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The Damned Thing by Ambrose biers One. By the light of a tallow candle

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which had been placed on one end
of a rough table, a man was

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reading something written in a book.
It was an old account book, greatly

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worn, and the writing was not
apparently very legible, for the man sometimes

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held the page close to the flame
of the candle to get a stronger light

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upon it. The shadow of the
book would then throw into obscurity a half

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of the room, darkening a number
of faces and figures. For besides the

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reader, eight other men were present. Seven of them sat against the rough

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log walls, silent and motionless,
and the room, being small, not

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very far from the table. By
extending an arm, any one of them

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could have touched the eighth man,
who lay on the table, face upward,

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partly covered by a sheet, his
arms at his sides. He was

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dead. The man of the book
was not reading aloud, and no one

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spoke. All seemed to be waiting
for something to occur. The dead man

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only was without expectation from the blank
darkness outside came in through the aperture that

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served for a window, all the
ever unfamiliar noises of night in the wilderness.

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The long nameless note of a distant
coyote, the stilly, pulsing thrill

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of tireless insects and trees, strange
cries of night birds so different from those

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of the birds of day, the
drone of great blundering beadles, and all

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that mysterious chorus of small sounds that
seemed always to have been but half heard

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when they have suddenly ceased, as
if conscious of an indiscretion. But nothing

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of all this was noted in that
company. Its members were not over much

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addicted to idle interest in matters of
no practical importance. That was obvious in

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every line of their rugged faces,
obvious even in the dim light of the

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single candle. They were evidently men
of the vicinity, farmers and woodmen.

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The person reading was a trifle different. One would have said of him that

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he was of the world worldly,
albeit there was that in his attire which

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attested a certain fellowship with the organisms
of his environment. His coat would hardly

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have passed muster in San Francisco,
his foot gear was not of urban origin,

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and the hat that lay by him
on the floor he was the only

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one uncovered, was such that,
if one had considered it as an article

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of mere personal adornment, he would
have missed its meaning. In countenance,

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the man was rather prepossessing, with
just a hint of sternness, though that

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he may have assumed or cultivated as
appropriate to one in authority. For he

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was a coroner. It was by
virtue of his office that he had possession

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of the book in which he was
reading. It had been found among the

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dead man's effects in his cabin,
where the inquest was now taking place.

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When the coroner had finished reading,
he put the book into his breast pocket.

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At that moment, the door was
pushed open and a young man entered.

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He clearly was not of mountain birth
and breeding. He was clad as

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those who dwell in cities. His
clothing was dusty, however, as from

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travel. He had in fact been
riding hard to attend the inquest. The

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coroner nodded. No one else greeted
him. We have waited for you,

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said the coroner. It is necessary
to have done with this business tonight.

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The young man smiled. I am
sorry to have kept you, he said.

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I went away not to evade your
summons, but to post to my

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newspaper an account of what I suppose
I am called back to relate. The

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coroner smiled. The account that you
posted to your newspaper, he said,

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differs probably from that which you will
give here under oath. That replied the

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other, rather hotly and with a
visible flush, is as you choose.

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I used manifold paper and have a
copy of what I sent. It was

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not written news, for it is
incredible, but as fiction it may go

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as part of my testimony under oath. But you say it is incredible,

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that is nothing to you, sir, if I also swear that it is

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true. The coroner was apparently not
greatly affected by the young man's manifest resentment.

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She was silent for some moments,
his eyes upon the floor. The

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men about the sides of the cabin
talked in whispers, but seldom withdrew their

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gaze from the face of the corpse. Presently, the coroner lifted his eyes

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and said, we will resume the
inquest. The men removed their hats.

