The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1900-08-30

UT is said," remarked the old
doctor, that a person can't
live and retain his senses in a
state of blind, animal terror for
more than a 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 swapping 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 authorities. I was of the same
opinion once, but I've known better for
a good many years, although I've never
seen a second case to d%isprove the rule.
Did it 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 it is a woman
that breaks it?
This was a young woman, a 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-
GINA, where I began the practice of
medicine. The house was n of those
three-storied southern colonial struc-
lures with broad yerandas and futed
columns the entire height of the front.
From the left, in the rear, there extend
ed a considerable wing which. in some
former period of prosperity, had been
given over to the guest chambers, but
which o for years had been little
used.
"By some misunderstanding the
young woman arrived just a week ear
lier than she was expected, to find her
aunt's house in the midst of prepara-
tory housekeeping. 1t consequently
became necessary, until the room in
the main part of the house could be
prepared for her to put her in oneFof
the wing chambers, and in n of these,
on the third floor, she was duly in
stalled. It was one of those enormous,
high-studded rooms thatshave entirely
gone out of fashion nowadays, ven in
large houses. There was a great fire.
place in it and solid mahogany furni-
ture of a somber, OLE -fashionedtype.
"The elderly aunts were somewhat
apprehensive lest the remoteness and
long disuse of the chamber might cause
their niece some uneasiness, but she
was a healthy young person not given
to nervousness, and scoffed at the idea.
1t was arranged, 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.
Sat bedtime, however, an unexpected
difficulty arose. It was suddenly re-
membered that the keys to both the
young woman's and the housekeeper's
chamber had been missing for a num-
Der of years, and the doors were also
u]nprovided with inside bolts. The only
duplicate keys were in the ~housekeep-
er's bunch held together by a 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 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 it needed only a few vigor-
u 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 a 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 we'll up in the sky.
"Then with a 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 vas as quiet as the grave. So
finally she lay down again and in a few
moments was halfway in a doze. Then
suddenly she found herself sitting up
again, her heart throbbing wildly.
Something was moving along the base
of the wall opposite her bed. As it
moved there came a series of gurgling,
suffering. sterterous sounds, exactly
as though some one was choking. The
young woman clutched the bed clothes
and tried to pierce the darkness. But
she could distinguish only the vague.