The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-09-28


terested in than he is in you. I
think he was growing about the
service at his club; the milk
Tor the coffee served in his room
was not boiling hot Anyway, Polly
Stangner won't marry him as long as
ne trots about so much with Mrs.
JACK. Polly says it would be unfair to
deprive Mrs. Jack 6f her only beau, at
an age when Mrs. Jack would not be
sure OF another Isn't Polly awful? But
she and Mrs. Jack are great friends.
AS for Bob Billings" said the Ma
Jor sternly, "if l hear him complain OF
the club service, shall remind him of
the miserable quarters he once occu-
pied-when l met ghost"
Major! ghost?" cried Mrs. Max
with the sudden and intense interest
ever aroused in the gentlest of her sex
by the prospect of a grisly story.
Rather!" responded the Major. But
1t is story l could not tell unless YOU
try the recipe / gave you for-thank
you; one lump in mine. One winter-we
We're captains then-I was luxuriating
at the Preside in San Francisco while
Bob was freezing to death in wretch
ed company post in Northern Ne
vada; but my pull in Washington sud
denly ceased as Bob's was strengthen
ed, so we were ordered to exchange
pests. Ny troop was to come down
from Oregon, and / went to meet it at
the railway station nearest the post.
nut the troop was delayed by snow, so
| rode out to the post, where l found
Bob and his troops ready to mount and
depart.
My, but they were glad to go!"
There was a chance that the lieu
tenant with my troop might yet come
out that evening, or 1 should have
asked Bob for detail of soldiers to
remain with me. 1 did not and they
rode off with a cheer and a whoop
Now, 1 am no more timid than the
next man. but 1 am more gregarious
than the next 10000, so / felt decidedly
bored when l discovered that l was
absolutely the only soul on the post;
not a trader, suffer, follower not a
Chinaman-not even a Piute Indiani /
never before knew how lonely it was
possible to be.
THE wind that ragged down from the
rusty, ragged, treeless mountain and
swept across the dismal sage brush
plain rocked the cabin that had been
Bob's quarters and now was mine,
raved at door and windows, moaned
and shrieked to get in and, defeated,
whirled on with maniacal laughter;
through the whirl of drifting snow the
deserted barracks and stables took
shapes of strange monsters, and, as
shivering dusk descended, the hideous
howls of coyotes seemed to give those
strange monsters rancous voice.
Bob had left a beautiful larder and
a locker not destitute of comforting
things, but 1 am a man, madam, to
whom a glass without a BOSWELL, if
you insist. You made the last so we'll
A votre sante!
There was no way of keeping that
cabin warm; one baked his back and
froze his front, or reversed the treat
ment. I tried to sing-Id a voice in
those days!-to recite, to read, play
solitaire-uselessl At last, worn with
loneliness, bored, cold, l went to bed,
and, with the long, lone howl of the
hungry coyotes, the despairing shrieks
of icy blasts dining in my ears, fell
into troubled sleep.
How long l slept l know not, but
when reused into startled wakefulness,
1t was with a sense that l was not
alone in bed. In my sleep l had in
tried to tuck the blankets
against my back, and in doing so had
touched something which shocked me
awake, which in the flash of time be-
tween sleep and wakefulness l realized
to, be human body, yet which in some
Way was unnatural.
Seconds, possibly minutes. / re-
manned motionless; first awaiting con-
viction, as we must at times, that /
was not dreaming, next celebrating
upon a course of action. Then | eau
tiously slipped my right hand behind
mel was lying on my left side-and
felt for what had aroused me, and my
heart shook as, with horrid distinct
ness, l discovered by my touch a hui
man hand cold, clenched. motionless.
"a thousand possibilities jumbled
through my distracted mind was
there a thief, an assassin near me who
had forced his hand there; had the
coyotes overtaken some luckless trav-
eler, and in some way brought a ghast-
ly relic of their feast to my bed? No,
for cautiously feeling, 1 determined
that such weight as a whole body
would give was ATTACHED to the hand.
MY pistol and sword were too re-
moved to be reached, there was no one
1 could call to for help, so 1 resolved
to take such fierce, relentless clutch of
the hand as nothing could break, spring
from the bed with it and whatever be-
longed to it, and, without loosening
my grasp, fight what 1 might have to
fight.
$50 did. l gripped that icy hand
for struggle to death, sprang from
bed and fell heavily my hands PIN
toned behind me in the darkness"
"NIajor!" exclaimed Mrs. Max, what
was it?"
TT is Characteristic of the mind fem
inine," responded the Major, ito ask
for details artistically worse than use
less-harmful. I had gripped my own
left hand which was, as we say, asleep.
MY body, lying upon my backward
turned arm. having impeded circulation
to the hand"
"Well, I'm surel" declared Mrs. Max,
and added, after a comfortable pause:
lack Daring says he hopes Polly
won't marry Billings, because if she
does Jack will have to beau his own
wife!"