THE DAGGER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7995, 5 December 1905, Page 4

THE DAGGER.

I am not mad. I know that appearances are against me. This Uan asylum; those are keepers: and tbssa an my fellow patients, the foolish, gibbering wretches that yon tee. The superintendent admits that I am not like the rest; but I have a delusion, he says. He thinks it is a delusion because he cannot see It. You cannot see it. So you will think it is a delusion, fint it is there all the same. I ami unfortunate in seeing a sight that you and he and other people are spared; but I 4o see it, as plainly as I see this tree. I am aotmad. I am quits aware that yon are only pretrading to believe me ; but I can tell the story better if you will keep up the pre- •*»«*• I wouldn't open my mouth on the tabjeot, If I eould help myself; but it makes me—the dagger at my side—the thing that yon call my delusion-gone, has it? Then I shan't tell you. It hasn't gone I Don't strike me, dagger 1 Don't strike me I I m going to tell. * I was a medium before I came here, and I raised spirits. I dare say the superintendent told you that I was an impostor 1 Didn't he? Well—lwasl If I were mad I should not mind owning it. A madman has no character, and no one blames him. Being sane, 1 value my reputation. 8o I must explain that the imposture was quite an innocent one. The fools who consulted me wanted spirits. I had to sam a living somehow. So I conjured like a man upon the stage. No one blames him. Wby, then, blame me? I didn't do any harm. The dagger is poisoned. That is why lam afraid of it. You needn't be frightened. It won't hurt you. There really wasn't any harm in the spirits that I raised at firßt. Put your right band. on the table, and I'll show you how I did it. Lay it flat with the fingers and thumb spread out. I put my left hand close to yours; my little finger on your little finger, see 1 The man on my right has his left little finger on my other little finger. How yon know that I am not using my hands, when the lights are out, don't you ? Then the lights go out, and we wait for lht spirits. It is quiet—quiet—quiet I You can hear one another breathe, and the wicker shair creak. Perhaps you think it is a spirit in it that makes it creak. Yon begin to , twitch with excitement. I twitch more than you. My hands take little nervous jumps—sol You nearly lost my finger then, didn't you ? So did the man on my right. You quite lost It, then, bat yon followed it np. He followed the other iittle finger. I've moved my hands oloeer together, you Bee. Closer. Now I He's lost my little finger, and found—the thumb of my left hand; He's too excited to notice that it a big little finger. So you've only got one hand between you ; and the other is free—free to make the spirits come I It is quiet, remember, deadly quiet; and it is dark, pitch dark. You don't believe in tbe spirits out here in the garden, in the light ot day. Yon don't belie-w that my finger's a thumb —bat you would there I There's a tambourine on tbe table in front of me. I take it up and rattle it. It is very quiet when I stop. I press a lever with my foot, and the table sways. It moves about about two inches up and down; but it feels to yoa like half a yard ! It's very, very quiet, when the rocking stops. I throw the tambourine down on the table. It falls with a rattje and clang. A woman screams. " Silence I" I whisper. '• The spirits most not be disturbed." Name a thing and it Is believed—in the dark I " The spirits are here," I say again. " You may speak to them." So you question the spirits, and I rap out answers on the table with my right handso 1 I make a little rattle, like this, with all my knuckles together, when the spirits do not wish to answer. They answer more often and mare correctly than you would imagine. They were foolish, ignorant people who came to my seai.ces, and I was a clever man. The superintendent will [ell you that I was a clever man. So you ask questions, and I rap out the answer, when I know them, or know that you do not know. Most of the seances end there. But you are true b-licvers; and you have paid an extra fee. It is not enough for you to hear the spirits rap on the table. You want to see them ; to listen to a sound of a voice. I cannot makeyou see them, or hear them ; but you can make yourselves; and I know this, and you do not know, i order a spirit to appear. It is only a little pale, mis'? that I have made by touching a knob in the carving of the table; a faint, tremulous, un -iupen glow. You make the rest. You shake your head, but just consider, l-n't your mind always doing this ? A ripple o( lau-ht-r, or I the rustle o! a dress, and yon gay •' Tiicrc goes Amanda?" And Ara»,U vour mini's «ye taking.il! the r.-.-t uf hC-r on tnut | Fou pxii a ihoct h.-.n;:i„- oil a couutrrWoman's line; ami by day it is a sVvt. ]j T night it isa sheet, or a while w.ishod wall. or a ghost, or whatever you exnect to si c This is a glow cf light-a vague*, dull --low; hut you fashion it into a form that you nt-l io know, and wish to sec a- iin. Luk into a mirror in a dark, still iohu. and mikouii your mind to see something and von will Just try it. What is Ule dilT, reiicc between sane and mad, when the mind can d i this? So the spirit conies. "Who arc you !" la-dc". ' it first it docs not reply. I ask a-ain and again; and then—it answers. I was a ventriloquist before I was a medium. Noiv do you understand ?

