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diff --git a/old/69955-h/69955-h.htm b/old/69955-h/69955-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 38641cb..0000000 --- a/old/69955-h/69955-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4731 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html> -<html lang="en"> -<head> - <meta charset="UTF-8"> - <title> - Was It a Ghost? | Project Gutenberg - </title> - <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> - <style> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2,h3 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -h2 {font-size: 100%; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.6em; word-spacing: .3em;} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - text-indent: 1em; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.fulla {width: 95%; margin: .5em 2.5% .1em 2.5%;} -hr.fullb {width: 95%; margin: .1em 2.5% .5em 2.5%;} - -div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} -h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} - -.fs80 {font-size: 80%} -.fs90 {font-size: 90%} -.fs120 {font-size: 120%} -.fs150 {font-size: 150%} -.fs300 {font-size: 300%} - - -table { - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; -} -table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } -.tdl {text-align: left; line-height: 1.3em;} -.tdr {text-align: right; line-height: 1.3em;} -.tdc {text-align: center; line-height: 1.6em;} -.tdln {text-align: left; padding-left: 1em; line-height: 1.3em;} -.tdrn {text-align: right; padding-left: 2em; line-height: 1.3em;} - -.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ - /* visibility: hidden; */ - position: absolute; - left: 92%; - font-size: small; - text-align: right; - font-style: normal; - font-weight: normal; - font-variant: normal; - text-indent: 0; - color: #A9A9A9; -} /* page numbers */ - - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.wsp {word-spacing: 0.3em;} - -.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} - -.caption {font-weight: normal;} - -/* Images */ - -img { - max-width: 100%; - height: auto; -} -img.w100 {width: 100%;} - - -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; - page-break-inside: avoid; - max-width: 100%; -} - -/* Footnotes */ -.footnotes {border: 1px dashed; margin-top: 2em;} - -.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} - -.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} - -.fnanchor { - vertical-align: super; - font-size: .8em; - text-decoration: - none; -} - -/* Transcriber's notes */ -.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; - color: black; - font-size:small; - padding:0.5em; - margin-bottom:5em; - font-family:sans-serif, serif; -} - -.no-indent {text-indent: 0em;} - - -/* Illustration classes */ -.illowp100 {width: 100%;} - -.pageborder {width: 500px; border: 1px solid; padding: 10px; margin: 10px;} - -.lh {line-height: 1.5em;} - -div.centered_image { - width: 20%; - margin: 1em 40%; -} -div.centered_image img { - width: 100%; -} - - </style> -</head> -<body> -<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Was it a ghost? The murders in Bussey's wood, by Anonymous</p> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Was it a ghost? The murders in Bussey's wood</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em;'>An extraordinary narrative</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Anonymous</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: February 4, 2023 [eBook #69955]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WAS IT A GHOST? THE MURDERS IN BUSSEY'S WOOD ***</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 65%"> -<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Cover"> -</div> - -<h1>WAS<br> -IT A<br> -GHOST?</h1> - -<p class="center fs150">THE MURDERS<br> -<span class="fs90">in</span><br> -BUSSEY’S WOOD</p> - -<p class="center fs120">AN EXTRAORDINARY<br> -NARRATIVE.</p> - -<p class="center fs120">LORING, Publisher.</p> - -<p class="center no-indent">BOSTON<br> -1868.</p> - -<p class="center no-indent"><em>PRICE, 75 CENTS.</em> -</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"></div> - -<div class="pageborder"> -<p class="center no-indent fs150"><b>Loring’s Publications.</b></p> -<hr class="fulla"> -<hr class="fullb"> -<p class="center no-indent fs120">CHOICE FICTION.</p> - - -<table class="autotable fs90"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="4">THE GAYWORTHYS. By the Author of ‘Faith Gartney’s</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">Girlhood.’</td> -<td class="tdl">8th Edition.</td> -<td class="tdr">$2.00</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="3">INTO THE LIGHT: or, THE JEWESS.</td> -<td class="tdr">1.75</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">PIQUE: A Tale of the English Aristocracy.</td> -<td class="tdl">15th Ed.</td> -<td class="tdr">1.50</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="4">SIMPLICITY AND FASCINATION: A Tale of the English</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">Gentry.</td> -<td class="tdl">3d Ed.</td> -<td class="tdr">1.50</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="4">MAINSTONE’S HOUSEKEEPER: A Tale of the Manufacturing</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">Districts.</td> -<td class="tdl">9th Ed.</td> -<td class="tdr">1.50</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">THE QUEEN OF THE COUNTY.</td> -<td class="tdl">4th Ed.</td> -<td class="tdr">1.50</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">BROKEN TO HARNESS. By <span class="smcap">Edmund Yates</span>.</td> -<td class="tdl">4th Ed.</td> -<td class="tdr">1.50</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">RUNNING THE GAUNTLET. ” ”</td> -<td class="tdl">3d Ed.</td> -<td class="tdr">1.50</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="3">MIRAMICHI: A Story of the Methodist Blacksmith.</td> -<td class="tdr">1.25</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">MOODS. By <span class="smcap">Louisa M. Alcott</span>.</td> -<td class="tdl">3d Ed.</td> -<td class="tdr">1.25</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">A LOST LOVE. By <span class="smcap">Ashford Owen</span>.</td> -<td class="tdl">4th Ed.</td> -<td class="tdr">1.25</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="4">———</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="4"><b>For Young Ladies.</b></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">FAITH GARTNEY’S GIRLHOOD.</td> -<td class="tdl">16th Ed.</td> -<td class="tdr">1.75</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">JUDGE NOT: or, HESTER POWERS’ GIRLHOOD.</td> -<td class="tdl">2d Ed.</td> -<td class="tdr">1.50</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">MARGARET AND HER BRIDESMAIDS.</td> -<td class="tdl">4th Ed.</td> -<td class="tdr">1.50</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="3">MILLY: or, THE HIDDEN CROSS, A Romance of School</td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl">Life.</td> -<td class="tdl">3d Ed.</td> -<td class="tdr">1.50</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="3">HELEN FORD. A Romance of New York City Life. By</td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Horatio Alger</span>, jr.,</td> -<td class="tdr">1.50</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">COUNTESS KATE. By <span class="smcap">Miss Yonge</span>.</td> -<td class="tdl">3d Ed.</td> -<td class="tdr">1.25</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="4">———</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="4"><b>For Young Gentlemen.</b></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="3">MARK ROWLAND. A Romance of the Sea. By <span class="smcap">Hauser</span></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Martingale.</span></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdr">1.50</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="3">THE BOYS AT CHEQUASSET. By the Author of ‘Faith</td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Gartney’s Girlhood.’</td> -<td class="tdr">1.25</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="3">FRANK’S CAMPAIGN. By <span class="smcap">Horatio Alger</span>, jr.</td> -<td class="tdr">1.25</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="3">PAUL PRESCOTT’S CHARGE. ” ”</td> -<td class="tdr">1.25</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="3">CHARLIE CODMAN’S CRUISE. ” ”</td> -<td class="tdr">1.25</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="3">RAGGED DICK: A Story of New York Boot Blacks and</td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl" colspan="3">News Boys. (In Press.)</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="3">TIMOTHY CRUMP’S WARD—and What Came of It.</td> -<td class="tdr">1.00</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="3">THE LITTLE GENTLEMAN IN GREEN: A Fairy Story</td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">for Boys and Girls.</td> -<td class="tdr">75</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="4">———</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="4"><em>Mrs. Warren’s Popular Home Manuals.</em></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="3">HOW I MANAGED MY HOUSE ON £200 A YEAR.</td> -<td class="tdr">50</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="3">COMFORT FOR SMALL INCOMES.</td> -<td class="tdr">50</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="3">HOW I MANAGED MY CHILDREN from Infancy to Marriage.</td> -<td class="tdr">50</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="3">HOW TO FURNISH A HOUSE WITH SMALL MEANS.</td> -<td class="tdr">50</td> -</tr> -</table> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="THE_GHOST" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <img class="w100" src="images/frontis.jpg" alt="THE GHOST."> - <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center fs150 no-indent">THE GHOST.</p> -</figcaption> -</figure> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - - -<div class="chapter"></div> -<p class="center no-indent fs300">WAS IT A GHOST?</p> -<br> -<br> -<p class="center no-indent fs150">THE MURDERS IN BUSSEY’S WOOD.</p><br> -<br> -<br> -<p class="center no-indent fs120">An Extraordinary Narrative.</p> -<br> -<br> - -<div class="centered_image"> - <img src="images/bar2.jpg" alt="decoration"> -</div> - -<br> -<br> -<p class="center no-indent fs150">LORING, Publisher,</p> -<p class="center no-indent fs90 wsp"><span class="smcap">319 Washington Street</span>,</p> -<p class="center no-indent">BOSTON.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p class="center no-indent lh"> -Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by<br> -A. K. LORING,<br> -In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts.</p> -<br> -<br> -<p class="center no-indent smcap fs80">Rockwell & Rollins, Stereotypers and Printers,</p> -<p class="center no-indent fs80">122 Washington Street, Boston.</p> -</div> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak fs120" id="DEDICATION">DEDICATION.</h2> -</div> - -<div class="centered_image"> - <img src="images/bar2.jpg" alt="decoration"> -</div> - -<p class="fs90">I dedicate this book to that philosophy which can argue -without anger, can have a disbelief without sustaining it by -insolence; which can pause on the brink of a chasm, and, because -there happens to be no bridge by which it can cross -over, will not proclaim to all the world that no bridge can be -built; to the philosophy which sees as much beauty in a doubt -as in a solution, and has not ventured, or mayhap will never -venture, to affix a limit to human thought, or define the prerogatives -of our Lord and Creator. I do not dedicate it to -the Free Thinker, but to the Just Thinker. The highest reverence -exists oftener than otherwise in the humblest soul, and -the night of our ignorance is lit by stars to accustom us to -the effulgence of the dawn. The future is the poetry of our -hope; the present our rest, from which we extend the wings -of memory for the longer and more glorious flight toward -the end. My work will be found to look faintly but fondly -to those things, if it is read aright; and so in all and everything -I humbly say that I have no higher ambition than to serve my -Master.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak fs120" id="PREFACE">PREFACE.</h2> -</div> - -<div class="centered_image"> - <img src="images/bar2.jpg" alt="decoration"> -</div> - -<p class="fs90">I take advantage of this antique form of literature to make -a statement.</p> - -<p class="fs90">The murders of which I shall have to speak in the following -pages have been misunderstood. There was only one -species of crime in their perpetration, and this I have from -the highest authority. If I had thought it advisable, I could -have pointed out the progress by which the assassin reached -his determination, his peculiarity of character, and his motives; -but such a course would have detected justice to the culprit, -not the culprit to justice. Whenever he shall be discovered, -the evidence will be ample justification for my assertion with -regard to the character of the crime, and reveal the darkest, -wickedest, and most deliberate murders with which the history -of humanity has been cursed.</p> - -<p class="fs90">I am indebted to my friend, <span class="smcap">Thomas Hill</span>, Esq., the eminent -landscape painter, for the singularly appropriate adaptation<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</span> -of weird figures to letters on the cover of my book, and -also for the very felicitous representation of the “Ghost.” His -magic pencil masters the alphabet as well as the higher regions -of art, and I feel assured that my readers will be pleased that -I had, in my need, so able an assistant in helping me to make -my humble effort acceptable.</p> - -<p class="right fs90">J. B.</p> - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak fs120" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS.</h2> -</div> - -<div class="centered_image"> - <img src="images/bar1.jpg" alt="decoration"> -</div> - -<table class="autotable"> -<tr> -<td class="tdrn"></td> -<td class="tdrn"></td> -<td class="tdrn fs80">PAGE</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdrn"></td> -<td class="tdln">Preliminary Remarks</td> -<td class="tdrn"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdrn">I.</td> -<td class="tdln">The Roads</td> -<td class="tdrn"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdrn">II.</td> -<td class="tdln">The Incidents</td> -<td class="tdrn"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdrn">III.</td> -<td class="tdln">The Scene</td> -<td class="tdrn"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdrn">IV.</td> -<td class="tdln">The Brook</td> -<td class="tdrn"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdrn">V.</td> -<td class="tdln">The Dogs</td> -<td class="tdrn"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdrn">VI.</td> -<td class="tdln">The Flat Bridge</td> -<td class="tdrn"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdrn">VII.</td> -<td class="tdln">Suspected</td> -<td class="tdrn"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdrn">VIII.</td> -<td class="tdln">The Murder-Rock</td> -<td class="tdrn"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdrn">IX.</td> -<td class="tdln">Suspicion</td> -<td class="tdrn"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdrn">X.</td> -<td class="tdln">Was it a Ghost?</td> -<td class="tdrn"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdrn">XI.</td> -<td class="tdln">The Tests</td> -<td class="tdrn"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdrn">XII.</td> -<td class="tdln">Tests</td> -<td class="tdrn"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdrn">XIII.</td> -<td class="tdln">The Doctor’s Story</td> -<td class="tdrn"><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdrn">XIV.</td> -<td class="tdln">My Plan of Punishment</td> -<td class="tdrn"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdrn">XV.</td> -<td class="tdln">The Children</td> -<td class="tdrn"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdrn">XVI.</td> -<td class="tdln">Ghosts</td> -<td class="tdrn"><a href="#Page_113">113</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdrn">XVII.</td> -<td class="tdln">Manifestations</td> -<td class="tdrn"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td> -</tr> -</table> - - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</span></p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak fs120" id="PRELIMINARY_REMARKS">PRELIMINARY REMARKS.</h2> -</div> - -<div class="centered_image"> - <img src="images/bar1.jpg" alt="decoration"> -</div> - -<p>The main circumstances that form, in part, the topic -of my recital, excited, at the time of their occurrence, a -feeling of unprecedented horror. They came upon the -public sensibility with a force that even the previous recital -of the bloody events of the civil war could not -lessen. Habituation to horror had not deadened the -public susceptibility; for there was around the incidents -a belt of mystery and affright that defied the approach -of justice, and baffled private speculation.</p> - -<p>No necessity, even in the tortuous excuses of crime, -was apparent for the deed; for the victims had had no -opportunities to establish, individually of themselves, -hostile relations with any one, and their condition -placed them beyond or beneath the chance of social importance. -They were claimants to no estate in litigation, -stood in no man’s way to advancement, could have -produced no rivalry, had inspired neither revenge, nor -jealousy, nor love. They had, in fine, none of those -means that men and women have to incite to crime; for -they were children, and yet they were subjected to a -fate that few, if any, children, had confronted before.</p> - -<p>The commission of the deed was a barbarity; its -motives, apparently, a paradox.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span></p> - -<p>Everything, indeed, about the transaction was unusual. -The hour, the circumstances, and the locality, -all contributed to inspire a greater horror of the act; -and yet, up to this moment, no man’s name, of high or -low, bears a blemish of continued suspicion. Justice -seems to rest, after the excitement of the instant search,—a -search that, I have every reason to know, was intricate -and thorough; but, at the same time, it is well to know -that the intelligent Chief of the police department has -only seemed to pause. His eyes have never been entirely -withdrawn from the contemplation of the subject; -and I feel assured, from what I know, that his vigilant -and nervous grasp will, at the appointed time, be placed -upon the shoulder of the atrocious criminal. The murderer -may have perhaps, ere this, caught glimpses, -from his abode of gloom in another world, of those -two spirits whose bodies he hacked so butcherly. If -that be so, the Chief will have naught to do; but if he -be alive, wandering a desolate path through a desolate -world, it may be that justice will not have waited with -an energetic patience in vain.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span></p> - -<p class="center no-indent fs120">THE NARRATIVE.</p> -</div> - -<div class="centered_image"> - <img src="images/bar1.jpg" alt="decoration"> -</div> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="I" >I.<br> - -THE ROADS.</h2> - - -<p>There are two roads direct by which the scene I am -about to describe can be reached from Boston. One is -the steam-car road, passing through Roxbury, and dropping -way-passengers at Laurel Hill Station. The other -is the horse-car line, that, for some portion of the route, -runs parallel to the steam. The third, and more -picturesque, is another horse-car line, which passes -through Jamaica Plain, and drops the passengers some -several hundred yards west, and farther removed from -the official terminus of the two other routes. It was -by the second of these routes, that, on the 12th day of -June, 1865, two children, Isabella and John Joyce, -started from their home in Boston, where they were -temporarily boarding, to spend a few hours in May’s -wood, intending to return, according to the elder one’s -promise, in time for her brother to attend his afternoon -school. Thus it is established that the sister never -intended to go farther than the wood first proposed; and -in this we have the first glimmering of the series of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span> -mysterious circumstances in which the wretched affair -is enveloped from the beginning to the end.</p> - -<p>This girl was not sixteen years old.</p> - -<p>The boy was barely eight.</p> - -<p>Whatever happened after they took their seats in the -car, and who accompanied them, or joined them afterward, -is a matter simply of conjecture; and yet, as -they sat there, these two young things, who, of all the -rest of the passengers that looked upon their fresh, -pleasure-anticipating faces, could have dreamed that, in -a section so civilized, a community so guarded, a -population so abundant, in the marginal outlines of a -great city, that ere the sun went down, within a few -short hours, indeed, that girl and boy would be lying -stiff and stark, pierced,—the one, the girl, by twenty-eight -poniard stabs, and the boy by enough to have -killed the captains of a full regiment; the girl dead in -the hollow of a rock within thirty feet of a public road, -the boy less than a quarter of a mile away, in the dense -shrubbery, by a tiny stream that flows through the -shades of Bussey’s wonderfully beautiful woods!</p> - -<p>Now, this wood of Bussey’s—at present in the -possession of Mr. Motley, one of the heirs by marriage—is -a subject of frequent thought to the writer of this -narrative. It was so before it became the witness to -the murder of these two children; after that, while of -course losing in sentiment and by association some of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span> -its innate and sympathetic loveliness, it ever wore the -weird aspect of a mystic realm; but now is added that -terrible consciousness of a fright, a terror, pervading all -its recesses. The wood lies about six or seven miles -southward of the Boston State House, on a county -road, and its summits are lofty enough to afford a view -of the city and the rattlesnake infested Blue Hills back -of the Mattapan, more southwardly yet.</p> - -<p>The wood, as you approach down the road from Mr. -Motley’s gate, presents the aspect of a hill of pines, -dark and massive; but, crossing the fence that keeps it -from the highway, you are almost at once in the midst -of a mingled growth of birch and beech and willows; -beneath these passes the brook, near to whose bank -was found, farther up, the body of the boy. Old Mr. -Bussey, it would seem, was a man of droll, yet picturesque -fancies, mingled with a sturdy sense of the -useful; for no sooner are you free of the pasture land, -and in among the trees, than you discover traces of his -handiwork. The path you are upon is broad and well -constructed, leading to a solid bridge of masonry; and -well may you pause here to take in the full effect of the -scenic entanglement. On your right is a fish-pond, -fringed with the swamp willow, and of sufficient -capacity to contain fish enough for a council of cardinals -during the abstinent days of Lent; and near by a -spring of water, so cold that ice is never needed by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span> -those frequent picnic parties that, up to the period of -the murders, sought these delicious retiracies for holiday -festivals, or love’s deeper and sweeter plans of recreation. -Crossing this lower bridge, and passing over a road -with velvety grass borders, you turn to your left, and -if you have the time from sandwiches and other -condiments, or are not too absorbed in emotions that beat -marches to the field of matrimony, or much elaboration -of flirtation, you will see the steep ascent, bearded with -huge pines, and covered with abutting rocks, looking -like the base of a minor incident of Alpine precipice. -If you choose, there is a wild pathway made among the -zigzags, and this you can pursue until the summit meets -you, with the recompense of a noble prospect, but with -your muscles somewhat demoralized. Did those children -take this route?