The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-01-13

soon as possible thereafter I wish him
INTO whose hands this confession may
1 Soi4e' 10 go to the room above me and
verify the truth of my statements. It
VIII not be long till the end comes. Al
ready am tottering on the verge of an
ABYSS called death, and wind from
the other world will blow me over its
edge-into what? ] know not I only
know this-whatever the future is, I
snail stand face to face with my sin.
Forever and forever! Oh, God! If thou
couldst have mercy. But dare not ask
1t. There can be no mercy for man
who has dared to do what I have done.
NO forgiveness, no forgetfulness, no
oblivion!"
I felt as if a nightmares spell was
upon me when finished reading the
strange story Julian Searles had writ
ten. I was under an influence that
made me feel as if were in a world
of ghosts. Was there-could there be-
any truth in it? Or was it the dream of
a mad fancy? 1 could not believe it to
be true and yet something about it inn
pressed me with a sense of it's credibility.
/ went Immediately to the Searles resi-
dence. The old servant seemed to have
been expecting my arrival, for he met
me at the door.
when did he dep asked.
"About an hour ago." the old man
answered, as ne leu the way W INC
tower-room. 81 sent word to you as
soon as possible after he breathed his
last He had told me that l was to
do So
Julian searles had died in his chair.
AS I looked at him, sitting there before
the fire that had fallen to heap OF
dead ashes on the hearth, he seemed
more like the shadow of shadow than
anything else I could think of, so frail
he n dead
not the look of marble so common to the
dead, but seemed face wrought out OF
frost, that would vanish at touch or
warm air. r.,
He gave me a paper to read after
his DEATH 1 said. Il read 1t as soon
as your message came to me. IN
he speaks of something upstairs
The old man shivered, as if with an
ague chill.
II don't know what it is,' he said,
''but there's something there I've never
seen it. but-I've felt it, And he shud-
dered again, and ] could see that MS
hands were shaking, as if with terror
''WiIl you go up with me?' I asked.
I was trembling from head to foot with
something that was hardly fear. felt
as if I stood on the threshold of the
invisible world, whose mysteries Julian
Searles had sought to fathom.
eff you want me to- the old man an
swered.
We went I'D the tower stairs. awed
into strange silence. What was beyond
the door. a
I put my hard upon the latch, and
then hesitated half inclined to turn back.
For Gods sake go on!'' cried the old
man, shaking like a leaf in the wind
"Open the DOR! I can stand anything
better than this uncertainty.
Z obeyed him. The door swung open and
we stood upon its threshold and looked
in.
On couch in the center of the room
lay a shape covered by a sheet-a long,
awfully suggestive shape that sent a
shudder through US as we looked at it.
L shivered as if cold wind was blow
ing over me- chilling me to the mar
row. Even then I turned, as if under
an impulse to flee from the room and
its terrible seer ct
The old man read my thoughts, and
put out a shaking hand to stop me.
1--WE have gone too far to hesitate now"
he said. Lift the sheet
A sudden courage that was, perhaps,
more desperation born of mortal terror,
took possession of me.
I advanced tc the cctch, put out my
hand and lifted the White cloth, and saw
the face OF John Fordyce, who had died,
men said, three years before, and Yet
the form before me was one to whom
death had come not more than an hour or
two ago, for there was still about it that
faint warmth which fingers SO long after
the breath stops.
Tnen we knew what Julian Searles
had written must zbe true, for before US
was the proof Of it. The vampire life
had ended with the life On which it
had der ended for existence for three long
and terrible years!