" I am so and so," the FpinC says. So and so " was a friend of vours. Yon «ee his face dimly in the indistinct blur of light. I don't deceive you. You deceive yourself. You ask him questions, and I aniwcr. I had found out something about liim beforehand. Your questions tell mo more. My answers lead you skilfully on. I make you answer yourself, really; bu!y u ,lo not inspect that, liaise the spiiits? f raise nothing but a glimmer of light in the darkncsa and silence. You raise the vest. I never Imposed on any one at all. For three years I let people raise what spirits they pleased. Tiicro wasn't any h&rni in that. Then I raided a spirit for myself. It was the spirit of the wife of an old man. She had been dead for two v. Hi. Xh»y •» son. Their name was liraile. Tne old Jnan was rich. Tiieson was wild. Th»vhad quarrelled, and he had left his father's ii'u.ne The old man asked the spirit's advice <bnut disinheriting him. lie wanted her t.> plead for the son, and bid hiui forgive him. He wouldn't have asked her advice, only he felt lure she would tell him that. The mind is a tissue of deceit! She did not tell him what he expected. If he disinherited the son, be tiioiight of leaving most of his money to me. AS any rate, he thought so when the spirit put the idea into his mind. I did not let hiui answer bimtelf. you understand. " He laugh? .it you behind your back," the spirit said. fla will waste the nuney that you and I toiled for.snl itintcd to sue He lives a bad hie lit d-.ts net J £ .,ri a the money, our wicked sin You m ist leave it to some worthy nun who will invest it and make it grow," the ffi.it atlviir j. "Some one who will waste notiiiug ty (it;ftvfi f "n:ice •nd «nc« Some wailby man -like the medium, our friend, who has dial led me to ineak to you. "He '• would do all these Nugi"

"That "wag bM, Look at the Sagger i li does not etir. )" Our son is bad," the spirit said. "Din Solute and callous and worse. He nev«i loved me. Bs doss not love you." I dim •ay that was true. It moves—the daggerdon't I He did love them in his way, th» wicked son. What was that against thn other things ? And, anyhow, what was it t* m£? The spirit—my spirit—persuaded the old man, little by little. I was careful, very careful, and he never suspected at all. I haa warned a lawyer, whom I knew, to be ready after the next stance; and then I met the eon. The lawyer was a scoundrel and b« had betrayed me. I wish I bad bitu here 1 He was only a shriveled little man I The son was a wild man, as I said. Ha abused mc shamefully; and at last he threatened my life. " Seol" he said. "I have a dagger. Sometimes I have been close to you and you have not known. Sometimes I shall be jusi behind you, and you will not know. The point has been within an inch of your back. It is poisoned—such deadly poison that I paid fifty pounds for it. Just a little touch will do. You will hardly feel a prick. You will only feel one throb of pain, and—you will find your spirits waiting for you 1 Tho dagger will be near you, some day, when you raise your spirits in the dark. It's only a touch, and you are dead. Think of that—think 1 " c He showed me the hilt of the dagger, opening his coat a little as he went. It was a long dagger with a long sharp point and » fluted blade. The handle was like twisted cords of red and gold. It was a dangeroua thing for a reckless man to have, and I could not get it out of my mind. I was a littU overwought at tho time. Raising spirits i« trying work, and it gets upon one's nerves. It wasn't his threat that frightened me. I knew that a hundred murders are threatened for one that is done. I got the idea of the dagger in my mind, and dwelt on it, and frightened myself. I dreamed of it every night, and I had a foolish habit of rehearsing the way I might die. He might wait round a corner and spring upon me ; or steal up from behind a crowd and press the point gently into my back. Ho might do a hundreddifferent things ; but I was sure of one. He would laugh his horrible, hoarse laugh: I feared the laugh more than tho daggor when I thought it of; and I feared his coming from behind. I got a habit of looking ovor my shoulder.

