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diff --git a/old/prhg10.txt b/old/prhg10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4a9fda3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/prhg10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2365 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Present at a Hanging et al. +by Ambrose Bierce +(#8 in our series by Ambrose Bierce) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before distributing this or any other +Project Gutenberg file. + +We encourage you to keep this file, exactly as it is, on your +own disk, thereby keeping an electronic path open for future +readers. Please do not remove this. + +This header should be the first thing seen when anyone starts to +view the etext. 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We need your donations. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 + + + +Title: Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories + +Author: Ambrose Bierce + +Release Date: August, 2003 [Etext #4387] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on January 20, 2002] +[Most recently updated: January 20, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Present at a Hanging et. al. +by Ambrose Bierce +******This file should be named prhg10.txt or prhg10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, prhg11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, prhg10a.txt + +Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk, from the +1918 Boni and Liveright "Can Such Things Be?" edition. + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + +PRESENT AT A HANGING AND OTHER GHOST STORIES + + + + +Contents: + +The Ways of Ghosts + Present at a Hanging + A Cold Greeting + A Wireless Message + An Arrest +Soldier-Folk + A Man with Two Lives + Three and One are One + A Baffled Ambuscade + Two Military Executions +Some Haunted Houses + The Isle of Pines + A Fruitless Assignment + A Vine on a House + At Old Man Eckert's + The Spook House + The Other Lodgers + The Thing at Nolan + The Difficulty of Crossing a Field + An Unfinished Race + Charles Ashmore's Trail + Science to the Front + + + +THE WAYS OF GHOSTS + + + + +My peculiar relation to the writer of the following narratives is +such that I must ask the reader to overlook the absence of +explanation as to how they came into my possession. Withal, my +knowledge of him is so meager that I should rather not undertake to +say if he were himself persuaded of the truth of what he relates; +certainly such inquiries as I have thought it worth while to set +about have not in every instance tended to confirmation of the +statements made. Yet his style, for the most part devoid alike of +artifice and art, almost baldly simple and direct, seems hardly +compatible with the disingenuousness of a merely literary intention; +one would call it the manner of one more concerned for the fruits of +research than for the flowers of expression. In transcribing his +notes and fortifying their claim to attention by giving them +something of an orderly arrangement, I have conscientiously +refrained from embellishing them with such small ornaments of +diction as I may have felt myself able to bestow, which would not +only have been impertinent, even if pleasing, but would have given +me a somewhat closer relation to the work than I should care to have +and to avow.--A. B. + + + +PRESENT AT A HANGING + + + +An old man named Daniel Baker, living near Lebanon, Iowa, was +suspected by his neighbors of having murdered a peddler who had +obtained permission to pass the night at his house. This was in +1853, when peddling was more common in the Western country than it +is now, and was attended with considerable danger. The peddler with +his pack traversed the country by all manner of lonely roads, and +was compelled to rely upon the country people for hospitality. This +brought him into relation with queer characters, some of whom were +not altogether scrupulous in their methods of making a living, +murder being an acceptable means to that end. It occasionally +occurred that a peddler with diminished pack and swollen purse would +be traced to the lonely dwelling of some rough character and never +could be traced beyond. This was so in the case of "old man Baker," +as he was always called. (Such names are given in the western +"settlements" only to elderly persons who are not esteemed; to the +general disrepute of social unworth is affixed the special reproach +of age.) A peddler came to his house and none went away--that is +all that anybody knew. + +Seven years later the Rev. Mr. Cummings, a Baptist minister well +known in that part of the country, was driving by Baker's farm one +night. It was not very dark: there was a bit of moon somewhere +above the light veil of mist that lay along the earth. Mr. +Cummings, who was at all times a cheerful person, was whistling a +tune, which he would occasionally interrupt to speak a word of +friendly encouragement to his horse. As he came to a little bridge +across a dry ravine he saw the figure of a man standing upon it, +clearly outlined against the gray background of a misty forest. The +man had something strapped on his back and carried a heavy stick-- +obviously an itinerant peddler. His attitude had in it a suggestion +of abstraction, like that of a sleepwalker. Mr. Cummings reined in +his horse when he arrived in front of him, gave him a pleasant +salutation and invited him to a seat in the vehicle--"if you are +going my way," he added. The man raised his head, looked him full +in the face, but neither answered nor made any further movement. +The minister, with good-natured persistence, repeated his +invitation. At this the man threw his right hand forward from his +side and pointed downward as he stood on the extreme edge of the +bridge. Mr. Cummings looked past him, over into the ravine, saw +nothing unusual and withdrew his eyes to address the man again. He +had disappeared. The horse, which all this time had been uncommonly +restless, gave at the same moment a snort of terror and started to +run away. Before he had regained control of the animal the minister +was at the crest of the hill a hundred yards along. He looked back +and saw the figure again, at the same place and in the same attitude +as when he had first observed it. Then for the first time he was +conscious of a sense of the supernatural and drove home as rapidly +as his willing horse would go. + +On arriving at home he related his adventure to his family, and +early the next morning, accompanied by two neighbors, John White +Corwell and Abner Raiser, returned to the spot. They found the body +of old man Baker hanging by the neck from one of the beams of the +bridge, immediately beneath the spot where the apparition had stood. +A thick coating of dust, slightly dampened by the mist, covered the +floor of the bridge, but the only footprints were those of Mr. +Cummings' horse. + +In taking down the body the men disturbed the loose, friable earth +of the slope below it, disclosing human bones already nearly +uncovered by the action of water and frost. They were identified as +those of the lost peddler. At the double inquest the coroner's jury +found that Daniel Baker died by his own hand while suffering from +temporary insanity, and that Samuel Morritz was murdered by some +person or persons to the jury unknown. + + + +A COLD GREETING + + + +This is a story told by the late Benson Foley of San Francisco: + +"In the summer of 1881 I met a man named James H. Conway, a resident +of Franklin, Tennessee. He was visiting San Francisco for his +health, deluded man, and brought me a note of introduction from Mr. +Lawrence Barting. I had known Barting as a captain in the Federal +army during the civil war. At its close he had settled in Franklin, +and in time became, I had reason to think, somewhat prominent as a +lawyer. Barting had always seemed to me an honorable and truthful +man, and the warm friendship which he expressed in his note for Mr. +Conway was to me sufficient evidence that the latter was in every +way worthy of my confidence and esteem. At dinner one day Conway +told me that it had been solemnly agreed between him and Barting +that the one who died first should, if possible, communicate with +the other from beyond the grave, in some unmistakable way--just how, +they had left (wisely, it seemed to me) to be decided by the +deceased, according to the opportunities that his altered +circumstances might present. + +"A few weeks after the conversation in which Mr. Conway spoke of +this agreement, I met him one day, walking slowly down Montgomery +street, apparently, from his abstracted air, in deep thought. He +greeted me coldly with merely a movement of the head and passed on, +leaving me standing on the walk, with half-proffered hand, surprised +and naturally somewhat piqued. The next day I met him again in the +office of the Palace Hotel, and seeing him about to repeat the +disagreeable performance of the day before, intercepted him in a +doorway, with a friendly salutation, and bluntly requested an +explanation of his altered manner. He hesitated a moment; then, +looking me frankly in the eyes, said: + +"'I do not think, Mr. Foley, that I have any longer a claim to your +friendship, since Mr. Barting appears to have withdrawn his own from +me--for what reason, I protest I do not know. If he has not already +informed you he probably will do so.' + +"'But,' I replied, 'I have not heard from Mr. Barting.' + +"'Heard from him!' he repeated, with apparent surprise. 'Why, he is +here. I met him yesterday ten minutes before meeting you. I gave +you exactly the same greeting that he gave me. I met him again not +a quarter of an hour ago, and his manner was precisely the same: he +merely bowed and passed on. I shall not soon forget your civility +to me. Good morning, or--as it may please you--farewell.' + +"All this seemed to me singularly considerate and delicate behavior +on the part of Mr. Conway. + +"As dramatic situations and literary effects are foreign to my +purpose I will explain at once that Mr. Barting was dead. He had +died in Nashville four days before this conversation. Calling on +Mr. Conway, I apprised him of our friend's death, showing him the +letters announcing it. He was visibly affected in a way that +forbade me to entertain a doubt of his sincerity. + +"'It seems incredible,' he said, after a period of reflection. 'I +suppose I must have mistaken another man for Barting, and that man's +cold greeting was merely a stranger's civil acknowledgment of my +own. I remember, indeed, that he lacked Barting's mustache.' + +"'Doubtless it was another man,' I assented; and the subject was +never afterward mentioned between us. But I had in my pocket a +photograph of Barting, which had been inclosed in the letter from +his widow. It had been taken a week before his death, and was +without a mustache." + + + +A WIRELESS MESSAGE + + + +In the summer of 1896 Mr. William Holt, a wealthy manufacturer of +Chicago, was living temporarily in a little town of central New +York, the name of which the writer's memory has not retained. Mr. +Holt had had "trouble with his wife," from whom he had parted a year +before. Whether the trouble was anything more serious than +"incompatibility of temper," he is probably the only living person +that knows: he is not addicted to the vice of confidences. Yet he +has related the incident herein set down to at least one person +without exacting a pledge of secrecy. He is now living in Europe. + +One evening he had left the house of a brother whom he was visiting, +for a stroll in the country. It may be assumed--whatever the value +of the assumption in connection with what is said to have occurred-- +that his mind was occupied with reflections on his domestic +infelicities and the distressing changes that they had wrought in +his life. + +Whatever may have been his thoughts, they so possessed him that he +observed neither the lapse of time nor whither his feet were +carrying him; he knew only that he had passed far beyond the town +limits and was traversing a lonely region by a road that bore no +resemblance to the one by which he had left the village. In brief, +he was "lost." + +Realizing his mischance, he smiled; central New York is not a region +of perils, nor does one long remain lost in it. He turned about and +went back the way that he had come. Before he had gone far he +observed that the landscape was growing more distinct--was +brightening. Everything was suffused with a soft, red glow in which +he saw his shadow projected in the road before him. "The moon is +rising," he said to himself. Then he remembered that it was about +the time of the new moon, and if that tricksy orb was in one of its +stages of visibility it had set long before. He stopped and faced +about, seeking the source of the rapidly broadening light. As he +did so, his shadow turned and lay along the road in front of him as +before. The light still came from behind him. That was surprising; +he could not understand. Again he turned, and again, facing +successively to every point of the horizon. Always the shadow was +before--always the light behind, "a still and awful red." + +Holt was astonished--"dumfounded" is the word that he used in +telling it--yet seems to have retained a certain intelligent +curiosity. To test the intensity of the light whose nature and +cause he could not determine, he took out his watch to see if he +could make out the figures on the dial. They were plainly visible, +and the hands indicated the hour of eleven o'clock and twenty-five +minutes. At that moment the mysterious illumination suddenly flared +to an intense, an almost blinding splendor, flushing the entire sky, +extinguishing the stars and throwing the monstrous shadow of himself +athwart the landscape. In that unearthly illumination he saw near +him, but apparently in the air at a considerable elevation, the +figure of his wife, clad in her night-clothing and holding to her +breast the figure of his child. Her eyes were fixed upon his with +an expression which he afterward professed himself unable to name or +describe, further than that it was "not of this life." + +The flare was momentary, followed by black darkness, in which, +however, the apparition still showed white and motionless; then by +insensible degrees it faded and vanished, like a bright image on the +retina after the closing of the eyes. A peculiarity of the +apparition, hardly noted at the time, but afterward recalled, was +that it showed only the upper half of the woman's figure: nothing +was seen below the waist. + +The sudden darkness was comparative, not absolute, for gradually all +objects of his environment became again visible. + +In the dawn of the morning Holt found himself entering the village +at a point opposite to that at which he had left it. He soon +arrived at the house of his brother, who hardly knew him. He was +wild-eyed, haggard, and gray as a rat. Almost incoherently, he +related his night's experience. + +"Go to bed, my poor fellow," said his brother, "and--wait. We shall +hear more of this." + +An hour later came the predestined telegram. Holt's dwelling in one +of the suburbs of Chicago had been destroyed by fire. Her escape +cut off by the flames, his wife had appeared at an upper window, her +child in her arms. There she had stood, motionless, apparently +dazed. Just as the firemen had arrived with a ladder, the floor had +given way, and she was seen no more. + +The moment of this culminating horror was eleven o'clock and twenty- +five minutes, standard time. + + + +AN ARREST + + + +Having murdered his brother-in-law, Orrin Brower of Kentucky was a +fugitive from justice. From the county jail where he had been +confined to await his trial he had escaped by knocking down his +jailer with an iron bar, robbing him of his keys and, opening the +outer door, walking out into the night. The jailer being unarmed, +Brower got no weapon with which to defend his recovered liberty. As +soon as he was out of the town he had the folly to enter a forest; +this was many years ago, when that region was wilder than it is now. + +The night was pretty dark, with neither moon nor stars visible, and +as Brower had never dwelt thereabout, and knew nothing of the lay of +the land, he was, naturally, not long in losing himself. He could +not have said if he were getting farther away from the town or going +back to it--a most important matter to Orrin Brower. He knew that +in either case a posse of citizens with a pack of bloodhounds would +soon be on his track and his chance of escape was very slender; but +he did not wish to assist in his own pursuit. Even an added hour of +freedom was worth having. + +Suddenly he emerged from the forest into an old road, and there +before him saw, indistinctly, the figure of a man, motionless in the +gloom. It was too late to retreat: the fugitive felt that at the +first movement back toward the wood he would be, as he afterward +explained, "filled with buckshot." So the two stood there like +trees, Brower nearly suffocated by the activity of his own heart; +the other--the emotions of the other are not recorded. + +A moment later--it may have been an hour--the moon sailed into a +patch of unclouded sky and the hunted man saw that visible +embodiment of Law lift an arm and point significantly toward and +beyond him. He understood. Turning his back to his captor, he +walked submissively away in the direction indicated, looking to +neither the right nor the left; hardly daring to breathe, his head +and back actually aching with a prophecy of buckshot. + +Brower was as courageous a criminal as ever lived to be hanged; that +was shown by the conditions of awful personal peril in which he had +coolly killed his brother-in-law. It is needless to relate them +here; they came out at his trial, and the revelation of his calmness +in confronting them came near to saving his neck. But what would +you have?--when a brave man is beaten, he submits. + +So they pursued their journey jailward along the old road through +the woods. Only once did Brower venture a turn of the head: just +once, when he was in deep shadow and he knew that the other was in +moonlight, he looked backward. His captor was Burton Duff, the +jailer, as white as death and bearing upon his brow the livid mark +of the iron bar. Orrin Brower had no further curiosity. + +Eventually they entered the town, which was all alight, but +deserted; only the women and children remained, and they were off +the streets. Straight toward the jail the criminal held his way. +Straight up to the main entrance he walked, laid his hand upon the +knob of the heavy iron door, pushed it open without command, entered +and found himself in the presence of a half-dozen armed men. Then +he turned. Nobody else entered. + +On a table in the corridor lay the dead body of Burton Duff. + + + + +SOLDIER-FOLK + + + + +A MAN WITH TWO LIVES + + + +Here is the queer story of David William Duck, related by himself. +Duck is an old man living in Aurora, Illinois, where he is +universally respected. He is commonly known, however, as "Dead +Duck." + +"In the autumn of 1866 I was a private soldier of the Eighteenth +Infantry. My company was one of those stationed at Fort Phil +Kearney, commanded by Colonel Carrington. The country is more or +less familiar with the history of that garrison, particularly with +the slaughter by the Sioux of a detachment of eighty-one men and +officers--not one escaping--through disobedience of orders by its +commander, the brave but reckless Captain Fetterman. When that +occurred, I was trying to make my way with important dispatches to +Fort C. F. Smith, on the Big Horn. As the country swarmed with +hostile Indians, I traveled by night and concealed myself as best I +could before daybreak. The better to do so, I went afoot, armed +with a Henry rifle and carrying three days' rations in my haversack. + +"For my second place of concealment I chose what seemed in the +darkness a narrow canon leading through a range of rocky hills. It +contained many large bowlders, detached from the slopes of the +hills. Behind one of these, in a clump of sage-brush, I made my bed +for the day, and soon fell asleep. It seemed as if I had hardly +closed my eyes, though in fact it was near midday, when I was +awakened by the report of a rifle, the bullet striking the bowlder +just above my body. A band of Indians had trailed me and had me +nearly surrounded; the shot had been fired with an execrable aim by +a fellow who had caught sight of me from the hillside above. The +smoke of his rifle betrayed him, and I was no sooner on my feet than +he was off his and rolling down the declivity. Then I ran in a +stooping posture, dodging among the clumps of sage-brush in a storm +of bullets from invisible enemies. The rascals did not rise and +pursue, which I thought rather queer, for they must have known by my +trail that they had to deal with only one man. The reason for their +inaction was soon made clear. I had not gone a hundred yards before +I reached the limit of my run--the head of the gulch which I had +mistaken for a canon. It terminated in a concave breast of rock, +nearly vertical and destitute of vegetation. In that cul-de-sac I +was caught like a bear in a pen. Pursuit was needless; they had +only to wait. + +"They waited. For two days and nights, crouching behind a rock +topped with a growth of mesquite, and with the cliff at my back, +suffering agonies of thirst and absolutely hopeless of deliverance, +I fought the fellows at long range, firing occasionally at the smoke +of their rifles, as they did at that of mine. Of course, I did not +dare to close my eyes at night, and lack of sleep was a keen +torture. + +"I remember the morning of the third day, which I knew was to be my +last. I remember, rather indistinctly, that in my desperation and +delirium I sprang out into the open and began firing my repeating +rifle without seeing anybody to fire at. And I remember no more of +that fight. + +"The next thing that I recollect was my pulling myself out of a +river just at nightfall. I had not a rag of clothing and knew +nothing of my whereabouts, but all that night I traveled, cold and +footsore, toward the north. At daybreak I found myself at Fort C. +F. Smith, my destination, but without my dispatches. The first man +that I met was a sergeant named William Briscoe, whom I knew very +well. You can fancy his astonishment at seeing me in that +condition, and my own at his asking who the devil I was. + +"'Dave Duck,' I answered; 'who should I be?' + +"He stared like an owl. + +"'You do look it,' he said, and I observed that he drew a little +away from me. 'What's up?' he added. + +"I told him what had happened to me the day before. He heard me +through, still staring; then he said: + +"'My dear fellow, if you are Dave Duck I ought to inform you that I +buried you two months ago. I was out with a small scouting party +and found your body, full of bullet-holes and newly scalped-- +somewhat mutilated otherwise, too, I am sorry to say--right where +you say you made your fight. Come to my tent and I'll show you your +clothing and some letters that I took from your person; the +commandant has your dispatches.' + +"He performed that promise. He showed me the clothing, which I +resolutely put on; the letters, which I put into my pocket. He made +no objection, then took me to the commandant, who heard my story and +coldly ordered Briscoe to take me to the guardhouse. On the way I +said: + +"'Bill Briscoe, did you really and truly bury the dead body that you +found in these togs?' + +"'Sure,' he answered--'just as I told you. It was Dave Duck, all +right; most of us knew him. And now, you damned impostor, you'd +better tell me who you are.' + +"'I'd give something to know,' I said. + +"A week later, I escaped from the guardhouse and got out of the +country as fast as I could. Twice I have been back, seeking for +that fateful spot in the hills, but unable to find it." + + + +THREE AND ONE ARE ONE + + + +In the year 1861 Barr Lassiter, a young man of twenty-two, lived +with his parents and an elder sister near Carthage, Tennessee. The +family were in somewhat humble circumstances, subsisting by +cultivation of a small and not very fertile plantation. Owning no +slaves, they were not rated among "the best people" of their +neighborhood; but they were honest persons of good education, fairly +well mannered and as respectable as any family could be if +uncredentialed by personal dominion over the sons and daughters of +Ham. The elder Lassiter had that severity of manner that so +frequently affirms an uncompromising devotion to duty, and conceals +a warm and affectionate disposition. He was of the iron of which +martyrs are made, but in the heart of the matrix had lurked a nobler +metal, fusible at a milder heat, yet never coloring nor softening +the hard exterior. By both heredity and environment something of +the man's inflexible character had touched the other members of the +family; the Lassiter home, though not devoid of domestic affection, +was a veritable citadel of duty, and duty--ah, duty is as cruel as +death! + +When the war came on it found in the family, as in so many others in +that State, a divided sentiment; the young man was loyal to the +Union, the others savagely hostile. This