</p> - -<p>Along the ridge, a broad walk leads to the spot where -the wounded-to-death body of the unhappy girl was -found. But, if you think otherwise, in your humor of -unsettled choice, you can turn to your right, and, -winding around the base of the hill, through dwarf -pines at first, and heavy timber afterward, stroll on -until you reach the scene of the primal tragedy. Did -they go by this way? The wildness, the solemnity, and -total seclusion of the place, even in the broad daylight, -are oppressive to the imagination, if you happen to be -alone. Company in a graveyard, at midnight, destroys<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span> -in some measure the unpleasant sense of other than -human propinquity; and it is the same in a modified -form, in this umbrageous condensity. By all but -hilarious picnic parties, the solitude and seriousness of -a wood is admitted; and this wood is one of the most -unique I have ever visited. But, since then, it is no -simple congregation of trees and rocks and mysterious -paths,—no longer a sylvan asylum of perfect repose, -inviting to reverie, to pleasure, or the interviews of -love, sweetened by the security that shadows of leaves -throw upon the blushing hieroglyphic of the cheek, or -the deeper and softer and better understood language -of the eyes. A gloom is here established forever. It -is a witness of that most terrible of tragedies to which -our human condition is liable. The knife of the -murderer has gleamed here,—the cry of the victim -been uttered. It is haunted! Haunted by what? -Who can tell? By ghosts, or the idea of ghosts? It -makes no difference which. In such cases, where logic -is shattered over a catastrophe, imagination lifts up the -fallen form of contracted reason, and ministers to its -inability. Man does not always demand facts; or, -rather, in the solving of the many difficult problems -that are suggested by special and eccentric occurrences, -he does not demand an iron-clad testimony,—a testimony -not in accordance with the fact under inquisition. -The existence of a thing is to be proved by evidence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span> -that can apply to the nature of its existence. The -intention of Byron’s brain cannot be proved by the -same process you would take to prove that the ocean -over the Banks of Newfoundland is not so deep as in -its centre. If we waited for facts in proof of what we -cannot directly understand, we should starve mentally, -or go mad. Air is invisible, but it exists. It is here; -it is yonder. It is more keenly felt by animals whose -skins are thin. The armadilla, possibly, doubts its -existence, unless he has the gift of seeing it; but the -hairless dog of China is no sceptic on the subject of -atmospheric changes and attacks. Man, exposed to the -blast, feels it more sensibly than the elephant placed in -the same current. The <em>opinion</em> of the armadilla, or of -the elephant, has nothing to do with the fact of the air’s -existence. The former animal recognizes a tempest, -not by what he feels, but what he sees; and if he sees -wind, then I give up my illustration, but not my -argument. He sees a vision of flying dust, broken -branches, prostrate trees. Possibly he draws his deductions -from the theory of the sliding faculty of sand,—which -phenomenon he has, perhaps, suffered from; and -he has seen trees overturned by sand-slides, and, as the -tempest beats unfelt upon his adamantine scales, he -thinks the sand-power is at work, and would debate all -day with any thin-skinned animal who would assert that -it was done by a tempest of air. “I never saw it, I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span> -never felt it,” Signor Armadilla would perpetually -growl forth; and, so far as he was concerned, the air -would be sand, and his neighbor a credulous, half-crazy -believer in a thing perfectly intangible. He never -could attribute the results of a tempest to any force -which is not within the range of his experience. He is -where he was, but the oak is where it was not. He -stood upon a sound place, the oak upon a slide,—that’s -all. There was no hurricane. Thus it is that while a -thing may exist, it may not always be apparent, and if -apparent, only to a few. Men take views according to -the texture of their mental cuticle, mercurial or otherwise, -thick or thin; and can decisions based upon such -capricious contingencies be accepted as a philosophic -solution of a doubt, or a truth? But I shall, farther on -in my recital, have to deal more practically with this -topic, because I shall be drawn to its revelation by the -inevitable force of circumstances and incidents.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="II">II.<br> -THE INCIDENTS.</h2> -</div> - -<p>Two months previous to the murder of the Joyce -children I had been residing at the house of an -acquaintance, a mile away from the village of Jamaica -Plain. The front of the house looked out upon the -road leading from Boston and passing through the -village of Jamaica Plain far away into the back country, -and onward,—a pleasant drive for those city dwellers -who had only afternoon opportunities for rural inhalation. -The rear of the house gave view of a meadow -watered by a tiny rivulet and up to the woods of -Bussey. This rivulet was the one that went by the -body of the boy, and where it was concealed by its -woods and weeds. The distance from our back porch -to the spot where the body of the boy was found, was -about four hundred yards, and to where the body of the -girl was discovered, probably twice or thrice that -number; so I was rusticating near the footlights of the -theatre, little dreaming that, when the curtain rose, how -terrible would be the drama that would drip the stage -with blood.</p> - -<p>I have long since made up my mind that the most<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span> -extraordinary events transpire from a condition of -repose, else we would never be startled. The first -earthquake is the terror; the residue are but affairs of -mercantile and architectural speculation. Whatever is -striking is struck quick. The practice of the prize ring -is the theory of wonders. The shoulder of a man -propels a complex system of muscles, and a man in front -has his countenance smashed. The suddenness of the -experiment accounts for the surprise at its result. -Preparations for great deeds are not always apparent. -A coup d’etat is such because it is a coup. The killing -of Mr. Lincoln was more astounding as a positive deed -than the beheading of Charles the First, or the razoring -of Louis the Sixteenth and his Queen, daughter of the -Cæsars. In the case of the President, silence and -mystery kept pace with the public confidence in his -personal safety; in the case of Charles and Louis, the -politics of a people had long been disturbed and -outraged with regard to the traditional sanctity of -kings, and there was preparation almost evidently -looking to the final result, and the prelude, from the -very nature of those governments, admitted of hardly -any other epilogue; but with Mr. Lincoln it was -different. He sat in his box at the theatre, secure, in a -war brought to a result suitable to his designs, with -pleasant painted scenery before him, a comedy of -brimming humor in course of acting, altogether in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span> -very last place he or any one expected that the blow -upon his life would fall; but it fell, and the world was -astonished. Thus,—with the meadow and its brook -before me, with the grand belt of woods bowing over -the fence, with the soft air of summer in the boughs, -with the mowers in the grass, with the sunlight blinking -through flower-stems and vegetables of homely -nomenclature, but admirable qualities,—I sat in the -porch of my summer dwelling; and while I sat there, -musing and idling, a deed was done, so wicked, so -ruthless, so hideously unessential, that even now, after -the lapse of so long a time, I feel the need of a new -word,—a word with the thunder and the lightning in it, -with the curse of man and the anathema of God in it, -to express the sensation it produced.</p> - -<p>Those woods were to me a delight beyond all -computation. To look at them, to go into them, to sit -underneath them, to watch by the hour the veins of -moss and the bark of the tree boles, to follow the -curvature of the limbs as they grasped at the white -clouds passing, to see the blue eyes of the sky peeping -at me as I stared at them, to listen to the nothings of -sounds that all men have heard in the sylvans, to forget -in the balm of the scene the bitterness of memories and -knowledge,—furnished me a mighty feast of harmless -and negative enjoyment. With these feelings which I -have not exaggerated,—keeping in view this sanctity of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span> -nature, for so many centuries uninvaded by any crime, -save and except that doubtful one, of lovers meeting -there to love outside of domestic parlors,—I perhaps -more than anybody else was personally outraged at the -act which not only destroyed human life, but smote the -peace of the presence which Heaven had bestowed upon -the scene, sublime in its ministering to a waif out of -the wreck of revolution. I feel confident that to those -persons who indulge in the faculty of thought beyond -counters and desks, I need make no excuses for these -digressions; for they will at once perceive that I am at -least exhibiting one phase of the prelude to those -terrible atrocities. The incident of my vicinity to the -spot has great weight with me in the writing of this -narrative, as it would be to those persons, who, though -not being able to witness the actual battle, see the -smoke of the conflict and hear the reverberation of the -dread artillery.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="III">III.<br> -THE SCENE.</h2> -</div> - -<p>It was on Sunday evening, the 18th of June, that we -had the first intimation of what had been going on in -those great shadows opposite to our house. I was -sitting on the eastward porch,—which I said before gave -a lookout toward the wood,—and had been sending up -my quota of cloud to mingle with the fraternity of -vapor around the setting sun (my pipe, my laboratory), -when, as the shades grew purplish down in the ravine by -the brook, I heard repeated shouts. When an ordinary -stillness is violently broken, there follows a shock to the -nervous system, repeated upon it by sympathy with the -divinity of silence whose reign has been disturbed. -Sometimes terror commences at once her frantic flight -over all the barriers of reason; and again, anger beats -back the blow with imprecation. But when the long-continued -hush of a great forest, the mystic sleep of -rocks and trees, of air itself pervading a radius of miles, -is suddenly and sharply interrupted by that peculiar intonation -of human outcry, which declares an event out -of the ordinary train of circumstances, and when those -outcries reach us out of thick concealment, wonder and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span> -dread assume control of our faculties, and make us -pause almost in our breathing, to catch some other cry -of different character by which we can determine the -cause and nature of the first. I had heard from the -paths and shades of those woods, during the summer, -various kinds of human noises; but none of them ever -reached the mad gamut of the one which had smitten -the air but a moment since. Those other cries came -from children, grown and ungrown, romping in happy -energy along the glades,—from picnic parties calling -to each other and replying as they separated after the -feast of sandwiches,—and I had got to understand them -all; but here was a yell that had in it the modulation of -groan and spasm, uplifting of hands and straining of -eyes, relaxing of muscles and whitening of faces, with -stops put upon it by the fluttering pulses of the frightened -heart; and imagining nothing of anything terrible -that could have happened under that so pleasant roof of -waving foliage, I sat paralyzed in the abruptness and -terror of the interruption. But I was not kept long in -such suspense. The news now came up from the dell -that the body of the missing boy was found. The -search of police and citizens had been conducted on the -principle of an open fan with the handle held by the -chief at the house where the children had been living. -Thus the whole region on either side of the route known -to have been taken by them was thoroughly gone over<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span> -and examined, until the pursuit, almost despairing of -success, reached the Bussey wood, expanded around -the base of the hill, leaving no clump of bushes unexplored, -until, upon that quiet Sabbath evening they -found the poor boy lying dead in the midst of a thick -screen of alder-bushes. Soon afterward the girl was -discovered, but not, I believe, by parties actually -engaged in the search. Two men unsuspectingly, perhaps -unknowing of anything about the missing ones, -strangers, it is to be supposed, and in the woods for a -Sunday’s stroll, came upon a group of rocks lying a -little off from the path at the southern terminus of the -hill, and overlooking the common road of the county -that leads to Dedham. Here, stretched in the rugged -fissure of the rock, or rather in a basin at its base, lay -the stabbed corpse of the sister. Another alarm, and -the second part of the drama was concluded.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="IV">IV.<br> -THE BROOK.</h2> -</div> - -<p>So this much of the mystery was explained.</p> - -<p>These children had left their home a week before, -purposing a little trip, that was to last only a few hours, -to May’s wood, midway or thereabout between their -starting-point and Bussey’s wood, where they were subsequently -found dead. During all that week of -vigorous and unwearied search by the police of Boston -and Roxbury, joined in by that of the rural localities; -while the sun shone so bright and peace seemed so perfect -over and within that green glory, while hundreds -of people as usual, suspecting nothing, came into -and went out of old Bussey’s groves; these two dumb -humanities lay,—the girl, with her poor fright-marked -face towards the sky, appealing to it for testimony and -redress, the brother prone to the earth by the sly little -running stream, both stabbed over and over again,—for -thirty-four times did that mad arm rise and fall,—their -bodies rough with the clotted gore of their hideous -wounds. The public stood awe-struck in the presence -of this spectacle, and parents trembled when they saw -such evidence of duty neglected in allowing these waifs<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span> -to wander so far away from home. (Or were they accompanied, -and by whom, when they went away?) For -a time the junior members of families had to confine -themselves to a more restricted sphere of locomotion, -and the thought of murder haunting them drove them -like curfew to their homes at dusk. The latitude heretofore -extended to, or wrenched by, Young America -underwent a revision, and the juvenile eagles and doves -of the social roosts were forced to bend to the yoke of a -new dispensation, the justification of which was found -in the fate of those two hapless wanderers who had been -found slaughtered in the woods of Bussey. Seldom, in -the annals of crime, was there so great an excitement as -was manifested, not only in Boston, but throughout the -entire country, when the fate of the lost children was -made known by the public press. In one week afterward -the woods were daily crowded by people from the -city and the suburbs, with parties from the distant towns, -and I met one man, wandering about in a white state -of nervousness, who said he had come from Maine -to look at the localities. An artist of one of the New -York illustrated papers, with whom I went over the -woods, in company also with a policeman who had been -detailed for the purpose of pointing out the spots to the -man of wood-cuts, told me that in New York the -murder of these children had caused a greater excitement -than the killing of Mr. Lincoln. I could well<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span> -understand that,—for the one was in its chief features, a -political event, while the other appealed to the commonest -sensations of our nature, through the avenues of -mystery. On one Sunday alone, I was told by one of -the rural officers, that more than twelve hundred people, -men, women, and children, had visited the blood-stained -places of the murders.</p> - -<p>One great misfortune was inevitable from this sudden -and continued irruption, and that was the total extinction -of any foot-track of the murderer, or any vestige -of his garments which might have been torn from him -in the struggles with the stronger girl, or the conjectured -chase he made in pursuit of the fleeing boy; for -strange it was, that the bodies were found separated by -several hundred yards of distance, an interval of dense -wood and shrubbery closing in in all directions.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> The -one, as I said before, was killed on the summit of the -hill; the other, at its base. As strict an examination as -it was possible to effect was instituted, by the police -authorities, of all the paths leading to the two spots of -deepest interest, of every brake and shaded place; and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span> -very useless was it soon found to be in the vicinity of -the death-scene of the girl,—for there the ground was -dry and rocky; but where the boy was found the soil -was moist, and had not the paths been constantly -travelled over during that silent week and afterward, it -was there that some clue might have been found, the -footsteps of the assassin evident, kept there by that inscrutable -and puzzling fatality that frequently attends on -such events. The party of discovery, however, not -having the police presence of mind at the moment when -they came upon the desolate object, obliterated, by an -unconscious complicity with the assassin, and demolished, -in their eager rush, any marks he might have left; -for at least to that body no one had approached, and the -footmarks of the only living witness and actor must -have kept company with the bloody corpse throughout -that interval. Thus everything tended to shield the -doer of the deed. The dry ground and flints around -the girl; the very solitude of the boy’s last asylum, to -whose protection he had fled with the breath of his pursuer -hot upon him; the rain that fell afterward, and that -fatal week’s concealment,—gave him ample time to perfect -his plan of evasion; and well did the demon use his -opportunities; for, up to this moment, the public is in -possession of no clue by which he can be brought to the -expiation, if human expiation be possible, of his unparalleled -offence. Whatever may be known to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span> -mysterious agent of legal vindication, the keen-eyed -chief, we cannot discover; possibly there is nothing to -discover, though I do not agree to that; he may be -waiting for one of those redressing incidents by which -the chain of evidence is united,—incidents simple of -themselves and reaching forward out of doubt and difficulty, -and helping the law to a fulfilment of its intentions.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span></p> - - -<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> Since I finished writing my narrative, a friend has informed me, that, visiting -the wood sometime after the discovery of the bodies, and while searching for -the exact spot where Isabella Joyce was discovered, he picked up a portion of -an old green coat, or some other habiliment, and carried it out in the road to -his friend, who was waiting in the carriage the issue of his search, to show her, -in joke, as a relic of the murderer’s dress. His friend instantly grew serious -over the matter, and to this day believes it to have been worn by the man who -did the murders.</p> - -</div> -</div> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="V">V.<br> -THE DOGS.</h2> -</div> - -<p>And during all that week I had pursued my usual -monotonies, happy that they were such, tired to death -of battles, and the bulletins of newspapers, which had -added such a tangle of falsehood to the wickedness of -slaughter; happy that I was where I could see the sun -rise and go down without touching with his ray, so far -as my rustic horizon was concerned, a soldier’s tent or a -soldier’s grave; moping, in the very licentiousness of -laziness, with my seraphic pipe between my teeth, over -a thousand trifles, such as ingoing and outcoming of -shadows on the leaf-domes of the woods; enjoying the -soothing spasm with dinner of green peas, fresh pulled -from vines that in my airy fancy called back old travels -through the low shrubbery of the French vineyards; -having now and then a townsman’s visit to cheer me -back, if cheerful it be, to a consciousness of taxes and -municipal street-sweepings, of city lamps lit up as regularly -as the night came down,—a visit that in its way -was as pleasant to me as the old trees or the gray rocks -crowding around their base; a friend to sit with me in -the old back porch and look at the grand wooding of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span> -that desecrated hill, to sip with me the test of hospitality, -and smoke the pipe of peace in the peaceful air that -takes no offence at the indulgence of any method by -which honest men earn the recompense of honest living; -avoiding all topics of scandal, blessed in that rural -asylum in the absence of all objects of scandal; going -into the woods now and then and often, out of which, -like Peter the Czar, I had built my city and peopled -it with my own people; and all the time so ignorant -of the two dead children who lay within easy range -of my vision. There they lay all that festering week, -and here was I so near to them, following out the idle -purpose of a perhaps useless life,—they perhaps of no -greater use to all the world in their dead slumbering -than I in my grand philosophy of lethargy.</p> - -<p>My host was blessed with two dogs, and, very oddly, -they bore the same name, Jack. One was a bull-dog, -but, strange to say for his breed, of a sweet and even, -more than common, Christian disposition, inasmuch as -I never knew him to turn from the person he had once -elevated to his friendship. In his firm, calm old face, -there was nothing of deceit. Making his protestations of -love to you in his own way of muscular revelation, -you might be sure of his proffer, and that he never -would trick you out of your confidence. I have known -bipedical bull-dogs do otherwise; and they turned out -afterwards to be such arrant cowards that even my<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span> -solemn Jack, could he but have become acquainted with -their behavior, would have swept them out of the -sphere of respectable personalities by the vigor of his -superhuman sincerity. The other dog was a fighting -character, and as such I had not much sympathy with -him,—war on a larger and more brutal scale had sufficed -me,—and yet about him there was a geniality and -honesty and pluck, that forced you, while you recognized -his “belligerent rights,” to offer him your respect,—at -least I did; and so there were times when he -was allowed to accompany my placid Jack and myself -in our woodway journeys. Friendly as they were with -me, there was another whom they loved with the fervor -of canine Abeilardism, and that person was their master, -my host. I mention this fact now because it bears -upon an incident of a very extraordinary nature, and -which I will state in its proper place.</p> - -<p>At present I have but to add a few words about these -dogs. Though they bore the same name, they perfectly -understood when they were separately called; that is, -they comprehended their own individuality as we individualized -them. I never knew them to make a -mistake. Thus it was, Jack the gentle was never addressed, -or had his name called, except in just such -terms as we would use to a human being gifted with his -rare qualities. Jack the fighter, hard-biter, great cat-worrier, -knew when he was spoken to well enough; for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span> -the manner of the family was such as they would use -to a retired or active member of the prize ring, a tone -half of uncertainty and the other half of admiration. -They were, in fine, two distinct characters, bearing the -same name; but our voices being adapted to their -peculiar idiosyncrasies, they sensibly drew the line of -distinction in sound, and understood us.</p> - -<p>It would be worth any one’s while to get two such -distinctly different dogs in character, and try the -experiment of similar names. It might at least afford -Mr. John Tyndall, LL.D., of England, some hints to -his theory of sound.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="VI">VI.<br> -THE FLAT BRIDGE.</h2> -</div> - -<p>So one week had passed since the committal of the -murders and the discovery of the bodies,—and the -bodies lying in a wood so frequently, indeed so constantly -and largely visited. One would have supposed -that they would have been discovered half an hour after -the deeds were done; but, to understand why it was so -long concealed, you must visit the wood itself in the -leafy month of June, and then you will find out what a -hiding-place it can be turned into. Now the spot -where the boy was found was a few feet from the little -stream frequently mentioned, and this stream was -spanned by a flat bridge just enough elevated from the -surface of the water to allow it to flow freely underneath. -This bridge led over to a half-obliterated path -that you could with a little care follow until it brought -you to the regular path that led from the lower bridge, -and which I before observed conducted you to the rock -where the girl was found, and farther on to a spot -which I am soon to speak of. This lower part of the -forest is composed of open spaces filled with low -shrubbery, small and close-growing pines, and by the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span> -brook-way with densely thick alders. There is a wall -running west from the brook, dividing the property of -my host from that of Mr. Motley. Mr. Motley’s property, -along the wall to the north-west, is composed of a -wood of great beauty. The path to which I have -alluded connects with the main county road that circles -Bussey’s wood to the east, and it was by this path that -my host was in the habit of returning from his daily city -business, sometimes a little after sunset, but generally -not earlier than nine at night, and frequently later. -Relative to this circumstance I have hereafter something -of an extraordinary character to make mention of; so it -may as well be remembered.