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The witness was sworn. What is
your name, the coroner asked, William

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Harker, age twenty seven. He
knew the deceased Hugh Morgan. Yes,

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you were with him when he died
near him? How did that happen your

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presence. I mean, I was
visiting him at this place to shoot and

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fish. A part of my purpose, however, was to study him and

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his odd, solid hair, a
way of life. He seemed a good

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model for a character in fiction.
I sometimes write stories. I sometimes read

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them. Thank you stories in general, not yours. Some of the jurors

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laughed against a somber background. Humor
shows high lights, soldiers in the intervals

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of battle laugh easily, and a
jest in the death chamber. It conquers

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by surprise. Relate the circumstances of
this man's death, said the coroner.

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You may use any notes or memoranda
that you please. The witness understood,

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Pulling a manuscript from his breast pocket, he held it near the candle and

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turning the leaves until he found the
passage that he wanted. Began to read.

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Two. The sun had hardly risen
when we left the house. We

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were looking for quail, each with
a shotgun, but we had only one

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dog. Morgan said that our best
ground was beyond a certain ridge that he

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pointed out, and we crossed it
by a trail through the chaparral on the

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other side was comparatively level ground thickly
covered with wild oats. As we emerged

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from the chaparral, Morgan was but
a few yards in advance. Suddenly we

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heard, at a little distance to
our right and partly in front, a

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noise as of some animal thrashing about
in the bushes, which we could see

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were violently agitated. We started a
deer. I said, I wish we

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had brought a rifle. Morgan,
who had stopped and was intently watching the

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agitated chapparal, said nothing, but
he had cocked both barrels of his gun

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and was holding it in readiness to
aim. I thought him a trifle excited,

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which surprised me, for he had
a reputation for exceptional coolness, even

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in moments of sudden and imminent peril. Oh come, I said, you

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are not going to fill up a
deer with quailshawe? Are you still?

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He did not reply, but catching
a sight of his face as he turned

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it slightly toward me, I was
struck by the pallor of it. Then

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I understood that we had serious business
on hand, and my first conjecture was

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that we had jumped grizzly. I
advanced to Morgan's side, cocking my peas

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as I moved. The bushes were
now quiet and the sounds had ceased.

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But Morgan was as attentive to the
place as before. What is it?

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What the devil is it? I
asked, that damned thing? He replied

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without turning his head. His voice
was husky and unnatural. He trembled visibly.

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I was about to speak further when
I observed the wild oats near the

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place of the disturbance moving in the
most inexplicable way I could hardly describe it.

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It seemed as if stirred by a
streak of wind which not only bent

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it, but pressed it down,
crushed it so that it did not rise.

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And this movement was slowly prolonging itself
directly toward us. Nothing that I

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had ever seen had affected me so
strangely as this unfamiliar and unaccountable phenomenon.

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Yet I am unable to recall any
sense of fear I remember until it here,

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because singularly enough I recollected it.
Then that once, in looking carelessly

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out of an open window, I
momentarily mistook a small tree close at hand

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for one of a group of larger
trees at a little distance away. It

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looked the same size as the others, but being more distinctly and sharply defined

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and mass in detail, seemed out
of harmony with them. It was a

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mere falsification of the law of aerial
perspective, but it startled, almost terrified

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me. We so rely upon the
orderly operation of familiar natural laws that any

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seeming suspension of them is noted as
a menace to our safety, a warning

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of unthinkable calamity. So now the
apparently causeless movement of the herbage and the

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slow, undeviating approach of the line
of disturbance were distinctly disquieting. My companion

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appeared actually frightened, and I could
hardly credit my senses when I saw him

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suddenly throw his gun to his shoulders
and fire both barrels at the agitated grass.

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Before the smoke of the discharge had
cleared away. I heard a loud,

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savage cry, a scream like that
of a wild animal, and flinging

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his gun upon the ground, Morgan
sprang away and ran swiftly from the spot.

