LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1635, 17 May 1879, Page 3

LITERATURE.

A STRANGE WATCH,

(Prom tlio “Wedding Bella,”)

‘That ia a strange old watch/ I said to the dot'tor, ‘a very singular watch/ 1 It ia a singular-looking watch/ replied he/ and I suppose it is nearly as old a watch as can be. 1 value it very much/ ‘ Doubtless/ I ventured to remark. 4 lt is very rare then. ’ ‘lt ia rarer than you think, madam/ he replied. ‘ Listen] to its ticking. Do your hear it. regular, stca’y, loud and slow? Would you believe that I never wind it?’ 1 smiled. ‘That is not all/ he said, 4 There is something else that yoi/will .not believe. When that watch stops, I do.’ 4 You? Ido not understand/ I said. 4 1 mean that when that watch ceases to tick my heart will cease to beat/ he answered. 4 Listen. I will toll you its story. During the war I was surgeon in the army. It is an experience never to be forgotten ; but of that I will not speak to you to-day. Suffice it to say, that at tho end of one terrible battle, while I was busy with the sad work that becomes a surgeon’s task at such a time, I found under my hands a soldier whose appearance plainly indicated him to be a superior sort of man. He had been severely wounded, and an amputation was necessary, but ho did not appear to me to be in any immediate danger. The wmrat being over, I told him so, giving him what comfort I could/ His answer was this—

‘Doctor, for onco at leaat you are mistaken. I should like to live, even with the prospect of a wooden leg before me ; but I shall die. My hours are numbered; the watch is beginning to atop.’ ‘What watch?’ I asked; ‘or do you raeau your heart ? I assure you its pulsation is better than one might have expected after so trying an ordeal ’ ‘ I am skilled enough to know how many pulsations my heart should make a minute,’ he answered. ‘ I simply moan what I say. My timepiece is stopping,’ and he drew from hia bosom the very watch you eee here. ‘Listen,’ he said ;* do you hear ? Fainter, fainter, fainter with every instant.’ * But that might easily happen,’ I said. ‘You wore your watch through the battle. It was in your bosom when you fell wounded ?’

‘Th ;t does not matter,’ ho answered, ‘lf death wore not near, the watch would go on as before. It hss been In our family for six generations. It was given to the first of ns who owned it by an old man, who professed to bo a magician a sorcerer. It never needs winding. As long as ho who owns it is well, and threatened by no danger, it ticks on steadily and slowly. When any peril approaches it ticks fast, fast, faster. Good heaven 1 haw it ticked this morning ! When mortal sickuors seizes him, it begins to go slower, slower. When he dies, it stops. I know it to have been so with my father, my grandfather, with my great-grandfather. Before that they told me it was also so with whoever owned it; so it will be with me It will stop avhen I die. It will begin to tick again only when you have said to it—- “ I take thee.” ’

‘ My friend,’ I said, ‘I know you believe this, and I am afraid it will injure you to believe it. One can tell a person he is ill until he really grows so. Your watch may kill yon. Perhaps it has killed your ancestors, who believed its history. Let me keep it awhile ; when you are well again you i'hail have it back. I will see you every day. Is it a compact?’ ‘ Yes, doctor,’ he said, putting the watch into my hands, ‘ I should like to try the experiment myself. If I die, keep the watch. I have no living relative, and you have been very kind to me.’ I put the watch into my pocket. In closs than half a day I saw him again. He was still well.

• The watch has not stopped ?’ he asked, ‘ No, nor seems likely to,’ I answc ed, ‘ Perhaps I am going to live,’ ho said. I left him, I had not time to see him again that day. The next morning, havfng snatched a few hours’ sleep, I awoke with a thought of the wounded man. Smiling at my own superstition, I looked at the watch. It was ticking faintly. As I still gazed at it, it gave a loud click and stopped. The bands pointed to half-past six, I made my way at once to the side of my "patient’s bed. A nurse was covering a dead face with the white sheet • When did it happen ?’ I asked.

‘ At half-past six,’ replied the nurse. ‘ He cri-dout -“Doctor, has the watch stopped?” and fell back with a moan.’

‘ It was certainly a coincidence, but I had not become superstitions in consequence. I kept the watch, dumb as on the day ho died, until the war was over, and then, being at home with my wife, I showed it to her, tolling her its story.’ ‘And now, why do you not try to set it going again ?’ she said, ' Why don’t you say, ‘ I take thee 7’ I took up the watch, and cried out in a tone of affected; solemnity, ‘ I take thee.’ ‘At that instant, with a load click as when it stopped, the watch began to tick again. Then—yes, from that moment I believed in it.’

' But I have not told you all,’ 1 Once, not three years from that day, my wife left me to visit her father and mother. She was to bo gone some weeks. Before she went she said to me, Gnstave, let me take your watch with me, then I shall always know whether you are safe and well, or whether harm threatens you. Of course I gave her the watch. After she was gone I was suddenly called to visit an old patient. It was very hot weather, and I exerted myself more thin usual. I know not wheth r this was the cause, but 1 felt very dull and weary for some days, and one morning they found me motionless and speech'ess in my bod. I was in a trance, hut they thought mo dead They wrote and telegraphed to my wife. As she was absent from home they received no answer. Then they thought it impossible to delay my bu>ial longer, consequently I was shrouded for the tomb aud carried to a vault. My coffin lay iu darkness, I within it a« olio dead. Thus I remained for two

hours. At last consciousness and the power of motion returned to mo. I knew I was coffined alive. With a convulsive effort I forced my knees upward. It buret the lid above mo. I sat up in the dark, ihe olmir of the grave was about mo. ody a few folds of linen shi !ded me from thcold. My exertions had exhausted me. I felt I had come to life only to die. I tried to scream. My voice failed mo. I tried to rise. I fed back. Oh, it was horrible. Bat at that moment surely I heard something. There was a sound—a gleam of light. Tho door of the vanlt opened, a ‘roman rushed in, it was my wife Ho lives ! I knew it! she cried, and caught me to her breast As I live, the watch had saved mo. This is what my wife told me One day—ihe day <m which they found me

laying as one dead—the watch, which she wore over her bosom, beg u to tic’s fast and furiously. She understood it to be a warning, and bartered home, and thence to the place where I lay entombed.

Thf y told her I was dead. Her only answer was, ‘He is not. His watch still ticks,’ They thought her mad, but they could not refuse t > lead her to the vault. There, as I have told you, she found me. Do you wonder that I value the watch ? Do you wonder 1 believe that it will only grow dumb when death seals my lips ? If you do not, it is no matter. All the world may laugh. I believe.’ So my doctor left me. He soon after died in a lunatic asylum. What became of the watch, I do not know.