</p> - -<p>The low, flat bridge was about fifty feet from the -corner of the dividing line, and less that distance from -the scene of one of the murders. Near to it ran the -path my friend had to pursue on his return at night. -In my walks, before the murders, I had passed over this -bridge almost daily, and afterward, during the sealed -week, I had not interrupted my habit, though probably -I did not go that route as often as before, for the -weather was getting intensely hot, and kept me to the -woods nearer the house. In these walks, however -frequent or seldom, I was accompanied by old Jack; -and though the body of the boy, at one part of the -track, lay not more than ten or fifteen feet away on our -left, hidden in the shrubbery, the dog never attempted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span> -to approach it. I remembered afterward, when -everything was revealed, that as soon as we got over -the bridge, he would walk quietly at my heels, keeping -as close to me as possible; but when I had advanced to -the denser wood, that clothed the base of the hill, he -was all alive, plunging in every direction, and opening -with a courageous vigor upon the up-tree, defying -squirrels. I blamed him much for his reticence; for I -felt assured that both he and his namesake had, before -that, perhaps on the very day of the deed, gone into -that dense mass and gazed upon the slain. Be it as it -might, his manner changed completely whenever we -passed by that red resting-place.</p> - -<p>On the morning of the murders—the 12th of June—I -had prepared myself for sketching (I have that -gift, moderately to be sure, but yet with wonderful -kindness extended to me by a beneficent Providence), -intending to make a memorandum in oil colors of a -group of rocks a hundred yards or so beyond (eastward) -the murder-rock, and to which I have already -referred. These gray rocks, that I intended to sketch, -can be seen from the road leading up to the hill, by -which you reach, from the direction of the railroad, the -outer scarp of the ridge behind which the girl was found. -And this is the route by which the children may have -reached the wood.</p> - -<p>As the sun rose higher in the heavens the heat<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span> -increased in proportionate intensity, and when I was -ready to start, say about half-past ten o’clock, I was -glad to second the persuasions of my friends not to -venture out in such seething weather. Probably it was -providential, or possibly a great error, that I did not -accomplish my original design. To reach my objective -point—the picturesque rocks which had so fascinated -my sense of the beautiful—I would have been obliged -to follow the path, first over the low bridge, and subsequently -within six or seven feet of the spot where the -body of Isabella Joyce was first seen. Now, it is a well-ascertained -fact, that the children left their home by the -cars sometime about eleven o’clock on that morning. -Their intention was simply to go to May’s wood, nearer -to Boston than Bussey’s. What induced them to change -their purpose, and advance as far as the latter, is -<em>partially</em> a mystery; and though I have a well-digested -theory upon that very important—indeed, all-important—point, -I must withhold it; for well I know that if he -is alive, one of the first persons to read this narrative, -on its publication, will be the murderer himself, and I -cannot afford to give him farther chance to plot explanations -and arrange evasion by any word of mine. -Leaving home at about eleven, in three-quarters of an -hour, or less, they could reach Bussey’s wood (for I -take it for granted they did not tarry at May’s wood, -persuaded by <em>some one</em> to go farther off from Boston),<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span> -say, about twelve o’clock. Give them time to gather -leaves and wreathe them, as they did,—a wreath being -found around the boy’s hat, and portions of wreaths -about the murder-rock, where the girl had evidently -been employed in such amusement,—and we reach half-past -twelve, or perhaps a little later; and that is the -time I have fixed as the epoch; for after that, whatever -of garlands were woven, were made by hands we cannot -see, but only hope to see. Now, had I not changed my -intention to sketch that forenoon, I would have passed -by the path beyond which, hidden by the woody screen, -the girl was afterward sitting, and also grazed the spot -whither the boy had fled, or been thrown; but it would -have been before they had entered the wood; but I -would have been at work at the moment of the killing, -or, mayhap, passing within a few feet of the place where -Isabella Joyce was murdered, or, after being murdered, -concealed.</p> - -<p>If, in passing at the moment when the deed was in -the act of accomplishment, and I had heard a cry ever so -feeble, I would, unquestionably, have proceeded to -inquire into its cause; and had I come upon the brute, -and been at the instant in possession of as much pluck -as I had weapon,—an iron-clasped, well-seasoned, -heavy camp-stool,—he would have fared badly; for, -once up, my arm is one of very admirable development, -and my temper not the best calculated for easy martyrdom,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span> -and I might have saved her life at least, and in -doing which, an incident might have happened which -the fiend would not have had time to remember—in the -flesh. Or, if I had not passed at that exact exigency of -time, but was engaged in my sketching, I possibly -might have been startled by her outcry for mercy from -him, or appeal to others, and by the manhood that is -systematized, for the defence of the weak and wronged, -in this six-foot carcass of mine, I would have gone with -utter ferocity to the rescue; but with what success -crowning my enterprise, is only known to the Great -Inscrutable. However, had the murderer accomplished -his bloody purpose on the girl, and was following the -boy, and I had passed downward to the level bridge, I -might have seen that supplemental tragedy, or arrested -it, and taken the culprit red-handed in his course. I -would, under any of these circumstances, have been -more happy in my life, had I been the means of saving -two other lives, or even one, though I question much if -it would not have been at the expense of another life -as yet unclaimed by the gibbet.</p> - -<p>Barring all these contingencies, and taking it for -granted that I had passed in and out of the wood -without detecting anything of those terrible occurrences, -it might have fared ill with me in the subsequent phases -of the affair, for there was a strict investigation made as -to who was in that wood during that day; and beyond<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span> -a question, as I would not have attempted to conceal -the fact of my presence, my friends of the police would -have laid their justifiable hands upon me, and placed -me in the black category of the suspected. In mentioning -this idea since to my friend the logician of -judicial mystery, the tall chief of the force, he assured -me that I would not have been interfered with, as I did -not come in the least within the principles of his theory -of the murder. But that did not exempt me, as I shall -proceed to state.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="VII">VII.<br> -SUSPECTED.</h2> -</div> - -<p>Keeping in view the fact of the week’s concealment, -my reader will readily understand that I had no inducement -to change my usual habits, so far as the woods -were concerned, and I consequently kept up my visitations; -but as the heat was growing daily more severe, I -did not stroll far from the house, but confined myself in -the main to the wood that reaches from the brook to the -westward road in our front. I avoided thus pretty -much my former walks, which included all that space -lying between the flat bridge and the old gray rocks it -had been my intention to make a memorandum of. -Now and then, when the heat of the day had subsided, -I went as far down as the stream; for exceedingly cool -and pleasant was it there, and quiet, too, in the shady -evenings. Sometimes I took my sketching apparatus, -but oftener went without it; but it seems that, however -I might go, I was not to do so without creating a terrible -suspicion.</p> - -<p>The search, prompted by public duty, or instigated -by private curiosity, had apparently worn itself out, -when, upon a sweet morning, some two weeks after the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span> -discovery of the bodies, I stepped out of the front door, -and saw, sitting under a shady tree in the stable-yard, -holding converse with my host’s father, a member of -the polician fraternity. Naturally enough, thought I, -this vigilant is wandering round to see what he can pick -up of stray hints and suggestions that may lead to the -discovery of the criminal, and the obtaining of the large -rewards that had been tendered by public and private -liberality. I recognized the policeman at once, having -often rode in the car on Tremont Street which he conducted. -Circumstances then induced quite an acquaintance -of great kindness between us. He had been left -for dead after one of the great battles in the Chickahominy, -slaughtered by four or five bullets of the -Southern rifles, but picked up and cured, and fated in -after days to have the high prerogative of being put -upon my track as one of, if not the bloody villain of -all, concerned in the killing of the Joyce children.</p> - -<p>I went over to where the two were chatting under -the bee-laden lime-tree, and, after hand-shaking with -the ex-dead soldier-policeman, I helped to keep up -the conversation, which flowed naturally upon the -subject of the universal curiosity. He smiled a very -peculiar smile when he saw me coming to him, and the -farmer smiled, too; but that passed in my mind for -nothing more than the fact of his meeting with an old -friend. Ah! little did I think, while I smoked my pipe<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span> -and gossiped so sociably with that placid friend of -justice, that it was especially to find who the tall, dark -stranger was, who, with a bowie-knife in hand, and -great firing of his revolver, roved those haunted woods -of Bussey. I did not know until he had shaken hands -and gone away; when the farmer told me that the -policeman had come to inquire who it was that was -living with the family, and what my habits were, and -where I was on the day of the murders, etc. My -coming out of the house had interrupted this diabolical -inquisition, and, upon seeing me, they both had looked at -each other and exchanged a knowing smile, which, -interpreted into English, could be spelled out thus: -“Oh, I know him!” on the part of the policeman; and -“You’re sold this time,” on the part of the farmer. -The fact was that a youth, with his head full of ghosts -and shrieking children, had seen me in the vicinage -woods before and after the murders, and, frightened at -my pallette knife and my ball practice, had hastened to -the station at Jamaica Plains and made report of the -terrible bandit and assassin. My friend of the police -has often since laughed with me over the adventure, -and I have almost grown to look upon myself as a -gentleman of rather a forbidding and ferocious cut, and -feel prepared to let myself out to some of my friends at -the Studio Building as a model for any species of -brigand, of Italy or Wall Street; or, if it be not treason<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span> -to say so, of State Street, Boston. There is something, -after all, in being remarkable. However, it so happened -that in one way or another I became a satellite to -the sanguinary meteor that had swept over those woods, -and, had I allowed it, I would have grown into a morbid -mass of melodramatic idiosyncrasy. But the worst had -not come yet.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="VIII">VIII.<br> -THE MURDER-ROCK.</h2> -</div> - -<p>In the mean time, the inquest had been convened, and -their verdict of murder, with the words, “Done by some -one unknown,” blazoned to the world, and stating that -twenty-eight stabs had been planted in the body of the -girl, and also announcing a grievously erroneous theory -of the deed. The wounds upon the girl were chiefly in -the back, as if the first assault had been made while she -was stooping over her work, her wreath, perhaps; but -afterward, as she despairingly confronted her assailant, -the remaining stabs were given, while she could yet see -the rapid lifting and falling of his arm. It is not an -assured belief in the police theory of the deed, that she -was killed upon the spot where she was discovered; and -what specific reasons they have on that point, I cannot -readily get hold of, unless it be based upon the fact -that, had she been attacked only a few paces from a -frequented road, her cries would have exposed the -culprit to the risk of detection, and of that he naturally -would have considered; and in that view the theory has -some force, for it certainly was a better place in which -to conceal the body dead, than attack it living. All<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span> -around this spot, the trees, as I have previously described, -grew densely, and a new visitor could easily -lose his way, so that the deed may have been perpetrated -in the wood, and the corpse drawn to the -concealing formation of the rocks, as they were away -from the path, and not very likely to be visited. -However near the truth may be the theory of the -police, there was evidence discovered at the time the -body was revealed of a struggle, and a violent one, at -that very spot among the rocks. There was a sapling -bent and broken at the westward end of the rock, and its -breaking was recent,—not done by any strong current -of air, for there had been none, and if there had been, -no wind would break that pliant stem and leave the -vulnerable trees untouched. Had nothing of importance -happened at this very spot, we would have to look -for an explanation somewhere else, if we deemed it of -importance. It evidently had been broken within a few -days. Was it broken by some one who had visited the -spot ere it was invaded by the two strangers on that -Sunday when the body was discovered? That is hardly -possible, for if it had been so, the body would have -been seen, and the fact disclosed at once of her murder. -Was it broken in the struggle that ensued between the -murderer and his victim? How could she break so -tough a bough? Why should he? But at all events, -there it was, some four feet from her body. I saw it,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span> -and testify to its being there, and to the fracture being -of recent date. It might have been broken by the -man as he ascended from the road to the rock, for it -stood where he might grasp it in his ascent; but that -could hardly be; and there was no need to break it to -give passage to her body if it was drawn from the spot -where she fell, farther off. It was evidence of something -that had happened, but a testimony of nothing -that could properly and naturally attach itself to the -murder. Cattle could not have done it, for they never -were permitted in these woods, though a lad, who -guarded a drove down on the pasture lands below the -hill, was examined upon the idea that a madman had -committed the deed in his frenzy, and he happened to -be not of the sound order of brains. He was exempted -from further suspicion, as well he might be.</p> - -<p>The spot on which she lay was the convexity of an -abrupt whale-backed rock, running some fifteen feet -east and west, and guarding any object at its base from -the sight of persons passing along the road. Crumbled -flints abounded thereabout, and a hard and cruel bed it -was for a sleeper, dead or alive. When I first visited -it there were no marks of so terrific a scene as must -have been enacted in her killing, save the doubtful -sapling that lay broken and prostrate; but above the -spot where her piteous head had fallen, some pious -visitor had placed a cross, with a card affixed, that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span> -informed the public of the name of the poor sufferer, -and a prayer in her behalf.</p> - -<p>One week after the discovery of the body of the boy, -the thick coppice and bushes that had concealed him -were stripped away as memorials of the incident, and -the ground about trampled by more than a thousand -people; while the slimy mud oozed up as if eager to -suck in more of the ghastly nutriment that had flown so -freely in the first and final struggle of his death.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="IX">IX.<br> -SUSPICION.</h2> -</div> - -<p>As a matter of course, several arrests were made -after the delivery of the verdict by the coroner, and -rumor plied her busy trade with an increased variety of -tones. Our rural neighborhood rose at once into the -importance of a public spectacle; and full-orbed -curiosity roved the highways, questioning all kinds of -people with all kinds of interrogatories.</p> - -<p>There is always a plentiful supply of ready-made murderers -in almost every well and long-established settlement,—men -who look cross and act cross; who come -home at mysterious hours and in mysterious ways, with -slouched hats and shabby shirt-collars; who are not often -if ever seen in church; suspicious fellows; just the sort of -fellows to be talked about whenever anything bad has happened; -but, perhaps, after all said and done, as good as -their neighbors, indeed, sometimes better than the gossips -who prate so lavishly about them. But they serve -a purpose; and to that purpose some of them were put -at once; and they bore it, and will have to bear it again. -It is pretty much a matter of clothing. One day the -whole thing was out,—the murderer was known. A<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span> -neighbor’s farm-hand had fallen in with another neighbor’s -farm-hand, steering his ox-cart upon some errand -of slothful industry, and from the ox-driver he had -learned that the said driver, on the noon of the murder-day, -had met the boy and girl (boy and girl described) -on the road between Mr. Motley’s house on the hill and -the blood-stained rock, and soon afterward he was -overtaken by, or he met, a swarthy man with a black -mustache, heated and in haste, pursuing the same line -of travel on which he had met the children. Yes, he -could identify that man. He looked eager and fierce, -with his dark skin and twisted moustache; and those -were the real children, and he their murderer. He had -seen the lambs, and he had looked upon the wolf. This -story bore the semblance of possibility; and we were -all prepared to hear of an arrest and identification. By -night, however, the narrative had undergone some modification, -but not losing in the vigor and picturesqueness -of the original drawing,—rather otherwise. I immediately -sought out the author of the bulletin, intending, -if there was any substance in it after thorough investigation, -to report the facts without delay to the proper -authority.</p> - -<p>True, the clodpoll had seen two children on that -road; but it turned out, on cross-examination, that he -saw them on the day after the murder; but the portrait -of the eager and mysterious swarth, with his curled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span> -mustache, had been inserted by the more imaginative -brain of the man who repeated the intelligence. So all -that card-castle of discovery fell to pieces. Then, again, -a gallant and bullet-maimed officer was put under the ban; -and wonderful items grew into robust legends, that would -have delighted the immortal Sylvanus Cobb, Senior. -The bloody tunic of the man of Mars had been washed -by the terror-stricken nymph of soap-suds, and she was, -inasmuch as she had “talked” of that red evidence, -forthwith discharged from the wash-tub of the family. -This belief in the guilt of the maimed officer took such -emphasis of accusation as to enforce from his friends -a proof that he was, on the day of the murder, far away -in a Virginia city, engaged, among other things, in -writing his name in a lady’s album. One evening, after -the Sunday’s discovery,—it might have been ten days,—as -I was riding up the hill that led to Mr. Motley’s mansion -gateway, and when I had reached the summit, I -came upon a young man standing a little off the main -road. He stood there but a moment; but in that moment -I saw that his eyes swept in that section of his -view which embraced the accursed trees of Bussey’s -blood-dyed hill, but with no look of white affright -in them; and then, with his one arm swinging,—the -other maimed in some battle-field of the South,—he went -onward to the gate. That was the officer who had with -one arm committed those dual murders, even while he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span> -wrote his name in the album of a lady in the old city -down in the Southern country.</p> - -<p>From such things does the monster Gossip make up -a verdict, driving in shame the innocent to a defence, -while giving to the one of guilt the benefit of an arrested -search, or a postponed accusation. Driven from -this stronghold of suspicion, away went greedy Accusation -down among the shanties of the Irish workmen, -along the line of the railroad; but nothing there was -brought to light beyond the existence of pigs, poverty, -and all the other poetries of Hibernian habitations.</p> - -<p>In the midst of this confusion of assertion and contradiction, -of hope and disappointment, a luckless house-painter, -of a religions turn of mind, and a taste perhaps -of fluidical enjoyment, fell into the hands of the inquisitors, -and, at the time, it must be confessed, with some -circumstances attendant on his movements and position -that gave color to the theory of his criminality. At his -house the boy and girl had boarded last; from his house -they started on their terrible adventure; and it was -said that he was engaged on that day to do some work -at or about May’s wood; and so they linked him with -the two pools of blood out in the shades of the fearful -woods. There was a judicial examination; but naught -came out of it to warrant his detention, and so he was sent -about his business rejoicing, with a clear skirt, and a -eulogistic letter from the clergyman of his parish. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span> -incident seemed rather to have worked to the advantage -of the window-sash artist; and, in the full enjoyment of -his acquittal, and the continued performance of his grave -religious duties, this history must leave him.</p> - -<p>And yet another. A young fellow was arrested, and -lodged in the county jail at Dedham, of whom there -was not the slightest doubt of his being the man. -When arrested, it was proved that he had been absent -from work on the fatal day; that his hands were -scratched, and his clothes spotted with blood; and that -he had been drunk on that night, driven, it was religiously -and philosophically construed, into that beastly -condition by the reproaches of his conscience. Ah, he -was the very man! He looked, in his dimness of drunk -and tatterdemalionism of garb, like a real Simon-pure -unadulterated murderer. The rope was ready, and the -coming carpenter dreamed of a gallows on which he -was to swing. But the rope had not yet been twisted, -and the carpenter had only dreamed; for it was established -as follows of his biography: He had been absent -from work because he had no work to attend to; he had -been drunk because he loved bad whiskey and good -company; he was scratched and blood-tinted because -his valor and his bottle had led him, at an ill-reputed -tavern, some two or three miles up the road, to attempt -the vindication or assertion of his philosophic, philanthropic, -political, or religious opinions and dogmas, by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span> -quotations from the library of his fists and muscles. -So he, too, got out of the clutches of the law, and stands, -or staggers, now, ready at any moment to be arrested -upon the same grounds for any similar offence, or other -offence, that his neighbors may think him fit for.