It will never do to go on like this, I told myself. The old man might last for years and years. He might change the will back in favor of his son. The son might dispute the will, for the old man was growing infirm and doddering. I would bring tho matter tu an end. The spirit should tell him to make a deed of gift at once. When I had the money I could laugh at the sou. I would buy him 08—lock him up—run away from him It would be best, perhaps, to run away ; for he was a violent man. I arranged a special stance; and the old man came. He was a tottering old mat,, leaning on a stick. They might say he was imbecile, if he made a will; but he had sense enough to make a gift. They were all people I knew well except one. He was a stranger; but they told me that he believed. If I had objected to him they might have suspected something wrong. I put him on my left hand as you are Bitting now.

Somehow I mistrusted him. When I slipped out my right hand I half thought thai be bad slipped out his. His little finger foil like a thumb. It may have been fancy. You do fancy things when you are a bundle of nerves, trembling in the dark. I was notsure then. lam not Bure now. lie gave iu« no trouble during the earlier manifestations; aud then—the spirit came. • I had contrived the glimmer more carefully than usual. There was a pinkioh broken mist that you might take for an old woman* i furrowed face. The grayish blotch on toy might be a cap. I had said I would c.ill h%*, so they knew what to expect; and they si* what they expected. I could almost see h«r myself. I was overstrung—overstrung. 41 1 am Margaret Urnile," I made her sr.y, in a cracked, quavering voice. I was good &t those voiceg. " I have been near you often, John, these few days; and I have been near him, too—our son." M Ah," said the old man. "Ah-h! Yon used to be fond of him, Maggie. I was fond of him, too, and never thought—but ho'a done what he's done He paused and coughed a little cackling cough, I was thinking out what tho spirit should say to him, when a voice hissed softly in my left ear : 14 The dagger is within half an inch of you. Do not stir, or you will touch it. 13e cartful ! 11 I looked sideways into the dark without moving my head. I could think that I sawa glimmer of steel. Yet it was dark was dark —pitfhd.uk. Icouidf'jel it was there, I dared not tremble for fear that my shivering skin should touch it; and my tongue f:uick to my month. " You remember the merry little chap that lie was, when he was a baby, Maggie," the foolish old man meandered on. "There wl3 many a thing we went without for him ; and we never s.iiJ him 'no ' - our son! You loved him, M-iggir», baby and boy and man, Don't you love him now—our son? " c " Speak ! " the voice hissed. "Be car* iul, or " " I love him still," I answered, "but—" " The da;;ger is here," the voice whispered. I thought the point brushed my coat. " I love him still," I said again. I dared not go on. '• Whatever he has done he is oar son," I repealed. If they had not been delirious with excite* m?»nt they must have noticed that I had relapsed into iny own voice. The whisper warned me.

"Yon would have mo forgtvo him, Maggie? " the old man asked excitedly. I answered as tho voice commanded me. What else could I do with tho dagger so near ?

" You mo3t forgivohim, John," I said In the old woman's voice. " For the sake ol his mother's love, and your own. Send for him and tell him this; and he will be a good son again, you will find. He docs not forget. He has only been wild. But he lovad us—he loves us—our son! " < There was a deep silence. I moved my hand toward the scorn on the carved tableleg that made the spirit nod took it aw»y. fiut the dagger movtd, too. So I stayed mr band. " Our friend, the medium," the old man began ; and paused, for hi stood in awe of me " Tell him all," the voice hissed. " Keep one jot back and you'll a dead man ! " " Our friend the medium wag—wis mil taken, " 1 said. It was my own voice now: but It cracked and quavered like hers. " Is a liar," the voice dictated," who wanted to extort your money. " "Is a-a liar—who—who wanted—your money." " Tell him all, or " "It has not been my spirit before, but * pretense that he made " "Goon !Go on! " ■ Examine the knob o! the third acorn! from the top of the table-leg by him, and yon will discover how he mado tho pretense. Be Is a »nd he answered for me/