unhappy division begot an +insupportable domestic bitterness, and when the offending son and +brother left home with the avowed purpose of joining the Federal +army not a hand was laid in his, not a word of farewell was spoken, +not a good wish followed him out into the world whither he went to +meet with such spirit as he might whatever fate awaited him. + +Making his way to Nashville, already occupied by the Army of General +Buell, he enlisted in the first organization that he found, a +Kentucky regiment of cavalry, and in due time passed through all the +stages of military evolution from raw recruit to experienced +trooper. A right good trooper he was, too, although in his oral +narrative from which this tale is made there was no mention of that; +the fact was learned from his surviving comrades. For Barr Lassiter +has answered "Here" to the sergeant whose name is Death. + +Two years after he had joined it his regiment passed through the +region whence he had come. The country thereabout had suffered +severely from the ravages of war, having been occupied alternately +(and simultaneously) by the belligerent forces, and a sanguinary +struggle had occurred in the immediate vicinity of the Lassiter +homestead. But of this the young trooper was not aware. + +Finding himself in camp near his home, he felt a natural longing to +see his parents and sister, hoping that in them, as in him, the +unnatural animosities of the period had been softened by time and +separation. Obtaining a leave of absence, he set foot in the late +summer afternoon, and soon after the rising of the full moon was +walking up the gravel path leading to the dwelling in which he had +been born. + +Soldiers in war age rapidly, and in youth two years are a long time. +Barr Lassiter felt himself an old man, and had almost expected to +find the place a ruin and a desolation. Nothing, apparently, was +changed. At the sight of each dear and familiar object he was +profoundly affected. His heart beat audibly, his emotion nearly +suffocated him; an ache was in his throat. Unconsciously he +quickened his pace until he almost ran, his long shadow making +grotesque efforts to keep its place beside him. + +The house was unlighted, the door open. As he approached and paused +to recover control of himself his father came out and stood bare- +headed in the moonlight. + +"Father!" cried the young man, springing forward with outstretched +hand--"Father!" + +The elder man looked him sternly in the face, stood a moment +motionless and without a word withdrew into the house. Bitterly +disappointed, humiliated, inexpressibly hurt and altogether +unnerved, the soldier dropped upon a rustic seat in deep dejection, +supporting his head upon his trembling hand. But he would not have +it so: he was too good a soldier to accept repulse as defeat. He +rose and entered the house, passing directly to the "sitting-room." + +It was dimly lighted by an uncurtained east window. On a low stool +by the hearthside, the only article of furniture in the place, sat +his mother, staring into a fireplace strewn with blackened embers +and cold ashes. He spoke to her--tenderly, interrogatively, and +with hesitation, but she neither answered, nor moved, nor seemed in +any way surprised. True, there had been time for her husband to +apprise her of their guilty son's return. He moved nearer and was +about to lay his hand upon her arm, when his sister entered from an +adjoining room, looked him full in the face, passed him without a +sign of recognition and left the room by a door that was partly +behind him. He had turned his head to watch her, but when she was +gone his eyes again sought his mother. She too had left the place. + +Barr Lassiter strode to the door by which he had entered. The +moonlight on the lawn was tremulous, as if the sward were a rippling +sea. The trees and their black shadows shook as in a breeze. +Blended with its borders, the gravel walk seemed unsteady and +insecure to step on. This young soldier knew the optical illusions +produced by tears. He felt them on his cheek, and saw them sparkle +on the breast of his trooper's jacket. He left the house and made +his way back to camp. + +The next day, with no very definite intention, with no dominant +feeling that he could rightly have named, he again sought the spot. +Within a half-mile of it he met Bushrod Albro, a former playfellow +and schoolmate, who greeted him warmly. + +"I am going to visit my home," said the soldier. + +The other looked at him rather sharply, but said nothing. + +"I know," continued Lassiter, "that my folks have not changed, but-- +" + +"There have been changes," Albro interrupted--"everything changes. +I'll go with you if you don't mind. We can talk as we go." + +But Albro did not talk. + +Instead of a house they found only fire-blackened foundations of +stone, enclosing an area of compact ashes pitted by rains. + +Lassiter's astonishment was extreme. + +"I could not find the right way to tell you," said Albro. "In the +fight a year ago your house was burned by a Federal shell." + +"And my family--where are they?" + +"In Heaven, I hope. All were killed by the shell." + + + +A BAFFLED AMBUSCADE + + + +Connecting Readyville and Woodbury was a good, hard turnpike nine or +ten miles long. Readyville was an outpost of the Federal army at +Murfreesboro; Woodbury had the same relation to the Confederate army +at Tullahoma. For months after the big battle at Stone River these +outposts were in constant quarrel, most of the trouble occurring, +naturally, on the turnpike mentioned, between detachments of +cavalry. Sometimes the infantry and artillery took a hand in the +game by way of showing their good-will. + +One night a squadron of Federal horse commanded by Major Seidel, a +gallant and skillful officer, moved out from Readyville on an +uncommonly hazardous enterprise requiring secrecy, caution and +silence. + +Passing the infantry pickets, the detachment soon afterward +approached two cavalry videttes staring hard into the darkness +ahead. There should have been three. + +"Where is your other man?" said the major. "I ordered Dunning to be +here to-night." + +"He rode forward, sir," the man replied. "There was a little firing +afterward, but it was a long way to the front." + +"It was against orders and against sense for Dunning to do that," +said the officer, obviously vexed. "Why did he ride forward?" + +"Don't know, sir; he seemed mighty restless. Guess he was skeered." + +When this remarkable reasoner and his companion had been absorbed +into the expeditionary force, it resumed its advance. Conversation +was forbidden; arms and accouterments were denied the right to +rattle. The horses' tramping was all that could be heard and the +movement was slow in order to have as little as possible of that. +It was after midnight and pretty dark, although there was a bit of +moon somewhere behind the masses of cloud. + +Two or three miles along, the head of the column approached a dense +forest of cedars bordering the road on both sides. The major +commanded a halt by merely halting, and, evidently himself a bit +"skeered," rode on alone to reconnoiter. He was followed, however, +by his adjutant and three troopers, who remained a little distance +behind and, unseen by him, saw all that occurred. + +After riding about a hundred yards toward the forest, the major +suddenly and sharply reined in his horse and sat motionless in the +saddle. Near the side of the road, in a little open space and +hardly ten paces away, stood the figure of a man, dimly visible and +as motionless as he. The major's first feeling was that of +satisfaction in having left his cavalcade behind; if this were an +enemy and should escape he would have little to report. The +expedition was as yet undetected. + +Some dark object was dimly discernible at the man's feet; the +officer could not make it out. With the instinct of the true +cavalryman and a particular indisposition to the discharge of +firearms, he drew his saber. The man on foot made no movement in +answer to the challenge. The situation was tense and a bit +dramatic. Suddenly the moon burst through a rift in the clouds and, +himself in the shadow of a group of great oaks, the horseman saw the +footman clearly, in a patch of white light. It was Trooper Dunning, +unarmed and bareheaded. The object at his feet resolved itself into +a dead horse, and at a right angle across the animal's neck lay a +dead man, face upward in the moonlight. + +"Dunning has had the fight of his life," thought the major, and was +about to ride forward. Dunning raised his hand, motioning him back +with a gesture of warning; then, lowering the arm, he pointed to the +place where the road lost itself in the blackness of the cedar +forest. + +The major understood, and turning his horse rode back to the little +group that had followed him and was already moving to the rear in +fear of his displeasure, and so returned to the head of his command. + +"Dunning is just ahead there," he said to the captain of his leading +company. "He has killed his man and will have something to report." + +Right patiently they waited, sabers drawn, but Dunning did not come. +In an hour the day broke and the whole force moved cautiously +forward, its commander not altogether satisfied with his faith in +Private Dunning. The expedition had failed, but something remained +to be done. + +In the little open space off the road they found the fallen horse. +At a right angle across the animal's neck face upward, a bullet in +the brain, lay the body of Trooper Dunning, stiff as a statue, hours +dead. + +Examination disclosed abundant evidence that within a half-hour the +cedar forest had been occupied by a strong force of Confederate +infantry--an ambuscade. + + + +TWO MILITARY EXECUTIONS + + + +In the spring of the year 1862 General Buell's big army lay in camp, +licking itself into shape for the campaign which resulted in the +victory at Shiloh. It was a raw, untrained army, although some of +its fractions had seen hard enough service, with a good deal of +fighting, in the mountains of Western Virginia, and in Kentucky. +The war was young and soldiering a new industry, imperfectly +understood by the young American of the period, who found some +features of it not altogether to his liking. Chief among these was +that essential part of discipline, subordination. To one imbued +from infancy with the fascinating fallacy that all men are born +equal, unquestioning submission to authority is not easily mastered, +and the American volunteer soldier in his "green and salad days" is +among the worst known. That is how it happened that one of Buell's +men, Private Bennett Story Greene, committed the indiscretion of +striking his officer. Later in the war he would not have done that; +like Sir Andrew Aguecheek, he would have "seen him damned" first. +But time for reformation of his military manners was denied him: he +was promptly arrested on complaint of the officer, tried by court- +martial and sentenced to be shot. + +"You might have thrashed me and let it go at that," said the +condemned man to the complaining witness; "that is what you used to +do at school, when you were plain Will Dudley and I was as good as +you. Nobody saw me strike you; discipline would not have suffered +much." + +"Ben Greene, I guess you are right about that," said the lieutenant. +"Will you forgive me? That is what I came to see you about." + +There was no reply, and an officer putting his head in at the door +of the guard-tent where the conversation had occurred, explained +that the time allowed for the interview had expired. The next +morning, when in the presence of the whole brigade Private Greene +was shot to death by a squad of his comrades, Lieutenant Dudley +turned his back upon the sorry performance and muttered a prayer for +mercy, in which himself was included. + +A few weeks afterward, as Buell's leading division was being ferried +over the Tennessee River to assist in succoring Grant's beaten army, +night was coming on, black and stormy. Through the wreck of battle +the division moved, inch by inch, in the direction of the enemy, who +had withdrawn a little to reform his lines. But for the lightning +the darkness was absolute. Never for a moment did it cease, and +ever when the thunder did not crack and roar were heard the moans of +the wounded among whom the men felt their way with their feet, and +upon whom they stumbled in the gloom. The dead were there, too-- +there were dead a-plenty. + +In the first faint gray of the morning, when the swarming advance +had paused to resume something of definition as a line of battle, +and skirmishers had been thrown forward, word was passed