Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1903-04-10

| whether real or Supernatural, Dut IL
did not touch the subjective elements
of the problem. of which the chief
Is fear itself. Now. | do not believe
am physically a coward"
| Il know you are not | interrupted.
Il remember your capture Of that
! thief. He was armed, and resisted
Hereby. but you hung on
| Yes" he said. IA man finds out
| whether he Is a coward or not by the
| time he reaches my age; and l have
goou reason to know that my courage
Is not deficient And | have no super
stitions-whlch disposes of ghosts and
supernatural things. So there is nath-
ing for me to fear Here is where the
reasoning faculty stops, and something
else-you call 1t temperament, do you?
begins. | do suffer from fear-at
times to the very edge of my self-con-
troll. What is it? Why Is IT. | be-
lieve that what l fear is fear itself"
l shook my head. 'Thaat statement
is meaningless to me- l said.
is it?' he asked, almost wlstfully;
cant you imagine being in terror of
Il great fright that may overtake you
some time, even though you are un-
able to anticipate a reasonable excuse
therefor. Let me give II to you In
more concrete form. A year or two
| ago had dream of a peculiarly vivid
and impressive character. 1t was of
INV o,,ddan awa L. onipu hara In had In
this room, to behold a man leaning
over me. He was In strange, uncouth
dress-not OF the modern day, | should
judge-and he was surrounded by and
! seemed to give out a fierce red light.
He shouted some words to mel don't
know what they were; only at the
sound of them. such mighty and
overwhelming terror came upon me
that lay paralyzed as to motion and
thought Then | awoke, really awoke
this time. and | found my body wet
with perspiration, and my heart beat
Ing. so fiercely and with such great
pain that l feared some blood vessel
must give way"
At this point l interrupted him, for
! his voice was trembling with excite
| ment. .ifa
You say you are not superstitions."
| | said. "Then you surely are not go
ing to allow yourself to be affected
| by dream? An overloaded stomach
is always likely to disturb the heart.
Its rapid movement causes u sensation
exactly similar to fright, and the wan
dering brain conjures up scare situ-
alton to fit It. Did you never dream
out an elaborate series of events, cul
minating In pistol shot. and then
had dropped. and you had pieced out
| the dream backwards, as it were?'
How do you account for my having
| this same dream, without an iota of
change, half a dozen times since tina t
first experience?" asked Dawley.
ut results" l answered, with the
easy confidence one shows in dispos-
ing of the problems Of others. from
the profound impression the first
dream made on your mind and mem
ory."
He smiled, and looked at me with
! half-closed eyes. Then he relighted
his pipe, which had gone out, and |
remember that the hand holding the
match trembled a good deal.
BY this time the subject had become
distasteful to me, revealing a mental
weakness or eceentricity In Dawley
that was not pleasant to contemplate
So | turned the conversation into 9th
er channels.
Only on one other occasion did we
speak again OF this fear and the dream
and then, as before. 1t was brought up
by careless question.
Entering his room one night. | no.
ticed powerful bolt that had been
newly fastened on the inside of his
door. and asked il the lock had been
broken.
1t was n natural inquiry. and there
seemed to be no cause for the tremble
In his voice and the peculiar light in
his eyes as he replied to me-
"A lock can be picked. | wished
to satisfy myself that 1t was impossi7
BILE for a human being to enter this
room while | Sleep
| glanced up at the transom, 1t was
held shut by n heavy iron bar Then
looked out of the window. II faced
the court between the wings of the
building. with a sheer drop of nearly
| forty feet, '.
utterly impossible" said |.
Then l noticed for the first time a
certain waxiness in the texture. of The
skin over his forehead, and sunken
! depth 10 his eyes.
HAS the dream reappearedg' |
asked.
"Frequently."
"The trouble with you. Dawley," |
mused aloud, "is that you are too
much alone
"I have no friends" he said, In a
calm, dispa assionate tone. such as one