Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1907-09-05
CHAPTER VIII.
Confin,1od

"This is no time for sleep, Thorne;
we must watch through the night
whether you like it or not if it is only
for Miss Lascelle's sake"
readily agreed to this, and for an
hour we walked on part of the lawn
from which I could see Edith's Will
dow. Then the rain, which had been
drizzling for some time, fell heavily,
and forced us to so in.
We changed our boots for slippers,
and sat together in my room, with
book, he with his chin in his hands,
his face hideous with the light of the
lamp on his protruding eyes.
Heaven knows, was not wanting
in love for Edith, or solicitude for her
welfare, and yet could not keep
awake. 1t must be remembered that
had had no sleep the preceding night,
and that I did believe in Edith's hal.
lucination, and therefore saw no ac-
tual danger menacing her. l tried to
interest myself in the book. but my
thoughts grew confused, the type
swan before my eyes, and helped to
bemuse my senses. At length l put
down the book, and shaking my. wits
together, said to Van Hoeck:
"Let us talk"
"Talkw he muttered, scornfully;
"why not ask me to sing you comic
song? If the Kid were here 1 suppose
you wouldn't want me to amuse you.
You could keep awake until or in
the morning watching her, but as it's
only your future wife who is con-
cerned you are loggerheaded before
midnight"
The sarcasm did not prevent me doz-
ing again few minutes later was
ashamed of my drowsness, and after
q minutes doze l would wake with a
guilty start, only to drop off again in
few moments. l know not how long
this had been going on, when Van
,Hoeck shook me by the arm and woke
me thoroughly.
"It is courting destruction to sit here
with the door open" he said, "onc or
us blind and the other dead asleep. l
cannot stand it any longer; it is intol-
erable. Tell me if it rains"
went to the window and found that
the rain had ceased. l told him this.
81 will go out; take me down to the
door," he said.
I led him downstairs and gave him
his umbrella and hat. Then l took
mine. and opened the door quietly,
fearing to awake Edith. would have
accompanied him, but he refused, say
ing night and day were alike to him,
md he knew his way along the paths
and about the lawn.
go back to your room and fasten
yourself in," he said; sit IS our only
security. Tap at the window to let
me know that all is fast. I beg you to
do this" he added earnestly; you can
not understand the feelings of man
in my position-the torture OF con-
scious impotency as you feel the ap-
preaching fate that you are powerless
to avert"
His voice ratified in his throat, and
indistinctly l heard him mutter, ms
he groped his way along the wall of
the terrace:
"Cramped in coffin, and clods fall
ing. falling"
I closed the door and returned to my
room with a shudder.
When / had fastened myself in l
tapped at the window, and Van Hoeck
replied by tapping on the wall below.
The fresh air had revived me; l had
no longer to struggle with an irresis-
tible drowsiness-the inclination to
sleep was gone.
had my book to finish, but my mind
was not sufficiently composed to read.
AS walked about the room l thought
of Edith and of Van Hoeck, wondering
if there could be any connection be-
tween her strange hallucination and
the terrible preseptiment which night
and day possessed him. 1t seemed as
If there must be something abnormal
in the conditions under which we lived
to produce an effect which, though
characterized by different peculiarities,
was in both cases attributable only to
q dsordered Imagination, and l WON
dered if l, in my turn, should come
under this occult influence.
I might have been occupied with the
speculation for half an hour or more
when l heard a scream Of terror that
/ could not doubt came from the wing
in which Edith lay. In an instant l
opened the door and ran through the
corridor The doors in the picture gal
lery were open. AS l drew aside the
curtain which closed in the staircase
corridor of the left wing saw Sir Ed
mund come from his room with lamp
. The door of Edith's room exactly faced
HIS it was wide open; all was dark
within.
"What Is it. my dear? What is it?'
he called rs he entered the room.
There was no answer.
I followed to the door. Sir Edmund
was standing by the empty bed, look
ing around him in blank dismay.
''She is gomez he gasped. 1.-THE door
was wide open"
The bed stood away from the wall.
bade Sir Edmund look ON the further
side.
There was scarcely room for him to
pass between the foot of the bed and
the wall, but as he lowered the light
he said in quick alarm:
"She is here-unconscious- ring the
bell for the women" .-