Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1905-09-30
N2g1yThekNengingHandM
WNMY ByGyde Maupassant. Y
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other things and admired the guns.
Nevertheless, / noticed three loaded
revolvers on the pieces of furniture, as
if this man lived in constant dread OF
attack.
II went to see Sir John Rowell
many times after that; then for some
time did not go. We had become ac-
customed to his presence; he had be-
come Indifferent to us.
Killed In the Night.
"a whole year slipped away. Then,
one morning, toward the end of No
yember, my servant awoke me with
the announcement that Sir John Rowell
had been assassinated in the night.
"a half hour later l entered the
Englishman's house, with the central
commissary and the captain of police.
The servant, lost in despair, was weep
| ing at the door. 1 suspected him at
| first, but afterward found that Dc was
| innocent.
"The guilty one was never found.
"Upon entering Sir Johns drawing
room, l perceived his herculean body
stretched out upon it's back-dead-in
the middle of the room. His waist
coat was torn, a sleeve was hanging,
and it was evident that a terrible
struggle had taken place.
1.-THE Englishman had been stran-
gled! His frightfully black and
swollen face seemed to express an aw-
full fear; he held something between
his set teeth and his neck, pierced
with five holes, apparently with a
pointed iron, was covered with blood.
"a doctor Joined us. He examined
closely the prints of fingers in the
flesh, and pronounced these strange
words:
"'One would think he had been
strangled by a skeleton
"a SILVER ran down my spine and l
cast my eyes to the place on the wall
where L had seen the horrible torn-oH
hand. 1t was gone! The chain was
broken and dangling.
"Then / bent over the dead man and
found in his mouth a piece of one OF
the fingers of the missing hand, cut
off, or rather sawed off by the English
mans teeth exactly at the second joint.
''Then they tried to collect evidence.
. They could find nothing. No door had
been forced, no window opened, or
piece of furniture moved. The two
watch-dogs on the premises had not
been aroused.
"Here, in few words. is the depo-
sition of the servant:
"For a month his master had seemed
agitated. He had received many letters
which he had burned Immediately.
, Often, taking whip, he had struck
in fury, this dried hand, fastened to
: the wall.
, ale had retired late and shut him
: self in with care. He always carried
/ arms. Often in the night he talked
out loudly, as though fighting with
, some one. On that night, however,
: there had been no noise, and 1t was
only on coming to open the windows
that the servant had found Sir John
assassinated.
"One night three months after the
crime, had frightful nightmare. Il
l seemed to me that 1 saw that hand
} that horrible hand, running like a
t scorpion along my curtains and my
t walls. Three times 1 awoke in af-
fright; three times 1 fell asleep and
4 again saw that hideous relic galloping
Q about my room, moving its fingers like
l paws.
t ''The next day they brought it tc
$ me, found in the cemetery upon the
: tomb where Sir John ROwell was in
: terred-for they had not been able t.
find his family. The index hnger was
n missing.
"This, ladies, is my story. 1 know
Il no more about it"
The ladies were terrified, pale ant
n shivering. One of them cried:
i "But that is not the end, for there
was no explanation! We can not sleel
: if you do not tell us what was you
idea or the reason of it all.
e The magistrate smiled with severity
and answered:
{: "Oh! certainly ladies; but it will
n spoil all your terrible dreams. / sim
ply think that the legitimate pro
l prietor of the hand was not dead an'
t that he came for it with the one tina
remained to him. But l was neve
/ able to find out how he did it. 1t wa
f one kind of revenge"