</p> - -<p>There was one other case of suspicion, but no arrest; -and as it illustrates the uncertainty of circumstantial -evidence somewhat, and is a little singular, I will relate -it. A young fellow of variegated habits worked in a -large rifle establishment near one of the city limits, distant -from the scene of the murders some four or five -miles. One of his habits was to rove into the suburbs, -seeking his recreation according to his fancy. This -fact was a strong circumstance against him; for at -that time the theory of the twofold character of the -crime had not been relinquished. Up to the period of -the murders, this youth was the life of the establishment -where he was employed, full of tricks, and jokes, -and happy, ceaseless good-humor. On the morning of -the 12th of June, he was absent at roll-call; but at -<em>one o’clock in the afternoon he was there and answered -to his name</em>. Whatever had happened, a great change -had come over him. He was no more the jubilant and -frolicsome madcap of the day before, but sullen to moroseness, -and his face was strongly sunburnt, and altogether -his whole appearance and behavior indicated a -transformation as singular as it was sudden. When<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span> -questioned, he admitted that he had been in the woods -somewhere, but would speak no more upon the subject. -In search of any, the slightest clue to the discovery of -the mystery, the police soon came into the possession -of these facts, and suspicion fell darkly around him. -Upon farther inquiry, it appeared that he had converted -two files into poniards,—one he had given to a friend, -the other he had kept. The day afterward, while the -police were making these investigations, and keeping -him, as they thought, unconscious of the fact, he disappeared, -and has not been heard of from that day to this. -One of the dirks when applied to the wounds fitted exactly. -I have seen the one he had given to his comrade, -now in the desk of the chief. A long, ugly -weapon it is, sharp at the point, and double-edged, -equal to a bowie-knife ere yet it has arrived at the point -of complete perfection of destruction.</p> - -<p><em>But he was not the man.</em> Why he fled we may conjecture. -Doubtless he had heard of the advance of the -authorities upon his steps, and feeling that appearances -were against him on the first blush of the investigation, -and not being logically disposed to examine into the -importance of minutes and hours wherein lay his absolute -defence, he fled affrighted at his dangerous position. -He was innocent, because he answered his name at <em>one -o’clock</em>. Had he done those murders he never could -have reached his workshop at that hour unless he had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span> -hired the magic of a necromancer, or been mounted on -the fleetest horse that ever won a race; for the murders -were accomplished soon after one o’clock. Had he not -answered to his name at the hour mentioned, he would -have been arrested, though still he would not have been -guilty. <em>It was another man who did those deeds.</em></p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="X">X.<br> -WAS IT A GHOST?</h2> -</div> - -<p>And after that a heavy silence fell over the mysterious -murders of the Joyce children. The officers of -justice, to whom I spoke during that time, looked wise -and watchful, and held to the belief that the malefactor -would yet be found.</p> - -<p>I come now to a portion of my story that I assure my -reader is, in every respect, true. I know that only one-eighth, -or even a lesser moiety of the world, will give -me credence; not that they will directly question my -plighted word, but they will question the philosophy of -which my experience is a phase; but who knows but -that it may be an actual substantiation? So assured -was I that no deception was practised upon me, that it -was only the other day that I made a statement of it to -Mr. Kurtz, the chief of police, to whom I had occasion -to speak of my design to write a narrative of my knowledge -and experience in relation to the unhappy incidents -of the murder, putting it to his discretion whether I -should go on and give my writing to the public. I had -some misgiving as to the propriety of saying anything -of such importance while it remained in its present<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span> -apparent quiescence; and though it is not essential to -my purpose to repeat our conversation, I feel at liberty -to say that he favored my design most cordially. But -with regard to my revelation to him of what I shall soon -put my reader in possession of, he did not evince that -unpleasant scepticism which so often borders upon the -insolent, and listened to my narration with the evidences -of a respect that at least bore the semblance of belief. -I must confess, however, that he somewhat startled me -when, at the conclusion of my recital, he put to me this -practical question: “<em>Do you think you could recognize -the man?</em>” That question, the reader will perceive -anon, was somewhat of a staggerer; but I rallied under -the belief that the head dealer in the positive had not -quite grasped the peculiar significance of my revelation, -and since then I have seen something—a something -which he has in his desk, and which may appear hereafter—that -would, if I deem it necessary to test my -idea, perhaps enable me to say to him, “I can.”</p> - -<p>It was quite three weeks after the blood of the unhappy -Joyce children had been mixed with the leaves and -oozings of that mysterious wood,—when everything -was falling back, in our country side, to the old order of -simple occurrences,—that, upon a still and clear night, -I went out of the cottage where I still lived, and, taking -the two dogs with me, strolled down through the stable-yard, -and past the garden, until I came to the brow of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span> -the hill that formed the apex of my friend’s grass-lands. -The brow of the hill was flat all about me, commencing -its declension some hundred and fifty feet eastwardly -from where I stopped, and at the base running off into -a meadow, the opposite side of which was overlooked -by the Bussey wood; and, from where I stood, several -pines rose out of the even surface of the forest, marking, -as with an uplifted hand spread out, the place where the -murder of the girl had been done. I have to be particular -in my description seemingly to tediousness, but -the singularity of what transpired leaves me no choice; -for better, on such a matter, not to speak at all than -not to speak explicitly. I resume. The grass was -short on the brow of the hill, not over a few inches in -length, improving in quality as the descent reached the -valley. There was a tree near me; but that I left behind, -putting it in my rear some ten paces, when I -stopped. On my left was Motley’s wood,—so often -mentioned,—drawing up with its intense shadows, close -to the dividing wall. From the wall to where I stood -all was clear and distinct, save where the shadows, or, -more properly speaking, the shade fell over the ground, -though in that shade there was a secondary light which -artists and all thorough students of nature will recognize. -The wall and the wood on my left ran down to that -corner at the creek, which was only a short distance, -about fifty feet, from the spot where the boy had fallen.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span> -Some two hundred and fifty yards away, and close to -the corner just mentioned, was a clump of trees, and -then straight before me, without an intervening object, -the dark wood and the hand-like pines, that gloomed, in -deeper gloom than night itself imparts, with all her -shadows, over the gory rock of the girl’s death-bed. -My purpose was simply to take the cooler air from the -winnowing trees; for the room where I had been sitting -with the family was oppressive with lamp-light and -the encased atmosphere. I had become so accustomed -to the dread localities, that habit had destroyed, with the -first surprise and horror, all the keen sensations of a -mysterious and indescribable neighborhoodism to the -scene. Indeed, I had begun to look upon the whole -affair as a story that had been told to me by some such -person as the “Ancient Mariner.” Had it been otherwise, -I never could have been induced to stay another -moment in that house. I beg to assure everybody that -when, at that hour of half-past eight o’clock, I left the -parlor to stroll to the brow of the meadow hill, I did -not have one thought in my head that connected itself -with the murders. Other affairs had turned up, in -which I was personally interested, and my mind, though -not dwelling upon them at the moment, felt, if it felt -anything at all, the reverberations of mental discussions -upon the topics I have just spoken of as of personal -interest. I think now, remembering everything, that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span> -if I had any peculiar sensation, it was not superior to -that of the two dogs who kept close to my heels,—for I -was there to enjoy the sensuous and physical boon of -air; they, indeed, governed by a higher motive, the -society of man. I was, consequently, if I may say so -with perfect self-respect, in a complete condition of -animal existence, and not prepared for or expecting anything -beyond the ordinary condition of animal and -vegetable life. I was, in fine, nearly upon a level with -the inanimate existences around and about me. I am -unwillingly compelled to remind the reader that it was -the habit of my host, who did business in the city, of -leaving the train at Laurel Hill Station, at nine o’clock, -as a general thing, and keeping the main road until he -got to the bottom of the hill near to where the brook, -so often mentioned, crosses the road, entered the lowlands -at the outskirts of Bussey’s wood, and thence -following the path which led by the boy’s murder-place, -and up the hill-side covered by the Motley wood, keeping -close to the wall until he reached that point of the -wall near which I was standing, passed over it, and was -home. It must also be borne in mind that the two -dogs loved their master with a steadfast affection; in the -case of the serene Jack it was a very jump-about, capering, -stump-tail, demonstrative love. Whenever they -saw him in the distance nearing home, or knew by -instinct that he was approaching, though for the moment<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span> -hidden by the intervening trees or rocks, they would -break away from my minor and only temporary bonds, -and rush to meet him exultingly, and then ensued a -scene of wild confusion and barbaric dog-taming. -These two facts remembered, I will advance with my -narrative.</p> - -<div class="chapter"></div> - -<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="facing064" style="max-width: 62.5em;"> - <img class="w100" src="images/facing064.jpg" alt="MAP OF THE LOCALITIES."> - <figcaption class="caption"><p class="center">MAP OF THE LOCALITIES.</p> -</figcaption> -</figure> -<table class="autotable fs80"> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">1. Steam-Car Line.</td> -<td class="tdl">10. Where the Apparition stood.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">G. Horse-Car Line.</td> -<td class="tdl">11. Where the Girl’s body was discovered.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">2. Motley-House.</td> -<td class="tdl">12. The Gate on Dedham Wood.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">3. Gate leading into Pasture and Bussey Wood.</td> -<td class="tdl">13, 13. Public road to Dedham.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">4, 4, 4, 4. Returning route of my host.</td> -<td class="tdl">14, 14, 14, 14, 14. Bussey’s Wood.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">5. Bridge over public road.</td> -<td class="tdl">15. Motley’s Wood.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">6. Spot where the Boy’s body was found.</td> -<td class="tdl">16. The Wall.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">7. Arch Bridge.</td> -<td class="tdl">17. Fence between Bussey’s Wood and the Howard property.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">8. Flat Bridge.</td> -<td class="tdl">Arrow. The Creek.</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td class="tdl">9. Where I stood.</td> -<td class="tdl">- - - - - - My route at night to the Murder-Rock.</td> -</tr> -</table> - - -<p>Knowing that my host was irregular as to his hours of -return home at night,—sometimes arriving by another -than the nine-o’clock train,—I was not surprised when -I saw a figure lean over the wall for an instant within -about twenty feet of me, pause a moment, and then -cross over to the side on which I was. Seeing that he -stopped, I spoke aloud these words, and none other, -thinking of none other: “Hallo, Dan, is that you?”—for, -though I could discover the figure and recognize its -movements, there was too great a shade thrown over the -wall to enable me to distinguish even the lineaments of -a face so familiar to me as were those of my friend. -To my appeal there was no reply, and then in an instant -the impression came upon me that if it really was -my friend, he was making an essay upon my nerves. -So up to this moment I never had a thought apart from -him. I did not notice the conduct of the dogs, or even -think of them, for if I had done so, <em>I never would have -inquired if it was “Dan;”</em> for they would have been -away from me at the first footfall after he had passed -the vicinity of the low bridge down in the hollow of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span> -hill; or, having not done that, they would have been at -the wall the moment his face looked over it. Nor did I -observe that they kept unusually close to me. I did -not even think that, if it was not him, it was extraordinary -that the dogs did not, without more ado, make their -assault; for as a vigilance committee they were extremely -zealous in the discharge of their duty, and woe betide the -trespasser upon those limits after dark if they once got -scent of him! That sedate and usually almost apathetic -Jack was equal to a cherubim with a flaming sword; -and as to Jack the fighter, his mind was strictly judicial -with regard to trespass. It was not till afterward, when -the climax of this abrupt and singular apparition was -reached, that my attention was directed to the behavior -of my two companions. While I stood perfectly motionless, -waiting for some recognition of my appeal, the -figure advanced slowly in a direct line from the wall, -leaving the shadow, and stopped before me, and not -twenty feet away from me. I saw at once that it was -somebody I had never seen before. When in the light, -without even a weed to obstruct my vision, as soon as he -stopped, I called again: “Speak, or I will fire!” I am -not naturally of a blood-letting disposition, but somehow -or other that threat came from me without any -power or will of my mind to arrest it. It was an unmeaning -and perhaps a cowardly speech, for he was -alone, while I was armed with two powerful dogs, either<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span> -one of whom would have vanquished him, had I but said -the word. Nor had I a pistol to carry out, had I -been so rash as to intend it, my foolish demonstration. -It was at this period I observed especially the behavior -of the dogs. Up to this time they had been quiescent, -lying upon the grass in the full enjoyment of its freshness; -but now they both got up, and I felt on each side -of me the pressure of their bodies. They were evidently -frightened, and, by the casual glance I gave them, -induced to do so by the sensation of their touch, I saw -that they were looking with every symptom of terror at -the figure that stood so near us without a motion. And -the figure. It never once turned its head directly toward -me, but seemed to fix its look eastward over where -the pine-trees broke the clear horizon on the murder-hill. -This inert pose was preserved but for a moment; -for, as quick as the flash of gunpowder, it wheeled as upon -a pivot, and, making one movement, as of a man commencing -to step out toward the wall, was gone! To my -vision it never crossed the space between where it had -stood and the outline of the shade thrown by the trees -upon the ground. One step after turning was all I -saw, and then it vanished. Can I describe this figure -you will ask; and my reply is that I can, but not exactly -in such a way as to satisfy the chief’s business-like interrogatory. -Before I go any farther, I must say that, -as I had nothing to do in getting up this apparition, I -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span>do not see how any one can poke fun at me simply because -I was there to see it. A man sees a star fall; he -has no agency in the eccentric transaction, and is he to -be ridiculed because there happens to be a tack loose -in the celestial carpet whose dropping out he witnesses -and tells of, and happens not to be astronomer enough -to explain? Here was a moral and physical tack loose -somewhere and somehow, and I had struck my vision -on its point. What I saw I relate exactly as it happened, -and nothing more, though I may be induced to -meet the usual objections to the possibility of its occurrence, -in a later portion of this narrative. I could, if I -felt so inclined, stop my recital and talk by the folio -about this affair; but it was a very different matter at -the moment when that something, which would not reply -to me, stood in the night light, clear and distinct as a -marble statue, and cast one glance over toward the hill -that held among its gray rocks a stain that would last -there forever. But I half promised to describe this -figure, this appearance, this apparition, and a few words -will answer. It looked like painted air to begin with. -An artist, sitting by my side and following my ideas, -might render it to the life or death; but he would have -to blend his matter-of-fact pencil with the vague vehicles -of spiritualistic imagination. In the first place, there was -no elaborate toilet; indeed I could not make out the -fashion of the garment, taking it for granted that it was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span> -draped in the usual costume, being too absorbed by the -complex and somewhat agitated train of thought which, -commencing with the assumption that it was my friend, -and which was suddenly relinquished, leaving me exposed -to the rapid transitions of intellectual deductions so singularly -called into action and so totally at variance with -my habitual mental or nervous equanimity. I felt as -a drowning man might feel who, admitting the fact that -the water has got the master of him, lets that primary -incident take care of itself, and looks only to some object -by whose aid he may relieve himself from the desperate -catastrophe. I was occupied more in the effort -to recognize a human being in the figure that was before -me than in making a tailor’s analysis of his apparel. -One thing was evident,—he looked dark-gray from head -to foot. Body he had, and legs, and arms, and a head; -but the face I could not distinctly see, as he turned it -from me; but there was an outline such as can be traced -in shadows thrown by a dim lamp upon a rough-plastered -wall,—and that is all I can say about it. Of -course it is unsatisfactory, but I had no means or time -for a fuller diagnosis.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="XI">XI.<br> -THE TESTS.</h2> -</div> - -<p>The effect left upon me when I found myself alone -was not exactly that of alarm, but rather a determination -to test, if it might be possible, this appearance or -delusion, or whatever it might be; and, instantly turning -from the spot, I walked back to the house. The presence -of persons in the room, the light, the furniture itself, -had an influence to calm whatever of perturbation -I was sensible of from the strange interview through -which I had so rapidly passed. I debated now in my -mind with regard to the test I should apply. Was it a -ghost? That was in part the question, but not the entire -inquiry; for I could not come all at once to the conclusion -that it was an undoubted visitant from the dead -man’s realm. While pondering over these doubts, an -adventure of my youth came vividly back to my recollection, -and seemed to offer itself as a means by which I -should judge of my present experience; and, thinking it -may amuse my reader, I see no reason why I should -not add it to my narrative.</p> - -<p>A goodly number of years ago, I was a student at a -college in the State of Maryland, not far from the town<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span> -of Gettysburg. From the plateau of the mountain, at -the base of which the college was situated, I have been -told, the smoke as it actually poured from the guns, not -after it floated miles away, was seen during the progress -of the great and inexplicable battle that has made the -town one of historic importance.</p> - -<p>Upon a certain occasion, it being a holiday, I went -over to the neighboring village of ——, intending to -have a free-and-easy time with smuggled cigars,—smoking -being a virtue unrecognized by the dignitaries of -the college, and forbidden under heavy pains and penalties -within the sacred and unfumigated precincts. I -had other objects, perhaps, justifiable to youth, and unnecessary -to dilate upon now. At all events, I was -away from college, and away I remained until the advancing -evening warned me that I had somewhat of a -walk before I could get back. There were two ways -by which I could return,—one by the common county -road, and a shorter but more difficult route by a narrow -path leading partially over and along the mountain -ridge. I chose the latter. So I bade adieu to the village -and its barber, who was our contraband chief in -the cigar smuggle, and at whose house I had enjoyed a -comfortable but uncollegiate dinner, and with whose -pretty daughter (all girls are pretty to college boys) I -had taken a precious lesson in flirtation, almost engaging -myself to marry her after I had graduated and seen<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span> -my way clearly to parental acquiescence. Poor barber’s -daughter! I wonder how many other lads made -innocent love to her and vaguely hinted similar magnificent -proposals? But away I went up the mountain, under -the trees, in and out with the path, by the rocks, by -the torrent, and ere I had advanced a mile, the moon -(did you ever see a Middle States’ moon?) had stolen -into the skies. The wind rose gently with the moon, as -if it would make soft music for her, and the clouds accompanied -her in muslin toilets; and so with the moon -and the wind and the misty clouds I pursued my walk, -smoking the last cigar of that blissful holiday.</p> - -<p>My path led by the church, belonging to the college, -half way up the mountain, and afterward by the old -graveyard, walled in,—a crumbling and a neglected -wall, over which you could step easily into the silent -city. Arrived at this graveyard, I stopped and looked -down upon the college. The lights were gleaming -there; and, upon the fatal theory that a pleasure enjoyed -under ban is sweeter than pleasure permitted, I resolved -to finish my cigar before I made the final descent. -But where could I smoke so near the college and be free -from detection? Lingering on the path I might be detected -and reported, and that would be fatal. In the -graveyard? Who ever ventured there except the dead -and the mourners, or a law-breaker? The very place I -thought; and so I crossed over the shattered wall, and,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span> -selecting an entablature that was a sort of mortuary dining -table supported by four brick legs, I stretched myself -and fell into that luxurious enjoyment which only -a true smoker can realize,—and of that class I was then, -and am now.</p> - -<p>The moon, by this time, was nearly above me, and so -bright that a woman could have threaded her needle by -its wonderful effulgence. I had not been many seconds -on the table-like slab, before I heard a sound that somewhat -startled me; but, after a moment’s reflection, I -concluded it was the wind moaning round the old church -that was at the upper end of the cemetery. Quieting -myself with this belief, I pulled away at my cigar, now -nearly at its last gasp, when I heard a repetition of the -sound; but this time it seemed to proceed directly from -underneath the slab! The affair was getting peculiar, -and my nervous system was undergoing that singular -process so well expressed by the phrase goose-fleshy; for -if the sound did come from under the slab it could not -be the wind, for it was not like anything the wind could -do with such materials. But while I debated the question, -the utterance struck upon my ear again, and this -time it was an unmistakable groan, as if human or inhuman -lips had given it expression. The goose-flesh -arrangement continued to develop itself, but not to such -an enormous wrinkle as to prevent my peeping over the -side of the stone to see if I could catch a sight of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span> -groan or the groaner. I feel convinced, though I did -not test it, that the extraordinary phenomena so often -alluded to by novelists did occur, and that my hair did -stand on end, when I saw directly under me, out in the -moonlight, a battered, withered leg covered by a dingy, -mould-soiled piece of cloth, with a boot attached, but -such a boot that no human ingenuity of St. Crispinism -could repair. The boot looked like the skeleton of a -boot, as the pantaloons looked like a skeleton of pantaloons. -They were to all intent and purposes supernatural -fractures. While I looked, the groaning was -repeated, and simultaneously another leg, another piece -of mould-stained cloth, another tattered boot was thrown -out of the deep shadow and softly placed crosswise -over the other, following the example of knight-errantry -sculpture. I had stretched myself, supported -by my hands, to the edge of the slab, and could see -distinctly these movements and appearances; and my -mind was so completely divided between the physical -results and the naturally suggestive idea of the supernatural, -as to leave me in a medium state of amused -courage and inherent superstition.