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At the same instant, I was
thrown violently to the ground by the

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impact of something unseen in the smoke, some soft, heavy substance that seemed

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thrown against me with great force.
Before I could get upon my feet and

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recover my gun, which seemed to
have been struck from my hands, I

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heard Morgan crying out as if in
mortal agony, and mingling with his cries

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were such hoarse, savage sounds as
one hears from fighting dogs. Inexpressibly terrified,

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I struggled to my feet and looked
in the direction of Morgan's retreat,

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and my Heaven and mercy spare me
from another sight like that. At a

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distance of less than thirty yards,
was my friend down upon one knee,

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his head thrown back at a frightful
angle, hatless, his long hair and

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disorder, and its whole body in
violent movement from side to side, backward

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and forward. His right arm was
lifted and seemed to lack the hand,

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at least I could see none.
The other arm was invisible. At times,

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as my memory now reports this extraordinary
scene, I could discern but a

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part of his body. It was
as if he had been partly blotted out.

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I cannot otherwise express it than a
shifting of its position would bring it

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all into view again. All this
must have occurred within a few seconds.

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Yet In that time, Morgan assumed
all the postures of a determined wrestler,

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vanquished by superior weight and strength.
I saw nothing but him, and him,

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not always distinctly. During the entire
incident. His shouts and curses were

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heard, as if through an enveloping
uproar of such sounds of rage and fury

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as I had never heard from the
throe of a man or brute. For

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a moment only I stood irresolute.
Then, throwing down my gun, I

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ran forward to my friend's assistance.
I had a vague belief that he was

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suffering from a fit or some form
of convulsion. Before I could reach his

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side, he was down and quiet. All sounds had ceased. But with

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a feeling of such terror as even
these awful events had not inspired. I

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now saw the same mysterious movement of
the wild oats prolonging itself from the trampled

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area about the prostrate man, toward
the edge of a wood. It was

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only when it had reached the wood
that I was able to withdraw my eyes

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and look at my companion. He
was dead. Three The coroner rose from

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his seat and stood beside the dead
man. Lifting an edge of the sheet,

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he pulled it away, exposing the
entire body altogether naked and showing in

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the candle light a clay like yellow. It had, however, broad maculations

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of bluish black, obviously caused by
extravasated blood from contusions. The chest and

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sides looked as if they had been
beaten with a bludgeon. There were dreadful

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lacerations. The skin was torn in
strips and shreds. The coroner moved round

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to the end of the table and
undid a silk handkerchief which had been passed

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under the chin and knotted on the
top of the head. When the handkerchief

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was drawn away, it exposed what
had been the throat. Some of the

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jurors, who had risen to get
a better view, repented their curiosity and

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turned away their faces. Witness Harker
went to the open window and leaned out

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across the sill, faint and sick, dropping the handkerchief upon the dead man's

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neck. The coroner stepped to an
angle of the room, and from a

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pile of clothing produced one garment after
another, each of which he held up

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a moment for inspection. All were
torn and stiff with blood. The jurors

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did not make a closer inspection.
They seemed rather unintrusted. They had,

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in truth, seen all this before, the only thing that was new to

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them being Harker's testimony. Gentlemen,
the coroner said, we have no more

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evidence. I think your duty has
been already explained to you. If there

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is nothing you wish to ask,
you may go outside and consider your verdict.

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The foreman rose, a tall,
bearded man of sixty coarsely clad.

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I should like to ask one question, mister coroner. He said, what

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asylum did this your last witness escape
from? Mister Harker said the coroner,

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gravely and tranquility from What asylum did
you last escape? Harker flushed Crimson again,

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but said nothing, And the seven
jurors rose and solemnly filed out of

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the cabin. If you have done
insulting me, sir, said Harker,

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as soon as he and the officer
were left alone with a dead man,

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I suppose I am at liberty to
go. Yes. Harker started to leave,

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but paused, with his hand on
the door latch. The habit of

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his profession was strong in him,
stronger than his sense of personal dignity.

