Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-06-29

The shutter, too, was fast, and the
light behind 1t had gone out. With an
imprecation hurled at the woman who
had outwitted him, Kendall turned
again and fled into the night.
Harder and heavier the rain poured
down; thicker and wilder grew the
darkness. And again, ever at his
back, followed the sound of stealthy
footsteps. Il
He came to an old, dilapidated barn,
standing alone in a rain-beaten field
Wisps of hay and straw protruded
through the rent clapboards. Keeling
and giddy. Kendall groped for the
door, unlatched it and went in.
Then he listened. All was still. The
footsteps had died away somewhere
behind him. He looked around. The
barn was we'll packed with hay from
floor to rafter, and no one was there
to dispute the province with him. He
crossed the open space beyond the
door, climbed An1ow; ana, crawling,
utterly exhausted, into the warm and
fragrant hay, lay there like one dead.
Presently sleep began to steal over
him. The sounds of the storm with
out grew fainter. He was just sink
ing into a heavy doze when a minsling
of loud voices approached the build
ing-a shuffiing Of footsteps. The
latch below was lifted and the door
swung open.
Alive once more to the horrors Of the
night, Kendall lifted himself from the
hay and peered down. With eyes
starting from his head, he saw below
the two men in scarlet just entering
the barn, bearing between them some
thing that looked like a stark, human
body, wrapped about with a cloth.
Secure in his hiding place, Kendall
neither stirred nor breathed. He heard
them talking to each other below; then
a snatch Of the wild drinking song
they had sung at the inn rolled up to
the black rafters. After that followed
a red light that lit the barn from end
to end. Peering out from his lair
Kendall found that the men had light
ed a fire in the open space before the
door, and were standing on either side
Of it, wringing the wet from their long
black queues.
Now, bring that pitchfork from the
corner" quoth one.
1t was brought and placed in the
center of the place.
"And unbind the CLOTH" said the
other.
They tore the swaddling clothes from
the thing they had brought in between
them. Held by the steel pronss OF
the pitchfork, they set 1t on high above
the blaze and the smoke.
1t was a dead man, stark and stiff;
the limbs hanging lifeless, the head
rocking on the breast as it swung.
1t was little wonder that Kendall
from his refuge in the NOW, looked
down upon it with eyes starting from
their sockets, with cold sweat break
ing out at every pore. 1t was his own
dead face that he saw-his own dead
body rattling and moping there above
the blazing fire.
"Comrade," said one of the scarlet
men, "it is your turn to watch now;
am weary"
Not T." answered the other, with a
laugh. There's Kendall up there In
the hay. Let him try his hand at the
work"
"Kendall!" called both, derisively
come down, Kendall!"
With peals of discordant laughter
the miserable man was dragged from
the NOW. That he was dealing with
no mortal power was now evident, and
he did not resist. They set him before
the fire. face to face with his own stiff
corpse.
Dave Kendall" said the scarlet
men, you have led us a long race, and
! we are tired. See that you keep the
fire hot round this friend Of ours
while we lie down here to sleep"
They flung themselves upon the hay
side by side.
1t Is not often that a man has the
chance of contemplating himself dead
With his hair rising on his fore.
head, Kendall stared at the corpse or
high in frightful fascination. The eye:
were wide open, the shrunken features
so entirely like his own, were set in 6
look of unutterable agony. AS the
flame leaped up and licked it. every
joint writhed and clattered against The
fork in horrible contortions.
| Feed the fire, Kendall-feed the
fire." called his tormentors from thu
hay.
He seized on the combustible straw
and cast it on the flame. Then 1t van
| ished like frost, leaving neither light