Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1901-01-22
his bride to China, he going there on
business for his firm


of an intensely jealous disposition and
forbade his wife to speak to her cousin.
'But, as said, the vessel ran aground
in a storm and sank almost Immediate
ly. Mrs. Linwood was drowned, and
her husband came back changed
man, broken in mind and body. He
had even lost his interest in his partic-
ular fad, and l have seen him shudder
at the sight of a piece of seaweed. He
locked up his room, and 1 never saw
him enter it again except on one no.
table occasion"
What was that?' inquired my COM
panion.
well, you see, not having his scien-
tific studies to take up his mind, the
poor man became very lonesome and
| morbid. He never wanted to be alone
and must needs have a houseful of
easy, for he had great many nephews
and nieces, and they, with their friends
kept us in a state of commotion, es-
pecially during the holidays and in
summer vacations.
Zone Christmas eve, his favorite
nephew, Jack Newton, came late in the
evening, and to save my soul 1 didn't
know where to put him to sleep. He
was a merry, rollicking lad of II, and
he said he'd sleep in the attic-any-
where so that he got chance at din
ner next day-always thinking of his
stomach, like any healthy boy.
''The attic was out of the question.
Suddenly thought came to me, and
l asked him if he'd mind sleeping in the
seaweed room.
Just the thing-awfully jolly said
the boy, giving me a squeeze that near
ly broke my neck.
Then not word to your uncle l
said as soon as could speak
NUNS the word said the boy with
wink.
$50 l fixed him up a bed on this 'ere
| couch we're a-sftting on, and as it was
bitter cold started a bit of fire in the
CRATE. Then locked him in and carried
away the key, so that if by some
| strange chance the professor should
stray up there late in the evening he
would find the key gone, and probably
| think it had been mislaid, for it US
ually hung on nail beside the door.
eff I'd known the queer tricks of this
room then as 1 do now I'd never have
locked the boy in.
what happened during that night
1 got straight from Jack myself. 1t
seems he went straight to sleep, and
never woke till the faintest bit of day
| light was stealing into his window.
Then he was aroused, poor chap, by a
| low murmur of voices, and sitting up
he saw on the earth two figures talk
ing together-One girl with long black
hair and the other a young man who
held her hands and was bending his
face down to hers. Both of 'em was
dripping wet, and he could hear the
trickle of the water as it fell on the
big so,ne hearth they were standing
on. Their faces were turned from him.
but in the girls hair was tangled q
quantity of seaweed.
did 1 tell you Jack was a plucky
little fellow? He was, to the back
bone. He said to himself that what he
saw was an optical delusion,' l be-
lieve he called it, that there was no.
| body but himself in the room-there
couldn't be, because the door was
| locked. What do you want-who are
you? he cried, and with that jumped
out of bed and came straight toward
| the two figures. As he advanceh they're
treated toward the window, and when
he reached the window there wasn't
anything there, though the window
| was shut except for a little space at
the top.
"Well, Jack went to bed and lay
thinking it over for an hour, then fell
| asleep again. He was perfectly
healthy, Jack was, and hadn't much
| idea Of the supernatural
But now comes the strange part of
it-for as he was dressing the next
morning what did the boy find but a
pool of salt water on the stone hearth,
in that little hollow you can see from
here that has been worn in it, and w.
| ing in it bit of fresh seaweed, in
which was tangled a long black hair!
| Then, as Jack told me, his own hair
hegan to rise in good earnest, and he
was scared.
$50 that morning after breakfast he
takes the bit of seaweed to his uncle
| and asks him if he'd ever seen any
like it.
''The professor looked at the piece of
wet weed, and his color went like the
going out of a lighted taper. It's an
uncommon variety he said, 'as it's
never found except on the bodies of
drowned people. Where did you get it.
Jack? And he looked at the boy wild
like, for was a-watching of 'em from
the passageway.
"T found it in my room,' blurted out
the boy. There was a couple of peo-
pie in there last night, uncle, dripping
wet
"'What do you mean? gasped his
uncle, looking at him strangely.
"'Come and I'll show you,' he says,
in spite of the fact that was shaking
my fist at him from the hallway. So
together they went up to the seaweed-
room, l followed to explain why I'd
taken the liberty to lodge Jack there.
But the professor never noticed me. He
| followed Jack into the room, white to
the lips, and, kneeling down, examined
the little pool of water on the hearth.
It's sea water he whispered, after a
moment. What did you see, boy? Tell
me everything
There's nothing much to tell, uncle,
went on Jack, in his straightforward
way. The girls hair was down her
back all wet, and full of seaWeed. And.