In the midst of life; tales of soldiers and civilians . ay turnto madness ; and madness incites to no definite intent, from no motive butthe way ward impulse of a madman, Murlocksprang to the wall, with a little gropingseized his loaded rifle, and without aim dis-charged it. By the flash which lit up theroom with a vivid illumination, he saw anenormous panther dragging the dead womantoward the window, its teeth fixed in herthroat ! Then there were darkness blackerthan before, and silence ; and when he re-turned to consciousness the sun was highand the wood vocal with songs of birds
In the midst of life; tales of soldiers and civilians . ay turnto madness ; and madness incites to no definite intent, from no motive butthe way ward impulse of a madman, Murlocksprang to the wall, with a little gropingseized his loaded rifle, and without aim dis-charged it. By the flash which lit up theroom with a vivid illumination, he saw anenormous panther dragging the dead womantoward the window, its teeth fixed in herthroat ! Then there were darkness blackerthan before, and silence ; and when he re-turned to consciousness the sun was highand the wood vocal with songs of birds. 282 In tbe dibtost of %)te The body lay near the window, where thebeast had left it when frightened away bythe flash and report of the rifle. The cloth-ing was deranged, the long hair in disorder,the limbs lay anyhow. From the throat,dreadfully lacerated, had issued a pool ofblood not yet entirely coagulated. Theribbon with which he had bound the wristswas broken ; the hands were tightlyclenched. Between the teeth was a frag-ment of the animals Gbe flDtttoleGoeof tbe IRi^bt jfoot IT is well known that the old Mantonhouse is haunted. In all the rural dis-trict near about, and even in the town ofMarshall, a mile away, not one person ofunbiased mind entertains a doubt of it; in-credulity is confined to those opinionatedpeople who will be called cranks as soonas the useful word shall have penetratedthe intellectual demesne of the Marshall Ad-vance. The evidence that the house ishaunted is of two kinds: the testimony ofdisinterested witnesses who have had ocularproof, and that of the house itself. Theformer may be disregarded and ruled out onany of the various grounds of objectionwhich may be urged against it by the in- 283 284 1fn the /IIMost of %\tc genious; but facts within the observationof all are material and controlling. In the first place, the Manton house hasbeen unoccupied by mortals for more thanten years, and with its outbuildings is slowlyfalling into decay—a
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Keywords: ., bookauthorwilmerrichardhooker19, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890
