The Richmond palladium. (Richmond, Ind.) 1906-1907, 1906-12-13

dream horror she was laboring under.
/ a nightmare of unima gina bic acts and
i thoughts. but it was one to hold me
back. and when she lay quiet again
I and her face resumed its old sweetness
/ in the moonlight, | found myself star
/ ing at her almost as II ii were true
+ what she had said-that word-that
I awful word which no woman could
Use with regard 70 herself, eyen ~
dreams. unless something. an echo
+ from the discordant chord IN our two
I weeks married life. rose like the con
frmation of doubt in my shocked and
reDellious breast
From that hour till dawn nothing in
that slowly Frightening room seemed
real, not her face lying buried III its
youthful locks upon the pillow. not the
objects well known and well priced by
which we were surrounded-not my
self-most Of all, not myself unless the
icy dew ooZing from the roots of my
lifted hair was real. unless that shape.
fearsome. vague. but persistent, which
lowered in the shadows above u.s.
drawing a line OF eternal separation
between me and my wife. was thing
which could be caught and strangled
and oh. / ravet / chatter like
mailman. but did not rave that night
Nor did | rave when, in the bright.
broad sunlight. her eyes slowly unclos-
ed and she started TO see me bending
so near her, but not with my usual kiss
or glad good morning. / could not
question her then; | dared not. The
smile which slowly rose to her lips
was too piteous-it showed confidence
i waited till after breakfast Then.
while she was seated where she could
not see my face, whispered the ques-
ton, Do you know that you have had
a horrible dreams? She shrieked and
turned. / saw her face and knew that
what she had uttered in her sleep was
true
Il have no remembrance of what /
said to her. She tried to tell me how
she had been tempted and how she had
not realized her own act till the mo-
ment l bent down to kiss her lips as
her husband. But / did not stop to
listen-I could not. few Immediately
to Miss futile with the violent demand
as to whether she knew that her sister
was already a wife when she married
me, and when she cried out, No. and
sioNtd Sitdl DlOht IoI III
with the dreadful tale and covered in
unmanly anguish at her feet and went
mad and lost myself for little while.
Then went back to my wretched wife
and asked her how the awful deed had
been done. She told me, and again /
did not believe her and began to look
upon it all as some wild dream of the
distempered fancies of a disordered
brain. This thought Gained me. and
spoke gently to her and even tried to
take her hand. But she herself was
raving now and chung about my knees
murmuring words of such anguish and
contrition that my worst fears return
ed and, only stopping to take the key
of the Moore house from my bureau. /
left the house and wandered madly-
/ know not where
Il did not go back that day. | could
not face her again till l knew how
much Or her confession was fancy and
how much was fact. / roamed the
streets, carrying that key from one end
of the city TO the other, and at night
1 used it to open the house which she
had declared contained so dreadful a
secret
Il had bought candles on my way
there but, forgetting TO take them from
the store. | had no light with which to
penetrate the horrible place that even
the moon refused to illumine. realized
this when once in. but would not go
back. All | have told about using
matches to light me to the southwest
chamber is true. also my coming upon
Che old candelabrum there. with candle
in one of it's sockets. This candle |
lit, my sole reason for seeking this
room being my desire to examine the
antique sketch for the words which she
had said could be found there.
Il had failed to bring ma gnifying
glass with me. but my eyes are
phenomenally sharp. Knowing where
to look, | was able TO pick out enough
words here and there in the lines COM
posing the hair to feel quite sure that
my wife had neither deceived me nor
been deceived as TO certain directions
being embodied there in writing. Shak-
en- in my last lingering hope. but not
yet quite convinced that these words
pointed 10 outrageous crime, l flew
next TO the closet aud drew out the
fatal drawer.
You have been there and know what
the place is. but no one but myself can
ever realize what it was for me, still
loving, still clinging to a wild incense
quent belief in my wife, to grope in
that mouth of hell for the spring she
had chartered about in her sleep. to
find it. press il. and then to hear, down
in the dark of the fearsome recess, the
sound of something deadly strike
against what l took TO be the cushions
of the old settle standing at the edge
of the library hearthstone-
Il think l must have tainted, for
when l found myself possessed of suf-
ficient consciousness TO withdraw from
that hole of death the candle in the
candelabrun was shorter by an inch
than when l first thrust my head into
the gap made by the removed draw
ers. In putting back the drawers l
hit the candelabrum with my foot, up
setting it and throwing out the burn
ing candle As the flames began TO
lick the worm eaten boarding of the
floor a momentary impulse seized me
-fR.aI.,