Can Such Things Be?

he form of the body it bore) yet it hath happened that the veritable body without the spirit hath walked. And it is attested of those encountering who have lived to speak thereon that a

head from the earth, and staring a few moments into the blackness, said: “Catherine L

allen and the sky from which the earth has fallen, cannot hope for great longevity, and Frayser had already attained the age of thirty-two. There are persons in this world, millions of persons, and far and away the best persons, who regard that as a very advanced age. They

trails had so impeded him that he was overtaken by night while still in the forest. Unable in the darkness to penetrate the thickets of manzanita and other undergrowth, utterly bewildered and overcome with fatigue, he had lain down near the root of a large madrono and fallen into a dreamless sleep. It was

a name that he had not in memory and hardly had in mind did not arouse an enlightened curiosity to investigate the phenomenon. He thought it odd, and with a little

nd natural, as is the way in dreams; for in the Land Beyond the Bed surprises cease from troubling and the judgment is at rest. Soon he came to a parting of the ways; leading from the highway was a road

igure to his mind. From among the trees on either side he caught broken and incoherent whispers in a strange tongue which

d wheel rut, as from a recent rain, met his eye with a crimson gleam. He stooped and plunged his hand into it. It stained his fingers; it was blood! Blood, he then observed, was about him everywhere. The weeds growing rankly by the roadside showed it

ommingling with it in confusion and obscurity, but nowhere could he catch a glimpse of what he sought. The failure augmented his terror; he felt as one who has murdered in the dark, not knowing whom nor why. So frightful was the situation — the mysterious light burned with so silent and awful a menace; the noxious plants, the trees that by common consent are invested with a melancholy or baleful character, so openly in his sight conspired against his peace; from overhead and all about came so audible and start

leave them a record and an appeal. I shall relate my wrongs, the persecutions that I endure — I, a helpless

oint of his twig when a low, wild peal of laughter broke out at a measureless distance away, and growing ever louder, seemed approaching ever nearer; a soulless, heartless, and unjoyous laugh, like that of the loon, solitary by the lakeside at midnight; a laugh whic

t hideous laugh. And now it seemed to be approaching him; from what direction he did not know — dared not conjecture. All his former fears were forgotten or merged in the gigantic terror that now held him in thrall. Apart from that, he had but one thought: to complete his written appeal to the benign powers who, traversing the haunted wood, might some time rescue him if he should be denied the blessing of

had responded to good associations and instruction with agreeable manners and cultivated minds. Halpin being the youngest and not over robust was perhaps a trifle “spoiled.” He had the double disadvantage of a mother’s assiduity and a father’s neglect. Frayser pere was what no Southern

me been sufficiently affected to be a poet of no small Colonial distinction. If not specially observed, it was observable that while a Frayser who was not the proud possessor of a sumptuous copy of the ancestral “poetical works” (printed at the family expense, and long ago withdrawn from an inhospitable market) was a rare Frayser indeed, there was an illogical indisposition to honor the great deceas

adition to the famous Colonial bard, his succession to the gift and faculty divine was purely inferential. Not only had he never been known to court the muse, but in truth he

r weakness from all eyes but those of him who shared it. Their common guilt in respect of that was an added tie between them. If in Halpin’s youth his mother had “spoiled” him, he had assuredly done his part toward being spoiled. As he grew to such manhood as is attainable by a Southerner who does not care which way elections go the attachment between him and his beautiful mother — whom from early chi

forehead, toyed for a moment with a lock of her dark hair which had escap

y, if I were called away to

r telltale cheeks had made instant reply. Evidently she would greatly mind; a

and handsome as that — pointed to yours on the same wall? And when I looked it seemed that I could not see the features; you had been painted with a face cloth, such as we put upon the dead. Your father has laughed at me, but you and I, dear, know that such things are not for nothing

elf to the son’s more logical mind; he had, for the moment at least, a conviction that it foreshadowed a more simple and immediate, if le

er the true reading of the dream —“places where one recovers from rheumatism and neuralgia? Look —

istorian is unable to state, but for himself he feels bound to say that fingers looking less stiff, and showing fewer evidences of even in

he one went to California, as the interest of his client required, and the other remained

a sailor. He was in fact “shanghaied” aboard a gallant, gallant ship, and sailed for a far countree. Nor did his misfortunes end with the voyage; for the ship was cast ash

nd ages ago. He would accept no assistance from strangers, and it was while living with a fellow survivor

i

run from before it, but his legs were as lead; he was unable to lift his feet from the ground. His arms hung helpless at his sides; of his eyes only he retained control, and these he dared not remove from the lusterless orbs of the apparition, which he knew was not a soul without a body, but that most dreadful of all existences i

f a wild brute; then thrust its hands forward and sprang upon him with appalling ferocity! The act released his physical energies without unfettering his will; his mind was still spellbound, but his powerful body and agile limbs, endowed with a blind, insensate life of their own, resisted stoutly and well. For an instant

rength and activity, which seemed wasted in a void, he felt the cold fingers close upon his throat. Borne backward to the earth, he saw above him the dead and drawn face within a hand’s breadth

