| Show THE SHADOW I 1 was wag traveling trav eing toward evening on one of th those 0 se great moor moora covered witti with low gorse and a n scattered red stones atones of granite common enough in cornwall the gorse was waa covered I 1 with snoie 0 v and the huge granite rocks that rose rosa be here bere ard there pushing their way out or of the ea earah n from the stratum below looked dazzling in their white covering I 1 was waa on foot fot I 1 had bad come a long way and was weary it was then a matter of great anxiety to ma me when after an houis bouts walk walking illg irig I 1 discovered that I 1 had lost the track it had never been more than a bridle road and it was quite choked up with snowa snow it ift was easy to loose roose it the inclement weather so rare in cornwall cornwallis had evidently deterred any traveler from choosing I 1 n g this ibis shor er route and the great b eak r ridge i dge lay now before my eyes in unbroken whiteness unmarked by step of man or beast in vain I 1 turned to the right or left to recover the lost path or at least to llad nod some blessed footprint that should speak to me in accents clear as human vo cc ce of help and shelter none such met my view it if any auy wayfarer had lately passed that solitary waste the fast falling failing mow had bad effaced his a s eps with the white covering that hid bid my own track almost aa a quickly as my weary feet marked their way I 1 stood still in dispa irand inand and gazed around As far as I 1 could see stretched one wide wast waste of snow dotted here and there by the rugged granite that apro e in solid in apses marses from the earth tae tue snow eil fell ell thickly blinding blin fing me as I 1 looked but I 1 fancied in the dim dis distarce talce I 1 could define debine the form of a solitary tree I 1 stood patiently alting waiting till some momentary lull should abound quiet the sharp wind which wa was waa i now whirling the blin biln blinking ling snow aito my m y fac tac fac and thus enable me to judge whether j this indistinct object was a tree or not in a j short time such a lull occurred the snow ceased suddenly to fall and abid I 1 felt convinced there was a tree being also equally certain it could not be crowing growing OH on the common itself this inhospitable sol soi scarcely ic arcely can car cely an inch thice resting testing on the primeval granite could not shelter the roots of a tree here then were the lim urn ts of the moor by the tree I 1 should at least find a more hospitable hospital hospi tab ae country meadows roads perhaps a village I 1 determined ull nyi lles tied to steer straight 1 for this point aba abandoning n donin 11 all hope of or reaching the place f for or which 4 I 1 had bad set out cut by this means on only y could I 1 hope to escape from this in interminable abl abi e waste which deih tp kpa stretched miles on I 1 either side sid of me shading my eyes with my hand I 1 looked at my landmark aal judged it to be about three miles oft off and with chi cheerful erful courage counting the distance but little in my new hopes i I 1 started at a brisk walk ic IL spite of my weariness night fell suddenly around me as I 1 sped on but the abe moon had risen early in the afternoon and her bright light c idled a me to keep the I 1 tree constantly in view I 1 soon discovered that I 1 was right in my conjecture when I 1 supposed ir to be beyond the moor the c changed an character of the gound sufficed to prove that I 1 was approaching the outskirts of the common the gorse grew thicker and wilder and here and there a little corner enclosed by a low hedge of loose stones showed that cultivation ti was encroaching on these desolate I 1 borders these little patches in the great waste covered as they were with snow bad an inexpressibly dreary look making me feel the solitude more acutely from their very as ocia tion with life and labor I 1 plodded straight ons ono on ever keeping the tree ti front while an oppressive sense of lonell ebs ess weariness wear iness iresa and cold weighed heavily me added to an indefinable feeling fa eling more painful still that made my flesh creep and shiver suddenly I 1 found myself obliged to 0 o halt bait before a steep embankment rising like a snowy ridge oh on the plain As it wound its i length bength to some extent on either side ot of me I 1 scrambled up its side bide in order to see it I 1 might j not by crossing the enclosure avoid the de tour of skirting it on reaching the top I 1 perceived erce ived it enclosed the workings of ababan an abandoned ned med mine the yawning shaft was still there a black spot in the white snow telling of derth depth and darkness the ruins of 0 bulli buildings I 1 lay in dreary snow covered heaps ments of wails walls piles of rubbish scattered here lere and there glittered in the moonlight with dazzling whiteness while through it all ran a dark stream not bound up in frost but brawling over stones and rocks in a precia itou itous a descent till it reached a cliff where in a shower of foam mingled with driving snow it descended into some unknown valley lost to me in the darkness I 1 stood for some moments contemplating this his scene drear it would have been at all gimesi imes imas but now in the silence of