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To be more particular, the afflicted man was observed often to start suddenly and in alarm, look quickly round, and make some unintelligent monosyllabic answer, seemingly to an inaudible question that no visible person had asked. He acquired the reputation, too, of having taken lately to nightmares, for in the middle of the night he would shriek in the most dreadful fashion, alarming his roommates prodigiously. After these attacks he would sit up in bed, his ruddy face devoid of color, his eyes glassy and shining, his breathing broken with gasps, and his body wet with a cold perspiration.

Knowledge of these developments and transformations spread throughout the garrison; but the few (mostly women) who dared to express sympathy or suggest a tonic encountered so violent rebuffs that they blessed Heaven for escaping alive from his word-volleys. Even the garrison surgeon, who had a kindly manner, and the commanding general, who was constructed on dignified and impressive lines, received little thanks for their solicitude. Clearly the doughty old officer, who had fought like a bulldog in two wars and a hundred battles, was suffering deeply from some undiscoverable malady.

The next extraordinary thing which he did was to visit one evening (not so clandestinely as to escape my watch) a spirit medium–extraordinary, because he always had scoffed at the idea of spirit communications. I saw him as he was leaving the medium’s rooms. His face was purple, his eyes were bulging and terrified, and he tottered in his walk. A policeman, seeing his distress, advanced to assist him; whereupon the soldier hoarsely begged,–

“Call a hack.”

Into it he fell, and asked to be driven to his quarters. I hastily ascended to the medium’s rooms, and found her lying unconscious on the floor. Soon, with my aid, she recalled her wits, but her conscious state was even more alarming than the other. At first she regarded me with terror, and cried,–

“It is horrible for you to hound him so!”

I assured her that I was hounding no one.

“Oh, I thought you were the spir–I mean–I–oh, but it was standing exactly where you are!” she exclaimed.

“I suppose so,” I agreed, “but you can see that I am not the young man’s spirit. However, I am familiar with this whole case, madam, and if I can be of any service in the matter I should be glad if you would inform me. I am aware that our friend is persecuted by a spirit, which visits him frequently, and I am positive that through you it has informed him that the end is not far away, and that our elderly friend’s death will assume some terrible form. Is there anything that I can do to avert the tragedy?”

The woman stared at me in a horrified silence. “How did you know these things?” she gasped.

“That is immaterial. When will the tragedy occur? Can I prevent it?”

“Yes, yes!” she exclaimed. “It will happen this very night! But no earthly power can prevent it!”

She came close to me and looked at me with an expression of the most acute terror.

“Merciful God! what will become of me? He is to be murdered, you understand–murdered in cold blood by a spirit–and he knows it and I know it ! If he is spared long enough he will tell them at the garrison, and they will all think that I had something to do with it! Oh, this is terrible, terrible, and yet I dare not say a word in advance–nobody there would believe in what the spirits say, and they will think that I had a hand in the murder!” The woman’s agony was pitiful.

“Be assured that he will say nothing about it,” I said; “and if you keep your tongue from wagging you need fear nothing.”

With this and a few other hurried words of comfort, I soothed her and hastened away.

For I had interesting work on hand: it is not often that one may be in at such a murder as that! I ran to a livery stable, secured a swift horse, mounted him, and spurred furiously for the reservation. The hack, with its generous start, had gone far on its way, but my horse was nimble, and his legs felt the pricking of my eagerness. A few miles of this furious pursuit brought me within sight of the hack just as it was crossing a dark ravine near the reservation. As I came nearer I imagined that the hack swayed somewhat, and that a fleeing shadow escaped from it into the tree-banked further wall of the ravine. I certainly was not in error with regard to the swaying, for it had roused the dull notice of the driver. I saw him turn, with an air of alarm in his action, and then pull up with a heavy swing upon the reins. At this moment I dashed up and halted.