along to +call the roll. The first sergeant of Lieutenant Dudley's company +stepped to the front and began to name the men in alphabetical +order. He had no written roll, but a good memory. The men answered +to their names as he ran down the alphabet to G. + +"Gorham." + +"Here!" + +"Grayrock." + +"Here!" + +The sergeant's good memory was affected by habit: + +"Greene." + +"Here!" + +The response was clear, distinct, unmistakable! + +A sudden movement, an agitation of the entire company front, as from +an electric shock, attested the startling character of the incident. +The sergeant paled and paused. The captain strode quickly to his +side and said sharply: + +"Call that name again." + +Apparently the Society for Psychical Research is not first in the +field of curiosity concerning the Unknown. + +"Bennett Greene." + +"Here!" + +All faces turned in the direction of the familiar voice; the two men +between whom in the order of stature Greene had commonly stood in +line turned and squarely confronted each other. + +"Once more," commanded the inexorable investigator, and once more +came--a trifle tremulously--the name of the dead man: + +"Bennett Story Greene." + +"Here!" + +At that instant a single rifle-shot was heard, away to the front, +beyond the skirmish-line, followed, almost attended, by the savage +hiss of an approaching bullet which passing through the line, struck +audibly, punctuating as with a full stop the captain's exclamation, +"What the devil does it mean?" + +Lieutenant Dudley pushed through the ranks from his place in the +rear. + +"It means this," he said, throwing open his coat and displaying a +visibly broadening stain of crimson on his breast. His knees gave +way; he fell awkwardly and lay dead. + +A little later the regiment was ordered out of line to relieve the +congested front, and through some misplay in the game of battle was +not again under fire. Nor did Bennett Greene, expert in military +executions, ever again signify his presence at one. + + + + +SOME HAUNTED HOUSES + + + + +THE ISLE OF PINES + + + +For many years there lived near the town of Gallipolis, Ohio, an old +man named Herman Deluse. Very little was known of his history, for +he would neither speak of it himself nor suffer others. It was a +common belief among his neighbors that he had been a pirate--if upon +any better evidence than his collection of boarding pikes, +cutlasses, and ancient flintlock pistols, no one knew. He lived +entirely alone in a small house of four rooms, falling rapidly into +decay and never repaired further than was required by the weather. +It stood on a slight elevation in the midst of a large, stony field +overgrown with brambles, and cultivated in patches and only in the +most primitive way. It was his only visible property, but could +hardly have yielded him a living, simple and few as were his wants. +He seemed always to have ready money, and paid cash for all his +purchases at the village stores roundabout, seldom buying more than +two or three times at the same place until after the lapse of a +considerable time. He got no commendation, however, for this +equitable distribution of his patronage; people were disposed to +regard it as an ineffectual attempt to conceal his possession of so +much money. That he had great hoards of ill-gotten gold buried +somewhere about his tumble-down dwelling was not reasonably to be +doubted by any honest soul conversant with the facts of local +tradition and gifted with a sense of the fitness of things. + +On the 9th of November, 1867, the old man died; at least his dead +body was discovered on the 10th, and physicians testified that death +had occurred about twenty-four hours previously--precisely how, they +were unable to say; for the post-mortem examination showed every +organ to be absolutely healthy, with no indication of disorder or +violence. According to them, death must have taken place about +noonday, yet the body was found in bed. The verdict of the +coroner's jury was that he "came to his death by a visitation of +God." The body was buried and the public administrator took charge +of the estate. + +A rigorous search disclosed nothing more than was already known +about the dead man, and much patient excavation here and there about +the premises by thoughtful and thrifty neighbors went unrewarded. +The administrator locked up the house against the time when the +property, real and personal, should be sold by law with a view to +defraying, partly, the expenses of the sale. + +The night of November 20 was boisterous. A furious gale stormed +across the country, scourging it with desolating drifts of sleet. +Great trees were torn from the earth and hurled across the roads. +So wild a night had never been known in all that region, but toward +morning the storm had blown itself out of breath and day dawned +bright and clear. At about eight o'clock that morning the Rev. +Henry Galbraith, a well-known and highly esteemed Lutheran minister, +arrived on foot at his house, a mile and a half from the Deluse +place. Mr. Galbraith had been for a month in Cincinnati. He had +come up the river in a steamboat, and landing at Gallipolis the +previous evening had immediately obtained a horse and buggy and set +out for home. The violence of the storm had delayed him over night, +and in the morning the fallen trees had compelled him to abandon his +conveyance and continue his journey afoot. + +"But where did you pass the night?" inquired his wife, after he had +briefly related his adventure. + +"With old Deluse at the 'Isle of Pines,'" {1} was the laughing +reply; "and a glum enough time I had of it. He made no objection to +my remaining, but not a word could I get out of him." + +Fortunately for the interests of truth there was present at this +conversation Mr. Robert Mosely Maren, a lawyer and litterateur of +Columbus, the same who wrote the delightful "Mellowcraft Papers." +Noting, but apparently not sharing, the astonishment caused by Mr. +Galbraith's answer this ready-witted person checked by a gesture the +exclamations that would naturally have followed, and tranquilly +inquired: "How came you to go in there?" + +This is Mr. Maren's version of Mr. Galbraith's reply: + +"I saw a light moving about the house, and being nearly blinded by +the sleet, and half frozen besides, drove in at the gate and put up +my horse in the old rail stable, where it is now. I then rapped at +the door, and getting no invitation went in without one. The room +was dark, but having matches I found a candle and lit it. I tried +to enter the adjoining room, but the door was fast, and although I +heard the old man's heavy footsteps in there he made no response to +my calls. There was no fire on the hearth, so I made one and laying +[sic] down before it with my overcoat under my head, prepared myself +for sleep. Pretty soon the door that I had tried silently opened +and the old man came in, carrying a candle. I spoke to him +pleasantly, apologizing for my intrusion, but he took no notice of +me. He seemed to be searching for something, though his eyes were +unmoved in their sockets. I wonder if he ever walks in his sleep. +He took a circuit a part of the way round the room, and went out the +same way he had come in. Twice more before I slept he came back +into the room, acting precisely the same way, and departing as at +first. In the intervals I heard him tramping all over the house, +his footsteps distinctly audible in the pauses of the storm. When I +woke in the morning he had already gone out." + +Mr. Maren attempted some further questioning, but was unable longer +to restrain the family's tongues; the story of Deluse's death and +burial came out, greatly to the good minister's astonishment. + +"The explanation of your adventure is very simple," said Mr. Maren. +"I don't believe old Deluse walks in his sleep--not in his present +one; but you evidently dream in yours." + +And to this view of the matter Mr. Galbraith was compelled +reluctantly to assent. + +Nevertheless, a late hour of the next night found these two +gentlemen, accompanied by a son of the minister, in the road in +front of the old Deluse house. There was a light inside; it +appeared now at one window and now at another. The three men +advanced to the door. Just as they reached it there came from the +interior a confusion of the most appalling sounds--the clash of +weapons, steel against steel, sharp explosions as of firearms, +shrieks of women, groans and the curses of men in combat! The +investigators stood a moment, irresolute, frightened. Then Mr. +Galbraith tried the door. It was fast. But the minister was a man +of courage, a man, moreover, of Herculean strength. He retired a +pace or two and rushed against the door, striking it with his right +shoulder and bursting it from the frame with a loud crash. In a +moment the three were inside. Darkness and silence! The only sound +was the beating of their hearts. + +Mr. Maren had provided himself with matches and a candle. With some +difficulty, begotten of his excitement, he made a light, and they +proceeded to explore the place, passing from room to room. +Everything was in orderly arrangement, as it had been left by the +sheriff; nothing had been disturbed. A light coating of dust was +everywhere. A back door was partly open, as if by neglect, and +their first thought was that the authors of the awful revelry might +have escaped. The door was opened, and the light of the candle +shone through upon the ground. The expiring effort of the previous +night's storm had been a light fall of snow; there were no +footprints; the white surface was unbroken. They closed the door +and entered the last room of the four that the house contained--that +farthest from the road, in an angle of the building. Here the +candle in Mr. Maren's hand was suddenly extinguished as by a draught +of air. Almost immediately followed the sound of a heavy fall. +When the candle had been hastily relighted young Mr. Galbraith was +seen prostrate on the floor at a little distance from the others. +He was dead. In one hand the body grasped a heavy sack of coins, +which later examination showed to be all of old Spanish mintage. +Directly over the body as it lay, a board had been torn from its +fastenings in the wall, and from the cavity so disclosed it was +evident that the bag had been taken. + +Another inquest was held: another post-mortem examination failed to +reveal a probable cause of death. Another verdict of "the +visitation of God" left all at liberty to form their own +conclusions. Mr. Maren contended that the young man died of +excitement. + + + +A FRUITLESS ASSIGNMENT + + + +Henry Saylor, who was killed in Covington, in a quarrel with Antonio +Finch, was a reporter on the Cincinnati Commercial. In the year +1859 a vacant dwelling in Vine street, in Cincinnati, became the +center of a local excitement because of the strange sights and +sounds said to be observed in it nightly. According to the +testimony of many reputable residents of the vicinity these were +inconsistent with any other hypothesis than that the house was +haunted. Figures with something singularly unfamiliar about them +were seen by crowds on the sidewalk to pass in and out. No one +could say just where they appeared upon the open lawn on their way +to the front door by which they entered, nor at exactly what point +they vanished as they came out; or, rather, while each spectator was +positive enough about these matters, no two agreed. They were all +similarly at variance in their descriptions of the figures +themselves. Some of the bolder of the curious throng ventured on +several evenings to stand upon the doorsteps to intercept them, or +failing in this, get a nearer look at them. These courageous men, +it was said, were unable to force the door by their united strength, +and always were hurled from the steps by some invisible agency and +severely injured; the door immediately afterward opening, apparently +of its own volition, to admit or free some ghostly guest. The +dwelling was known as the Roscoe house, a family of that name having +lived there for some years, and then, one by one, disappeared, the +last to leave being an old woman. Stories of foul play and +successive murders had always been rife, but never were +authenticated. + +One day during the prevalence of the excitement Saylor presented +himself at the office of the Commercial for orders. He received a +note from the city editor which read as follows: "Go and pass the +night alone in the haunted house in Vine street and if anything +occurs worth while make two columns." Saylor obeyed his superior; +he could not afford to lose his position on the paper. + +Apprising the police of his