight of his soft tread, must have been
the giant, cross the narrow corridor and
enter the room directly overhead-my
own little bedroom. But for the insistence
of that unaCcountable dread l had expert
enced there in the morning, l should at
that very moment have been lying in the
bed with the big Indian in the room
standing beside me.
For the space Of hundred seconds
there was silence, such as might have ex-
listed before the birth of sound. It was
followed by a long quivering shrek of
terror, which rang out into the night, and
ended in a short gulp before it had run
its full course At the same moment the
other Indian left his place at the head OF
the stairs, and joined his companion in
+he bedroom. heard the thing trail
ing behind him along the floor. thud
followed, as of something heavy falling,
and then all became as still and silent as
before.
II was at this point that the atmos-
phere. surcharged all day with the cleo
tricity of a fierce storm, found relief in a
dancing flash Of brilliant lightning sinful
taneously with crash of loudest thun-
der. For five seconds every article in the
room was visible to me with amaz-
ing distinctness, and through the win
dows l saw the tree trunks standing IN
solemn rows. The thunder pealed and
echoed across the lake and among the dis
tant islands, and the fiood-gates of heaven
then opened and let out their rain In
streaming torrents.
The drops fell with swift rushing
sound upon the still waters Of the lake,
which leaped up to meet them, and pat
tered with the rattle of shot on the leaves
Of the NAPLES and the roof Of the cot
+age. A moment later and another flash,
even more brilliant and Of longer duration
than the first, lit up the sky from zenith
to horizon. and bathed the room momen-
tarily in dazzling whiteness. | could see
the rain glistening on the leaves and
branches outside. The wind rose sudden
", and in less than minute the storm
that had been gathering all day burst
forth in all its fury.
Above all the noisy voices of the ele-
ments, the slightest sounds in the room
overhead made themselves heard, and in
the few seconds of deep silence that fol-
lowed the shrek of terror and pain l was
aware that the movements had COM
menced again. The men were leaving the
room and approaching the top of the
stairs. A short pause, and they began to
descend. Behind them, tumbling from
step to step, l could hear the trailing
thing" being dragged along. 1t had be-
come ponderous!
I awaited their approach with a degree
of calmness, almost Of apathy, which was
only applicable on the ground that after
a certain point Nature applies her own
anesthetic and a merciful condition of
numbness supervenes. On they came, step
bv step, nearer and nearer, with the
shutting sound Of the burden behind
growing louder as they approached.
They were already half way down the
stairs when l was galvanized afresh into
a condition of terror by the consideration
of a new and horrible possibility. 1t was
the reflection that II another vivid flash
of lightning were to come when the
shadowy procession was in the room,
perhaps when it was actually passing in
front of me, 1 should see everything in
detail. and worse, be seen myself.
could only hold my breath and wait
wait while the minutes heightened into
hours and the procession made its slow
progress round the room.
The Indians had reached the foot of
the staircase. The form of the huge
leader doomed in the doorway of the pas
sage, and the burden with an ominous
thud had dropped from the last step to
the floor. There was q moments pause
while l saw the Indian turn and stoop to
assist his companion. Then the process
sion moved forward again, entered the
room close on my left, and began to
move slowly round my side OF the table
The leader was already beyond me, and
his companion, dragging on the floor be-
hind him the burden, whose confused out
line 1 could dimly make out, was exactly