_THE AMPUTATED ARMS_
It happened when I was about eighteen or nineteen years old (began Dr.
Simsen). I was studying at the University, and being coached in
anatomy by my old friend Sölling. He was an amusing fellow, this
Sölling. Full of jokes and whimsical ideas, and equally merry, whether
he was working at the dissecting table or brewing a punch for a jovial
crowd.
He had but one fault--if one might call it so--and that was his
exaggerated idea of punctuality. He grumbled if you were late two
minutes; any longer delay would spoil the entire evening for him. He
himself was never known to be late. At least not during the entire
years of my studying.
One Wednesday evening our little circle of friends met as usual in my
room at seven o'clock. I had made the customary preparations for the
meeting, had borrowed three chairs--I had but one myself--had cleaned
all my pipes, and had persuaded Hans to take the breakfast dishes from
the sofa and carry them downstairs. One by one my friends arrived, the
clock struck seven, and to our great astonishment, Sölling had not yet
appeared. One, two, even five minutes passed before we heard him run
upstairs and knock at the door with his characteristic short blows.
When he entered the room he looked so angry and at the same time so
upset that I cried out: "What's the matter, Sölling? You look as if
you had been robbed."
"That's exactly what has happened," replied Sölling angrily. "But it
was no ordinary sneak thief," he added, hanging his overcoat behind
the door.
"What have you lost?" asked my neighbor Nansen.
"Both arms from the new skeleton I've just recently received from the
hospital," said Sölling with an expression as if his last cent had
been taken from him. "It's vandalism!"
We burst out into loud laughter at this remarkable answer, but Sölling
continued: "Can you imagine it? Both arms are gone, cut off at the
shoulder joint;--and the strangest part of it is that the same thing
has been done to my shabby old skeleton which stands in my bedroom,
There wasn't an arm on either of them."
"That's too bad," I remarked. "For we were just going to study the
_anatomy_ of the arm to-night."
"Osteology," corrected Sölling gravely. "Get out your skeleton, little
Simsen. It isn't as good as mine, but it will do for this
evening."
I went to the corner where my anatomical treasures were hidden behind
a green curtain--"the Museum," was what Sölling called it--but my
astonishment was great when I found my skeleton in its accustomed
place and wearing as usual my student's uniform--but without arms.
"The devil!" cried Sölling. "That was done by the same person who
robbed me; the arms are taken off at the shoulder joint in exactly the
same manner. You did it, Simsen!"
I declared my innocence, very angry at the abuse of my fine skeleton,
while Nansen cried: "Wait a moment, I'll bring in mine. There hasn't
been a soul in my room since this morning, I can swear to that. I'll
be back in an instant."
He hurried into his room, but returned in a few moments greatly
depressed and somewhat ashamed. The skeleton was in its usual place,
but the arms were gone, cut off at the shoulder in exactly the same
manner as mine.
The affair, mysterious in itself, had now come to be a serious matter.
We lost ourselves in suggestions and explanations, none of which
seemed to throw any light on the subject. Finally we sent a messenger
to the other side of the house where, as I happened to know, was a new
skeleton which the young student Ravn had recently received from the
janitor of the hospital.
Ravn had gone out and taken the key with him. The messenger whom we
had sent to the rooms of the Iceland students returned with the
information that one of them had used the only skeleton they possessed
to pummel the other with, and that consequently only the thigh bones
were left unbroken.
What were we to do? We couldn't understand the matter at all. Sölling
scolded and cursed and the company was about to break up when we heard
some one coming noisily upstairs. The door was thrown open and a tall,
thin figure appeared on the threshold--our good friend Niels Daae.
He was a strange chap, this Niels Daae, the true type of a species
seldom found nowadays. He was no longer young, and by reason of a
queer chain of circumstances, as he expressed it, he had been through
nearly all the professions and could produce papers proving that he
had been on the point of passing not one but three examinations.
He had begun with theology; but the story of the quarrel between Jacob
and Esau had led him to take up the study of law. As a law student he
had come across an interesting poisoning case, which had proved to him
that a study of medicine was extremely necessary for lawyers; and he
had taken up the study of medicine with such energy that he had
forgotten all his law and was about to take his last examinations at
the age of forty.
