Perth Amboy evening news., 1905-10-09
NIGHT EXPERIENCE

banged the door and | stood solitary in
the hall of her modest dwelling that /
REALIZED that never before during my
varied bachelors existence of 35 years
had / spent a night entirely alone in a
house. And it occurred to me for the
first time il my life what a curious.
creepy, mysterious, inexplicably alive
sort of a thing a human house really
WAS.
l had come to spend a couple of nights
under the austere roof of my Aunt Sn-
san. l respected her, and rather liked,
after years of London, to be back again
amid the social customs of my obscure
lorigin-where one dined at 1890 and
had high-tea at six and a snack of bread
and cheese at nine and removed ones
boots in the parlor and didn't converse
unless one had something to say,
And then at $50 had come the mes
sage that the first child of my Aunt SUI
sans eldest niece by marriage (my
cousin) had just been successfully born
in the next town and would my Aunt Su-
san care to go over at once? 1t was a
hard struggle, in my aunt's mind, be-
tween that baby and me; of course, the
baby won.
When the clock had finished striking
ten, | decided to go to bed. | gathered
up my briefs, extinguished the gas in
the parlor, went out, shut the room door,
,bolted the front door, lit a candle, ex-
tinguished the gas in the hall, climbed
the stairs (ugh! the shadows), entered
W hodrooro oud ratirad m root
But l was unaccountably restless. l
heard a noise that startled me at first,
but which l finally decided was the
clock striking II. ut will keep me
awake all night" l thought, and de-
termined to stop it. SO | dressed ana
went downstairs. But l could not stop
the striking by taking off the weight.
which l did, depositing it behind my
aunt's hassock. Then / went back to
bed.
But l could not sleep. At leastI could
only doze, unpleasantly. And when the
doze was merging into a sleep l raj
jerked into a perfect and e%xcruciating
wakefulness by a most distinct knock
knock-knock, a long way off.
"The front door! My aunt returned
This idea seized me suddenly, as in a
vice, and then | knew that | should be
compelled to rise and go to the front
door. Having donned some clothes, l
did go to the front door and the knock
ing went on with gentle regularity as l
descended the stairs, and | set the candle
on the hall table and | opened the front
door with the courage worthy of a bar
%rister. A policeman and a young wom-
an stood on the white step; the police
man was supporting the m
"She's in a fainting condition." the
policeman said. "Can you give her some
%brandy?"
In a moment he had pushed the young
woman into the hall.
"Come in" l said, lamely, and l
helped her into the parlor, taking the
candle. The front door closed, leaving
the policeman outside.
The presence of the pretty young
woman interested me enormously and
piqued my curiosity. felt that my
might, after being fearsome, had become
pieturesquely strange.
"In these parts they often keep the
spirits in the clock case"
1t was the young woman who spoke,
or rather breathed out the words in q
charming fatigued whisper.
Now a glass and some water" I said,
and al into the kitchen.
When I returned to the parlor the
pretty young woman had vanished ut
terly. Can she be insane? l wondered.
And l searched the house, but in vain
opened the front door and looked up
and down the street, but there was no
sign of her. Presently a heavy tread
lon the opposite side of the dark road in
dictated a policeman.
where's that girl you brought Unjust
now?" | cried in the night.
What girl?" came the r~eply-then a
pause, and, better go to bed, sir"
The mystifying affair occupied all
my thoughts for the remainder of the
night, and | had no sleep whatever. !
was So and staid and not too fanciful.
but the young woman was really SO very
pretty and the circumstances of her ap-
pearance and disappearance were so 70
mantle that-well!
| told my aunt the next morning, told
her before she had even been able to get
in a word about the baby.
She jumped up and opened the clock
case.
Gracious powers above" she cried.
''It's gone"
W%hereupon she swooned all in a heap
on the floor.
whats gomez" | asked, when had
restored her.
"The weight"
"Not in the least" said. "The weight
is here" and | produced it from behind
the hassock.
She took the heavy thing feverishly
from my hand, pulled out a plug from
the under side and drew forth from the
cavity bank notes to the tune of more
than a thousand pounds, and then she
wept gently in her joy and relief.
You wicked aunt" said. You're
a narfect miSarin