The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1903-10-23
THE FOOTSTEP OF FEAR
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By l.. II. HAMMOND.

1T was Christines friend, Tom, through
whom Fear entered the child's
life. Before Tom began to spend his
evenings in the kitchen Christine had
been the most conSiderate of nurses
When she tucked the bedclothes about
her small charge at night, and sat be-
side her until the little one fell asleep,
her talk had been all of fairies, and
hawthorn hedges, and the green Eng
lish fields III which she had played as
q child; but when Tom began to wait
for her below Stairs-to wait in the
company of Ellen, the jolly cook, and
Maggie, the blue-eyed housemaid,
Christine had grown cross and impa-
tient. She undressed the little girl al
most roughly, and even hurried her
through her prayers. When she
tucked her in bed she refused to sit
beside her: and in answer to the
child's half-suppressed sob she paused
in the act of turning out the gas to
bend close above the small pillow and
the suddenly widened eyes that stared
at her in the dimmed light. Her voice
door in the child's soul by which Fear
might enter in.
GAS long as you are good nothing
will hurt you," she concluded, more
kindly. BE quiet and don't tell and
you're all right" She turned the gas
quite out, and closed the door, leaving
Fear to watch in her place by the bed.
Not that the child called it Fear; she
knew no name for the vague, formless
thing. But its formlessness was an
added terror, which was heightened
by the fact that to her strained imag-
ination an audible football came from
that void which was it's presence, while
above its awful shapelessness she felt,
though she never saw-a face. Beast,
monster, devil-whether one or all of
these she could not say; and only be-
cause thing spoken of must be deSig-
mated by word could one call the
dark impersonal presence 1t.
Every night after this 1t came, a
terrible black emptiness moving with
slow, steady steps to the child's bed.
The steps fell first in the long hall,
when Christine turned out the nursery
gas. AS she went out she moved noise
lessly over the thick carpet toward the
door which led to the back hall, and
the progress of her retreat was known
to the covering child only by the
sound of the others stealthy approach
"a sound distinctly heard above the
heavy beating of her own heart 1t
moved step nearer for every step that
Christine moved away; when she stood
at the door of the back hall 1t stood at
the nursery door, always; when she
opened the door-softly, lest it should
be known downstairs that she had
left the nursery before sleep came to
its small inmate-It entered; and when
Christine closed the door behind her
1t sprang with great leap to the
child's bedside, and hung over her in
the dark, moving and gliding, with
an awful threat behind its senseless
leer. She could never see the face
nor the leer; If she could have done
that she might have borne it; she only
felt them through the shuddering dark.
And 1t was not alone; the tiger un-
der the bed belonged to 1t, and the ape
in the closet, and the man with the
black mask and the sword These also
were unseen enemies, but she knew
all about them; Christine had told her,
not only on that first dreadful night,
but often since. They were friends
of Christmas, in some mysterious
way, and so long as the child obeyed
her they were not to be feared; but
if she ever cried. or called for mother,
or told anyone that Christine did not
stay with her until she was asleep
then they would spring at her in the
dark and tear her limb from limb.
If she obeyed she was safe; Christine
said so, and Christine never told lies;
she said She never did: and. besides.