Niels Daae took the story of our troubles very seriously. "Every pot
has two handles," he began. "Every sausage two ends, every question
two sides, except this one--this has three." (Applause.) "When we look
at it from the legal point of view there can be no doubt that it
belongs in the category of ordinary theft. But from the fact that the
thief took only the arms when he might have taken the entire skeleton,
we must conclude that he is not in a responsible condition of mind,
which therefore introduces a medical side to the affair. From a legal
point of view, the thief must be convicted for robbery, or at least
for the illegal appropriation of the property of others; but from the
medical point of view, we must acquit him, because he is not
responsible for his acts. Here we have two professions quarreling with
one another, and who shall say which is right? But now I will
introduce the theological point of view, and raise the entire affair
up to a higher plane. Providence, in the material shape of a patron of
mine in the country, whose children I have inoculated with the juice
of wisdom, has sent me two fat geese and two first-class ducks. These
animals are to be cooked and eaten this evening in Mathiesen's
establishment, and I invite this honored company to join me there.
Personally I look upon the disappearance of these arms as an all-wise
intervention of Providence, which sets its own inscrutable wisdom up
against the wisdom which we would otherwise have heard from the lips
of my venerable friend Sölling."
Daae's confused speech was received with laughter and applause, and
Sölling's weak protests were lost in the general delight at the
invitation. I have often noticed that such improvised festivities are
usually the most enjoyable, and so it was for us that evening. Niels
Daae treated us to his ducks and to his most amusing jokes, Sölling
sang his best songs, our jovial host Mathiesen told his wittiest
stories, and the merriment was in full swing when we heard cries in
the street, and then a rush of confused noises broken by screams of
pain.
"There's been an accident," cried Sölling, running out to the door.
We all followed him and discovered that a pair of run-away horses had
thrown a carriage against a tree, hurling the driver from his box,
under the wheels. His right arm had been broken near the shoulder. In
the twinkling of an eye the hall of festivities was transformed into
an emergency hospital. Sölling shook his head as he examined the
injury, and ordered the transport of the patient to the city hospital.
It was his belief that the arm would have to be amputated, cut off at
the shoulder joint, just as had been the case with our skeleton.
"Damned odd coincidence, isn't it?" he remarked to me.
Our merry mood had vanished and we took our way, quiet and depressed,
through the old avenues toward our home. For the first time in its
existence possibly, our venerable "barracks," as we called the
dormitory, saw its occupants returning home from an evening's bout
just as the night watchman intoned his eleven o'clock verse.
"Just eleven," exclaimed Sölling. "It's too early to go to bed, and
too late to go anywhere else. We'll go up to your room, little Simsen,
and see if we can't have some sort of a lesson this evening. You have
your colored plates and we'll try to get along with them. It's a
nuisance that we should have lost those arms just this evening."
"The Doctor can have all the arms and legs he wants," grinned Hans,
who came out of the doorway just in time to hear Sölling's last word.
"What do you mean, Hans?" asked Sölling in astonishment.
"It'll be easy enough to get them," said Hans. "They've torn down the
planking around the Holy Trinity churchyard, and dug up the earth to
build a new wall. I saw it myself, as I came past the church. Lord,
what a lot of bones they've dug out there! There's arms and legs and
heads, many more than the Doctor could possibly need."
"Much good that does us," answered Sölling. "They shut the gates at
seven o'clock and it's after eleven already."
"Oh, yes, they shut them," grinned Hans again. "But there's another
way to get in. If you go through the gate of the porcelain factory and
over the courtyard, and through the mill in the fourth courtyard that
leads out into Spring Street, there you will see where the planking is
torn down and you can get into the churchyard easily."
"Hans, you're a genius!" exclaimed Sölling in delight. "Here, Simsen,
you know that factory inside and out, you're so friendly with that
fellow Outzen who lives there. Run along to him and let him give you
the key of the mill. It will be easy to find an arm that isn't too
much decayed. Hurry along, now; the rest of us will wait for you
upstairs."
