A DANCE OF DEATH.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 263, 5 November 1872, Page 4

A DANCE OF DEATH.

, A correspondent of a Southern contem* porary supplies the following ,gbast)y tale :— „;."• Some years ago, at the time the road to Queenstown .was in .progress, we were camped at a place on the Kawarau Eiver, near the debouchment of the " Roaring Meg ''stream, called the " natural bridge," —a short description of which en passant may not be amiss. .This singular freak of Nature has been caused by an immense slip having taken place from the adjacent range, and filled up the river bed, to a height/ of 50 feet with solid rock; the stream having been unable to surmount the difficulty, seems to have cut for itself a subterranean outlet. The mighty current comes rushing down against the rocky barrier, and disappears to return to daylight 2&0 feet lower down. The evident small ness of the aperture as compared with the great volume of water produces a frightful whirlpool, about 20 yards in diameter, in the gorge or basin at its mouth ; and it was in this I saw a spectacle I can hardly yet think of without shuddering. One evening, as my mate and I were about to" sling tha billy," he started to get a bucket of water. He had only a few yards to go (0 the basin above-mentioned, and was back in an instant — minus the bucket. His appearance rather alarmed me; his eyes looked like those of a rat in the mouth of a terrier— starting out of his head. " What on earth is up with you ? " I asked. Some minutes elapsed before he could compose himself sufficiently to tell me, that "as he was going to dip bis bucket, up popped a naked man a foot from him in the water, and after sailing ronnd twice in an upright position, turned a somersault and disappeared. I was so startled, said he, " that I dropped my bucket, and it sank, and it's a mercy I didn't follow it." So thought I, looking at his terrified countenance. " Well," said I, " let's go and have a look at the bold swimmer." He averred, however, emphatically, that nothing would tempt him to go near the ' whirlpool that night. I went down and watched for a short time, but saw nothing, and concluded to go to the tent and have tea. . I chaffed my mate about the appari- , tion until he got rather sulky; and as it was now moonlight, I lit my pipe and took up my station on a rock commanding a clear view of the pool. After patient waiting for half-an hour I was rewarded by seeing something; and, oh horror! that something was a dead man, apparently quite naked, and with such an awful, ghastly look on his visage, upturned to the moonlight, that I confess, although ' generally considered pretty free Jrom nervousness, I felt very much inclined to follow my mate's example and fairly run for it. However, I sat fur sometime waicbi»g bis gyrations, sometimes with his body out of the water to the waist, again with his feet - in the air as if diving, and anon floating on his breast or back. Occasionally a stronger eddy than usual would make him spin round on bis own axis, and imparted such a natural at d life-like appearance to his revolutions, that I caught myself speculating upon his being a water-sprite or a merman, and guardian of the dismal unsunned cavern through which the troubled water had to pass in its course to the sea. Finding the fascinations of his fish-like gaze, combined with the weird and sombre surroundings, exercising a sort of spell over my senses, by a strong effort I left my seat, and going to the tent, apologised to my mate for my unbelief in his story, and proposed to try and get the poor derelict out. This he flatly refused to do, so I determined to make the attempt myself. Upon search I found we had no rope, so I concluded to let the matter rest until morning. I slept badly that night. I fancied I could hear hear horrid, strange, unaccountable noises, and once I awoke and commenced, Pater nosier qui es in calis,—- and found myself damp, cold, and trembling. , Fortunately my mate slept, or he would have had the laugh of me and do mistake. At dawn I was up, and at the first glance eaw the sad spectacle. The daylight further revealed the fact of a pair of boots being on his feet, and a leather belt .round his waist. His horrid grim look effectually settled the question of breakfast for, my mate and me. I procured some flax and made a. line, which '^^*X'TeD^eay6Jbrod'';iib^7tbr6w dyer his body. Several times I succeeded,, but; on com- '.."", men^ibg haul, -he 'always slipped through the noose. The precipitous nature 2oifjtbe/s^ •V pendicuiar eicgpt fpfjifewfteei where we . •^r|acn|g||^^

increasing waltz for the next, day and night, add in the morning be disappeared for ever. Who he was— ? what he. was— where he came from — ,aod. how he came (here — are questions which will only be solved on that dread day when Earth and sea shall yield up their long-hidden secrete. '