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He turned about and said the book
that you have there, I recognize it

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as Morgan's diary. He seemed greatly
interested in it. You read in it

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while I was testifying. May I
see it? The public would like the

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book? Will cut no figure in
this matter, replied the fishal, slipping

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it into his coat pocket. All
the entrees in it were made before the

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writer's death. As Harker passed out
of the house, the jury re entered

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and stood about the table on which
the now covered corpse showed under the sheet

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with sharp definition. The four men
seated himself near the candle, produced from

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his breast pocket as pencil and scrap
of paper, and wrote rather laboriously the

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following verdict, which, with various
degrees of effort, all signed. We

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the jury, do find that the
remains come to their death at the hands

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of a mountain lion. But some
of us thinks all the same they had

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fits four in the diary of the
late Hugh Morgan are certain interesting entries,

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having possibly a scientific value, as
suggestions at the inquest upon his body,

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the book was not put in evidence. Possibly the coroner thought it not worth

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while to confuse the jury. The
date of the first of the entries mentioned

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cannot be ascertained. The upper part
of the leaf is torn away. The

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part of the entry remaining is as
follows would run in a half circle,

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keeping its head turned always toward the
center, and again he would stand still,

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barking furiously. At last he ran
away into the brush as fast as

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he could go. I thought at
first that he had gone mad, but

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on returning to the house, found
no other alteration in his manner than what

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was obviously due to fear of punishment. Can a dog see with his nose

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do odors impress some olfactory center with
images of the thing emitting them? September

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two, Looking at the stars last
night, as they rose above the crest

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of the ridge east of the house, I observed them successively disappear from left

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to right. Each was eclipsed but
an instant, and only a few at

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the same time. But along the
entire length of the ridge, all that

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were within a degree or two of
the crest were blotted out. It was

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as if something had passed along between
me and them, but I could not

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see it, and the stars were
not thick enough to define its outline.

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I don't like this. Several weeks, as entries are missing, three leaves

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being torn from the book. September
twenty seven. It has been about here

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I find evidences of its presence every
day. I watched again all of last

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night in the same cover, gun
in hand, double charged with a buckshot.

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In the morning, the fresh footprints
were there as before. Yet I

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would have sworn that I did not
sleep, indeed, are hardly sleep at

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all. It is terrible, insupportable. If these amazing experiences are real,

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I shall go mad. If they
are fanciful, I am mad already.

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October three. I shall not go. It shall not drive me away.

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No, this is my house,
my land. God hates a coward.

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October five. I can stand it
no longer. I have invited Harker to

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pass a few weeks with me.
He has a level head. I can

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judge from his manner if he thinks
me mad. October seven. I have

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the solution of the problem. It
came to me last night suddenly, as

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by revelation. How simple, how
terribly simple. There are sounds that we

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cannot hear. At either end of
the scale are notes that stir no chord

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of that imperfect instrument, the human
ear. They are too high or too

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grave, I have observed a flock
of blackbirds occupying an entire tree top,

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the tops of several trees, and
all in full song. Suddenly, in

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a moment that absolutely the same instant, all spring into the air and fly

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away. How they could not all
see one another, whole tree tops intervened.

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At no point could a leader have
been visible to all. There must

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have been a signal of warning or
command, high and shrill above the din,

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but by me unheard. I have
observed too the same simultaneous flight when

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all were silent, among not only
blackbirds, but other birds, quail,

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for example, widely separated by bushes, even on opposite sides of a hill.

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It is known to see men that
a school of whales basking or sporting

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on the surface of the ocean,
miles apart, with a convexity of the

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earth between them, will sometimes dive
at the same instant, all gone out

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of sight in a moment. The
signal has been sounded too grave for the

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ear of the sailor at the mast
head and its comrades on the deck,

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who nevertheless feel its vibrations in the
ship. As the stones of a cathedral

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are stirred by the base of the
organ. As with sounds, so with

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colors. At each end of the
solar spectrum. The chemists can detect the

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presence of what are known as actinic
rays. They represent colors, integral colors

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in the composition of light, which
we are unable to discern. The human

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eye is an imperfect instrument. Its
range is but a few octaves of the

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real chromatic scale. I am not
mad. They are colors that we cannot

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see, and God help me,
the damned things of such a color,

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end of the damned thing