The evening times., 1899-07-08

ply the awful warning: Prepare to meet
thy God,
81 was terrified to death and unable to
move. and as l watched, slelibound, the !
fearful letters faded away and the room
was left in utter darkness again.
Il lay the rest OF the night rejecting |
upon this apparition and wondering wheth |
er it was meant for me or fer Tom. or for |
both of us. When daylight returned my |
nerves felt rather more steady, for the |
room was exactly as usual. and showed nc |
sign of the ghostly writing. / almost ex- |
pected to find 1t indelibly recorded upon
the wall. I thought perhaps the whole |
thing had been q nightmare, and deter
mined to say not a word about it, but tc
sleep alone in the room again and see II
1t were repeated.
That was the day you sent me to bed
early; and, being worn out as the result
of the previous nights experience, l soon
fell into a fitful doze- On one of my awak-
enings / found that the room was getting
light just as before. The circle reappesred,
the marks in IL, the great black hand, and
the gradually formed letters; but the warn
ing was different. 1t said God shall judge
Il sprang out of bed and rushed to the
writing. l put my hand on its horrible
sable signs, and it vanished instantaneous
ly. It was no dream.
"You can imagine the condition in which
waited the break of day. / did not call
my husband, for / had an indefinable
sense that some danger. in which he was
concerned. was impending in this room.
and that a warning had been vouchsafed
to me that he would be unable to perceive
with his different and rather unbeiieying
constitution.
THAT morning he insisted upon my go
ing with him to Great Malvern; and while
we were away from this fearful house l
felt sense OF composure. l began almost
to think again, as the days went by, that
the whole thing must have been a passing
madness, and determined on my return to
| spend yet one more night in the room alone
| before asking him to come back to me.
But fast night was more horrible than
| all. ! awoke with great start in black
| darkness. There came a burst OF white
| light which disappeared as suddenly as it
had come and left a darkness that could
| be felt. Then another burst, and then
darkness again. Then the dim circle be-
gan to appear in the same hideous outline.
and as it got brighter the hand traced
| slowly the cruel doom: Your hour is
| nigh | tainted away, and recollect moth
ing more until daylight this morning"
AS she spoke it occurred to me that the
whole appearance must be nothing more
than vivid hallucination-possibly the
harbinger of insanity. If so. it had an ex
traordiary physical effect, allowing for the
girls delicately strung nerves and artis-
| tic temperament. Still, the effort must be
made to fathom the mystery.
| Answer me one more question truly"
l urged. do you know anyone who has
grudge against you?''
Doctor" she replied. with a troubled
| look in her innocent eyes, so far as
know. L never injured a living creature. 1
never disagreed with any one much, ex-
cept an Italian in my stage days, who
would persist in wanting to marry me af-
ter l was pledged to Tom
| His name?"
| Count Belloni vile creature; but
have not seen or heard anything of him
| for a year"
| That night Tom Whyte and 1 entered
| into little conspiracy. l asked him and
his wife across to dinner, nominally to
| stop Margaret brooding, and having got
| them away from home, insisted on keeping
| them for the night. Tom pretended to re-
fuse and then TO assent; and hinted TO
Margaret that, if he were in any danger.
| il was at least lessened while he was with
me, and so gained her acceptance CT the
invitation. When they had retired l went
across with Toms latchkey, let myself
into his house unknown, even TO his SER
wants, and prepared to spend the night
sitting in his bedroom.
| mystery, / became more than ever con-
vinced that an hallucination was the true
key to the trouble. There is said to be
a kink somewhere in the mental consti-
| tuition OF every one OF us: and surely
| thought, there must be some such expla-
nation, which would put these weird visi-
| tations into the category of imaginings
My meditations on the pathology of the
matter were rudely interrupted. The room
was filled with an instantaneous flash OF
| white light, which came and went in a
second, leaving everything totally dark.
| started up and watched, breathless The
flash appeared and vanished second time.
as before. My brain seemed stirred to
labnormal activity. I felt, rather than
thought positively, that there was evf-
dence which destroyed the hallucination
theory, for l was in prosaic health l
even reasoned unintentionally that here
was fash whose first appearance would
disSompose a sleeper. and whose second.
when he had been disturbed, would COM
pIete his awakening.
Then began the most appalling moment
of concentrated horror that has fallen to
my lot. l am held professionally to have
good operating nerve; but to think of tha,
brief interval even now sends chill down
my back. At the time my eyes seemed 10
start from my head and my hands were
lifted up in terror Slowly, but steadily
the white circle grew on the wall. There
was a dark mark in the centre, which
i, gradually formed itself into the awful
hand whose writing pronounced doom
Instantly the word-painting of the Book Of
Daniel rushed into my mind:
In the same hour came forth fingers o
a mans hand and wrote over against the
candlestick upon the plaster of the wal
, of the kings palace; and the king saw the
!; part of the hand that wrote Then the
! kings countenance was changed, and hi.
| thoughts troubled him, 50 that the joint:
of his loins were loosed and his knee:
smote one against another
: And even while these thoughts courseC
through my burning drain the hand begaG
to write. 1t traced one fearful word ant
only one: "Tekel." Daniel himself ha.
, translated that portentous symbol: 'Thor
are weighed in the balances, and art fount
, | wanting.
The vision disappeared from my unwill
ing gaze, and I was again sitting in tht
, darkness. How long l remained comatost
l cannot say. Ultimately l lighted the gas
and found that is was 2:30 o'clock TIL,
power of thought seemed to return to MT
, slowly; but after a time 1 recovered m!
! mental faculties, and began to try and un
+ ravel the tangle. The hallucination theor,
being obviously impossible, l began to lool
for a physical explanation. l was still a
| it in dull kind of way when the dawn o
another day broke, and then / began Il
think that 1 could see light in a doubl,
sense.
1 placed table unde, where the bant
! had appeared and stood upon it. Putin,
my eye about on level with the writin.
l looked out of the window. The direction
was not at right angles to the wall of tn,