Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1915-07-23
The Castle
Clock
By JOHN Y. LARNED

him or hts abode. The young man
who succeeded to the title and the
property, Adolf Hazog, on receipt
Of notification Of his relatives death
and his own ascension to the estate,
went to the schloss and took up his
abode there. He found Hans Schlotter,
an old serv!tor, In charge Of the place,
who showed him his domicile ard gave
him a minute account of everything
in it, for Schlotter had been there ever
since he was born and for many years
had been the major domo.
'fThat clock" he said, referring to
timepiece some six feet in height and
in breadth and thickness the size Of
coffin for an adult, ''has stood there
ever since the schloss was built, now
nearly 200 years ago. 1t has foretold
the death Of every count since the first,
who was ennobled on account of his
services in battle"
"Whatr exclaimed the young man.
with shudder. "Foretold death!
How did it do that"
Il cannot tell you,' replied the old
man "An I know is that two counts
have died while have lived here. One
Of them told my father that he was
going to die, the clock having warned
him of his approaching end. The 9TH
er, he who died few weeks ago, told
me the same thing with regard to HIM
self But there is nothing remarkable
about this, for there is a tradition that
the clock will foratell the death Of the
incumbent count till the schloss Is
RUM
Count AGoff said nothing in reply to
this information, but it affected him
very sensibly. Soon after becoming
domesticated tn hts new home he found
himself constantly looking for some
sign from the clock that could be in
terpFeted as an indication that his end
was near. It would seem rather that
the clock should be locking for signs
of its own decay. l:.";lrse it vas very
old while the count w2s young and
healthy.
Count Adolf WIS lHe:rothed when he
acceded to the .s<a ,eity to Bertha Won
HolW1g, whom he rrAr!!ed soon after
his accession ,.lt;| took her there to
live. Not wishing that she should be
aware of his !::r:1rt.:t;blc feelings oc-
casbned by The tradition re said moth
ing to her a':.'>it i. Eut it was not
long before H. !o;:n:- countess saw
that sonnet: .t: 1ni'ltlGaut was affect
ing her huls'::::*:. arg! in tine she sur
missed that it ".'ss the cock. For she
noticed that her husband was often
wakeful, and whenever that occurred
he told her he wished it would not
tick 50 loud.
One night when Count Adolf was not
feeling well, after he had gone to sleep
his wife arose, slipped downstairs and
stopped the pendulum. Then she went
back to bed. The reason she did this
was that she feared if her husband
awolse and heard the ticking he would
be annoyed by it. In the middle of
the night the count awoke. feverish
and in pain.
Immediately he noticed that the clock
was silent Had he been in normal
condition he would doubtless have
thought it had run down, though it
had never been known to run down,
for Hans Schlotter attended to its
winding and had done so for half
century. He boosted that in all these
years he had never permitted it to
run down but once, though he admit
ted that this bad occurred shortly be-
fore Count Kerchoffs death.
Unfortunately the old man had told
this to his young master Therefore
when Count Adolf awoke feeling i'll
and Gid not hear the ticking of the
clock he at once inferred that its ceas-
ing presaged his death. Having al
ways concealed what troubled him
from his wife, fearing that she would
conceive a contempt for him on &C
count Of it, he did not now reveal it
to her. But he awoke her and told her
that he feared he was going to die.
The countess at once awoke the serv-
ants and sent for doctor, who found
the count in a state of collapse. He
could not tell what was the matter
with his patient. for all his organs
seemed to be in fairly good working
order. The counts nerves were evil
IDENTIFY affected, so, not knowing what
else to do, the doctor gave him a seda-
tive, which put him to sleep.
A daughter of Hans Schlotter, going
after having carried up
kettle of hot water for the invalid, no.
ticed that the old clock had stopped.
Supposing that her father had let it run
down, she started the pendulum going:
but, noticing that the weights still
hung high, she refrained from winding
t. When the count awoke Hans was
by his bed. The invalid,
hearing the clock ticking. asked Hans
+ be was aware that the clock had
stopped during the night. Hans said
le was not.
1T stopped to give me warning" re-
)lied the count, "and it has gone on
again" Thefeupon the poor man went
,f again into a nervous chill
The countess coming In at this mo-