</p> - -<p>But it was necessary for me to act, and so, without -further hesitation, I supported my body on my arms -reversed, and made a long leg of it, stretching myself -entirely free, of course, from a contact with the mouldy-looking -arrangement that protruded into the moonlight.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span> -Having established my position at a proper distance of -observation, I at first hesitated whether to go away or -not,—a vague and not unnatural fear suggesting the idea -of flight; a positive but artificial conviction determining -me to remain and see the matter out. One of the greatest -and best lessons, and for which there should be a -professorship established in every college in the country, -is the lesson of self-command. Make it at the commencement -of your life a speciality, and it will serve -you in after years as a guardian of your honor, and -sometimes of your life itself. It makes you well behaved, -careful of the feelings of others, tolerant and -independent, and is the safeguard of a woman’s virtue -and the potent spear by which truth may be distinguished -from error. By a strong effort I reached the point of -self-command, and so my legs were as firmly fixed to -the spot, as those limbs of mystery peeping out from -the entablature of the tomb. My next act was to catch -hold of the feet and pull at them,—pull the whole affair -into the light and determine what it was. When I had -drawn this moaning body forth, I lifted it by a vigorous -effort, and stood it against the tomb. The head fell -backward and the moon shone full upon the face. The -face was swollen with a livid kind of puffiness, and the -eyes closed fast. I placed my hand upon the forehead -and felt the moisture, clammy and revolting. The -hands fell heavily by the sides, and a tremor ran over<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span> -and shook the figure as if with palsy, and groans and -moans came quick, and as they came I shook the thing -by its shoulders; but there was no awakening as yet of -the closed orbs and apparently dead brain. I worried -myself no longer, but drew the loathsome figure away -from the grave-stone and commenced an advance toward -the broken wall. It moved heavily, but at last we -reached the boundary, and with difficulty got over it. -The mass was passive; I was very positive. I went -down the mountain, passed the college, and, reaching a -cottage, I rapped upon the door. A woman opened it, -and, giving my ghost a push, he staggered or fell into -her arms, or upon the floor, I know not which, and this -dingy spectre was no more nor less than the hard-drinking -husband of one of the college outside servants. -Here, then, was the test case which came back to me, -with all its vivid incidents and extraordinary suggestions, -to help me out of my present dilemma? In the -adventure of my youth there was at first a large supply -of the ghostly element, and, had I fled the investigation, -perhaps nothing would have disabused my mind of its -supernatural character. The man would in all probability -have been left until early morning in undisturbed -possession of his unique apartment, and, when restored -to his senses, would have been the very last to initiate -a revelation. It would have been a confession fraught -with serious consequences,—in the first place with regard<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span> -to his situation under the college,—and it would not have -contributed largely to his domestic felicity. To peach -on me would have been to implicate himself, and, as -drunkenness is morally a worse crime than the smoking -of a cigar, he would have been the first to have suffered -decapitation. It was my self-possession alone that -turned one of the most reliable ghost incidents into a -tale of beastly absurdity. If I was so near seeing a -ghost’s legs on that night, which turned out to be no -ghost’s legs at all, why might there not be some chance -of my visitor on the brow of the hill to-night turning out -to be some vagrant more wildly drunk than the drunken -college-phantom?</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="XII">XII.<br> -TESTS.</h2> -</div> - -<p>I again left the house, having tarried there not over -ten minutes, resolved to revisit the locality where the -puzzle had presented itself. After calling the dogs,—for -I wished them to be with me to make the test complete, -and also to observe their conduct,—I searched in every -likely place to find out if my friend had not returned; -for I still had a vague suspicion running in my head, -that after all he might possibly have succeeded in some -unaccountable way, in enveloping me in the maze of a -ghostly manifestation. But I searched for him in vain; -and, to settle all doubt relative to his agency in the -affair, I will state that he did not return home that night -until ten o’clock or after, driving by the road leading -through Jamaica Plain.</p> - -<p>I then went down the garden road, and stood upon -the very spot I had previously occupied. As I said before, -I wished to see how the dogs would act should the -figure make its appearance; and even before I reached -my former position I was struck by the reluctant manner -in which they followed me,—but I managed to get -them on, and so there we three were; but where was -that eccentric fourth?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span></p> - -<p>He was not there. Some people will say I had been -controlled by the solemn influences of the night and the -ghastly associations blended with the scene and all its -gloomy neighborhood, and consequently was in a very -fit condition to receive a demonstration and accept it -as supernatural; but I will at all times maintain that -when I first went down that garden walk that night, and -saw the form that I took to be that of my friend, I was, -as I have previously most minutely and accurately explained, -not in that spiritualistic, sympathetic condition. -But on the second visit I confess that I was in a better -temperament to receive the influences of night and scene -and associations, and to which you may add the incident -which gives such a weird aspect to my narrative. In -the first, my condition was natural and eminently -composed, and yet I had the vision; in the second, with -all my nerves stretched in expectancy, I saw nothing. -Now, how was that? I stood still as a living man can -stand, and fixed my eyes upon the wall where the figure -had first appeared; but all was moveless and silent. -The old wall and the shadows looked as they did before. -I turned quick as thought, and tried to surprise any faint -glimpse of anything that might have come to the spot -where the apparition had stopped in the interval of my -withdrawn attention; but there was nothing but the -short grass backed by the dark wood where the deeds -of blood had been perpetrated. I even looked to see<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span> -if anything was lying down to avoid my scrutiny, -walked over to the spot, and then in a straight line to -the wall, supposing it was possible I might find some -trace of a presence. I found nothing.</p> - -<p>I was therefore satisfied as far as this test was carried; -but still I was not content. A strange desire, which I -possibly did not attempt to check, had taken possession -of me to carry my investigation farther; but it was a -wild, and, all things considered, a fearful experiment; at -least I so viewed it when it was first suggested to my -mind. It must be understood that I only submitted -even to the contemplation of this ultimate and extraordinary -test after I had determined that what I had -seen was not a visual delusion or in fact a human being. -A sense of profound conviction seized me and impelled -me to admit that something had occurred to my experience -beyond my ability to reconcile by the ordinary -rules of explanation. In fine, I for the first time during -the progress of these transactions suddenly connected -the mystery with the murders. I had given -common sense and resolute examination a fair chance -to account for that abrupt whirl, that sudden vanishing, -that terror of the dogs, their failure to recognize their -master, or to attack the stranger,—either of which they -would have done under ordinary circumstances,—and -now I had no power to resist the conclusion that was so -powerfully forced upon me. I pretend to no peculiar<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span> -bravery, though not entirely destitute of that quality, -shared with man by the rat-terrier and the rat himself, -having enough of it for all the needs and purposes of a -very good-natured and non-aggressive man; and the -chief feature of my courage is, my not having a fear of -myself; that is, I am not backward in entertaining -myself with proposals to undertake matters which, to -some other men, of abler judgment, might appear a little -too venturesome; and here I was about to attempt a task -that possibly only an animal should engage in, knowing -nothing of human mysteries, or a pauper, for a reward; -and even the pauper I think would have debated longer -than I did whether he would not rather steal the recompense, -or starve a little longer. It was no less a thing -than to visit the spot off in those gloomy woods where -the body of the girl was found lying among the rocks.</p> - -<p>This fancy was of a twofold character. One was, -that since I was in for testing, I would go over there -and test my nerves; the other was an idea that, since I -had been launched into the regions of the marvellous, -possibly it might be made manifest to me there in -those deep seclusions, on that spot,—a revelation that -would lift the veil of mystery that enshrouded the fate -of the two unfortunates, and also unravel the difficult -maze in which I had been involved. Perhaps I would -see that figure there,—that figure a parent, or relative -of the girl, who had come to me that night, impressing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span> -me to the interview. I could not but think of the -spiritualistic theory of the sympathies between the -living and the dead,—the theory indeed of all Christian, -and, for that matter, of all heathen sects, and there, and -nowhere else, I might have revealed to me the name -of the man who had done those hideous acts. Surely, -I was in a singular predicament. I had either seen a -ghost, or I had not, and I felt unwilling to let things -remain in the condition of unsettled doubt, not caring -for the rest of my life to be the prosy relator of a ghost -story, which my listener could accuse me of having left -unsettled and unfinished for the want of nerve to -examine to its climax. Determined upon putting my -duplex test into execution, I returned to the house to -inform my friends that I was going out for a stroll,—not -an unusual thing with me,—and to make some little -arrangement that I thought personally needful in case -of untoward accidents; for, independent of the peculiar -intention I was about to fulfil, there were reasons why -I should not go unprepared for physical contingencies.</p> - -<p>The whole country, it will be remembered, was in a -very disorganized state,—many people thrown out of -employment, and others returned from scenes of strife -and bloodshed, with an education habituated to deeds -of violence. So I armed myself with a companion -charged to the lips with a counteracting but defensive -species of explosive violence,—a thing that could speak<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span> -seven times, and always with effect if the delivery -was good.</p> - -<p>On the theory of testing my nerves, in connection -with the ghost theory, I at once resolved to dispense -with the dogs, for their presence would have been -companionship and a reliance apart from my individuality. -My pistol was not taken for the ghosts, but for -ghost-makers. Now that I reflect upon it all in my -cooler moments, I must frankly admit that, after what -had happened, this trip had something of the fearful -in it, which my placid reader will not have the heart -to deny, and nothing would induce me to repeat it, -unless there were motives of a higher grade than those -which ruled me then. It was, in fact, an enterprise -totally at variance with common sense and common -personal convenience and comfort. It was now about -nine o’clock. No change had occurred in the shape -of the night,—that is, no clouds had culminated in the -skies, and yet no moon had been conjured up by -astronomy, or by lovers’ incantations. It was a lonely -walk down the hill, over the very spot where my -silent visitor had so lately stood to look at these very -woods,—that very spot to which my steps were now -directed. Darker it was down in the valley, with the -hill to my back and the great mass of foliage apparently -near enough for me to touch; but on I went, -giving no time for reconsideration, on to the fence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span> -which I crossed, and then I was one of the black things -in the intense gloom of the forest.</p> - -<p>Not a sound but the crackling of dead branches -under my feet in the pathway,—sounds that I felt might -send the notice of my approach to whatever was waiting -for me by the cross and the immortelle on the -murder-rock. Though the broken branches were sentinelling -my advent, I kept on, with a cold shiver now -and then quivering all over me, but never for a moment -going deeper than the skin. Brain and heart as -yet were true to their purpose of folly, that seemed -like madness to me then. It did not take me long to -reach the objective point of my journey. I have -described the spot in another part of this narrative, -and therefore will not repeat its topographical characteristics; -suffice to say that it was somewhat different -in sentiment than when I had looked upon it in the -sunshine. Then I had seen a visitor sitting quietly and -unconcerned on the ridge of the rock, looking down, -with a cigar between his lips, at the spot—always a -thrilling sight—where the girl had fallen; and I -had seen young girls munching sandwiches around the -scene, and jabbering of the massacre of one of their -mates; but now, with nothing there but the night -and the spirit of the event, the weird-looking trees -with their limbs reaching hither and thither in such a -way as to make me feel that I was beneath the dome<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span> -of an iron-barred prison-room. I hold it to be utterly -impossible for any man, unless he is brutalized and of -a sympathetic nature no higher than a quadruped, to be -alone in such a place, with such a preface as it had -been my fate to meet with, and not experience an -accelerated throb of his pulse. I do not say that he is -necessarily bound to be frightened, but something so -near akin to it that only our self-conceit prompts us to -draw the line of difference.</p> - -<p>I was there to submit myself to one test, and apply -the other to what I had previously seen. The one I -was already undergoing; for it may readily be believed -that an immense amount of subtle pressure was placed -upon me. The accumulated proofs of a lifetime, as to -the existence of unearthly presences and imperfectly -disproved legends of ghostly visitations and adventures, -bore down upon me with the wizard night and -spectral forms of trees. And when I placed myself exactly -on the blood-stained spot, I looked around with -the certainty of being confronted by the apparition -whose existence I was there to determine. Now, -thought I, is the opportunity,—this the place for a revelation. -What other man will ever come again with so -foolhardy a brain and give the witnesses or the victim -a chance so appropriate and so melodramatic? If any -one does venture upon the trial, to a scene so fresh -with gory associations, from my soul I pity him, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span> -would blame; but this species of curiosity is not generally -diffused throughout society. But I was there and -awaited whatever issue might transpire. I was doubtless -in a sublimated condition of rapport, as the mediumistic -philosophers term it; a human instrument of a -thousand strings, that the feeblest ghost might play -upon with ever so withered a hand. But none came -to inform or frighten me, and not a sound other than -the low clicking of the wood insects broke the magic -ring of silence that closed in with such profundity of -pathos this terrible situation. To attempt to go away, -I found required more nerve than to get there; for now -I must turn my back and place myself in the traditional -position in which cowardice is said to place its victims; -but, with the cold creepings renewed with double -energy, I turned and walked with an excited composure -away from the spot, down the hill, through the -gateway that opens eastward into the Dedham road, -and then, with half a dozen sighs of relief, straight -home.</p> - -<p>“Can you recognize that man again?” from the chief, -is always sounding in my ear. What man? Did I not -go to the place where he should have met me, if he was -in any way witness to that murder? Sometimes I think -it was the man himself, but not in the flesh. If in the -flesh, he never would have come so near the scene of his -hideous mischief; if in the spirit, then he had committed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span> -suicide, or died of the disease of terror, and was wandering -in the accomplishment of a curse and an expiation. -Who knows but what it may be so, and who can -say it is not so, any more than I can assert it is so? -Or was it the father, who, since I wrote the description -above, I have heard was no longer living? If it was -the father’s spirit, then I have something to say about that -matter; and when I said that I could recognize the man, -I meant I might be able to do so if there is a photograph -of him that I could get at. Close and open your eyes -quickly while looking at a person passing by your window, -and you will have some idea of the view I had of -the profile of this vision. I have seen in official possession, -filed away among the other papers appertaining -to this case, something that evinced that this dead father -was taking active interest in the search after the murderer. -I am not at liberty to recite the mode of that -interest, nor am I called upon by any logical process to -affirm that he does take an interest, or to deny that he -does. I only know that there are similar circumstances -connected with this phase of the subject, that a very -large class of the community would attach importance -to, but all involved in such a labyrinth of mystery as to -defy positive recognition and the ordinary tests of evidence.</p> - -<p>Assume as a fact that a spirit, taking to itself the form -of a man, had appeared to me, there at once grows out<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span> -of that admission this other question: Why should so -extraordinary a circumstance, such a miracle, in fact, -have been developed? For what purpose was that spirit -there? Denying, as I do, that it would have been a miracle, -I take up the question and attempt my reply. In -the first place, I am no sectarian; least of all am I a -spiritualist; and if I am anything of a creed man,—which -the Lord grant I am!—I am of a church that is founded -on the system of marvels, as indeed, for that matter, -are all churches, Christian or Pagan. The Saviour of -mankind, let me with all reverence say, is admitted to -have been duplex in character,—mortal for our sympathies, -divine for our worship. If he suffered death,—which -some doubt he did, but only the semblance of -death,—his spirit was no more existent after his execution -than before it, and consequently he had power to rise -from the sepulchre where they had laid him and appear -to the soldiers and to the holy women. That he did -appear we have the evidence of the great apostles and -the contemporary legends of the Roman narrators. Indeed, -it is not only asserted that he was manifest after -death, but that ghosts walked the streets of Jerusalem, -and when the veil of the temple was rent, the graves -gave up their dead. These were the phenomena of a -sublime epoch,—an epoch that in the death of a God was -grander and more inexplicable than the incident of the -earth’s formation, and that of the stars and skies that are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span> -over it. All events have their purposes, and I can see the -purpose here that should evoke these wonders. His -mission had reached the point where the spiritual manifestations -must overshadow the recollections of his corporeal -existence, and prove to the world, by tangible -exhibition, that beyond the grave there was a life. The -Scriptures teem with the legends of spirits,—of ghosts, -if you like that word better,—and men of all the known -wisdom of those days believed in them, because they -seemed to have seen them. Why should they have -been prevalent then, and not now? Who can dare -answer that question, or dare deny, with proof to back -the denial, that such things never did exist, or, existing, -appear to human vision? As well tell me that the same -vegetables did not have life then as now, the same qualities -of sand and superficial soil and rocks; and indeed -have not certain plants, that were for centuries lost to -human cultivation, been revived? Nothing is lost, -nothing changes, though we call reproduction change, -and flatter ourselves that we have spoken a great philosophy. -Why is the world full of ghost-stories outside -of the Scriptures? Because ghost-stories have been -veritable facts,—these lay ghost-stories travelling alongside -of the clerical ghost-stories of the Inspired Book, -and substantiating to the common appreciation of all -mankind the veritableness of the Bible. Who knows -but that they are the vehicles by which Supreme Wisdom<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span> -conveys to the intelligence of the unwise and the -unlettered, the solemn truth of a hereafter? Who so -arrogant in his wisdom as to be able to rise to the proof -that it may not be so? The atrocity of self-conceit is -more terrible than the atrocity of ignorance; the one is -an active crime, the other a passive submission. The -impossible means the possible. It is a favorite dogma -with the utilitarian doctors, that nothing is impossible -to the genius of man. Is there anything impossible to -our Creator, other than the impossibility of making a -mistake? If man invents a machine which defies all the -previous laws, or theories supposed to be laws because -nothing had happened to prove that they were not laws, -are we to reject it on that account, and because it happens -to be beyond our uneducated and unprepared capacity? -Is the Creator of all to be limited and only his -creature unlimited? How often, in the midst of a great -accident, has not some mind suggested a redress totally -at variance with the rules by which the accident was -produced, creating a surprise to usual circumstances, -and checking the catastrophe before it could recover its -equanimity and prearranged and understood mode of -conduct! Cannot the Maker interpose at his pleasure -such surprises? But we will be told that he never interrupts -the harmonious action of his great rules. -Where do we find these rules so as to enable us to say -when they are infringed or deviated from? How long<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span> -have we been in possession of the habits of the beaver -and the bee? and yet they were a part of his great -rules and system of order. Every day science is bringing -new lights to bear upon old ant-hills as well as upon -old mountains, and the shadow of a fern-leaf on a rock, -the ghost of a fish-bone in a strata are sufficient for a -theory on the momentous and mysterious history of our -own illustrious race. If scattered bones of a mammoth, -when reunited by the wire-work of a naturalist, are -evidences of Noah’s or Deucalion’s flood, where are we to -draw the line upon circumstantial evidence and testimony -in substantiation of other facts and possibilities?</p> - -<p>There are more tangible proofs of the existence of -ghosts than there are of the existence of Noah’s ark. The -hush of the night, the solitude of forests, the loneliness -of limitless prairies suggest, to the most unimaginative -mind something more than the physical sense of -desertion and isolation; and yet that is no proof that a -mystic band of weird spirits are with you in those -dreary hours and wanderings; but whatever is suggested -proceeds from a thing that is able to suggest, and whatever -the mind grapples with of the material or the immaterial -exists in some form or other, intangible, but no -less existent. The opponents of the theory of the existence -of ghosts, and their power to appear, use one -word that conveys all their logic, and that word is the -contemptuous vulgarism, Bosh! And then they will<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span> -advance with weaker argument the logic of bold contradiction, -as if they had just returned from a trip into the -regions of the future and an examination of the powers -and rules and intents of the Providence, with an exact -catalogue of his attributes and short-hand notes to be -written out at their leisure, of all he has done, is doing, -and is going to do. Faraday could analyze vapor, but, -with all his retorts and crucibles and chemicals, he never -could weigh a scintilla of a human thought. Such men -grasp vapor in their hand, and will tell you of what it is -composed; and they tell you truly, and we, though consciously -ignorant, have no foothold for a doubt. The -preacher rises in his pulpit, and, from his sectarian books, -and more sectarian training, interprets to you the sublimest -dogmas of the Apocalypse; and woe to the member -of his flock who raises an impious question against -his dictatorial assertions. But if your neighbor,—near -whom you have been living all your life, whose word -stands pre-eminent in all matters of business, into whose -care you would place your wife or your daughter, and -to whose honor you would leave it to execute your last -will and testament, in behalf of the loved ones,—was to -tell you that he had seen a ghost, and calmly relate the -incident with the proofs and the tests, you would be -very likely to laugh in his face, and tell the next person -you met that you were afraid neighbor so-and-so was a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span> -little weak in the upper story, or was telling what was -not true.