The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-02-10

Still the idea OF the two dead mer
with their pale faces and Enclosed ewes
would come before me again and again
n | could have grOaned but for drea(
OF some similar response that might
make my heart wither up and m,
flesh creep. And creep it soon did.
for, just as this horrid idea of an over.
strained fancy, fostered by imagina
ton and fashioned out of the silenc,
and darkness, became strongest within
me, what We're my emotions-hoN
painful the t%hrobbing Of my heart-ol
oeholding a strange, green, CHASTITY
light glimmering about. and playing
within each of the side berths.
while shrinking into a cor2cr @.
the cabin, with eyeballs straining, !
gazed at them alternately with a spe.
cles OF horrid fascination. The two
lights were weird, wavering and pale:
theE seemed to NE as two warning:
from the land Of spirits, for they play
ed Upon the curtain and in the recess:
OF each berth. port and starboard ir
winch a dead nan had been found
49," al lHSot llSutS SnOnc, Cncrt
came upon my ear the palpable SOUND
or d heavy breathing and snorting. as
from the oppressed chest of some one
close by NE.
l placed my hands upon my eyes
II on my ears to shut out these hor.
rid lights and sounds: but when
looked again the former had diseap-
pear2d, and ali was Opaque darkness.
On putting forth my hand to rise, a
cry CT uncomfortable terror ESCAPED
me-a yell that rang in wild echoes
through the silent polacca-when my
fingers came in contact with sometime
icy, and then a cold, clammv, and wet
head of hair.
"Ihen two glistening eyes seemed &c
peer and to glare into mine!
In horror and bewilderment. and
followed by something, I knew not
what, sprang up the companion, and,
nall falntlng, reached the deck Of the
poiacca. Then | turned to find that
the object which had excited SO much
dlsmay was no other than my poor dog
Hector, which had swan off to the brig
in pursuit of me.
The eyes that in the dark seemed to
glare into mine, were his; the lev OBJ
ject, from which my fingers shrank.
was his honest black nose: and what
seemed a wet head of hair. was his
own curly front; while the lights-the
mysterious lambent lights-that had
flcekered about the dead mems berths,
proved to be nothing more thar the
green beacon on the promontory oe
Santa Cruz, which snone at times
'hr0Ugh the two stern windows of the
pOlacca. ; !,
Being moored with the chain cable
ahead and a MANILA warp from her
port quarter to a buoy astern. she
swung to and fro a little with the
eDD and flow of the tide; hence the
oscillation which caused the moving
CLEANS that terrified me.
"Ha! hat said |, on descending in
to h cabin, a wiser and a more
sleepy mar, scared by my own dog
Hector! | have been as great a gull
as ever touched salt water
"A fortnight afterwards I hjnned
with old Jack Hislop as second mate,
and the fifteenth day saw US running
before a smart topgallant breeze into
the Gulf Of Florida, bound with q car
go of rum, sugar and molasses for the
Clyde.
80 that is my ghost yarn. It con-
veys a moral, does it not? Or
der them to strike the bell forward.
Hislop, call the watch; see how her
head bears, and let us turn in"
TTO be continued