this winter night cad clad in its snow garment with that cold still suhl its chill desolation it had to me something appalling in its ruin ruid the fear of some hidden shaft or open adit adib deterred me from crossing this place and ami determined t ter me to skirt the embankment which indeed scarcely deserved this name as it was in fact but heaps of stones and rubbish flung filing a brothe mine the great shaft lay almost at my feet by the light of the moon I 1 could see some borne way into its depths and mark where the snow speckled its dark sides at the edge of the yawning pit lay a pile of heavy stones covered with enow snow against this the moonlight ht shone brilliantly I 1 was about to turn and descend when 1 I 1 was struck by the strange appearance of my shadow on this pie pie it had bad its arms folded as I 1 had it gazed gated into the pit pil as I 1 did it was no longer or colder or grayer than other shadows and yet filled me with an indescribable indi sensation benea senea tion of strange n as I 1 do not noi know u bat possessed me to do it but I 1 olun flun flung my arms into the air and as the figure did tse the same earn there was such all an expression cf of measureless despair in the action that hat unable to bear the sights sight I 1 turned and fled in this flight doht which had a fear bat lat that words cannot express I 1 lost my footing in the treacherous snow and fell tell heavily As I 1 rose from the ground I 1 fancied I 1 heard a cry lilethe like the soul soui d of a human ahiman voice voide arise from within the with the rush of the stream arn aln and die away in the roar of its fall I 1 stood still and listened but all was silent save the dash of water and then reassuring myself I 1 essayed to continue my journey atie my right hand band bandtke bandt the be pail wall wall wali of stones on my letts lefts left and on its glittering in surface of snow my shadow bood bood out dla dis inet and clear for a moment my shadow only but in an instant I 1 baw saw with a sensation that liate I 1 every fluttering hair on my head the shadow that had bad stood on the brink of the shaft creeping Y behind my mv shadow mocking g every motion of mine and ana of it even to the terror that my own feelings impressed oil on this gray image of myself I 1 had bad been a spectre haunted man all my life long but the shadow that had ever followed me had come in the shape 0 ot 1 am a murdered woman sometimes accompanied bj by a pate pale abet face I 1 knew too weil well but bat t this is was strange unlooked unlocked for so with bewildered fascinated galze gaize I 1 turned and faced my tormentor wis tola I 1 thought wab waa none of my raising in the sharp outline of that haggard profile there was no likeness to my spec tress the pointed beard the old fashioned dress the waving 11 curls curs spoke of a bygone byrone by gone rone period I 1 marked it well as for tot a moment the shadow and I 1 stood face to faces face then setting my steps towards the dim dira tree I 1 strode resolutely forward the thin thid thing followed in vain I 1 turned and faced it or in despair dashed rapidly to the right or the left it was always behind me always mocking my movements I 1 gathered up snow arid and flung at it in horrid mockery it repeated my action the nerving myself for the effort I 1 sprang on ft it and tried to grapple with its impal able form I 1 only grasped the cold snow while it stood by v with ith its ita anchan I 1 ha ging ing 11 face ever expressing that one look or of dire ire lre boundless despair in face fageot of ibis ibs thin thing I 1 was powerless and feeling this I 1 resolved on flight I 1 but when on turning my head I 1 saw it gliding on without apparent movement and yet close to me I 1 lost lot my self possession and ran hither and t thither bither on the moor till sense failed me and I 1 fell senseless on the snow when I 1 recovered myself the shadow still stood over me like a sentinel bentine the same despair in the sharp lineaments linea ments the same strange appearance cf life in its grey form I 1 arose bicic sick and plumbed numbed with cold I 1 began to feel that if it I 1 could not soon reach some human habitation I 1 should die in this new fear I 1 almost ceased to regard the spectre was I 1 net not used to strange bights sights hidden to other others all my energies were concentrated on reaching in the tree whose snow laden branches gleamed distinctly before me I 1 had a small flask of brandy in my pocket putting it to my lips I 1 drank all it conta contained and then less pallid less numbed with cold I 1 walked on with a surer stop often I 1 turned to look at my companion some new demon surely possessed it a thou sand band wicked lives were in it on that bag gard profile with its deep lines of d despair air 1 a new malignity sat triumphant it m mocked eze d no motion of mine now it had a hundred of its own it seized my sha eha and seemed to shake it as it laid its thin long hand of which I 1 marked the bony fingers on its shoulder malting matting my flesh creep at the tha touch though it was waa not on me that gray band rested but only on the dim similitude of myself on the snow sometimes it flung its arms upwards with that same gesture of measureless despair