Evening star., 1908-01-12
SssS

| became-and remained-hopelessly in
sane.
| Il wrote at once a full account of my
examination and inclosed the sketch that
the man had himself drawn. and on the
strength of that and by my report. he was
acquitted of any intent to kill. He was,
however, acutely insane and continued so,
until lately, when he died, still under re-
straint, but not violent.
Soon after his acquittaI I went off on
my summer vacation and being In the
same state. 1 determined to go myself
and see the ground on which the fulfill-
ment of this curse-for it was surely that
had been worked out and consummated.
The general manager of the road extend
ed every courtesy to me, and together we
boarded his private car early one Septem-
ber morning. AS we proceeded on our
way / begged him not TO tell me, when
we approached the place. but to let ME
pick it out as best / could from the de-
scription that had been given me. We
passed several curves, and at last as We
swung round one l saw the little bridge
with it's roof-the beehiveS and the red
house-all as it had been described. l rose
from my seat, and without word the
manager and l left the car which had
been stopped directly in front of the
house. AS we crossed the little bridge L
saw the disused beehives. one Of which
was still on its sde-a mute but striking
witness of detail that was all but too
complete. A finished scene setting for
phantasy that had been to its unfortunate
victim even less of a delusion than a
snare.
Sitting under the apple trees l told the
married son of the man who had been
killed of my experience with the engineer
of his fears and of his sufferings. Grad
ually the hard New England face soft
ened and relaxed-his voice was less Bit
ter. and all thoughts of vengeance, l saw.
had been merged in pity for the doomed
man for whom fate and destiny had
proved too strong. Finally l asked him
what had made his father wear an over
coat on a hot night in July, and as It
seemed utterly incongruous to his sur
roundings, where he had obtained an OLD
coat that was probably relic of the civil
war.
That exclaimed the son, is the
queerest thing of all to me. The coat be-
longed to a tramp farm hand who l had
employed only the day before. He was an
odd specimen of the genus hobo. who pre-
ferred to sleep out of doors or on hay
NOW. and the coat was what he had Laid
on. That night he had thrown 1t over a bee
hive, and my father must have upset it
when he took the coat. But why he
should have put it on in a hot night 1
cannot tell-can you? / did not answer
him, for l could not tell-who could? For
without the coat the engineer would have
failed to have recognized his delusion. and
the train would have been stopped in
time.
That" concluded the doctor. as he
threw away his cigar. lis the strange and
inexplicable part of il. Here We have q
man who is cursed by a delusion- BY II
he is driven from his home, his surround-
ings and his occupation. He fees from 1t.
and yet it follows him. Years after it re-
appears. seemingly unchanged, and yet
how different. For 1t has now become the
elimination of chain of events, each or
which was necessary for the perfect rul-
fillment of the vision. The sickness of one
engineer and the substitution of the other
the moonlight night-the overturning of
the beehive. and the man himself, there,
clad in coat that he had never before
seen, waiting for death that was ap-
as preordained and as immutable
as are the fates themselves
T. b. LORING, NJ ID.