intention, he effected an entrance +through a rear window before dark, walked through the deserted +rooms, bare of furniture, dusty and desolate, and seating himself at +last in the parlor on an old sofa which he had dragged in from +another room watched the deepening of the gloom as night came on. +Before it was altogether dark the curious crowd had collected in the +street, silent, as a rule, and expectant, with here and there a +scoffer uttering his incredulity and courage with scornful remarks +or ribald cries. None knew of the anxious watcher inside. He +feared to make a light; the uncurtained windows would have betrayed +his presence, subjecting him to insult, possibly to injury. +Moreover, he was too conscientious to do anything to enfeeble his +impressions and unwilling to alter any of the customary conditions +under which the manifestations were said to occur. + +It was now dark outside, but light from the street faintly +illuminated the part of the room that he was in. He had set open +every door in the whole interior, above and below, but all the outer +ones were locked and bolted. Sudden exclamations from the crowd +caused him to spring to the window and look out. He saw the figure +of a man moving rapidly across the lawn toward the building--saw it +ascend the steps; then a projection of the wall concealed it. There +was a noise as of the opening and closing of the hall door; he heard +quick, heavy footsteps along the passage--heard them ascend the +stairs--heard them on the uncarpeted floor of the chamber +immediately overhead. + +Saylor promptly drew his pistol, and groping his way up the stairs +entered the chamber, dimly lighted from the street. No one was +there. He heard footsteps in an adjoining room and entered that. +It was dark and silent. He struck his foot against some object on +the floor, knelt by it, passed his hand over it. It was a human +head--that of a woman. Lifting it by the hair this iron-nerved man +returned to the half-lighted room below, carried it near the window +and attentively examined it. While so engaged he was half conscious +of the rapid opening and closing of the outer door, of footfalls +sounding all about him. He raised his eyes from the ghastly object +of his attention and saw himself the center of a crowd of men and +women dimly seen; the room was thronged with them. He thought the +people had broken in. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, coolly, "you see me under +suspicious circumstances, but"--his voice was drowned in peals of +laughter--such laughter as is heard in asylums for the insane. The +persons about him pointed at the object in his hand and their +merriment increased as he dropped it and it went rolling among their +feet. They danced about it with gestures grotesque and attitudes +obscene and indescribable. They struck it with their feet, urging +it about the room from wall to wall; pushed and overthrew one +another in their struggles to kick it; cursed and screamed and sang +snatches of ribald songs as the battered head bounded about the room +as if in terror and trying to escape. At last it shot out of the +door into the hall, followed by all, with tumultuous haste. That +moment the door closed with a sharp concussion. Saylor was alone, +in dead silence. + +Carefully putting away his pistol, which all the time he had held in +his hand, he went to a window and looked out. The street was +deserted and silent; the lamps were extinguished; the roofs and +chimneys of the houses were sharply outlined against the dawn-light +in the east. He left the house, the door yielding easily to his +hand, and walked to the Commercial office. The city editor was +still in his office--asleep. Saylor waked him and said: "I have +been at the haunted house." + +The editor stared blankly as if not wholly awake. "Good God!" he +cried, "are you Saylor?" + +"Yes--why not?" The editor made no answer, but continued staring. + +"I passed the night there--it seems," said Saylor. + +"They say that things were uncommonly quiet out there," the editor +said, trifling with a paper-weight upon which he had dropped his +eyes, "did anything occur?" + +"Nothing whatever." + + + +A VINE ON A HOUSE + + + +About three miles from the little town of Norton, in Missouri, on +the road leading to Maysville, stands an old house that was last +occupied by a family named Harding. Since 1886 no one has lived in +it, nor is anyone likely to live in it again. Time and the disfavor +of persons dwelling thereabout are converting it into a rather +picturesque ruin. An observer unacquainted with its history would +hardly put it into the category of "haunted houses," yet in all the +region round such is its evil reputation. Its windows are without +glass, its doorways without doors; there are wide breaches in the +shingle roof, and for lack of paint the weatherboarding is a dun +gray. But these unfailing signs of the supernatural are partly +concealed and greatly softened by the abundant foliage of a large +vine overrunning the entire structure. This vine--of a species +which no botanist has ever been able to name--has an important part +in the story of the house. + +The Harding family consisted of Robert Harding, his wife Matilda, +Miss Julia Went, who was her sister, and two young children. Robert +Harding was a silent, cold-mannered man who made no friends in the +neighborhood and apparently cared to make none. He was about forty +years old, frugal and industrious, and made a living from the little +farm which is now overgrown with brush and brambles. He and his +sister-in-law were rather tabooed by their neighbors, who seemed to +think that they were seen too frequently together--not entirely +their fault, for at these times they evidently did not challenge +observation. The moral code of rural Missouri is stern and +exacting. + +Mrs. Harding was a gentle, sad-eyed woman, lacking a left foot. + +At some time in 1884 it became known that she had gone to visit her +mother in Iowa. That was what her husband said in reply to +inquiries, and his manner of saying it did not encourage further +questioning. She never came back, and two years later, without +selling his farm or anything that was his, or appointing an agent to +look after his interests, or removing his household goods, Harding, +with the rest of the family, left the country. Nobody knew whither +he went; nobody at that time cared. Naturally, whatever was movable +about the place soon disappeared and the deserted house became +"haunted" in the manner of its kind. + +One summer evening, four or five years later, the Rev. J. Gruber, of +Norton, and a Maysville attorney named Hyatt met on horseback in +front of the Harding place. Having business matters to discuss, +they hitched their animals and going to the house sat on the porch +to talk. Some humorous reference to the somber reputation of the +place was made and forgotten as soon as uttered, and they talked of +their business affairs until it grew almost dark. The evening was +oppressively warm, the air stagnant. + +Presently both men started from their seats in surprise: a long +vine that covered half the front of the house and dangled its +branches from the edge of the porch above them was visibly and +audibly agitated, shaking violently in every stem and leaf. + +"We shall have a storm," Hyatt exclaimed. + +Gruber said nothing, but silently directed the other's attention to +the foliage of adjacent trees, which showed no movement; even the +delicate tips of the boughs silhouetted against the clear sky were +motionless. They hastily passed down the steps to what had been a +lawn and looked upward at the vine, whose entire length was now +visible. It continued in violent agitation, yet they could discern +no disturbing cause. + +"Let us leave," said the minister. + +And leave they did. Forgetting that they had been traveling in +opposite directions, they rode away together. They went to Norton, +where they related their strange experience to several discreet +friends. The next evening, at about the same hour, accompanied by +two others whose names are not recalled, they were again on the +porch of the Harding house, and again the mysterious phenomenon +occurred: the vine was violently agitated while under the closest +scrutiny from root to tip, nor did their combined strength applied +to the trunk serve to still it. After an hour's observation they +retreated, no less wise, it is thought, than when they had come. + +No great time was required for these singular facts to rouse the +curiosity of the entire neighborhood. By day and by night crowds of +persons assembled at the Harding house "seeking a sign." It does +not appear that any found it, yet so credible were the witnesses +mentioned that none doubted the reality of the "manifestations" to +which they testified. + +By either a happy inspiration or some destructive design, it was one +day proposed--nobody appeared to know from whom the suggestion came- +-to dig up the vine, and after a good deal of debate this was done. +Nothing was found but the root, yet nothing could have been more +strange! + +For five or six feet from the trunk, which had at the surface of the +ground a diameter of several inches, it ran downward, single and +straight, into a loose, friable earth; then it divided and +subdivided into rootlets, fibers and filaments, most curiously +interwoven. When carefully freed from soil they showed a singular +formation. In their ramifications and doublings back upon +themselves they made a compact network, having in size and shape an +amazing resemblance to the human figure. Head, trunk and limbs were +there; even the fingers and toes were distinctly defined; and many +professed to see in the distribution and arrangement of the fibers +in the globular mass representing the head a grotesque suggestion of +a face. The figure was horizontal; the smaller roots had begun to +unite at the breast. + +In point of resemblance to the human form this image was imperfect. +At about ten inches from one of the knees, the cilia forming that +leg had abruptly doubled backward and inward upon their course of +growth. The figure lacked the left foot. + +There was but one inference--the obvious one; but in the ensuing +excitement as many courses of action were proposed as there were +incapable counselors. The matter was settled by the sheriff of the +county, who as the lawful custodian of the abandoned estate ordered +the root replaced and the excavation filled with the earth that had +been removed. + +Later inquiry brought out only one fact of relevancy and +significance: Mrs. Harding had never visited her relatives in Iowa, +nor did they know that she was supposed to have done so. + +Of Robert Harding and the rest of his family nothing is known. The +house retains its evil reputation, but the replanted vine is as +orderly and well-behaved a vegetable as a nervous person could wish +to sit under of a pleasant night, when the katydids grate out their +immemorial revelation and the distant whippoorwill signifies his +notion of what ought to be done about it. + + + +AT OLD MAN ECKERT'S + + + +Philip Eckert lived for many years in an old, weather-stained wooden +house about three miles from the little town of Marion, in Vermont. +There must be quite a number of persons living who remember him, not +unkindly, I trust, and know something of the story that I am about +to tell. + +"Old Man Eckert," as he was always called, was not of a sociable +disposition and lived alone. As he was never known to speak of his +own affairs nobody thereabout knew anything of his past, nor of his +relatives if he had any. Without being particularly ungracious or +repellent in manner or speech, he managed somehow to be immune to +impertinent curiosity, yet exempt from the evil repute with which it +commonly revenges itself when baffled; so far as I know, Mr. +Eckert's renown as a reformed assassin or a retired pirate of the +Spanish Main had not reached any ear in Marion. He got his living +cultivating a small and not very fertile farm. + +One day he disappeared and a prolonged search by his neighbors +failed to turn him up or throw any light upon his whereabouts or +whyabouts. Nothing indicated preparation to leave: all was as he +might have left it to go to the spring for a bucket of water. For a +few weeks little else was talked of in that region; then "old man +Eckert" became a village tale for the ear of the stranger. I do not +know what was done regarding his property--the correct legal thing, +doubtless. The house was standing, still vacant and conspicuously +unfit, when I last heard of it, some twenty years afterward. + +Of course it came to be considered "haunted," and the customary +tales were told of moving lights, dolorous sounds and startling +apparitions. At one time, about five years after the disappearance, +these stories of the supernatural became so rife, or through some +attesting circumstances seemed so important, that some of Marion's +most serious citizens deemed it well to investigate, and to that end +arranged for a night session on the premises. The parties to this +undertaking were John Holcomb, an apothecary; Wilson Merle, a +lawyer, and Andrus C. Palmer, the teacher of the public school, all +men of consequence and repute. They were to meet at Holcomb's house +at eight o'clock in the evening of the appointed day and go together +to the scene of their vigil, where certain arrangements for their +comfort, a provision of fuel and the like, for the season was +winter, had been already made. + +Palmer did not keep the engagement, and after waiting a half-hour +for him the others went to the Eckert house without him. They +established themselves in the principal room, before a glowing fire, +and without other light than it gave, awaited events. It had been +agreed to speak as little as possible: they did not even renew the +exchange of views regarding the defection of Palmer, which had +occupied their minds on the way. + +Probably an hour had passed without incident when they heard (not +without emotion, doubtless) the sound of an opening door in the rear +of the house, followed by footfalls in the room adjoining that in +which they sat. The watchers rose to their feet, but stood firm, +prepared for whatever might ensue. A long silence followed--how +long neither would afterward undertake to say. Then the door +between the two rooms opened and a man entered. + +It was Palmer. He was pale, as if from excitement--as pale as the +others felt themselves to be. His manner, too, was singularly +distrait: he neither responded to their salutations nor so much as +looked at them, but walked slowly across the room in the light of +the failing fire and opening the front door passed out into the +darkness. + +It seems to have been the first thought of both men that Palmer was +suffering from fright--that something seen, heard or imagined in the +back room had deprived him of his senses. Acting on the same +friendly impulse both ran after him through the open door. But +neither they nor anyone ever again saw or heard of Andrus Palmer! + +This much was ascertained the next morning. During the session of +Messrs. Holcomb and Merle at the "haunted house" a new snow had +fallen to a depth of several inches upon the old. In this snow +Palmer's trail from his lodging in the village to the back door of +the Eckert house was conspicuous. But there it ended: from the +front door nothing led away but the tracks of the two men who swore +that he preceded them. Palmer's disappearance was as complete as +that of "old man Eckert" himself--whom, indeed, the editor of the +local paper somewhat graphically accused of having "reached out and +pulled him in." + + + +THE SPOOK HOUSE + + + +On the road leading north from Manchester, in eastern Kentucky, to +Booneville, twenty miles away, stood, in 1862, a wooden plantation +house of a somewhat better quality than most of the dwellings in +that region. The house was destroyed by fire in the year following- +-probably by some stragglers from the retreating column of General +George W. Morgan, when he was driven from Cumberland Gap to the Ohio +river by General Kirby Smith. At the time of its destruction, it +had for four or five years been vacant. The fields about it were +overgrown with brambles, the fences gone, even the few negro +quarters, and out-houses generally, fallen partly into ruin by +neglect and pillage; for the negroes and poor whites of the vicinity +found in the building and fences an abundant supply of fuel, of +which they availed themselves without hesitation, openly and by +daylight. By daylight alone; after nightfall no human being except +passing strangers ever went near the place. + +It was known as the "Spook House." That it was tenanted by evil +spirits, visible, audible and active, no one in all that region +doubted any more than he doubted what he was told of Sundays by the +traveling preacher. Its owner's opinion of the matter was unknown; +he and his family had disappeared one night and no trace of them had +ever been found. They left everything--household goods, clothing, +provisions, the horses in the stable, the cows in the field, the +negroes in the quarters--all as it stood; nothing was missing-- +except a man, a woman, three girls, a boy and a babe! It was not +altogether surprising that a plantation where seven human beings +could be simultaneously effaced and nobody the wiser should be under +some suspicion. + +One night in June, 1859, two citizens of Frankfort, Col. J. C. +McArdle, a lawyer, and Judge Myron Veigh, of the State Militia, were +driving from Booneville to Manchester. Their business was so +important that they decided to push on, despite the darkness and the +mutterings of an approaching storm, which eventually broke upon them +just as they arrived opposite the "Spook House." The lightning was +so incessant that they easily found their way through the gateway +and into a shed, where they hitched and unharnessed their team. +They then went to the house, through the rain, and knocked at all +the doors without getting any response. Attributing this to the +continuous uproar of the thunder they pushed at one of the doors, +which yielded. They entered without further ceremony and closed the +door. That instant they were in darkness and silence. Not a gleam +of the lightning's unceasing blaze penetrated the windows or +crevices; not a whisper of the awful tumult without reached them +there. It was as if they had suddenly been stricken blind and deaf, +and McArdle afterward said that for a moment he believed himself to +have been killed by a stroke of lightning as he crossed the +threshold. The rest of this adventure can as well be related in his +own words, from the Frankfort Advocate of August 6, 1876: + +"When I had somewhat recovered from the dazing effect of the +transition from uproar to silence, my first impulse was to reopen +the door which I had closed, and from the knob of which I was not +conscious of having removed my hand; I felt it distinctly, still in +the clasp of my fingers. My notion was to ascertain by stepping +again into the storm whether I had been deprived of sight and +hearing. I turned the doorknob and pulled open the door. It led +into another room! + +"This apartment was suffused with a faint greenish light, the source +of which I could not determine, making everything distinctly +visible, though nothing was sharply defined. Everything, I say, but +in truth the only objects within the blank stone walls of that room +were human corpses. In number they were perhaps eight or ten--it +may well be understood that I did not truly count them. They were +of different ages, or rather sizes, from infancy up, and of both +sexes. All were prostrate on the floor, excepting one, apparently a +young woman, who sat up, her back supported by an angle of the wall. +A babe was clasped in the arms of another and older woman. A half- +grown lad lay face downward across the legs of a full-bearded man. +One or two were nearly naked, and the hand of a young girl held the +fragment of a gown which she had torn open at the breast. The +bodies were in various stages of decay, all greatly shrunken in face +and figure. Some were but little more than skeletons. + +"While I stood stupefied with horror by this ghastly spectacle and +still holding open the door, by some unaccountable perversity my +attention was diverted from the shocking scene and concerned itself +with trifles and details. Perhaps my mind, with an instinct of +self-preservation, sought relief in matters which would relax its +dangerous tension. Among other things, I observed that the door +that I was holding open was of heavy iron plates, riveted. +Equidistant from one another and from the top and bottom, three +strong bolts protruded from the beveled edge. I turned the knob and +they were retracted flush with the edge; released it, and they shot +out. It was a spring lock. On the inside there was no knob, nor +any kind of projection--a smooth surface of iron. + +"While noting these things with an interest and attention which it +now astonishes me to recall I felt myself thrust aside, and Judge +Veigh, whom in the intensity and vicissitudes of my feelings I had +altogether forgotten, pushed by me into the room. 'For God's sake,' +I cried, 'do not go in there! Let us get out of this dreadful +place!' + +"He gave no heed to my entreaties, but (as fearless a gentleman as +lived in all the South) walked quickly to the center of the room, +knelt beside one of the bodies for a closer examination and tenderly +raised its blackened and shriveled head in his hands. A strong +disagreeable odor came through the doorway, completely overpowering +me. My senses reeled; I felt myself falling, and in clutching at +the edge of the door for support pushed it shut with a sharp click! + +"I remember no more: six weeks later I recovered my reason in a +hotel at Manchester, whither I had been taken by strangers the next +day. For all these weeks I had suffered from a nervous fever, +attended with constant delirium. I had been found lying in the road +several miles away from the house; but how I had escaped from it to +get there I never knew. On recovery, or as soon as my physicians +permitted me to talk, I inquired the fate of Judge Veigh, whom (to +quiet me, as I now know) they represented as well and at home. + +"No one believed a word of my story, and who can wonder? And who +can imagine my grief when, arriving at my home in Frankfort two +months later, I learned that Judge Veigh had never been heard of +since that night? I then regretted bitterly the pride which since +the first few days after the recovery of my reason had forbidden me +to repeat my discredited story and insist upon its truth. + +"With all that afterward occurred--the examination of the house; the +failure to find any room corresponding to that which I have +described; the attempt to have me adjudged insane, and my triumph +over my accusers--the readers of the Advocate are familiar. After +all these years I am still confident that excavations which I have +neither the legal right to undertake nor the wealth to make would +disclose the secret of the disappearance of my unhappy friend, and +possibly of the former occupants and owners of the deserted and now +destroyed house. I do not despair of yet bringing about such a +search, and it is a source of deep grief to me that it has been +delayed by the undeserved hostility and unwise incredulity of the +family and friends of the late Judge Veigh." + +Colonel McArdle died in Frankfort on the thirteenth day of December, +in the year 1879. + + + +THE OTHER LODGERS + + + +"In order to take that train," said Colonel Levering, sitting in the +Waldorf-Astoria hotel, "you will have to remain nearly all night in +Atlanta. That is a fine city, but I advise you not to put up at the +Breathitt House, one of the principal hotels. It is an old wooden +building in urgent need of repairs. There are breaches in the walls +that you could throw a cat through. The bedrooms have no locks on +the doors, no furniture but a single chair in each, and a bedstead +without bedding--just a mattress. Even these meager accommodations +you cannot be sure that you will have in monopoly; you must take +your chance of being stowed in with a lot of others. Sir, it is a +most abominable hotel. + +"The night that I passed in it was an uncomfortable night. I got in +late and was shown to my room on the ground floor by an apologetic +night-clerk with a tallow candle, which he considerately left with +me. I was worn out by two days and a night of hard railway travel +and had not entirely recovered from a gunshot wound in the head, +received in an altercation. Rather than look for better quarters I +lay down on the mattress without removing my clothing and fell +asleep. + +"Along toward morning I awoke. The moon had risen and was shining +in at the uncurtained window, illuminating the room with a soft, +bluish light which seemed, somehow, a bit spooky, though I dare say +it had no uncommon quality; all moonlight is that way if you will +observe it. Imagine my surprise and indignation when I saw the +floor occupied by at least a dozen other lodgers! I sat up, +earnestly damning the management of that unthinkable hotel, and was +about to spring from the bed to go and make trouble for the night- +clerk--him of the apologetic manner