that I 1 bad bail marked when I 1 first saw it standing by the old shaft I 1 went steady on an inexpressible feeing feeding of relief stealing over me as I 1 neared the giant tree for hours its rugged branches had loomed before me as an object to be reached by an 4 effort A thousand fancies had sprung sprang tip up round its figure hopes of rest and refreshment visions of ruddy fires of kind helping el bands hands cheery voice and merry faces all in my lone ione loneliness lyness anui anti pain appearing to me with a beauty and happiness that merely homely ilfe life had never before worn for in me a j I 1 reached preached the borders of the moor tho tha tree stood out against the sky so distinct every snow laden laaen branch that I 1 could have counted them it was straight before me I 1 hurried on with a step that bad something of unreason in it eo so eager ana and fearce had bad it become A low f fence ence now ilow a alo aio I 1 0 e separated me from the object I 1 had so long iong stricken en to reach I 1 leaped it with a glad cry and found myself in a narrow lane directly directly y fronting the tree which was planted precisely prec isey ibey at the poi pol point nt where four roads met I 1 rather tha than n ran toward it BO so eager was I 1 to clasp the gnarled trunk and feel that this thing t that for so many hours bad seemed to mock my endeavors to reach it idaa as no phantom like that gray shadow lying on the moor moon quick though I 1 bad been this creature of my spectre haunted brain was quicker I 1 reach ed the tree to see it lying beneath the bran i cheb ches stretched on the slow snow the shadow of 1 a dead maill matil I 1 it was impossible to mistake the sharp ou on line of death in the cold profile profiles the right tion of the limbs the stony look and immovable calm of the prostrate figure A arment before it had wood bood erect and a th baand evi evl evil 1 lives had been in it as it tormented me on the dreary heath now it lay beneath the leafless tree at st ff rigid motionless dead and yet only like the shadow of death with one arm around the trunk of the old weird tree I 1 stood regarding it till I 1 grew 1 frantic in ill my frenzy I 1 determined to cover it up and hide bide it from my st in the enow snow I 1 flung arins arms full fuli on it I 1 gathered snow around me in shining heap heaps and dashed on it always in vain it lay there still ever anthe on the surface in immovable calmness more hideous a thi usand times than the demon antics with which it had haunted my path on the moor exhausted I 1 ceased these strange exertions and drops of anguish fell from my forehead as I 1 essayed to leave this haunted place some invisible chain some horrible attraction kept me there in spite of all alt the efforts made by my will and my reason to resist the spell this Bt ruggle struggle between me and the viewless power that heid held ae me was terri terrible bIF the sweat stood on oil my brow and the veins leins in my temples swelled like cords I 1 felt myself giving way when a little wooden aroks crois standing just at the head of the shadow arrested my attention and in spite of that horrible presence I 1 stooped to regard it more earnestly by the light of the he full moon I 1 read this it inscription in deeply cut letters TO une TUB MEMORY i OF REGINALD N my may god tave tava mercy on thia the belf beit murde marSe rent reil I 1 started back I 1 stood then on the gra grave grava of a suicide and this phantom what khat was it I 1 was not alfraid of such th things ing from aa an early period of my ilfe lito I 1 had bad been shadow haunted but I 1 hated tie tte peculiar trancelike trance like benumbed powerless state into which I 1 was thrown either by the visions themselves or by some power which this state then eri erl enabled aled me to see them I 1 wiped tl e sweat from my brow and with one arm clinging ig to that strange tree that had beckoned becio ned hed me 0 on for so many miles to this grave I 1 conce rated all my faculties in the one sense of listening A human sound the fa infest faintest echo of my human life reaching me theres there would I 1 felt break the spell whose horrible chain bound me to this spot gradually on my strained ear came the ripple of running waters gratefully pleasantly it fell bringing a new sense of power bovyer a feeling of recovered strength I 1 unwound my ray arm fro from inthe the deadly tree and arid stood upright another moment and the bark of a dog dop mingled with the cheerful hearty whistle of some rustic broke like music on my ear with A cry try released relea f reel rell I 1 bounded from the accursed spot from that shadow of some unseen dead man and rushing rua birg hing on at headlong found myself by the sida of that litt e brook broo the sound of wb whose se rippling waters had bad come to me like mie a holy whisper of heaven in an evil place I 1 sprang across the stream and whether its clear springs had a power 0 of their own to change the current cur rent of that magnetic or spiritual influence that had bad held me I 1 know not but the moment I 1 had crossed I 1 felt myself free calm and with full power to perform my own will in anything on which I 1 might resolve in a mord word m ord I 1 was master of 1 myself |
