Year: 1873




bread.


Il should like to retire as soon as
possible" said, for my weariness was
excessive.


Certainly" The woman started up
with alacrity.


Where are you going to put him ?"
asked my guide.


Up chamber"


Put him in Isaac's room"


"No."


It's the most comfortable.


I tell you no!"


But here I interrupted the whispered
colloquy.


am not PARTICULAR don't care
where you lodge me only make haste. :"
So I was conducted mp a steep ladder
that stood in corner of the room, into
an apartment ceiled with sloping beams
and ventilated by one small window,
where a cot bedstead, crowded close
against the board partition, and a pine
table, with two chairs, formed the sole
attempts at furniture.


The woman set the ight-an oil lamp
ON tine table.


Anything more I can get you, sir ?"


Nothing, I thank you"
"I hope you'll sleep well, sir. When
shall I call you?"


"At 4 o'clock in the morning, if you
please. 1 must walk over to R
station in time for the 7 O'Clock e1-
press.


"I'n be sure and.:call you, SIR"
She Withdrew, leaving me alone in
the gloomy little apartment. sat down
and looked around me with no very
agreeable sensation.


az will sit down and write to Alice, +"
1 thought, "that will soothe my nerves
and quiet me, perhaps"


descended the ladder. The fire still
glowed redly on the stone hearth my
companion and the woman sat beside
it, talking in low tone, and third
person sat at the table eating-a short,
stout, villainous looking man, in a red
flannel shirt and muddy trousers.


I asked for writing materials and re-
turned to my room to write to my wife.


My darling Alice"


I paused and laid down my pen as I
concluded the words, half smiling to
think what she would say could she
know of my strange quarters.


Not until both sheets were covered
did lay aside my pen and prepare for
slumber. As folded the paper hap
pened to glance toward my couch.
| Was it the CLEAN of a human eye OBJ
serving me through the cracks of the
board partition, or was it but my own
fancy? There was crack there, but
only blank darkness beyond; yet could
have sworn that something had spark
led balefully at me.


took out my watch-it was o'clock.
1t was scarcely worth while for me to
undress for three hours sleep I would
lie down in my clothes and snatch what
slumber could. So placing my valise
close to the head Of my bed, and bar
reading the lockless door with two
chairs, 1 extinguished the Light and lay
down.


At first was very wakeful, but grad
ually soft drowsiness seemed to steal
over me like q misty mantle, until, all
of a sudden, some startling electric
thrill coursed through all my veins, and
I sat up, excited and trembling.


A luminous softness seemed to glow
and quiver through the room-no light
of moon or star was ever SO soft or pen
etratlng- by the little window saw
Alice, my wife, dressed in floating gar
ments of white, with her long golden
hair knotted back by blue ribbon.
Apparently she was beckoning to me
with outstretched hands and eyes full Of
wild, anxious tenderness.
| sprang to my feet and rushed
toward her, but as I reached the win
dow the fair apparition seemed to van
ish into the stormy darkness, and I was
left alone. At the self-same instant the
sharp report of a pistol sounded
could see the jagged stream of fire above
the piliar-straight. straight through
the very spot where, ten seconds since,
my head had lain.


| With an instantaneous realization OF
my danger, I swung myself over the
ledge of the window, jumping some
eight or ten feet into tangled rose
bushes below, and as I crouched there,
recovering my breath, heard the tramp
of footsteps into my room.


sis he dead ?" cried a voice up the
IIadder-the smooth, deceitful voice OF
the woman with the half closed eyes.


"Of course he is, cried voice back
g. that charge would have killed ten
men. A light there. quick, and tell
Tom to be ready"


A cold, agonized shudder ran through
me. What den Of midnight murderers
had I fallen into? And how fearfully
narrow had been my escape!
| With o speed that only terror and
deadly peril can give, I rushed through
the woods, now illuminated by faint
glimmer of starlight. / know not what
impulse guided my footsteps never
shall know how many times I crossed