and the tallow candle--when +something in the situation affected me with a strange indisposition +to move. I suppose I was what a story-writer might call 'frozen +with terror.' For those men were obviously all dead! + +"They lay on their backs, disposed orderly along three sides of the +room, their feet to the walls--against the other wall, farthest from +the door, stood my bed and the chair. All the faces were covered, +but under their white cloths the features of the two bodies that lay +in the square patch of moonlight near the window showed in sharp +profile as to nose and chin. + +"I thought this a bad dream and tried to cry out, as one does in a +nightmare, but could make no sound. At last, with a desperate +effort I threw my feet to the floor and passing between the two rows +of clouted faces and the two bodies that lay nearest the door, I +escaped from the infernal place and ran to the office. The night- +clerk was there, behind the desk, sitting in the dim light of +another tallow candle--just sitting and staring. He did not rise: +my abrupt entrance produced no effect upon him, though I must have +looked a veritable corpse myself. It occurred to me then that I had +not before really observed the fellow. He was a little chap, with a +colorless face and the whitest, blankest eyes I ever saw. He had no +more expression than the back of my hand. His clothing was a dirty +gray. + +"'Damn you!' I said; 'what do you mean?' + +"Just the same, I was shaking like a leaf in the wind and did not +recognize my own voice. + +"The night-clerk rose, bowed (apologetically) and--well, he was no +longer there, and at that moment I felt a hand laid upon my shoulder +from behind. Just fancy that if you can! Unspeakably frightened, I +turned and saw a portly, kind-faced gentleman, who asked: + +"'What is the matter, my friend?' + +"I was not long in telling him, but before I made an end of it he +went pale himself. 'See here,' he said, 'are you telling the +truth?' + +"I had now got myself in hand and terror had given place to +indignation. 'If you dare to doubt it,' I said, 'I'll hammer the +life out of you!' + +"'No,' he replied, 'don't do that; just sit down till I tell you. +This is not a hotel. It used to be; afterward it was a hospital. +Now it is unoccupied, awaiting a tenant. The room that you mention +was the dead-room--there were always plenty of dead. The fellow +that you call the night-clerk used to be that, but later he booked +the patients as they were brought in. I don't understand his being +here. He has been dead a few weeks.' + +"'And who are you?' I blurted out. + +"'Oh, I look after the premises. I happened to be passing just now, +and seeing a light in here came in to investigate. Let us have a +look into that room,' he added, lifting the sputtering candle from +the desk. + +"'I'll see you at the devil first!' said I, bolting out of the door +into the street. + +"Sir, that Breathitt House, in Atlanta, is a beastly place! Don't +you stop there." + +"God forbid! Your account of it certainly does not suggest comfort. +By the way, Colonel, when did all that occur?" + +"In September, 1864--shortly after the siege." + + + +THE THING AT NOLAN + + + +To the south of where the road between Leesville and Hardy, in the +State of Missouri, crosses the east fork of May Creek stands an +abandoned house. Nobody has lived in it since the summer of 1879, +and it is fast going to pieces. For some three years before the +date mentioned above, it was occupied by the family of Charles May, +from one of whose ancestors the creek near which it stands took its +name. + +Mr. May's family consisted of a wife, an adult son and two young +girls. The son's name was John--the names of the daughters are +unknown to the writer of this sketch. + +John May was of a morose and surly disposition, not easily moved to +anger, but having an uncommon gift of sullen, implacable hate. His +father was quite otherwise; of a sunny, jovial disposition, but with +a quick temper like a sudden flame kindled in a wisp of straw, which +consumes it in a flash and is no more. He cherished no resentments, +and his anger gone, was quick to make overtures for reconciliation. +He had a brother living near by who was unlike him in respect of all +this, and it was a current witticism in the neighborhood that John +had inherited his disposition from his uncle. + +One day a misunderstanding arose between father and son, harsh words +ensued, and the father struck the son full in the face with his +fist. John quietly wiped away the blood that followed the blow, +fixed his eyes upon the already penitent offender and said with cold +composure, "You will die for that." + +The words were overheard by two brothers named Jackson, who were +approaching the men at the moment; but seeing them engaged in a +quarrel they retired, apparently unobserved. Charles May afterward +related the unfortunate occurrence to his wife and explained that he +had apologized to the son for the hasty blow, but without avail; the +young man not only rejected his overtures, but refused to withdraw +his terrible threat. Nevertheless, there was no open rupture of +relations: John continued living with the family, and things went +on very much as before. + +One Sunday morning in June, 1879, about two weeks after what has +been related, May senior left the house immediately after breakfast, +taking a spade. He said he was going to make an excavation at a +certain spring in a wood about a mile away, so that the cattle could +obtain water. John remained in the house for some hours, variously +occupied in shaving himself, writing letters and reading a +newspaper. His manner was very nearly what it usually was; perhaps +he was a trifle more sullen and surly. + +At two o'clock he left the house. At five, he returned. For some +reason not connected with any interest in his movements, and which +is not now recalled, the time of his departure and that of his +return were noted by his mother and sisters, as was attested at his +trial for murder. It was observed that his clothing was wet in +spots, as if (so the prosecution afterward pointed out) he had been +removing blood-stains from it. His manner was strange, his look +wild. He complained of illness, and going to his room took to his +bed. + +May senior did not return. Later that evening the nearest neighbors +were aroused, and during that night and the following day a search +was prosecuted through the wood where the spring was. It resulted +in little but the discovery of both men's footprints in the clay +about the spring. John May in the meantime had grown rapidly worse +with what the local physician called brain fever, and in his +delirium raved of murder, but did not say whom he conceived to have +been murdered, nor whom he imagined to have done the deed. But his +threat was recalled by the brothers Jackson and he was arrested on +suspicion and a deputy sheriff put in charge of him at his home. +Public opinion ran strongly against him and but for his illness he +would probably have been hanged by a mob. As it was, a meeting of +the neighbors was held on Tuesday and a committee appointed to watch +the case and take such action at any time as circumstances might +seem to warrant. + +On Wednesday all was changed. From the town of Nolan, eight miles +away, came a story which put a quite different light on the matter. +Nolan consisted of a school house, a blacksmith's shop, a "store" +and a half-dozen dwellings. The store was kept by one Henry Odell, +a cousin of the elder May. On the afternoon of the Sunday of May's +disappearance Mr. Odell and four of his neighbors, men of +credibility, were sitting in the store smoking and talking. It was +a warm day; and both the front and the back door were open. At +about three o'clock Charles May, who was well known to three of +them, entered at the front door and passed out at the rear. He was +without hat or coat. He did not look at them, nor return their +greeting, a circumstance which did not surprise, for he was +evidently seriously hurt. Above the left eyebrow was a wound--a +deep gash from which the blood flowed, covering the whole left side +of the face and neck and saturating his light-gray shirt. Oddly +enough, the thought uppermost in the minds of all was that he had +been fighting and was going to the brook directly at the back of the +store, to wash himself. + +Perhaps there was a feeling of delicacy--a backwoods etiquette which +restrained them from following him to offer assistance; the court +records, from which, mainly, this narrative is drawn, are silent as +to anything but the fact. They waited for him to return, but he did +not return. + +Bordering the brook behind the store is a forest extending for six +miles back to the Medicine Lodge Hills. As soon as it became known +in the neighborhood of the missing man's dwelling that he had been +seen in Nolan there was a marked alteration in public sentiment and +feeling. The vigilance committee went out of existence without the +formality of a resolution. Search along the wooded bottom lands of +May Creek was stopped and nearly the entire male population of the +region took to beating the bush about Nolan and in the Medicine +Lodge Hills. But of the missing man no trace was found. + +One of the strangest circumstances of this strange case is the +formal indictment and trial of a man for murder of one whose body no +human being professed to have seen--one not known to be dead. We +are all more or less familiar with the vagaries and eccentricities +of frontier law, but this instance, it is thought, is unique. +However that may be, it is of record that on recovering from his +illness John May was indicted for the murder of his missing father. +Counsel for the defense appears not to have demurred and the case +was tried on its merits. The prosecution was spiritless and +perfunctory; the defense easily established--with regard to the +deceased--an alibi. If during the time in which John May must have +killed Charles May, if he killed him at all, Charles May was miles +away from where John May must have been, it is plain that the +deceased must have come to his death at the hands of someone else. + +John May was acquitted, immediately left the country, and has never +been heard of from that day. Shortly afterward his mother and +sisters removed to St. Louis. The farm having passed into the +possession of a man who owns the land adjoining, and has a dwelling +of his own, the May house has ever since been vacant, and has the +somber reputation of being haunted. + +One day after the May family had left the country, some boys, +playing in the woods along May Creek, found concealed under a mass +of dead leaves, but partly exposed by the rooting of hogs, a spade, +nearly new and bright, except for a spot on one edge, which was +rusted and stained with blood. The implement had the initials C. M. +cut into the handle. + +This discovery renewed, in some degree, the public excitement of a +few months before. The earth near the spot where the spade was +found was carefully examined, and the result was the finding of the +dead body of a man. It had been buried under two or three feet of +soil and the spot covered with a layer of dead leaves and twigs. +There was but little decomposition, a fact attributed to some +preservative property in the mineral-bearing soil. + +Above the left eyebrow was a wound--a deep gash from which blood had +flowed, covering the whole left side of the face and neck and +saturating the light-gray shirt. The skull had been cut through by +the blow. The body was that of Charles May. + +But what was it that passed through Mr. Odell's store at Nolan? + + + + +"MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES" + + + + +THE DIFFICULTY OF CROSSING A FIELD + + + +One morning in July, 1854, a planter named Williamson, living six +miles from Selma, Alabama, was sitting with his wife and a child on +the veranda of his dwelling. Immediately in front of the house was +a lawn, perhaps fifty yards in extent between the house and public +road, or, as it was called, the "pike." Beyond this road lay a +close-cropped pasture of some ten acres, level and without a tree, +rock, or any natural or artificial object on its surface. At the +time there was not even a domestic animal in the field. In another +field, beyond the pasture, a dozen slaves were at work under an +overseer. + +Throwing away the stump of a cigar, the planter rose, saying: "I +forgot to tell Andrew about those horses." Andrew was the overseer. + +Williamson strolled leisurely down the gravel walk, plucking a +flower as he went, passed across the road and into the pasture, +pausing a moment as he closed the gate