The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-06-28
TIE EVENING STORY
The Spectral Messenger.


The Spectral Messenger.
In a certain village a married couple
80 annually to a cemetery to strew
mowers on a grave. This is the story
tnat is connected with their devotion to
the dead:
The night was dark and the wind
howled as though it were the nningIing
OF voices OF thousand lunatics who,
released from the body, were wild with
exnllaration at their freedom.
Louis" gasped Mrs. Baylies, II fear
am going to die
Great heavens!" exclaimed the hus-
panos and, getting out of bed, he
scratched a match and lighted candle.
60 for doctor" gasped the wife.
ana 1eaVe you here with no one but |
that ignorant maid? How can -
You must
Louis Baylies hurriedIy got into his
clothes. awakened the maid then went
TO the stable, saddIed his horse. mount
ed and rode away
It was a. good five miles to the doc
tor s, and though the rain had ceased
It had left the road hard to get over.
Baylies was obliged to trust to his
morse, whose eyes were far better than
his masters, but the brute seemed to
nave difficulty in keeping the road. At
any rate, he was constantly foundering
IN some bog beside it. Baylies encour-
aged him, but the mans dread that he
would not bring the doctor in time
that on his return he would find his
wife dead-put a tremor into his voice
that was not reassuring.
The distance he tTaversed was un-
known to him till he came to the Gene
terry, which he knew was halfway. Then
suddenly a flash of lightning-the first
illumination in a night of pitchy black
ness-showed him on the other side of
a stone wall tombstone on which was
carved the name albert Seymour"
BayIies shuddered. He and Seymour
had been rivals for the hand of Mar
garet Burns. Baylies had won, and
Seymour had never been the same man
ease, he had declined treatment, aver
ring that he wished to die. And now
the woman he had loved was at deaths
door, and the man who had Won her
was trying to save her.
Whether it was the binding effect of
the lightning on the horses eyes or
the fright that made him shy in the
inl1y ensuing DlacknesS, he came against
the wall. Baylies went over it, and that
was the last of consciousness for him
till the first glimmer of dawn showed
him that he was lying on the grave OF
Albert Seymour. His horse stood on
the other side of the wall with his nose
over it, looking at him. Baylies, hor-
rified at having thus been delayed, got
up. staggered to the wall and climbed
over to the other side. He knew that
when he had started it was long past
midnight, SO he supposed he might not
have been lying long unconscious. AT
any rate he hoped not. There was but
one course for hin-tO go forward One
thing arrested his attention-his horse
was painting; not as though he had
stood waiting for his master to come to
himself, but as though he had been
gaIloping and had just stopped But
there was no time for speculation.
Mounting, BayIies spurred onward and
in half an hour pulled up at the doc
tors door. A maid opened it and, rec
ognizing Baylies as one Of her masters
patients, looked at him surprised.
THE doctor!' he gasDed. rs he at
Hes gone to your house. sir
My house? Then they have sent some
yes sir: they must have"
But there was no one to send.
He was a gentleman, sir, and ne came
on that horse See the cut on his fore
leg? It is bleeding yet"
DO you mean that you noticed tnis
horse and know him by that cut2
Indeed I do, sir.
Who rode hirn2''
"A tall, thin, pale gentleman with san
dy hair and side whiskers, and now / re
member, on his hnger was queer looking
Baylies' blood ran cold His wife before
they were married had given Albert Sey-
with Baylies he had begged permission TO
keep it, and she had consented.
Without a word Baylies turned and rode
the tombstone beneath which slept the
mortal part of the man he had supplant-
ed, the man whom he firmly believed had
taken up his message and while he was
unconscious carried It on its way
Baylies had hated his rival while he
lived, and since his death had not ceased
to be Jealous of him. But now, as he
looked at the inanimate marble that
marked the grave of one from whom he
had taken all that made life desirable,
there rushed upon him a sense of the self
ishness of man, the benef1cence of immor-
talitY.
on reaching home he found the doctor
working with his dife, whom he had sue
ceeded in bringing out of danger.
why did you not wait for the doctor,
dear?' Mrs Baylies, land why have you
been SO long coming?"
Baylies stood looking from her to the
doctor without reply; then he asked the
latter:
Did you see my messenger
NO, he had gone before 1 came down
What messenger" asked the wife.
Il met with an accident" Baylies re-
piled, land could not get on for a time, so
l sent some one.
With that he turned away and the sub
ject was dropped
Had I been sumomend an hour later
whispered the doctor to Baylies, your !
wife would not have recovered.
r. A. MITCHELL