Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1914-02-07

and yielding. That was strange!
81 must have done all the tossing
with my head" she said to herself,
still tickled by the oddity OF the
thing.
One thing was certain-she could
not sleep in comfort with nothing but
bolster under her head. 1
She leaned out and felt upon the
floor, as far as she could reach Up
the right. The pillows had not slipped
out on that side. Then putting het
shoulder against the wall she fell
down on the left. There was nothing
there. What did it all mean? De-
cidedly this must be new freak of
her imagination.
She was not yet thoroughly fright
ened. The spirit who could steal
her pillows must have some sense Of
humor; it was preferable to drum
ming on the window-panes, and G. ar
ing through the blind at her. Hearing
and sight had been tried and now her
sense of touch was to be tested.
But though she tried to make light
of the affair, she felt that something
terrible underlay its comic aspect,
and little SILVER ran through her
at the thought of getting up and
striking a light. 1t was so much
easier to be courageous in the daylight
than in such darkness as this.
After all, perhaps the pillows had
| slid out of the bed in a natural way
and lay only just little beyond her
reach. But rather tnan stretch her
preferred TO put up with the bolster
doubled.
She doubled the bolster, and gave
it little pat; then she put up a lock
OF hair that had come down, and told
herself not to be stupid about little
thing like that; and wondering wheth-
er she should dare to ,ell OF this in
cident in the morning, she dropI ed
on her elbow and laid down her he adj
down, down till it touched the bed.
What was this 2" she asked her
self starting up in a fright. She felt
from side to side; now the bolster
was gone; there was nothing there but
the bed.
But this pantomime trick was no
longer comic. She felt the tears Of
fright springing in her eyes, and
something rising in her throat. Cold
fear chilled her to the bone.
Was she in reality awake? The
striking of the clock in the berry as
sured her of that.
Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong It
lightly chimed; and then the hour was
tolled out slowly, sOnorously, solemn
ly:
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
But if this was not hallucination,
what was it? The work of actual
l,a. l. L..
more direful intention than to play
trick of this kind, they were not TO
be feared. 1t was not terrific; Il was
merely childish mischief, and this re-
Election suggested that, after AL, it
to brighten her. And just for one
elbow, she fancied she saw something
like those luminous eyes in the
midst of the darkness, and close to
her-there! there, above her, toward
the side Of the bed
in a voice so faint, for she was sick
hardly hear the words she spoke.
1t was fancy, or the eyes were
turned away. Yet, still leaning upon
strained her eyes to penetrate the
darkness.
Not long perhaps, though it seemed
so, her heart beating painfully, her
mouth parched and dry, the hot breath
catching the back of her throat.
Something seemed to be touching
her hair Was it the lace curtain?
She raised her trembling nan, and
felt something level with the top Of
her head. But it was not the curtain.
Ii wasthe pillow, or she was mad
Her strength gave way, and she fell
back upon the bed; but the terrible
suspicious that the pillows had been
withdrawn for the purpose Cf smoth-
ering had made her throw her hand
up.
The pillow descended, it was close
to her face. She tried to scream, hut /
the pillow was already upon her I
mouth, and smothering the cry.
1t closed down upon her head, |
firm and hard. She could no longer |
breathe. 1t pressed upon her throat,
as she lay with the back of her head |
pushed down into the bed.
The touch of Death aroused the in
stinct of self-preservation within her,
and with frantic effort, she tore her
self from under that suffocating pres
sure, flung herself from the bed, and,
as respiration returned, cried with all
her force for help.
CHAPTER Y.
Ignorant of what had occurred in h
Edith's room before her cry for help,
paced my room, thinking how terri
bic the fright must have been that
made her faint a second time, and
despite her belief in the unreality of
these mysterious appearance
'Your turn will come" Van Hoeck
had said to me, and these words COM
ing back to my mind, asked myself