leading into it, to greet a +passing neighbor, Armour Wren, who lived on an adjoining plantation. +Mr. Wren was in an open carriage with his son James, a lad of +thirteen. When he had driven some two hundred yards from the point +of meeting, Mr. Wren said to his son: "I forgot to tell Mr. +Williamson about those horses." + +Mr. Wren had sold to Mr. Williamson some horses, which were to have +been sent for that day, but for some reason not now remembered it +would be inconvenient to deliver them until the morrow. The +coachman was directed to drive back, and as the vehicle turned +Williamson was seen by all three, walking leisurely across the +pasture. At that moment one of the coach horses stumbled and came +near falling. It had no more than fairly recovered itself when +James Wren cried: "Why, father, what has become of Mr. Williamson?" + +It is not the purpose of this narrative to answer that question. + +Mr. Wren's strange account of the matter, given under oath in the +course of legal proceedings relating to the Williamson estate, here +follows: + +"My son's exclamation caused me to look toward the spot where I had +seen the deceased [sic] an instant before, but he was not there, nor +was he anywhere visible. I cannot say that at the moment I was +greatly startled, or realized the gravity of the occurrence, though +I thought it singular. My son, however, was greatly astonished and +kept repeating his question in different forms until we arrived at +the gate. My black boy Sam was similarly affected, even in a +greater degree, but I reckon more by my son's manner than by +anything he had himself observed. [This sentence in the testimony +was stricken out.] As we got out of the carriage at the gate of the +field, and while Sam was hanging [sic] the team to the fence, Mrs. +Williamson, with her child in her arms and followed by several +servants, came running down the walk in great excitement, crying: +'He is gone, he is gone! O God! what an awful thing!' and many +other such exclamations, which I do not distinctly recollect. I got +from them the impression that they related to something more--than +the mere disappearance of her husband, even if that had occurred +before her eyes. Her manner was wild, but not more so, I think, +than was natural under the circumstances. I have no reason to think +she had at that time lost her mind. I have never since seen nor +heard of Mr. Williamson." + +This testimony, as might have been expected, was corroborated in +almost every particular by the only other eye-witness (if that is a +proper term)--the lad James. Mrs. Williamson had lost her reason +and the servants were, of course, not competent to testify. The boy +James Wren had declared at first that he SAW the disappearance, but +there is nothing of this in his testimony given in court. None of +the field hands working in the field to which Williamson was going +had seen him at all, and the most rigorous search of the entire +plantation and adjoining country failed to supply a clew. The most +monstrous and grotesque fictions, originating with the blacks, were +current in that part of the State for many years, and probably are +to this day; but what has been here related is all that is certainly +known of the matter. The courts decided that Williamson was dead, +and his estate was distributed according to law. + + + +AN UNFINISHED RACE + + + +James Burne Worson was a shoemaker who lived in Leamington, +Warwickshire, England. He had a little shop in one of the by-ways +leading off the road to Warwick. In his humble sphere he was +esteemed an honest man, although like many of his class in English +towns he was somewhat addicted to drink. When in liquor he would +make foolish wagers. On one of these too frequent occasions he was +boasting of his prowess as a pedestrian and athlete, and the outcome +was a match against nature. For a stake of one sovereign he +undertook to run all the way to Coventry and back, a distance of +something more than forty miles. This was on the 3d day of +September in 1873. He set out at once, the man with whom he had +made the bet--whose name is not remembered--accompanied by Barham +Wise, a linen draper, and Hamerson Burns, a photographer, I think, +following in a light cart or wagon. + +For several miles Worson went on very well, at an easy gait, without +apparent fatigue, for he had really great powers of endurance and +was not sufficiently intoxicated to enfeeble them. The three men in +the wagon kept a short distance in the rear, giving him occasional +friendly "chaff" or encouragement, as the spirit moved them. +Suddenly--in the very middle of the roadway, not a dozen yards from +them, and with their eyes full upon him--the man seemed to stumble, +pitched headlong forward, uttered a terrible cry and vanished! He +did not fall to the earth--he vanished before touching it. No trace +of him was ever discovered. + +After remaining at and about the spot for some time, with aimless +irresolution, the three men returned to Leamington, told their +astonishing story and were afterward taken into custody. But they +were of good standing, had always been considered truthful, were +sober at the time of the occurrence, and nothing ever transpired to +discredit their sworn account of their extraordinary adventure, +concerning the truth of which, nevertheless, public opinion was +divided, throughout the United Kingdom. If they had something to +conceal, their choice of means is certainly one of the most amazing +ever made by sane human beings. + + + +CHARLES ASHMORE'S TRAIL + + + +The family of Christian Ashmore consisted of his wife, his mother, +two grown daughters, and a son of sixteen years. They lived in +Troy, New York, were well-to-do, respectable persons, and had many +friends, some of whom, reading these lines, will doubtless learn for +the first time the extraordinary fate of the young man. From Troy +the Ashmores moved in 1871 or 1872 to Richmond, Indiana, and a year +or two later to the vicinity of Quincy, Illinois, where Mr. Ashmore +bought a farm and lived on it. At some little distance from the +farmhouse was a spring with a constant flow of clear, cold water, +whence the family derived its supply for domestic use at all +seasons. + +On the evening of the 9th of November in 1878, at about nine +o'clock, young Charles Ashmore left the family circle about the +hearth, took a tin bucket and started toward the spring. As he did +not return, the family became uneasy, and going to the door by which +he had left the house, his father called without receiving an +answer. He then lighted a lantern and with the eldest daughter, +Martha, who insisted on accompanying him, went in search. A light +snow had fallen, obliterating the path, but making the young man's +trail conspicuous; each footprint was plainly defined. After going +a little more than half-way--perhaps seventy-five yards--the father, +who was in advance, halted, and elevating his lantern stood peering +intently into the darkness ahead. + +"What is the matter, father?" the girl asked. + +This was the matter: the trail of the young man had abruptly ended, +and all beyond was smooth, unbroken snow. The last footprints were +as conspicuous as any in the line; the very nail-marks were +distinctly visible. Mr. Ashmore looked upward, shading his eyes +with his hat held between them and the lantern. The stars were +shining; there was not a cloud in the sky; he was denied the +explanation which had suggested itself, doubtful as it would have +been--a new snowfall with a limit so plainly defined. Taking a wide +circuit round the ultimate tracks, so as to leave them undisturbed +for further examination, the man proceeded to the spring, the girl +following, weak and terrified. Neither had spoken a word of what +both had observed. The spring was covered with ice, hours old. + +Returning to the house they noted the appearance of the snow on both +sides of the trail its entire length. No tracks led away from it. + +The morning light showed nothing more. Smooth, spotless, unbroken, +the shallow snow lay everywhere. + +Four days later the grief-stricken mother herself went to the spring +for water. She came back and related that in passing the spot where +the footprints had ended she had heard the voice of her son and had +been eagerly calling to him, wandering about the place, as she had +fancied the voice to be now in one direction, now in another, until +she was exhausted with fatigue and emotion. + +Questioned as to what the voice had said, she was unable to tell, +yet averred that the words were perfectly distinct. In a moment the +entire family was at the place, but nothing was heard, and the voice +was believed to be an hallucination caused by the mother's great +anxiety and her disordered nerves. But for months afterward, at +irregular intervals of a few days, the voice was heard by the +several members of the family, and by others. All declared it +unmistakably the voice of Charles Ashmore; all agreed that it seemed +to come from a great distance, faintly, yet with entire distinctness +of articulation; yet none could determine its direction, nor repeat +its words. The intervals of silence grew longer and longer, the +voice fainter and farther, and by midsummer it was heard no more. + +If anybody knows the fate of Charles Ashmore it is probably his +mother. She is dead. + + + +SCIENCE TO THE FRONT + + + +In connection with this subject of "mysterious disappearance"--of +which every memory is stored with abundant example--it is pertinent +to note the belief of Dr. Hem, of Leipsic; not by way of +explanation, unless the reader may choose to take it so, but because +of its intrinsic interest as a singular speculation. This +distinguished scientist has expounded his views in a book entitled +"Verschwinden und Seine Theorie," which has attracted some +attention, "particularly," says one writer, "among the followers of +Hegel, and mathematicians who hold to the actual existence of a so- +called non-Euclidean space--that is to say, of space which has more +dimensions than length, breadth, and thickness--space in which it +would be possible to tie a knot in an endless cord and to turn a +rubber ball inside out without 'a solution of its continuity,' or in +other words, without breaking or cracking it." + +Dr. Hem believes that in the visible world there are void places-- +vacua, and something more--holes, as it were, through which animate +and inanimate objects may fall into the invisible world and be seen +and heard no more. The theory is something like this: Space is +pervaded by luminiferous ether, which is a material thing--as much a +substance as air or water, though almost infinitely more attenuated. +All force, all forms of energy must be propagated in this; every +process must take place in it which takes place at all. But let us +suppose that cavities exist in this otherwise universal medium, as +caverns exist in the earth, or cells in a Swiss cheese. In such a +cavity there would be absolutely nothing. It would be such a vacuum +as cannot be artificially produced; for if we pump the air from a +receiver there remains the luminiferous ether. Through one of these +cavities light could not pass, for there would be nothing to bear +it. Sound could not come from it; nothing could be felt in it. It +would not have a single one of the conditions necessary to the +action of any of our senses. In such a void, in short, nothing +whatever could occur. Now, in the words of the writer before +quoted--the learned doctor himself nowhere puts it so concisely: "A +man inclosed in such a closet could neither see nor be seen; neither +hear nor be heard; neither feel nor be felt; neither live nor die, +for both life and death are processes which can take place only +where there is force, and in empty space no force could exist." Are +these the awful conditions (some will ask) under which the friends +of the lost are to think of them as existing, and doomed forever to +exist? + +Baldly and imperfectly as here stated, Dr. Hem's theory, in so far +as it professes to be an adequate explanation of "mysterious +disappearances," is open to many obvious objections; to fewer as he +states it himself in the "spacious volubility" of his book. But +even as expounded by its author it does not explain, and in truth is +incompatible with some incidents of, the occurrences related in +these memoranda: for example, the sound of Charles Ashmore's voice. +It is not my duty to indue facts and theories with affinity. + +A.B. + + + +Footnotes: + +{1} The Isle of Pines was once a famous rendezvous of pirates. + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Present at a Hanging et. al. +by Ambrose Bierce + |