</p> - -<p>The elegant dictators of theory speak of the belief in -the existence of ghosts as the “vulgar belief in ghosts -and goblins,” and get rid of it in that summary manner. -But the very fact that it is vulgar, as they term it, is a -strong point against them. If we could get the Scriptures -pure and exempt from mixed and muddled interpretations, -free from the garbage of a host of foreign -lingual transformations, and in its original “Vulgate,” -we should not have the world troubled with more creeds -than they can invent gods to preside over, or devils to -operate in. The word vulgar is not to be used always -as inclusive of the “low-born and the uneducated.” -The vulgar in this country believe in the imperialism of -the ballot-box; in Russia and Prussia and England, and -elsewhere, of monarchies, in the divine right of kings; -and demagogues in all realms, like dogmatists of all -creeds, have no faith at all, but use the belief of the -masses for their own purposes. With the majority of -mankind exists the supreme attribute of common sense, -and yet they all, more or less, believe in the existence -of ghosts. The hair-splitters of theology and other -ethics, for sake of discipline, would drive the old stage-coach -where the people would rush the locomotive; and -as in the beginning, fishermen and carpenters were the -recipients of divine truths, or the media of revelations,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span> -so now, while abstract and abstruse sciences occupy the -minds of the enlighteners, the plain truths of Christian -doctrine are held with other beliefs, relatively necessary -to our nature, in the legendary, gossiping, and enduring -belief of the masses.</p> - -<p>It will be asked, For what purpose do your ghosts appear? -To accomplish what end that human intelligence -cannot effect? I say, again turn back to your Bible, -and you will have your questions answered.</p> - -<p>There are other needs now that did not then exist. -Society is not the same; the ordinary laws of justice, -of health, of life itself, are not the same. There are a -thousand more appliances now, than there were, by -which human life can be destroyed or preserved,—gunpowder, -steam, machinery, with their countless adjuncts -of power, on one side, and chemistry, with ether, -and other discoveries, on the other. And as science -becomes the assistant to the conveniences of mankind, in -the same ratio it becomes his slayer. Events transpire -now that were not dreamed of in former days, because -of the increased forces that act upon latent ideas. -Sixty, fifty, forty years ago, though Death had his ample -harvest, he had not the immense scythes of steamboats -and railroads with which to do his work of -destruction; and now and then we have isolated facts -published, with all the details of authenticity, of dreams -that warned a voyager from the water or a traveller from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span> -the cars, when afterwards it has proved that disaster befell -both modes of travel. The remedy is to the need, and -who can say that there have not been innumerable warnings, -by visitations and dreams, of which the public never -has any account, owing to the seclusion of the parties, -or their natural reticence and unwillingness to have -their stories made the subject of a paragraph and a -sneer?</p> - -<p>There are purposes in the Almighty wisdom which -we cannot fathom, and religion herself, speaking from -the misty summits of theological controversy, cries to -her votaries to have faith where they cannot have comprehension; -or, in other words, to believe without -understanding. Do I, a ghost-seer, ask for more?</p> - -<p>You ask, for what purpose did this ghost—if ghost -it was—cross your path? I could retort, and ask -why that man—if it was a man—crossed my path? -But I affirm that there was a purpose, and though I did -not see it then, I may see it soon. Who can tell but -what this revival of that mysterious horror may not -lead to renewed activity in the police department? -Who knows but it may be read by the murderer, and, -awakening in his breast the smouldering embers of remorse, -make him do those eccentric things which lead -vigilance to observe and assist in the detection of the -guilty? I never would have written this narrative if -that misty figure had not confronted me on that night,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span> -and perhaps it may have been his intention to excite in -me the idea of writing out these transactions, and thus -awakening the slumbering or pausing authorities to a -more active investigation.</p> - -<p>Why did he select me, if I was not appropriate to -his purpose? And I will say now, and with all truth, -that, from that time to this moment, I have been haunted -with a vague urging to write this work, and give it to -the public; and now that I have done so, it may so -happen that I will see that thing once more coming to -assure me, in some way consistent with his condition, -that his intention, so far as I was concerned as an agent, -is accomplished. I shall not be surprised if it should -occur.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="XIII">XIII.<br> -THE DOCTOR’S STORY.</h2> -</div> - -<p>Let me relate, as briefly as I can, a very singular -incident that happened some years ago in Baltimore. -The narrator was a man with whom I had been brought -up from youth to manhood. His father was my father’s -family physician, a doctor of high standing; and the -son who told and acted a part in the story was then a -practising physician in Washington, where he still -practises. A party of us were together at the house of -his father, and the ghost subject was introduced. My -friend argued against their existence, as most doctors -do; but in the midst of our conversation he said that, -notwithstanding his theory, he must tell us of a remarkable -occurrence that happened within his own -personal experience.</p> - -<p>Two years previously he had occupied the professor’s -chair of Practical Anatomy (I believe that is the -phrase) in the Medical College of Baltimore, though -then not more than twenty-three or four years of age. -His remarkable skill, systematized by study in the -famous medical schools of Paris, had justified his selection -for the important post. During this period, or some time<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span> -before my friend accepted the professorship, the mob -had broken into the medical college, actuated by a sentiment -of horror at the idea of the bodies of their dead -friends being stolen from the grave and placed under the -knife, and subjected the faculty and students to great -personal peril. The riot being quelled, it was determined -to make such arrangements as would entirely -elude the suspicions of the people.</p> - -<p>For this purpose the upper portion of the building -was converted into a large dissecting-room, with the -windows hermetically sealed, so that no light could be -perceived from the outside, and consequently lead to a -renewal of an attack. Thus at night the faculty was -secure from observation, and whatever of light was -needed during the day came through glass inserted in -the roof. To add to the security, a private stairway -was arranged, so that if the mob did break in by the -only publicly known entrance, the students and professors -would be enabled to escape. The egress to this -private stairway from the lecture-room was by a door, -the bolt of which, shooting into a socket, was within the -room, and could not be moved from without. This -private escape-door was at the other end of the dissecting-room. -And this is my friend’s story:—</p> - -<p>He had made arrangements with the janitor of the -medical college, who was also a sexton, to have the -body of a female on the dissecting-table on a certain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span> -night, as he wanted to make some specific studies for -his lecture of the next day. On the evening when the -body was to be ready for him, he had accepted an invitation -to a small party, at the house of one of the professors, -and thither he went, pre-arranging with one of -the students to leave at eleven o’clock, and go together -to accomplish his examination. At the appointed hour -he made a sign to his companion, and they withdrew. -Arriving at the college, he entered by his pass-key, -found a couple of candles on the table in the lower -hall, ascended the usual stairway, and, arriving at the -door of the lecture-room at the top of the building, -stopped for a moment to hang up their cloaks and hats. -Then he applied the key to the lock, and entered with the -candles lit, of course. A deep gloom pervaded the dissecting-room,—a -gloom that was increased by the -feeble light of the two candles, and upon the table lay, -under the fearful cloth, the subject for the night’s work.</p> - -<p>Without any other thought in their minds save the -plain matter-of-fact idea of work, they advanced to the -dissecting-board,—the doctor towards the head of the -corpse, the student passing round to the other side. -As the latter was in the act of turning, he lifted his -candle and exclaimed, “Doctor, who is that?” pointing -at the same time toward the centre of the room.</p> - -<p>“I do not know,” replied the doctor, thinking the -question applied to the body before him; but no sooner<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span> -had he raised his eyes than he was struck by the attitude -of his friend. He was holding the candle above -his head and looking away from the table, and the doctor, -following the direction of his gaze, discovered the -figure of a man standing some twelve or fifteen feet -distant. My friend said that his only impression was -that they were in for a row; concluding that the mob -had found out the secret stairway, and got into the hall -for the purpose of breaking up the dissecting operations. -With this idea he turned round the table, and, as he -advanced toward the figure, exclaimed, “Who are -you? What do you want here?” In his advance -movement he was joined by the student, neither for an -instant having the idea of a supernatural visitation -in their minds. As quickly as they pushed forward, -as rapidly did the figure retreat until it reached the door -leading to the head of the stairway, when it disappeared. -Supposing that the man had passed out as he -had come in, they rushed to the door to follow, but -they found the door fastened and the bolt shot within -the staple. With difficulty they forced it back, for it -had never been used since it was put on,—no occasion -requiring it,—and then they descended the steps to -the outer doorway, which they found closed, and from -<em>within</em>.</p> - -<p>Puzzled by these mysteries, they reascended to the -room, passed through, and immediately descended to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span> -arouse the janitor, and see if he could give any clue to -the adventure. The janitor inquired of them if they -could describe the appearance. Yes; and they did so; -for they had had a full and accurate view of his face, -of his dress, and of his height. “Then,” said the janitor, -“it was a ghost. That man was the husband of the -woman you had upon the table. I buried them both, -and knew them well, and he answers exactly to your -description.”</p> - -<p>The doctor, when questioned by us, said the figure -was that of a tall man, dressed in ordinary clothes (I -forget, now, whether he gave us a full description or -not, but rather think he did not), with a very severe -and stern face, and kept his eyes fixed upon the corpse, -one hand upraised and pointing to it, conveying the impression -to his mind of an order not to touch it,—a -gesture of rebuke, or a motion to forbid.</p> - -<p>The doctor and his friend went back to the vestibule -of the dissecting-room, resumed their outer-garments, -and retired. The janitor fulfilled the doctor’s order, -which was to remove and rebury the body, and find him -the body of a woman whose husband would not interfere -with his professional occupations.</p> - -<p>Now, here is a true ghost story, if there ever was -one. <em>Two persons</em> saw the apparition, and a third party -verified it. The moral is plain enough. The husband<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span> -was there to prevent the disgusting mutilation of his -wife’s body, and his purpose was accomplished.</p> - -<p>The doctor said that nothing would have induced him -to lay his hands upon that woman’s form when he remembered -the appealing look of his extraordinary -visitor. It was not personal fear or vulgar superstition, -but a higher motive; for inasmuch as no Christian gentlemen -would touch with unholy motive the form of a -living wife in the presence of a living husband, so he -could not disturb the sanctity of her spectral modesty -before the face of her suppliant, dead husband. To -those who accept the story of the apparition, the logic -of the motive must be evident; and if so in this case, -why not in all others? Or it may be as it is in life. -We meet our acquaintances every day on the street; -they pass us without seeing us, or without our seeing -them; and yet how absurd it would be to deny their -being on the street, walking straight on, absorbed beyond -recognition, simply because they did not stop and -explain to us the motive that brought them there! -Ghosts, in like manner, may cross the clown’s staring -vision or the philosopher’s calmer sight, and, because -they do not pause and prattle of their object and tell -them the motive of their appearance, are we to conclude, -as a logical theory demonstrated, that that is a good -reason to conclude they were not there at all? Must all -facts be denied until the motives are discovered? Is a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span> -negative so powerful as to overwhelm an affirmative? -If so, the plea of not guilty offered by a criminal should -be enough to justify his discharge, despite of circumstantial -evidence strong enough to hang him or half a -hundred like him.</p> - -<p>As I stood that night out there in the fatal wood, and -thought over the murder and the murderer, I conceived -a plan of punishment by which, alone, I thought he -could appease the outraged sense of human tenderness -for things so young as he had slaughtered.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="XIV">XIV.<br> -MY PLAN OF PUNISHMENT.</h2> -</div> - -<p>And this is my plan:</p> - -<p>Chain him to the rock on which he took her life,—one -chain to each wrist, one chain to each ankle, and an -iron hoop locked around his waist, and this, too, fastened -to the rock. Lay him on the spot where she was -found. Then leave him to himself and to the scenery -which he has disfigured so fearfully; but watch that no -demon out of the Davenport or Eddy witchcraft or -mancraft boxes help him to unloose those shackles. -Lay him with his face to the avenging skies, and place -food within his reach, but so arrange it that it rests only -on the spots over which the red current of her life had -ebbed. Let him alone with the night, and the night -will give him such a tangled and convulsed spasm of -horror as will make his very soul shriek aloud for two -almost impossible things, yet awhile, death or the Lord’s -pardon. And there he should remain until every hair -of his head had become white, and every black spot of -his soul livid. Perhaps the spirit that confronted me -in silence and in peace might come to him and watch -him,—watch him till the dawn broke and the eyes of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span> -the bright heavens took its place to look at him. And -after that let the authorities handle him as they pleased.</p> - -<p>The reader will observe that in this project of mine -I follow out the classic ideas of the most elegant peoples -and refined poets of the world, who insisted before all -things else that the dramatic unities should be attended -to. In that respect my plan would be without a flaw.</p> - -<p>And now, if I am asked for my theory of the murders, -my answer would be, that it might not be politic to give -it publicity. This much, however, I will say, reserving -the more probable theory for future emergencies. There -is a link wanting at this time that must be found before -any progress can be made to a conclusive judgment. -The children left their temporary home intending to return -in time for the boy to attend his afternoon school. -Their objective point, as I said before, was May’s -wood. This question then arises: What occurred to -make the girl, the senior, change her mind and go farther -away from home,—to Bussey’s wood? Going there -would change her original programme, relative to the -boy. Did some one meet them as if by accident,—<em>some -one whom they knew</em>,—and did that person induce her -to continue to Bussey’s wood? Were there any evidences -that they stopped at all at May’s wood? But -what inducement could he use to get her to Bussey’s -wood? The mother might have been the inducement. -They knew she was employed at Quincy, nearer to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span> -Bussey’s than to May’s wood. They might have been -told that she would meet them at the former, and it -would be a pleasant surprise. Another question presents -itself: What could have been the motive to get -her to secluded, distant Bussey? I answer, self-defence. -Self-defence against two children? Yes. The girl was -an intelligent, observant girl, and she may have been -cognizant of some crime, the revelation of which would -have brought ruin and punishment upon the perpetrator; -or the perpetrator might, in his consciousness of the -possibility of her having discovered him, come to the -resolution to dispose forever of any chance of her -being a witness against him. They were poor children, -and had only money enough to go and come from May’s -wood; and yet that money was found upon the girl. -Consequently, she had not been at any expense in getting -to Bussey’s wood by the cars. <em>The murderer paid -their fare!</em> After reaching the thick shades around the -rock, and giving her time to become confident of his -integrity and friendship,—so much so as to be sufficiently -at ease to commence the weaving of leaf chaplets, -waiting the promised interview with her mother,—he -sent the boy down to the brook for water, and where he -was subsequently found. Then he turned upon the -girl; for if the boy had been near by, his cries could -not have failed to arouse assistance, for there were men -working within three hundred yards of the place where<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span> -her body was discovered. He must have brought about -a separation between the children, and at that spot; -for he could not have murdered them together, and -there, in that broad sunlight, with the swirl of the -mower’s scythes down in the near meadow evident to his -ear, carried the body of the boy to the brook at the foot -of the hill, and thrown it among the alders. He killed the -girl as soon as the boy was out of sight, and then he -followed the little fellow to the place where he had sent -him, and slaughtered him in the gloom of those thick -bushes.</p> - -<p>Now, who was that man whom she would have exposed? -With whose acts could she have by locality and -association of daily life become acquainted? Was he -from Lynn, or its vicinity,—where she had been living -before she came to Boston? Or was the discovery, or -the imagined discovery, of a crime made in Boston, and -of some one living in Boston? The girl was simply -murdered,—no duplex crime,—attacked while she was -sitting with leaves and wreaths in her lap, and the first -blows were delivered upon her back and sides, and after -that in front and in great confusion. The boy was -killed, not because he saw the murder done upon his -sister, but because he could have told who it was that -accompanied them from Boston, or joined them at -May’s wood, where they were expected, or anywhere -along the first part of that terrible journey. There was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span> -no other motive for his death. If the man had not been -seen by the boy, and known personally to the boy, he -would have been alive now. Consequently it was some -one who was intimate with those children and who -could not allow the boy to live any more than he could -allow the girl to live. It was a double self-defence.</p> - -<p>Then who was that man? I think he lives; I think that -he walks these streets daily. I think that some of us at -some time or other have sat beside him in the cars going -to and fro the city roads. I think that now, as I sit here -writing, he is sitting somewhere hereabouts with his -face dropped over upon his clenched hands, looking at -that dark rock out there in the woods and wondering if -he will yet reach the end of his life by the common -methods of disease. I think that he often passes by -the police station, with a frightened look in his eyes, and -turns a corner quickly when one of the big police guards -stalks like a blue-coated and silver-plated Nemesis toward -him. I see him, in my mind’s eye, when he meets a -girl and boy upon the sidewalk,—how he stares at them -with a fixed gaze, wondering how those two whom he -killed out yonder, in the old woods, are looking now!—and, -when this book is advertised, I can watch him -wondering what it is like; and then I trace him in his -stealthy and frightened step to the bookstore to buy it; -and, when he turns these leaves and comes to this sentence, -I hear him curse me, and know that he would<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span> -like to have his hand upon my throat for recalling the -memory of his deed. But I tell him that he will not -escape. He may pretend to pray when others pray, to -hide his wicked past in the garb of piety; he may mutter -his wrath on all of us who seek him for his punishment; -he may fly now the advancing steps of justice: -but, as he flies, the feet of justice may become inactive, -while it sends over every railroad and steamboat -line of travel, by every wire that vibrates to all the -remotest places of retreat, the command of his arrest. -Wherever he is now, and wherever he may be then, he -is doomed; and at this instant he knows it and feels it so -in every fibre of his accursed carcass, even to those blood-stained -hands beneath whose nails there yet remains -the red record of his crime. I have given one theory, -without in the least asserting it to be the correct one; -but it is as good a theory as the public can get hold of -outside of that mysterious room in the City Hall wherein -the tall chief of police weaves his webs.</p> - -<p>There being nothing else but murder in the girl’s -death, we must seek for some motive that could have -driven that man to so terrible a necessity. What other -than the one I have suggested? Was it monomania for -human blood? That could have been gratified among a -denser population than he would be likely to find in -Bussey’s wood. And monomania of that kind is not -common, nor is it of sudden growth, striking and slaking<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span> -but once. It seeks its victim anywhere, without -plot and without care of consequences, anywhere and -everywhere. It is a madness that has no fear and is -destitute of prudence. But here was deliberate, deep-plotted -murder. It required skill to induce the girl to -go farther away from home and her pledged duty to her -brother. The filial sense was invoked as paramount to -the fraternal. It required skill to separate the children. -It was done. Does all that look as if the man was -crazed for blood, or blind by drink? I think there was -neither here. I cannot give my other theory; for, if it -did not detect in this case, it might suggest an excellent -method of repeating just such another crime, should any -such be in contemplation. The enemy of society and -law studies the tactics of justice, and frequently the -plan of detection, if penetrated by the culprit, becomes -his surest chart of escape. There may, after all,—but I -don’t think so,—have been two persons engaged in this -series of murders; and in that light read the short recital -that follows, and perhaps, when the mystery shall -be resolved by judicial precision, you may turn back to -this singular incident and compare it with the concluding -scenes of the catastrophes I have been treating of. If -truth be stranger than fiction, then the marvels of the -veritable make larger drafts upon our credulity than the -fabrications of the imaginist, and there can be no harm -done if we prepare ourselves for revelations that in time<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span> -may be made to us, and whose mysticism, enlightened -by the practical test of law, will stand forever in the dry -tomes of jurisprudence, subduing the impertinence of -our dogmatical self-conceit, and establishing the fact -that truth is a principle that can traverse the air, as well -as walk arm in arm with us in our daily habits. This -is the incident.