The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-12-24

there, sheltered from the wind and a
little more at my ease, watched what
the murderous wretches did on the
further side. Aa
At last, between beating and Gliding.
the laughter of the woman shape
turned to most piteous wailing, as of a
soul lost to the mercy of God. The
weeping was that of a woman in dead
ly. gripping pain, and it had so great
an effect on me that out of sympathy,
as it were, 1 whimpered like a dog.
Help it / could not. Yet / kept the
sound low for fear that they should
hear me-
Then, leaving the woman, the man
shape came to the edge of the water
and with a dark wand shaped like a
shepherds crook in his hand he
gripped and drew inward toward him a
cake of floating ice greater than the
others. AT first l feared that this was
some cantrip by which they hoped to
overpass the running water and come
at me in my hiding place. But pres
emily / saw that they regarded me not,
nor, indeed, knew they were watched
by mortal eye.
Then from my hiding place 1 heard
the leader rate the others who were in
the shape of women, saying that now
the job was done it beloved to finish it
quickly and be gone. So at his word
the two aided him to lift the dark heap
from the ground and carry it painfully
to the cake of ice which he had an
chored with his shepherds crook in a
little sheltered bay at the lower side of
the bridge. Upon this, with infinite
care. they laid the body. And then the
black shape that had chidden the others
set the shank of his crook to the edge
of the cake of ice and ''stelled" against
l. oil y l. .<~l-% /.
slowly like wheel upon it's axle. Then,
with the black burden still upon it,
pass swiftly out of my sight down the
rush of Esk water.
Then the company of demons Gas in
my phantasy l had come to think them)
stood as if it had been watching their
strange ship and stranger cargo depart
for another world. Thereafter 1 heard
them Chamber, crying and quarreling
as before, up the bank, and so disap-
pear out of my sight.
How 1 reached the blue chamber
where l had been left to sleep l know
not remember nothing whatever of
the journey back. Yet / must have
found my way through the pine trees
out of the dark plantation and clam
bered again up the frost-bitten ivy. For
the poor slut who made the morning
within my chamber, the window open,
my face all scratched and bleeding,
and the coverlets lying hither and
thither as l had thrown them when
leaped up in my haste.
The morning had come richly up from
the east. The horizon was trimmed red
and orange, while all the valley swan
in subtle haze. like blue turquoise 1t
was the Sabbath day, and folk were
later astir, as is the custom. .
The morning was so quiet that at first
1 thought my supper must have disa-
greed with me, and that / dreamed or
dotted. The murder / had seen done.
and all the adventure of the bridge and
the. demons now appeared unreal, till.
looking out. l saw beneath me the
trampled snow and felt the stiffness in
all my limbs. and the bruises l had re-
ceived when stumbling in the dark from
tree to tree.
Yet for the life Of me / could not find
the panel through which / had looked
into my grandfather's room. The VAIN
scot was continuous. and the arras
hung r--s-- --,sfirrsd in the gray