“I don’t know you,” I said.
“Nor I you; but I knew you would come.”
“You are ill and need help?” I asked.
“No,” he replied in his strange monotone. “But on this day some one
always visits here. None has ever returned. But I have yet to be alone on
the night of this anniversary.”
There was something so weird in the way he looked at me out of those big,
watery eyes that I involuntarily shuddered.
“What anniversary?” I asked.
“The murder of my father,” he answered. “It happened many years ago. A
strange man came to this cabin just as you have done.”
He paused. I said nothing.
“You wish to stay all night?” he asked.
“Yes, if I may,” I replied. A moment later I regretted it.
“Quite so,” said he, with a slight nod of his white head. “Those were
the very words he addressed to us. We took him in. When morning came I
found my father dead in there,” rolling his eyes and raising his head to
indicate some point behind him, “with a dagger in his heart. You can see
the room if you open the door behind me.”
I looked at him a moment, hesitating. Then I went to the door and pushed
it open. Cautiously glancing into the other room, I saw there was nothing
there but a bunk similar to the one the old man occupied.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said, evidently sensing my fear. “Nothing will hurt
you now. It’s after midnight when it happens.”
“What happens?” I asked.
“I don’t know. No two men have the same experience. It all depends on
one’s state of mind.”
“You mean—” I began.
“Yes,” he interrupted. “One man saw hands reaching toward him and ropes
in the air. He was escaping the gallows. Another saw faces of beautiful
girls. He was on his way to a large church wedding. A third saw pools
of blood and the white snow stained by human life. He was again living
through a massacre in Russia.”
“Do you live here?” I asked.
“No. No one does. The cabin is quite deserted. I come each year to
welcome the evening’s guest.”
“Is there no other place to stay?” I asked, a sudden fear seizing me.
“None. Besides, it is growing dark without, and you would lose your way
_even if you could leave_.”
There was something ominous in the way he uttered these last five words.
“Yes,” he went on, as if I had asked the unuttered question in my mind,
“you may think you can go, but you cannot. That is the curse my father
placed on this cabin. And I come each year to see that his word is
obeyed. Whoever enters that door yonder on this date must stay until
morning, and endure the agonies that only the rising sun can dispel.”
I looked about me to make sure that he and I were the only living things
in the room.
“What is to prevent my leaving?” I asked.
“Try to,” he replied, an eerie note of glee in his queer voice.
I walked to the door and gave it a mighty pull. To my utter amazement, it
was locked!
I tried again, this time with greater determination; but the door
remained unyielding. A sudden terror seized me. I turned to beseech the
old man to let me go, but _he was not there!_
I looked quickly about me. He was nowhere to be seen. I ran into the
other room. It was as empty as before. I rushed to the door there and
pulled vigorously, but my efforts were in vain.
Returning to his bunk, I examined it closely. To my great astonishment,
the heavy gray blanket was gone. In desperation I tried once more the
door through which I had entered the cabin. It was still as inflexible as
concrete.
Darkness fell fast and the room became very dim. I groped about and
discovered some matches and a candle on a shelf under the table. I struck
a match and lighted the candle. Letting some of the tallow drip onto
the table, I made a stick for it. I then sat down on the edge of the
bunk and anxiously awaited developments. But nothing occurred to mar the
somber silence of my prison.
Thus I remained until my watch pointed to the hour of nine. My journey
had greatly fatigued me, but my fears counterbalanced my weariness, so
that I kept awake in spite of it.
At length, however, my eyelids grew heavy; my eyes became bleary, so that
the candle multiplied, and my head drooped until my chin rested on my
chest.
Letting the candle burn, I lay back on the hard bunk. I was cold and
very nervous, and greatly felt the need of food and dry clothing. But my
fatigue soon overcame me and I fell asleep.
When I awakened, a sense of suffocation and bewilderment hung over me.
Whereas the room had been cold when I lay down, it now seemed close and
hot. I pulled myself to a sitting posture. The room was dark. The candle
was out.
I jumped to my feet and started toward the table. But in another moment I
stood frozen to the spot, my eyes arrested and my body palsied by what I
saw before me.
* * * * *
At the far end of the room was a purple glow in the shape of a human
heart. It was stationary when I saw it, but almost immediately it began
to move about the room. Now it was at the window. Then beside the table.
Again it moved quickly but silently into the other room.
I pulled my frightened senses together and groped my way to the table. I
found a match. With trembling hands, I struck it and lit the candle. To
my surprise, it was almost as tall as when I had fallen asleep. I looked
at my watch. It was one o’clock.
A moment later the flame was snuffed out and I was again in total
darkness. I looked wildly about me. Horrors! The purple heart was beside
me! I shrank back in terror. It came closer.
Suddenly I acquired superhuman courage. I grasped for the spectre. I
touched nothing. I placed my left hand before me at arm’s length. _Lo!_
it was between me and my hand!
Presently it moved away. A great calm settled over me and I began to
sense a presence in the room. Now, without any fear and with steady
hand, I again struck a match and lighted the candle. It was promptly
extinguished. I struck another with similar results.
And now something brushed my lips and an arm was passed lightly about my
shoulders, but I was no longer afraid. The room continued cozily warm,
and a greater sense of peace came over me.
Presently I lay down again and watched the purple heart as it came toward
me and took its place at the edge of the bunk, like some loved one
sitting beside me.
I must have fallen asleep again, for I knew no more until broad daylight
awakened me, and I found myself lying in the middle of the room. There
was no fog. The sun was shining brightly, and a broad beam was streaming
through the dusty window pane. The candle and the matches were no longer
visible.
Suddenly I thought of the locked door. Springing to it, I gave a mighty
pull. It opened easily!