</p> - -<p>Dr. Binn relates in his book, published some years -ago, the following:—</p> - -<p>“A young and beautiful quadroon girl named Duncan, -and residing in Jamaica, West Indies, was murdered in -a retired spot <em>a few paces from the public highway</em>. -[Such was the case in the murder of Isabella Joyce.] -Upon discovery of the deed, and investigation by the -coroner, a reward, amounting to a large sum of money -[similar in the Joyce case], was offered for the detection -of the guilty party, but without avail. A year -passed over with no light from the judicial lantern illumining -the black mystery of the deed, and the case -was in process of lapsing into oblivion, when two negroes -named Pendrill and Chitty were arrested for some -minor thefts and lodged in prison. One was placed in -the Kingston penitentiary and the other in Falmouth -jail. The distance between these two places was eighty -miles. It must be borne in mind that these two men -were ignorant of their mutual arrest and confinement, -though as it turned out afterward were well acquainted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span> -with each other. In the course of their imprisonment -they became restless and talked in their sleep, and then -conversations were addressed to a young girl who, it -would seem, stood by and upbraided them with her murder. -They would then entreat her to go away. This -happened so frequently as to lead to inquiries which resulted -in the conviction of those two haunted men, of -the murder that had so long baffled the detection of -justice.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="XV">XV.<br> -THE CHILDREN.</h2> -</div> - -<p>In a court of justice, if I was put upon my oath, I -could not swear that it was a ghost that I saw when I -stood at the end of the garden on that luminous night; -nor would I swear that it was a man with his vitality in -force; but I would swear that I saw something that -looked like a man, but might have been a ghost. It -acted as if it might have been either,—but if a man, like -a crazy one, and who had a charm to subdue, upon the -instant and without effort, the temper of two severe -watch-dogs, one a mastiff, the other a bull, and also to -suspend for more than a second my power of vision.</p> - -<p>After I had finished writing my narrative, and thought -that I had nothing further to do in this business besides -giving my manuscript into the hands of the printer, I -became possessed of two photographs kindly lent to my -curiosity by the chief of police. They are the portraits -of Isabella and John Joyce. My first idea was to have -them multiplied and affixed somewhere in my pages, but -then I thought of the illustrated papers with their -abominable attempts to illustrate by the pencil every<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span> -spasm to which human nature is incident, and was -stopped at once from that design.</p> - -<p>The face of the girl is bright, expressive, and, in a -degree, pretty. Had she lived to womanhood she -might have grown into what is called a <em>fine</em> woman. -The features are large and regular, the eyes full of -vivacity and good temper, the nose prominent and well -shaped, the mouth pleasant, and indicative of resolution. -Altogether the girl had a generous and loving kind of -lookout, and not rare in the species at her budding and -buoyant age. She looks like a child beginning to see -the vague outline of the sea on which she must voyage -with the rest, and not at all having such quick destruction -in her thoughts, as came to her ere she heard the -breakers of human experience sobbing on the shore. -She was not too young to die, but too young to be -slaughtered. The boy’s face is that of a child; but a -bright and reflective little fellow, with a large development -of brain, and, by the extreme innocence of -his expression, casting a deeper shadow of crime upon -the wretch who took away his life. Taking the photograph -as a test, he seems to be about eight years old -and no more, and with such a face that it must have -been a sad thing for those who found him, to look upon -with the mask of murder stamped upon it.</p> - -<p>I have also seen a bundle of papers, written over in -large, straggling chirography, and said to be communications<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span> -of spirits, through mediums, upon the topic of the -murders. There is one-half page written, so those say,—his -wife, for instance,—who knew his “hand of write,” -by the dead father of the children. Their testimony, -whatever it may be, has as yet been of no special -advantage in directing investigation, at least as far as I -know; probably on the theory that if the souls of the -departed undertook to interfere in the proceedings of -our courts, they might produce embarrassing predicaments, -being so far as we are instructed in such matters -incapable of appearing bodily on the witness-stand to -testify to facts within their knowledge; and, besides, it -would be exceedingly inconvenient for our judicial -officials to serve a summons upon them, as their places -of special abode cannot, at present, be determined upon -with any exactness outside of a graveyard directory. -Cases are, however, upon the record wherein ghosts -have pointed out such lines of proceedings as finally led -to the proper adjustment of contested property and -estates. Perhaps the day may reach us when not only -the spirit of the law, and the spirit of the past, but the -spirits of the dead, will have large control over the vexed -condition of our temporary existence here.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="XVI">XVI.<br> -GHOSTS.</h2> -</div> - -<p>Will it be impertinent if I say that I am no advocate -of the spiritualistic doctrines? Will it be less out -of place, if I add that I am no direct opponent of that -wonderful creed,—new creed, some people call it; but, -in fact, as long established as the first death,—as old as -man’s first doubt, or his first impulse to worship the unseen, -or investigate the first difficulty? I assume no -dictatorship of judgment, adhere to no prejudice or formula -of education, or habit of social or sectional condition, -but place myself in that grand philosophic pause -of suspended opinion. There have been good Turks, -there are good Turks; there have been good Jews, there -are good Jews. One of the latter, leaving his old -traditions, rules now the destiny of a great so-called, -and properly so-called I believe, Christian Empire; but -because in our youth we have been led to think hard of -bloody Mahomet, and the Jewish unbelievers of the first -Christian era, when mysteries assumed the prerogative -of logical religion, and faith was not as quick to conceive -as it has been since, we are not justified in -believing that the Turk and the Jew are beyond the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span> -pale of our sympathies, and, for old deeds done under -peculiar pressure, are to be anathematized from our human -charities. There are members known, of the -spiritualist belief, to be as pure and spotless as any -equal number of any other God-believing sect; and -while we cannot but look with feelings akin to pity at -some of the phases of their peculiar practice, it behooves -no man, limited as we all are in our claim to exact -knowledge, to condemn the whole because some of -their people do certain things, that, in the performance, -border upon the absurd.</p> - -<p>The mystery of life is more mysterious than the -mystery of death. In the first we would, if not governed -by the subjection of judgment to certain rules -and discipline of faith, be led to believe in a thousand -things that appeal to us daily by the miraculous condition -of their nature. Science, while it reveals, establishes -materiality; and the farther it advances into the -realms of air, the more it fills that air with material -substances. Dare it go higher yet, and rob the firmament -of all its poetry, its vague spirit of religious spirituality, -and, sweeping away the dreams of the tenderest -imaginations, build up the steps of the Eternal throne -with granite boulders, and form of the Almighty a -statue of specific gravity, with needs like our own, and -humanly dependent on the vegetation and the atmosphere -of these terrestrial regions which astronomy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span> -with its supernaturally endowed telescope has established -as fact?</p> - -<p>It may be an objection, founded upon some basis of -common sense, that I have introduced what I call a -veritable ghost into my work. I cannot help that. In -fact I never would have written my book if I had not -had that interview with what now, in all the sincerity -that is left to a man in these abominable days, I believe -and assert was a ghost; a real ghost,—no dramatic -shade made up of an off-duty carpenter with an actor -to speak his part,—a ghost arranged for the nonce with -a screen between us, of vapory muslin; but a solemn, -a meaning, a power to move, but not a power to -absolutely affright, ghost. In fact I see no reason to -be frightened by them. Grant that they exist,—you -never have heard of one that did harm to anybody. -They have, it is to be supposed, thrown off the passions -of the flesh, with the flesh,—the passion of -anger, the passion of mischief, and all the low and -base adjunctives that adhere to us in our state of usual -visibility. They are not monsters, but symbols, or -aerial realities of our former friends. Even the ghost -of Robespierre, of Nero, or Jeffrey, would be harmless, -bad as they were when encompassed in their fibrous -shells of flesh. Ghosts, as a general rule of logic, cannot -be as bad as those of earth with whom they have -their interviews. And it is not to be supposed that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span> -they always have a sublime or important mission to -accomplish. If the rule holds good that Providence -allows them to flit hitherward, the ghost of a washerwoman -has as much right to appear to her successor -of the soap-suds, as the ghost of Cæsar to his -slayer before the battle that settled the destiny of half a -world. And the washerwoman’s ghost could not do -that, or would not even think of doing that, and yet she -might have her homely mission, as important to her -friends, as ghosts of a higher rank. But they all have -their mission, the ghosts of demi-gods as well as the -ghosts of plebeians. They easily establish, what otherwise -could not be practically proved, the vexed question -of the immortality of the soul. A testimony of a -dead man would be as valuable to me, with regard to -that matter, as the wire-drawn assertions of a man paid -a large salary to keep good, and say that we turn into -ghosts after all,—for they all say that.</p> - -<p>Now I most respectfully ask what harm does it do to -believe in ghosts? Is it weakness? Then St. Paul -was weak to idiocy, for he was the apostle of the -supernatural, as the Bible will prove, if you choose to -consult his record. Was our Saviour weak? It was -he,—that supremely blessed, that uncontradictable -authority, either in assertion or suggestion—who took -upon himself the spectral character, and asked Thomas -to test him, by placing his hands upon the image of his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span> -wounds. Or, if he was not a ghost, but a substantial -form of flesh after his crucifixion, death then makes no -difference in our condition, and is but a process without -a change. Had his apostles and disciples disbelieved -in his appearance after death, and hooted at the story -told of his ghost wandering toward them, where would -be the Christian church to-day, and where the theory -of the resurrection? We disbelieve now, and scoff at -what the Saviour did, and his apostles saw, unless he -was an impostor, and they liars. Do we in our churches, -when we read the biblical narrative of the innumerable -appearances, sneer at the book that tells us its contents -are the result of divine inspiration, and every word is -true? That man or woman would not be a church-member -long who dared to do a thing so impious.</p> - -<p>If fault be found with me for writing a narrative with -such a spectral thread of ghastly tissue running through -its woof, what should they say of the king of the ink-plume, -Shakespeare himself? He fairly revels in -ghosts. In the second part of “King Henry the Sixth,” -Bolingbroke, the conjurer, invokes a spirit. In “Julius -Cæsar,” Brutus has his celebrated interview with the -ghost of Cæsar. In “Macbeth,” the ghost of Banquo -comes to the king’s table and nods between the -libations, frightening the king out of his royal wits; -and in the “witch scene” we have the bubbling caldron, -the armed head, a bloody child, a child crowned,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span> -with a tree in his hand, and “eight kings,” who pass -across the stage, the last with a glass in his hand. -What would the play of “Hamlet” be without the -father’s spirit wandering on the moonlit battlement, or -the interview with the queen-mother, known as the -miniature scene? In “Richard the Third,” crowds of -ghosts stalk through the tent of the hunchback king, -and start him from his sleep; and Richmond, too, holds -converse with them. The ghosts of Prince Edward, -Henry the Sixth, Clarence, Rivers, Grey, Vaughan, -Hastings, the two young Princes, Queen Ann, and -Buckingham, stalk before the tyrant’s vision, and curse -him as they pass. Otway makes use of ghosts in his -“Venice Preserved,” and Sir Walter Scott welded them -in the machinery of his novels; and the ponderous-brained -Sam Johnson religiously believed in them. -The ghosts of Shakespeare were born of the poetic -faculty, and the legendary creed of the world’s experience. -Place a rose, the sweetest you can find, under -a glass case, and you shut out the odor that belongs to -it. Is that odor dead and imperceptible because you -have raised a barrier between it and your senses? Does -it not exist, even more potently, within its crystal -prison? Because you do not perceive that sweetness, -would you say it is not? Are our direct senses to -settle all points of doubt and difficulty? Or, let a man -enter, then, who had never seen a rose, and you were to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span> -tell him of the great fragrance of the flower of which -bards have sung and Scriptures made similes,—would -you not scoff him if he said such things were not possible -to a plant like that, that looked like painted paper? -Then how can you say anything about it who have -never seen a ghost? To your senses it may be as yet -hidden by a barrier stronger than glass, but yet as -transparent to others. But I do not write to argue, but -only to suggest. I admit my own weakness and confess -to doubts, and cannot place myself with indisputable -certainty on any solid basis of logic, and therefore must -allow great scope to others; but since I have ventured -to tell my story, I had a strong and natural desire to -stand, as well as it was possible upon the platform of -rational opinion, and felt that I had a right to attempt to -place myself there. If any man can prove that I did not -see exactly what I say I saw, let him do so, but let him -not attempt to “pshaw” me out of the evidences of my -senses, and proclaim from his stolid pedestal, called the -“impossible,” that I am a dreamer, a madman, and all -that sort of adjectiveness which grows from ignorance -of the noun substantives of reason. When he can come -to me and show me the authority, not derived from his -metaphysics or his sectarianism, or his prejudice, by which -he is empowered to deny the possibility or the probability -and actuality of ghosts, and settle then and forever that -such things cannot be, I will admit that I was crazy; bereft<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span> -of reason; at one moment gifted with eyesight, and the -next deprived of it: things which, by the way, would -be more at variance with the “order of Heaven,” and -more extraordinary, in fact, than the assumed appearance -of that thing we call ghost; and which, after all -said, and done, and laughed, and sneered at, is that idea -of the human hope baptized in our dreams and our -theology, by the name of “Immortality.” You cannot -prove to a drowning man that he is not surrounded by -water. You may tell him that he can swim; but he -will tell you that, though he can, he has the cramp. -You may tell him that a ship without volition can float -where he is struggling; but he will tell you that the -ship has nothing to do with it. He believes in the things -that he feels and sees around him, but which you do not -experience, and he will not take your arguments and -suggestions as the embodiment of an infallible life-preserver. -I saw what I saw; prove to me that I did not -see it,—for the question is with me and nobody else,—and -prove it without the usual insolence, if you -can; remembering, in your endeavor to convince, that -insult is more of an offence than an argument; indeed, -it is only used when argument is exhausted.</p> - -<p>The composing of an epic poem is held to be the -highest achievement of the human mind. Ideality, or -imagination, is the means used in the performance of -the work. Ideality is the inspiration of religion, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span> -without it religion would simply be a form of law, to be -broken like other laws, and to be vindicated by penalties -and processes similar to those imposed and employed in -the vindication and substantiation of any other law. -The ecclesiastical synonym for ideality is faith.</p> - -<p>If ideality be the source of the highest results of -intellectual effort, and of religious belief, who can venture -to fabricate a chain with which to bind and circumscribe -its flights? If man in power, for the supposed benefit -of the man out of power, does so, it is merely the -result of policy, or passion, or human prejudice, or -selfishness; and no man that ever lived, from the -Pope of Rome to the backwood preacher, and from the -preacher to the ethical moralist, has had that right -inherent in his particular nature, to tax as a royalty the -patent of the human mind to the grand prerogative of -thought.</p> - -<p>Canute, the king, tried an experiment of mastery -with the tide. What other despot of school theory will -make the same effort with the tidings of the brain of -man, hoping for better success than the Danish fool? -If there be such, so sure as the first known madman -of the Hamlet race was driven from the beech, will the -other be overwhelmed by the resistless force of that -great wave of intelligence which has already grappled -with the lightning, and taught it the babel language by -which man expresses his endless wants. Man, when he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span> -seizes upon the great faculties of electricity, does not -stultify himself by establishing a limit to its capacity. -At first it was a rod upon a chimney that drew a -spark from the thunder-storm; then the galvanic battery, -to draw paralysis from limbs; then the wire from -city to city; and now it passes beneath the throbbing -bosom of the sea, and whispers the price of stocks or -the policy of cabinets into the ear of a man who sits at -his table, like a musician at his piano, taking out of the -thunderbolts of Jove a language and a spirit that ignorance -would deny the possibility of being there. And -what more will be accomplished by electricity? We -stand upon the threshold of its domain, enlightened by -flashes that invite and illumine to farther experiments.</p> - -<p>Doubt is the genius of discovery, but, at present, with -regard to the supernatural, there is nothing proved except -what we believe; otherwise, the world would have -but one creed.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="XVII">XVII.<br> -MANIFESTATIONS.</h2> -</div> - -<p>As may be well imagined, a subject so conspicuous -and mysterious as the dark deeds done in Bussey’s -wood, would not be allowed to pass over without some -professional attempts on the part of the spiritualistic -community to discover their hidden secret. “Seances” -were called, and the force of mediumistic power enlisted -and put in operation to extract the terrible revelation -from some detective spirit among the dead; with -what result the police are best able to judge, and the -culprit, too; but it occurred to me that it might possibly -amuse my readers to read some of the communications -relating to the topics I have been treating of, from -the spirit world, through what is called trance mediums. -The two or three that I shall take occasion to abridge -were sent to the police head-quarters, and I have no -doubt they were sent in good faith. The result of the -incantations is of little moment, but I have understood -that it was said somewhere by a presumed spirit, that -they would tell all about the murders, and expose the -culprit, if a sum of money would be raised competent -to the support of the bereaved mother of the children.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span> -The fact that there were large rewards offered—and I -believe they have not been withdrawn—should have -satisfied them that if, through their agency, the murderer -was detected, they could make over the amount -to Mrs. Joyce. I do not vouch for the truth of the -rumor, but think it improbable, because it was an unnecessary -demand under the circumstances. The occasions -when, actuated by a mixed motive of curiosity -and a desire to examine, I have witnessed the proceedings -at these sittings of the faithful, have not had a -very strong tendency to convince me that good spirits -put their feet under the mahogany. To be sure my experience -has been limited, but it has been definite up to -this period. I have not attended the public or professional -seances; but there are many persons who are -sceptics, yet strongly mediumistic, and able to make -the table move across the room by the mere imposition -of their hands. I have heard the alphabet repeated at -my own room, where only one gentleman was present -beside myself; and this gentleman, an involuntary and -unprofessional medium, was of considerable power, and -used that power for the purposes of investigation. -Answers I have there witnessed to questions, that astonished -me,—direct, satisfactory, and going back into the -far and dim years of childhood, astonishing to my friend, -as well as to myself,—facts that my own mind had -entirely lost in the lapse of years, but which came up<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span> -to my recollection as vivid as if of yesterday’s happening. -Sometimes my recollection has been corrected, -and in such a way as to convince me that my idea of -the circumstance had been erroneous. And then again, -a something of intelligence would move the table, in -answer to the alphabet, and tell such self-evident lies, -with so enthusiastic a vivacity as to startle me into the -belief that he had been the writer of bulletins for some -newspaper during the late Southern conflict. And this -assumed spirit would pass himself off as a deceased -member of my family, staggering me with his knowledge, -and from which bewilderment I confess I can find -no present means of rational escape. I have, however, -come pretty nearly to the conclusion that the spirit, or -whatever it is, that I have alluded to above, has been -our only visitor; but the imagination cannot conceive a -scheme so subtle as his has been to deceive us into the -belief that those persons, whose character he pretended -to represent, were in fact the very individuals themselves; -and under ordinary circumstances few men -could have been blamed had they been credulous of his -representations.</p> - -<p>I have frequently tried by the most determined exercise -of will, to force the responses into the channel I -had mentally prepared for them; but in no case, I must -candidly confess, could I command obedience. This -fact shook my theory of sympathetic influence, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span> -settled in that small sphere of experiment the vexed -question of the power of mind to operate upon matter. -My friend, who has the mediumistic faculty, made -similar attempts, and always with like result. Let -wiser heads than mine unravel and explain, by cogent -and irresistible logic, these eccentric incidents, for I -must admit my utter inability to explain them by any -rules outside of those adopted by the spiritualist. But -though I may have been a witness of these phenomena, -it does not follow that I am a spiritualist, any more than -I am of the mythological faith of pagan Greece, because, -forsooth, I take delight in the statue of Minerva, go -into raptures over that of Venus, and read with unfeigned -enjoyment the poems of that prince of old idolaters, -blind but immortal Homer.