Cochise review., 1900-11-03
Horror Seven Hours Long
An Exhibition of Courage by . YankSS
 Sohool-Ma'a am.


 HET IS said ;" remarked the old
 doctor, "that person can't live and retain his senses in a state of blind, animal terror for more than very few minutes at a time. Either nature will take refuge in her cyclone cellar, inconsistencies, and the person will faint; or the brain ten- sion will get beyond the snapping point and he will become insane; or the heart will collapse under the strain, and death will follow. Or any two or all of these things may occur at once. So say the auth critics. was of the same opinion once, but I've known better for good many years, although I've never seen a second case to disprove the rule. Did 1t ever occur to you when some long-standing record of courage or en- durance, or the ability to bear pain has been broken, how often 1t Is a woman that breaks 1t?
 This was a young woman, New England school-teacher by the name of Mildred Wicks She had been invited to pay a visit to two elderly maiden aunts who lived on the outskirts of an old town in the central part of Vir- ginia. where I began the practice of medicir The house was one of those three-stAl@3 southern colonial struc- tures w aroad verandas and futed columns entire height of the front. From rhf,Stt.i in the rear, there extend. cd q 'o;>.asrable wing which, in some former resiad of prosperity, had been given ever to the guest chambers, but which now for years had been little used.
 By some misunderstanding the young woman arrived just week ear- Her than she was expected, to find her aunt's house in. the midst of prepara- tory housecleaning. It consequently became: necessary, until the room in the main part of the house could be prepared for her to put her in one of the wing chambers, and in one of these, on the third floor, she was duly in-
 
 high-studded rooms that have entirely gone out of fashion nowadays, even in large houses. There was great fire- place in 1t and solid mahogany furni- ture of c somb Der, old-fashioned type.
 "The elderly aunts were somewhat apprehensive lest the remoteness and long disuse of the chamber might cause their niece some uneasinexs, but she was healthy young person not given to nervousness, and scoffed at the idea. It was sarranged, nevertheless, that the housekeeper, who ordinarily slept in the main division of the house, should occupy, that night, a chamber adjoin- ing the visitors for the sake of com pany.
 At bedtime, however, an unexpected difficulty arose. It was suddenly re- nempered that the keys to both the young woman's and the housekeeper's chamber had been missing for num- Der of years, and the doors were also unprovided with inside bolts. The only duplicate keys were in the housekeep- CTS bunch held together by solid brass ring, from which they could be removed only by breaking or filing the brass ring. Leaving the young wom- ans door entirely unsecured was, of course, not to be thought of. The housekeeper finally proposed that she should lock the door for the night from the outside, taking the keys with her into her own room and unlocking it again early in the morning. The win dows of the chamber being three stories from the ground there was no, possibility of intrusion from that source, and should the housekeeper's presence be needed at any time during the night 1t needed only a few vigor-. our raps on the wall to summon her. The young woman found no objection to this plan, and the housekeeer, after bidding her goodnight, went out and locked the door after her. &-.
 Left to herself, the young woman, tired from her journey, lost no time in undressing and getting into bed, and once in bed it was very few moments until she was sound asleep. The next she knew she found herself sitting up staring out into the room. How long she had been asleep she could not tell; hours, she thought, since there. had been no moon when she had gone to bed and It now shone in her window from well up in the sky. ...
 "Then with start it came to, her that she had not awakened naturally; that there had been some sort of a noise. She peered around the room, but could see nothing alarming. and, save for the sound of the insects, the night was as quiet as the grave. So