— a mere thickening of the atmosphere, the ghost of a cloud — had been observed clinging to the western side of Mount St. Helena, away up along the barren

e level, with an intelligent design to be absorbed. And so it grew and grew until the summit was shut out of view from the valley, and over the valley itself was an ever-extending canopy, opaque and gray. At Calistoga, which lies near the head of the valley and the foot of the mountain, there were a starless night and a sunless

y carried guns on their shoulders, yet no one having knowledge of such matters could have mistaken them for hunters of bird or beast. The

strode along, their feet stirring white th

rch; it is an abandoned schoolhouse, gray with age and neglect. Religious services were once held in it — when it was wh

found you communicative when the time came. But if I may hazard a gues

son, treating his companion’s wit w

im and had my expenses for my trouble. There is a reward of five hundred

you fellows all the time. He comes by night

t’s where they

sense enough to suspect that he wo

at anyone would have ex

her places. Learning your failure

ou fou

d made me travel. It’s God’s mercy that he didn’t go through me. Oh, he’s a go

and explained that his credit

a plan with you,” the detective explained. “I thoug

eriff. “The reward is for his capture and co

ailure of justice that he involuntarily stopped in the m

tch I never saw outside the ancient and honorable order of tramps. But I’ve gone in for him, and can’t make up my mind t

inscription for tombstones: “‘where you must shortly lie’— I mean, if old Branscom ever gets tired of yo

at

like Pardee. The woman whose throat he had the bad taste to cut was a widow when he met her. She had come to

ural

ion did you find the right grave? The man who told me w

orance of so important a point of his plan. “I have been watching about the place generally

they turned into the woods it revealed itself in faint gray outline through the fog, looking huge and far away. A few steps more, and it was within an arm’s length, distinct, dark with moisture, and insignificant in size. It had the usual country-schoolhouse form — belonged to the packing-box order of architecture; had an underpinning of st

e held me up,” he said.

lf showing its gravel through the fallen leaves. In many instances nothing marked the spot where lay the vestiges of some poor mortal — who, leaving “a large circle of sorrowing friends,” had been left by them in turn — except a depression in the earth, more lasting than that in the spirits of the mourners. The

ght of his breast, uttered a low note of warning, and stood motionless, his eyes fixed upon something ahead. As well as he could, obstructed by brush, his compani

they noted such particulars as first strike the attention — the face, the attitude, the clothi

rd; but the latter was bent acutely, and the hand was near the throat. Both hands were tigh

us struggle; small sprouts of poison-oak were bent and denuded of leaf and bark; dead and rotting leaves had been pushed into heaps and

expanded eyes staring blankly backward in a direction opposite to that of the feet. From the froth filling the open mouth the tongue protruded, black and swollen. The throat showed horrible contusions; not mere finger-marks, but bruises and lacerations wrought

d without speaking — almost

! he had a

of the forest, his shotgun held in both hands

withdrawing his eyes from the inclosing

r memoranda, and upon the first leaf was the name “Halpin Frayser.” Written in red on several succeeding leaves — scrawled as if in haste and barely legible — were the following lines, wh

some mysterious

loom of an e

there and myrtle t

in baleful

willow whisper

eadly nightsha

rtelles self-wo

es, and horri

ird nor any d

lifted by the w

as stagnant all

that breathed a

irits whispere

e stilly secre

the trees were al

itch-light wit

! — the spell,

my spirit

unhearted, hopel

monstrous pr

the vie

no more to read. The manuscript b

something of a scholar in his way. He had abated

Holker asked ra

e than a century ago. Wrote mighty dismal stuff; I have his collected wor

let us leave here; we must h

ead man’s head and shoulders lay, his foot struck some hard substance under the rotting forest leaves, and he took the trou

is the real name of Branscom — not Pardee. And — bless my soul! ho

here,” said Detective Jaralson

rrible, until it seemed barely outside the narrow circle of their vision; a laugh so unnatural, so unhuman, so devilish, that it filled those hardy man-hunters with a sense of dread unspeakable! They did not move their weapons nor think of them; the menace of that horrible sound was not