Year: 1876

rluc. l. MUTUALLY SoW ulS uulI uit iIOu
lis head, and great beads OF perspiration
burst from his forehead. t..t.


He took not the slightest notice Of my
movement, but slowly raised one hand.
as if pointing to something in the room
behind me; then suddenly, and without
giving me moments warming, with one
loud yell of agonized terror, he dashed
to the door leading into the passage,
through the passage, and out OF the
main door, which slammed heavily be-
hind lim. hurried after him into the
passage. Then / remembered that the
outer door was closed with a spring lock,
and that the key was in the pocket OF
my great-coat, which was hung up in the
bedroom. We had inadvertently left
the door open on coming in, and thus
S. had been enabled to escape.


1t would be impossible for me to de-
scribe my feelings at finding myself
alone in the passage. How long it was
before mustered up sufficient presence
of mind for reflection cannot tell but
at least I realized to myself the fact that
to leave my chambers it was necessary
to get the key. With desperate cour-
age returned to the sitting-room. The
lamp was extinguished the fire was
burning with sickly glare. With
closed eyes 1 advanced into the bed
room. Iquickly felt my way to the peg
on which my coat was hanging, when
something happened that caused my
very heart to stand still and my blood
to freeze. heard movement in the
passage strange, heavy, shuffiing
sound, as of body dragging itself along
the floor. An impulse seized me, unGc-
countable as all the other events of that
memorable night. / felt impelled to
follow the thing that was painfully,
slowly dragging itself down the passage.
1 stepped through the dressing-room !;
and as 1 moved / heard it move on be-
fore me, keeping at the same relative
distance from me. 1 quickened my
pace, L ran-but I could not overtake
that which l still heard dragging itself
along.


After three or four headlong rushes
from room to room, 1 stopped in the
middle of the sitting room to recover
| breath. As / stood, q revulsion of feel
confront and discover the cause of the
sounds / still could hear, gave way to
horror. 1 felt my life and reason to
depend on my escape. As l moved to
the bedroom-door it closed in my face.
1 frantically endeavored to force the
lock. The thing was dragging itself
along the passage into the room in which
1 was. Again the nauseating stencil of
the night before rose into my nostrils ;
| I rushed to the window with the inten-
ton of throwing it open and jumping
into the space beneath but it was too
late. 1 turned my eye downward.
1t was close to me, and l beheld
it. A man writhing on the floor, his fea-
lures blue, bloated and decomposed, the
eyeballs turned up, yet bearing full up
on me, dead and CLASSY, an impure phos-
phorescent light emanating from the body
itself. AS gazed, one discolored hand
was raised to the throat, in which / per-
ceived hideous cash. 1t drew itself
gradually closer to me-. l became
insensible.


When was discovered in the morn
ing, my friends, who were telegraphed
| for, removed me to the country, where,
among cheerful scenes and people,
soon recovered. S. died of brain
fever within three days of the night on
which he sat and watched with me.


/ have never cared to make any in.
quiries as to the previous inmates of the
chambers. 1t is true have heard that
an inmate of one set cut his throat un-
der peculiarly horrible circumstances
but ] was never curious to identity the
scene OF the suicides death with the
chambers he occupied for so short q
time; indeed, nothing would induce me
ever again to enter the apartments.