El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-11

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tleman square in the eye. but he never
! WINGED or gave the slightest indication
| of recognition. Then 1 went away
with my mind in a turmoil. If had
been called upon to swear to the mans
Identity in court of law would have
done so without hesitation but for the
| fact that, though returning my glance
with one as prolonged and steady rs
my own. he had shown no sign Of rec
ogniticn.
Now. 1 needn't tell you how my IA
ther and myself began to speculate or
what thoughts were exchanged. Suf-
fee to say that none of our surmises
approached the truth.
''And now. to go back to Mr.. Tomp-
kins' sudden seizure and the events
which followed. OF course our inQui-
ries after the sick man were frequent
and my father called several times, but
Mr.. Tompkins did not for some time
recover consciousness. At length he
began TO evince some slight intelli-
sence. and my father or myself was
thereafter with him day and night, SO
that if he recovered his senses we
might be ready to do anything for him
be might desire in relation to the ar
ranSement of his affairs. He had no
relatives near at hand and, in fact,
none with whom he ever directly COM
mInicated. He had a younger brother
who had disgraced himself and been a
convict and was occasionally helped
through us by Mr.. Tompkins, but al
ways in so indirect manner as to pre-
vent his discovering the whereabouts
of his benefactor. So far as we knew,
Mr.. Tompkins had made no will, and
yet we knew that he must be worth
over 81 100000.
But 1 will come to the occurrence to
which l alluded at the outset. 1 was
sitting in the sick mans room one
night reading before the fire. He grew
restless, and l arose and saw that he
was moving and struggling as though
trying to rise. l spoke to him, and he
tried hard to respond and gripped my
band with extraordinary vigor for so
sick person Seeing that he was using
every exertion to sit up in bed, helped
him as well as l could, but just as he
had acquired an apparently upright po-
sitiOn his frame relaxed, and he fell
back. L stood by him for some min
utes, and. as he seemed to be breathing
easily, I resumed my place at the fire
a
at the bed.
suddenly 1 experienced a strange
sensation, and, on looking up, saw a
spectral figure standing right opposite
me. l rose with an exclamation Of sur
prise and approached the form, won
dering how the sick man could have
left his bed and passed me without my
having observed him. l did not lose
l.,
toward the dimly outlined figure. Then
l saw that one hand was pointing to-
ward a small, old fashioned desk which
stood on the top of a bookcase. AS
my eye followed the direction indicated
the form disappeared. l turned, ex-
pecting to see the figure moving to-
ward the bed. Nothing. however, was
visible. l went to the bed and gazed
upon a corpSei
The man was dead beyond question.
summoned the housekeeper and other
attendants. and when the body was
disposed all of us quilted the
room. l locked the door and gave the
key into the custody of the housekeep-
er, directing her to allow no one to en-
ter the room until my father came next
day with the undertaken
Their to the house. l had already in
formed him what had occurred, and as
soon as some other matters were ar
ranged my father took the desk, and
we retired to another room. On open
Ing the desk there was apparently.
nothing in it but quire of note paper.
We made close examination; but, as
It was simply a desk to be carried in
10 q nd ar in, f~,,v
ng that would Indicate any secret
frawer. l took up the note paper and
turned over the sheets A
was in store, for on the inside
'heet there was writing. 1t turned out
is, will wholly written
~ himself. 1t bore date the very day
When he last visited our office and was
truck down by apoplexy.
The will left all in trust to a certain
woman for the benefit of the testator'
i've children. mentioned by name, with
heir places of abode. The name of the
rustee l cannot. of course, mention,
or would it be right to give the ad-
ress. The will was duly admitted to
rebate. The trustee did not bear the
anne of the testator. but all the chill
rem did.
How do l account for the spectral
orm? Well. 1 think he had felt symp-
pms of the attack which carried him
Ct and wrote the will and came direct
: to our office, intending to inform my.
ather of the fact Of it's existence. At
lie point of separation from the body
lie spirit obeyed the last impulse Of
lie dying man.'-Brooklyn Citizen.