Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-04-01
The Argus Daily Story
The Tick of the Clock-By Emerson Marble.
Copyrighted. 1911. BY Associated Literary Bureau

rore peop1ed my castle. But the days
ern region by September and evening
came all too early. 1 did my dreaming
before the mammoth fireplace where
1 burned great logs, but. though they
blazed and cracked and sputtered mer-
rily. did not Ike being alone. Shere
were servants, to be sure, but could
have no companionship with them.
One night q dark cloud came up
over the sea and brought a shower.
I was lying in bed and heard the rain
come down for a few minutes, after
dropping OF to sleep when my atten-
ton was arrested by what sounded
exactly like the tick of clock.
Could 1t be the old timepiece on the
stairs?
1 waited for a repetition. Il was
not a second, but what seemed ten
seconds, when it came again. My
heart stood still. Was the old ma
chine about to predict the day Of my
death7 / poohpoohed. There it is again,
a third tick coming after the same In
terval. tried to recall something In
the old record book mentioning that
the ticks marked more than a second
of time. Nothing was said about this,
but since they were phantom ticks by
a pendulum that was not hung and
since the weights were resting quietly
In the bottom of the case an interval
of one second was not to be expected.
The seconds of eternity are some
times centuries in duration.
Why had begun to count the ticks7
I would cease to do so. tried, but
failed. Four, FIVE, six, seven. eight
was obliged to count them. They
would not permit me not to count
them. Nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thir-
tent was the 18th day Of the
month, and I hoped there might not
be another tick. Then 1t would be no
warning to me. Warning! What
warning2 That I was going to die
some time during the month between
the 18th and 31st?
Nonsense!
But my heart didn't say nonsense at
all. 1t beat like triphammer.
There 1t is-fourteen. Now I hoped
It would tick on. If I must die
would rather have time for prepare
ton. I continued counting the ticks.
] had to continue counting them-ff-
teen, sixteen, seventeen. eighteen.
nineteen, twenty.
What was thet moanf
Oh, that's the wind. I have heard
that sough before. 1t comes from the
in FOL in
through openings. But how like q
moan of one in suffering! It's the I'M
aglnation that Is working upon me.
wish morning would come. But It
won't. The ticks always begin at
midnight, and there has thus far been
but twenty of them.
Twenty-one, twenty-two-it seems to
me that there is a longer interval than
| at first = twenty three, twenty-four.
Surely they are coming to an end.
There is now long while between
each. Like the breaths Of one dying
I counted twenty-seven, and there
must have been half a minute before
twenty-eight came. And it was the
| last.
oh. heavens! I'm to die on the 2Sth
| of this MONTH
! What a night / spent. Would that
my castle had been blown up by the
Norsemen centuries ago and had new
er seen it. Two weeks to live! Two
weeks and one day! l would telegraph
| my wife the first thing in the morning.
! Telegraph what? That / was to be
licked out of existence by a rusty
clock with no pendulum? How could
l do that? Doubtless when light came
again would feel better about 1t.
And so l did. / arose, ate a good
breakfast and got on pretty well till
evening was coming on, when called
my seneschal-a fat, baldheaded Swede
and told him that l would take the
evening train for Berlin.
"Why, Herr. thought you would
stay with us to the end of the month";"
1.-THE 2Sth? No. What am talking
about? I am going on the first train.
And, Adolph, / wish you to take the
old clock off the stair landing and put
1t down in the cellar. Bury it. No,
don't do that. Don't do anything. I'll
write you
l seized my suit case and walked to
the station, though it was two miles.
! wished to put distance between me
and that old clock. What shall | say
when reach Berlin? That I'm sick?
Who'll believe me?
Nobody did. / told my wife what
had scared me away from the castle.
but we kept it from the others.
why, I always thought you had
such a contempt for superstition she
said.
80 have till see a ghost myself"
| replied.
l thanked heaven when the 29th of
September had passed and 1 still lived
There is a sequel to this story, but IT
didn't transpire for long while. One
night when my wife and were at our
castle IL rained. awakened her.
''Vhat is itT' she asked.
THE clock is ticking"
She listened to the first tick. then
turned over and was going to sleep.
'Yell% I observed.
That's n dripping Of watern