</p> - -<p>I have before me a package of manuscript purporting -to have been written by inhabitants of another world,—by -hands that have felt the pressure of the hand of -death, and yet, it would seem, are able to express -thought with the intelligence usually attributed to life. -One of these communications purports to have been -written by Isabella Joyce, the murdered girl, and -another by her father, Stephen Joyce.</p> - -<p>The manuscript of the girl strikes me as of a better -order of chirography than is usually to be found in that -of children of her age; while the father’s is large and -roughly emphatic, and bears the impress of a passionate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span> -desire to discover the murderer and avenge the deaths -of his children. Friends of Stephen Joyce assert that -the formation of the writing is unmistakably similar to -his; but, as I have not been able to compare the dead -man’s penmanship with anything done by him while on -earth, I cannot pass judgment either of denial or verification.</p> - -<p>It would appear that, speedily after the murders were -discovered, meetings were called of the spiritualists, in -the hope that some revelation would be made that might -lead to the arrest of the party or parties engaged in the -atrocious deed.</p> - -<p>Not later than a month or two ago, I read in a spiritualistic -paper, of the city of Boston,—conducted, by -the way, with great editorial ability,—a communication -from the boy murdered; but which contained no clue -that could direct detection safely and judicially to any -desired result.</p> - -<p>In the written communication, signed “Isabella -Joyce,” to which I have alluded, there are references -to parties that had been previously arrested or suspected. -She, however, distinctly exonerates the young -man of the factory, whose flight is as yet unaccounted -for; but whose innocence is beyond all question. She -speaks, also, of that inebriated unfortunate to whom -Dedham jail has become a matter of practical and suggestive -recollection. The name of that eminent individual<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span> -known to the police and the public by the -euphonic appellation of Scratch Gravel, makes no figure -in her revelations; though he confessed to many circumstances -that would have led in ordinary cases to his -implication in the deed. His admissions were tortured -by over-zealous detectives into positive confession; but -after strict comparison of his statements, made under -the pressure of prison and terror, or rum reaction, with -the exact incidents of his maudlin staggerings and -stutterings, he was given up as not worthy of belief, -though he madly made the attempt to get himself -hanged.</p> - -<p>It is my intention to give merely the pith and essence -of these strange writings,—having placed the original -papers in the hands of my publisher,—where any person, -curious in such matters, can examine them.</p> - -<p>The girl commences by appealing to her mother, and -declaring that she cannot be happy until they have -found that “terrible man.” She cries frequently to her -mother, as if under some great spasm of alarm,—hints -at certain persons,—exonerates others, who were suspected, -and in such manner as to remind us of the terrible -ravings and charges of the “afflicted children” -who figured as the juvenile fiends and denouncers of -the Salem Witchcraft tragedies.</p> - -<p>In her outcries she speaks of a returned soldier, and -checks her mother’s suspicions, that appeared to have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span> -gone astray in the wrong direction, and then directly -charges the crime upon our poor dilapidated young -friend, whose greatest misfortune it was to have been -drunk on that fatal day, and been whipped or blackeyed -in the evening.</p> - -<p>The girl proceeds with repeated exclamations of -Mother! Mother! and emphasizes the sufferings through -which she passed. Be it remembered that she speaks -only of murder throughout her disclosures, if disclosures -they can be called.</p> - -<p>Her second declaration is more minute and connected, -but still it is a jumbled and very unsatisfactory narrative, -or rather child gossip, of the circumstances and -incidents as they occurred previous and up to the instant -of the catastrophe. She again speaks of a soldier,—<em>the -one whose hand was cut</em>; says she saw him in a garden -as they passed along,—the garden across the brook; -that he followed them into the woods. She now goes -back to her trip out of Boston toward the wood, and -tells that they got out at Burroughs Street, walked up -the plain or plank (hard to decipher), till they came to -a juncture of the road where it crosses the track of the -steam cars, then to the right, and round a store or stone -house to the left, over the brook to the other side. -She expressly and suddenly declares, at this point of her -recital, that <em>she does not remember him</em>. After they -climbed over the gate (supposed to be the gate very<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span> -near where she was found, and which opens from the -Dedham road; there is another gate between the murder -spot and Mr. Motley’s house), they saw the man. He -followed, but up to that moment had not spoken to her. -He now seems to have turned back, but, changing -his mind, returned quickly and addressed her. At this -she became alarmed and fled; he pursued. There is -much confusion here,—a scuffling and tussling of sentences -as if a mimic was giving to the life some -quickly whirling scene of trouble and irritation and surprise, -wherein there was the essence of a great danger.</p> - -<p>It is a confused statement of Johnny’s having spoken -of the sheep (Mr. Motley’s sheep down in the valley grazing -at the time, watched by a vagrant boy, afterward -examined by the authorities, and found to be no wiser -than the flock he watched). She says she does not -remember exactly—speaks of a knife which she tried -to get hold of—of his cutting himself with it—of his -throwing it into the wood. (If he did, he must have -gone back for it and rescued it, for no such knife was -found after a vigilant search over the whole locality.) She -exclaims, “He murdered me!”—that he was scratched -on the face and neck, and bears the marks “now,”—at -the time of her manifestation at the spiritual sitting. -At this point the paper is filled with wild and alarming -cries to her mother. The idea presents itself again of -a mimic reacting a scene in which the soul is driven to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span> -the very verge of madness by that dread fiend called -Terror. The voice seems to pierce the air in its shrill -proclamation of intense and terrible agony, and anon it -subsides into stifled sobs and ejaculations of how much -she suffered while the black deed was done,—how -“sick” she was. After that outburst of mad appeal and -piteous mourning she resumes her narrative, and describes -her murderer. He wore blue clothes, and looked -like a soldier; but not a soldier just from the wars. (A -soldier loafing after his laurels had withered in bar-room -atmosphere, I suppose.) She fixes his nationality distinctly,—an -Irishman. It was one o’clock, she says; but -the writing here is blurred and crossed, and very difficult, -if not quite impossible, to make out and determine -whether it is one or two o’clock. Her brother, she -says, ran for help, and the man ran after him and -killed him and came back to her. This statement is -signed “Isabella Joyce.”</p> - -<p>The other portions of the page of foolscap, on which -her hand appears, is covered with a lively display of -all sorts of penmanship,—the idle signatures of a small -party of the other world’s inhabitants, who, it would -seem, were in Isabella’s company.</p> - -<p>Again she resumes control over the writing medium’s -hand, and says,—</p> - -<p>“Johnny was dead, and the man went off after I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span> -died. He went down the other way to Boston. He -will be found.”</p> - -<p>We have nothing more from the spirit of the girl (I -speak now without entering into any question of the -authenticity of these communications, leaving my reader -to dispose of that enigma, as may best suit his temper -and convenience), but the father makes his appearance -on the scene and endorses his daughter’s testimony; but -singularly neither witness offers to give the name of the -designated soldier. The spiritualistic theory is that -they could not do so, because he was a stranger to both -of them, and consequently while they could see his -face and clothes, they could not tell his name. The -case is similar to our own daily experience in our transient -meeting with people on the street,—a passing and -silent interview, in which nothing is discovered save -the recognition of a person and no more.</p> - -<p>The revelation of the father is to the effect that he -knows where the man is, and will follow him to the -end.</p> - -<p>One part of his statement I suppress, because it -comes directly within the province of the law officers, -and might direct suspicion upon a possibly innocent -man.</p> - -<p>Three years ago, it is asserted by those who believe -in this extraordinary doctrine of the power of the dead -to express themselves through the living, this man,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span> -Stephen Joyce, declared that by the fifth of the month -of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, the murderer -would be in the hands of justice; and how many months -have come and gone since that spirit entered the mystic -witness-box, and foretold such sequence to the tragedy, -and yet without fulfilment? I am sorry that he was no -true prophet,—no wiser in a ghostly form than in the -fleshly substance. He is not half so good a ghost as -Hamlet’s father was. The Dane went straight to the -point, and told the truth and nothing but the truth, -while here we have the spirit of the girl upon the stand, -and she rambles in her talk without the aid of the great -legal screw of cross-questioning, designating nothing -that is tangible, indeed giving false clues to the murderer, -and screaming, “Mother! Mother!” as if she -would pour into the listener’s ear some faint echo of -those dread cries that rang amid the gloomy woods -when the soul of her was stabbed out of her.</p> - -<p>The ghost of the murdered King of Denmark spoke -the truth, as other ghosts by judicial testimony have -done; but they were the old-fashioned ghosts, standing -by themselves without the aid of human machinery, -without the table or the easily assimilated trance, responsible -for their coming and for what they told or -what they desired to be done by their informing. They -came and made short work of it, impressing belief by -solemn utterances or majestic gestures. In this case<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span> -again, the man, who should have been interested more -than any other man, comes through the arm and -fingers of a stranger, a living being, and is assumed to -have written out, at that solemn investigation, a deposition,—not -made upon the Holy Book, holier than all -books, but with lips sanctified by the kiss of death,—and -vaguely points to some unfortunate, and declares with -all the potency of his supernal condition that ere the fifth -of the approaching month the discovery would be -made, and the hands of the law laid upon the person of -the murderer of his children; and the fifth of that long-passed -month lies strewn with the leaves of several -autumns, buried far back in the dead annals, and no -revelation has confirmed his prophecy. How is this? -Or was it, as I have said before, left to these pages to -revive that miserable event, and glare it to those eyes -that have so often seen the vision of the dead; to awaken -in that drowsing conscience the phantoms that he had -half lulled to sleep, and force him to some act by which -the law may be able to read, without the farther aid of -business mediums, the mark of Cain that God has put -upon his brow?</p> - -<p>Who knows, and who can tell as yet, the meaning -of my ghost that came to me upon the hill?</p> - -<p>It was not with any sinister design that the doctrine -of spiritualism, or its practices, has been introduced into -my narrative. It formed no portion of my original<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span> -intention; but I found it impossible to refrain from giving -publicity to documents that had been found of -sufficient importance to attract the attention of the -authorities. The spiritualist is able to take care of -himself and his belief. Such communications might be -used to a fearful and fatal purpose. The criminals engaged -in the perpetration of a crime could, if such -testimony was of any judicial weight, arrange a circle, -produce the manifestations, or the similitude of manifestations, -and direct attention to certain innocent -parties, when suspicion would give time for the real -culprits to escape. Every one knows how easy it is to -work through the agency of a religious sentiment, and a -very large class of people, habituated to the belief in -spiritual revelations as inculcated by the spiritualists, -receiving impressions in that way, would be hard to -believe otherwise than as the spurious spirits asserted. -Crime would thus become more dramatic, and the consequences -of such interference on the part of a religious -organization might lead to the overthrow of all the -purposes and powers of civil authority. Happily, I am -confident no such construction can be placed upon the -operations and revelations of the authorized spiritualistic -media. I do not know exactly what view they take -of the knowledge presumed to be possessed by the -murdered regarding the murderer. To reveal simply -the name of the person, taking for granted that the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span> -power exists according to the doctrine of spiritualism, -would be of no use, unless a train of circumstantial evidence -could be intimated, by which the law could develop -a legal connection between the accused and the -crime. There have been several instances, in this -country, in which testimonious ghosts have enacted important -parts. Some of these are upon the public record; -others in private circulation. There was a case some -fifty years ago in Virginia, when, if I recollect correctly, -the ghost of a Mr. Clapham met a man upon the path -in the mountain, nearly opposite to the famous Point -of Rocks, on the Potomac, and told him where his -will could be found,—the absence of which had involved -his widow in vexatious and tedious litigation. The -will was found and the question of right established in -her favor; and I myself have partaken of the hospitality -of that generous lady in the years gone by, when peace -and plenty abounded in those beautiful valleys. As a -matter of curiosity, I will give in brief, a singular case -that happened in Scotland, and which goes to establish -my theory of the injustice that may be perpetrated by -the assertions of persons using the simulated spiritualistic -agency for the detection of crime. The Scotch -rebellion of 1745 compelled a larger amount of vigilance -in preventing its recurrence than it possibly had -taken to subdue it in the first instance. Troops were -scattered among the highlands, for the purpose of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span> -arresting all persons using arms, and enforcing the -orders of the British authorities against the wearing of -the clan tartans. Among these troops was Sergeant -Arthur Davies, who is described as a bold and reckless -man, careless in exposing himself openly in those wild -and hostile glens, and among a people conquered but -not won. Davies was in command of a squad of four -men, and was stationed at Dubrach, near Braeman, -then a desolate and dangerous district.</p> - -<p>On the 28th of September, 1749, Davies left his barracks, -with his command, to meet the troops posted at -Glenshee. The sergeant never returned from that expedition; -for, wandering off alone to hunt in his usual -careless and defiant mood, he was murdered.</p> - -<p>Two men Duncan Terig, alias Clerk, and Alexander -Bain MacDonald were suspected, but, for five years, owing -to the disaffected temper of the people toward the foreign -troops, no steps were taken to arrest these suspected -men; but at length on the 3d of June, 1754, nearly -five years afterwards, Clerk and MacDonald were tried -at Edinboro’ for the murder of the sergeant. This -singular evidence was adduced upon the trial.</p> - -<p>Some time after the murder, Donald Farquharson, -living in Glenshee, had been informed by his neighbor -Alexander MacPherson, that he (MacPherson) had been -visited frequently by an apparition. It was the ghost -of Sergeant Davies, who insisted upon having a burial of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span> -his remains. This MacPherson had declined to have -anything to do with. On this the spectre had bidden -him apply to Donald Farquharson. Together they visited -the spot where MacPherson said the remains were -lying; Donald giving as a reason for going his fear of -being troubled by the grave-seeking ghost of the slaughtered -Saxon.</p> - -<p>The witness described the finding of what was left of -the skeleton of the unhappy warrior. They were satisfactorily -recognized by certain incontestable signs.</p> - -<p>MacPherson’s description of the ghost as it appeared -to him was this: A figure clad in blue. He appeared -at night; he was in bed; he rose and followed it to the -door. “I am Sergeant Davies,” said the spectre; and -then he related the facts of the murder, and pointed out -the place where his body or his relics could be found. -The witness had asked the names of the murderers. -The ghost declined, upon the ground that he could not -reply to a question, but would have told if he had not -been asked. The ghost had visited him again, but this -time totally denuded of clothing,—but always desiring -to have his body buried. The body was subsequently -properly interred. Again the ghost had come to him -and had announced his murderers,—“Duncan Clerk and -Alexander MacDonald,”—the prisoners then at the bar. -The witness was asked by Mr. Macintosh, counsel for -the prisoners, what language the ghost spoke. “As<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span> -good Gaelic as ever he heard in Lochaber,” said MacPherson. -“Pretty well,” commented McIntosh, “for the -ghost of an English sergeant.” The facts turned out -to be that MacPherson had been in the employment of -Clerk, and a disagreement had arisen between the two -men. MacPherson had often charged Clerk with the -murder, and on this Clerk had promised to do everything -for him if he would only keep his suspicions secret. -But stronger evidence was produced against the prisoners. -A man named Cameron had seen the murder -perpetrated. He saw Clerk and another man fire simultaneously -at the soldier, and he saw him fall; but he -was deterred from making these facts known to the -authorities for fear of incurring the animosity of the -Highlanders, who thought it no great harm, but perhaps -a merit, to shoot down one of the hated invaders.</p> - -<p>Curious to relate, the prisoners were acquitted. The -evidence against MacDonald was not clear; but no doubt -existed as to the guilt of Clerk. MacPherson was -prompted to the accusation against Clerk by motives of -personal malice, and, having become possessed of Clerk’s -secret, he was anxious to gratify his hatred. Fear of the -popular hatred, if he lodged a simple accusation against -his victim, on account of the abhorrence in which an informer -was particularly held at that time, and the more so -if the information was directed against a native in favor -of the dominant race, he was obliged to invent his ghost-story,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span> -and, thus appealing to popular belief in the supernatural, -effect his purpose. But the jury would not -believe his story, for it was known that he had discovered -the sergeant’s remains before he told of the ghostly -visitations, which proved that the marvel was an afterthought.</p> - -<p>Sir Walter Scott edited an account of the murder for -the Bannatyne Club, and Mr. Hill Burton has included -the story in his narratives of Criminal Trials in Scotland. -Sir Walter, relating another trial where a ghost -attempted by a second party to affix his murder upon a -certain person, gives the following remark of the presiding -judge upon the responsibility of the ghost testimony: -“Stop!” the Judge interrupted, gravely; “this -will not do. The evidence of the ghost is very much to -the purpose, no doubt, but we can’t receive it second-hand. -None can speak with a clearer knowledge of -what befell him during life. But he must of course be -sworn in the usual way. Call the ghost in open court, -therefore, and, if he appears, the jury and I will give all -weight to his evidence; but in case he does not come -forward, I cannot allow of his being heard, as now proposed -through the medium of a third party.” Up to -this date it is not known whether the bailiff has made a -return of the summons or not. We presume not.</p> - -<p>But was it a ghost that confronted me?</p> - -<p>That question, now that time is progressively dimming<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span> -the vividness of the impression that I received when -first I saw that something on the brow of the hill, rises -to the tribunal of my own investigation. I am as -anxious to have the mystery solved as my reader possibly -could be; indeed I am more anxious than any other -person could be. Dim as it sometimes appears to my -mind’s eye at times, there are occasions when it assumes -all the exactness of an incident that transpired but a -second since. I see it cross the wall, advance out of -the shadow into the light, stand still, then whirl or wheel, -make one human-looking step, and vanish. Will I ever -see it again? That is another question that disturbs me -some. I cannot do but wait; but with what feelings, -wait? You, in your fair room with gas a-lit, or reading -in the broad-falling down of sunlight on this page, cannot -conceive. Put out your light and let the room grow -dark, and pause and think, and then perhaps, despite the -adamantive philosophy of your unbelief, you may recognize -the sentiments I have; or on some still and luminous -night, moonless, drive out to that old wood and by -yourself, even now, with such great washings of rains and -cleansing of snows and storms of wind, go to the rock -where the girl was found and see how your nerves will -quiver, or how your heart will throb; or, passing down -the road, draw rein at the cottage where I stopped, and, -saying naught to any one, place yourself where I stood -and wait.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span></p> - -<p>I myself would not willingly try that visit over again, -not that I dread anything of harm from such an act, -but because I have been there once before and have had -enough. But if I never see that strange visitor again, -I will see the murderer. Of that I am convinced. I -have firm reliance in law when it is honestly employed -to detect crime or protect the wronged. I have faith in -that subtle sympathy, which connects us with the dead. -I feel that without it, love would be but a thread broken -by the last breathing of our lungs, and memory nothing -but an intellectual frigidity, to be melted into mist as -we approach the haven of the hereafter. The dead appeal -to us by the mesmeric agency of their immortality; -they throw out, through every movement of the world’s -circumstances and events, a suggestion of their needs, -their condition, and their destiny. They are like the -history of the past sublimated by the eloquence of immutable -truth, and are sanctified by a sleep that has -eternal life within its closed lids. They have, too, a -sympathy in retort with us. As naught of the material -can suffer annihilation, so the soul, being indestructible, -permeates the air we breathe as do those revived plants -of perfume that last fall we might have fancied dead and -beyond all chance of life again. If that vision was a -ghost, its purpose will be revealed; for it is impossible -to suppose that the Ruler of the Universe, who says a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span> -sparrow shall not fall without his knowledge, would -permit so strange an occurrence to happen without -having an intention. What that intention was, I for -one, if only one, shall wait patiently to see.</p> - - -<p class="center">THE END.</p> -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="transnote"> -<h2>Transcriber’s Notes</h2> - -<ul> -<li>pg vii Changed VIII. The Murder Rock to: Murder-Rock</li> -<li>pg 10 Added word that after: instant search,—a search</li> -<li>pg 16 Removed comma after: changes and attacks. Man, exposed</li> -<li>pg 62 Changed My route at night to the Murder Rock to: Murder-Rock</li> -<li>pg 111 Changed She looks like a child begining to: beginning</li> -<li>pg 130 Changed trouble and irritation and susprise to: surprise</li> -<li>pg 141 Changed despite the adamantive philosphy to: philosophy</li> -</ul> -</div> -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WAS IT A GHOST? THE MURDERS IN BUSSEY'S WOOD ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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