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

0ut1ne OF crouchlng form. The chok
ing, gurgiing sounds, however, contin.
ued, and then suddenly she heard the
clank of a chain being dragged along
the floor.
'The thing reached the corner of the
wall and paused there for a moment.
Then it emerged and began to Greet
slowly along the base of the second
wall, which would bring 1t within q
yard or two of the post of the bed. Til.
young woman got as far as. to he,
knees and remained there watching its
progress. There was no question OF
shrieking for help. She was locked r.,
with the thing, whatever it was, with
the key of her door somewhere in the
housekeeper's room, and the house.
keeper asleep. She knew, too, without
trying that she could get no sound out
of her throat.
@1tshufled down the second wall with
many Pauses, but choking and gurgline
always. Once she thought it might be
some sort of animal, but as it passed
near the moonlight at the windows she
saw that it was not. It had rather a
- o. 49, a tE.sH- / no :
horribly grotesque resemblance to 8
man. Having reached the second cor.
ner it began to move along the thiro
wall straight toward the foot of the
bed The young girl stumbled out al
the head to the floor. The thing pulled
itself over upon the footboard and be.
gar to search through the bedelothes
Finding nothing it tore the clothes
with teeth and hands furiously. The
young woman watched the process
from half way down the wall. She tried
to think what would have happened tc
her had she failed to awake when she
did.
ABy degrees it seemed to grow calm.
er, and finally in turn crawled down
from the head of the bed. The young
woman could not tell whether it saw
her or whether it could see. AS it ap.
preached, she moved softly along the
wall. When she reached the corner
she proceeded down the next wall, the
thing following, until with many
pauses, they had made the circuit OF
the room. Then the circuit was re.
peated. On this time round she heard
a clock in some distant part of the
house strike IL. The h~ousekeeper ex.
pected to call her about seven. Later
she heard the same clock strike one.
Once she shuddered at the thought OF
fainting in the things path, but she
knew that she should not faint. She
thought of it's leaving the wall and
making for her directly across the
room, but it stuck closely to the base
board, feeling its way along. The dis.
tant clock struck two. Then it seemed
to the young woman that the journeys
around the were being made at
a slower rate. The thing paused often
er, and longer at a. time. Finally it
must have stopped for a quarter of an
hour, only to creep on a yard or two
and stop again. After that it moved
no more. The young woman stood
watching half a dozen yards further
along the wall.
".In the morning the housekeeper un.
locked the door, looked in, and prompt.
ly tainted across the threshold. The
young woman still stood with he,
hands against the wall. She tiptoe6
across to the housekeeper, dragged her
into the hall, locked the door behind
her, and went swiftly downstairs. In
the sitting-room she came upon her
aunts. When they saw her one of them
tainted as promptly Is had the house.
keeper upstairs. The other ran up tc
her screaming:
mildred, what has happenedT
"Then the young woman smiled and
began talking f~oolishness. They called
me in to see her within an hour. It
happened that I had seen her on her
arrival the afternoon before, a brown.
eyed, dark-haired, beautiful girl. 1t
was small wonder, therefore, that ]
a bit shaky when I had been
brought into the presence of my pa.
tient. In one night her face had been
scared and furrowed as with the cares
and SORROWS of three-quarters of a CEN
fury, and her hair was as white as
snow. incidentally she was suffering
from IN u~gly-looking case of brain
fever, and for two months reason, and
life itself, hung in a balance that would
have turned for a hair. But four
months later, when she went back
home under the care of her mother,
her mind was as good as it had ever
been, and the lines and burrows had
been rubbed out of her face, and the
plumpness and color of youth was re.
turning fast. But her hair was never
anything else but white as
what was the thing in her room?
Nothing in the world but a horrible
example of public savagery and official
carelessness. There was a poor-farm
some eight miles from our town, and a
miserable pauper, having gone violent.
ly insane, they knew nothing better to
do with him than chain him in an out
house and treat him like a dangerous
animal. You can imagine, or rather,
you can't imagine, the effect on both
his personal appearance and on his dis
ease. One afternoon he escaped, carry
ing part of his chain with him, and in
his wanderings reached the elderly
aunt's house, which stood open in the
midst of house cleaning. Attracted by
the GOODNESS inside he had crept up
into the old wing, where he had en-
tered one of the chambers and hid
den in the great fireplace, and gone
to sleep. The light of the young wom-
ans candle that night had reused him,
and his journeys round the wall were
mere animal instinct searching for an
exit.
"They called for him the same morn
ing, and I saw the poor devil when they
found him lying up there in the room.
It is a solemn fact that his CANNES
projected an inch below his upper lip.
He didn't have on enough rags to cover
the backs of a mans two hands, and
his hair and beard and skin had been
indescribably misused, and the poor
1919. 800, -, %Lo Last e{o~o, - -.