To be quite candid I must confess that I was not particularly eager to
fulfill Sölling's command. I was at an age to have still a sufficient
amount of reverence for death and the grave, and the mysterious
occurrence of the stolen arms still ran through my mind. But I was
still more afraid of Sölling's irony and of the laughter of my
comrades, so I trotted off as carelessly as if I had been sent to buy
a package of cigarettes.
It was some time before I could arouse the old janitor of the factory
from his peaceful slumbers. I told him that I had an important message
from Outzen, and hurried upstairs to the latter's room. Outzen was a
strictly moral character; knowing this, I was prepared to have him
refuse me the key which would let me into the fourth courtyard and
from there into the cemetery. As I expected, Outzen took the matter
very seriously. He closed the Hebrew Bible which he had been studying
as I entered, turned up his lamp and looked at me in astonishment as I
made my request.
"Why, my dear Simsen, it is a most sinful deed that you are about to
do," he said gravely. "Take my advice and desist. You will get no key
from me for any such cause. The peace of the grave is sacred. No man
dare disturb it."
"And how about the gravedigger? He puts the newly dead down beside the
old corpses, and lives as peacefully as anyone else."
"He is doing his duty," answered Outzen calmly. "But to disturb the
peace of the grave from sheer daring, with the fumes of the punch
still in your head,--that is a different matter,--that will surely be
punished!"
His words irritated me. It is not very flattering, particularly if one
is not yet twenty, to be told that you are about to perform a daring
deed simply because you are drunk. Without any further reply to his
protests I took the key from its place on the wall and ran downstairs
two steps at a time, vowing to myself that I would take home an arm
let cost what it would. I would show Outzen, and Sölling, and all the
rest, what a devil of a fellow I was.
My heart beat rapidly as I stole through the long dark corridor, past
the ruins of the old convent of St. Clara, into the so-called third
courtyard. Here I took a lantern from the hall, lit it and crossed to
the mill where the clay was prepared for the factory. The tall wheels
and cylinders, with their straps and bolts, looked like weird
creatures of the night in the dim light of my tallow candle. I felt my
courage sinking even here, but I pulled myself together, opened the
last door with my key and stepped out into the fourth courtyard. A
moment later I stood on the dividing line between the cemetery and the
factory.
The entire length of the tall blackened planking had been torn down.
The pieces of it lay about, and the earth had been dug up to
considerable depth, to make a foundation for a new wall between Life
and Death. The uncanny emptiness of the place seized upon me. I halted
involuntarily as if to harden myself against it. It was a raw, cold,
stormy evening. The clouds flew past the moon in jagged fragments, so
that the churchyard, with its white crosses and stones, lay now in
full light, now in dim shadow. Now and then a rush of wind rattled
over the graves, roared through the leafless trees, bent the
complaining bushes, and caught itself in the little eddy at the corner
of the church, only to escape again over the roofs, turning the old
weather vane with a sharp scream of the rusty iron.
I looked toward the left--there I saw several weird white shapes
moving gently in the moonlight. "White sheets," I said to myself,
"it's nothing but white sheets! This drying of linen in the churchyard
ought to be stopped."
I turned in the opposite direction and saw a heap of bones scarce two
paces distant from me. Holding my lantern lower, I approached them and
stretched out my hand--there was a rattling in the heap; something
warm and soft touched my fingers.
I started and shivered. Then I exclaimed: "The rats! nothing but the
rats in the churchyard! I must not get frightened. It will be so
foolish--they would laugh at me. Where the devil is that arm? I can't
find one that isn't broken!"
With trembling knees and in feverish haste I examined one heap after
another. The light in my lantern flickered in the wind and suddenly
went out. The foul smell of the smoking wick rose to my face and I
felt as if I were about to faint. It took all my energy to recover my
control. I walked two or three steps ahead, and saw at a little
distance a coffin which had been still in good shape when taken out of
the earth.
I approached it and saw that it was of old-fashioned shape, made of
heavy oaken boards that were already rotting. On its cover was a metal
plate with an illegible inscription. The old wood was so brittle that
it would have been very easy for me to open the coffin with any sort
of a tool. I looked about me and saw a hatchet and a couple of spades
lying near the fence. I took one of the latter, put its flat end
between the boards--the old coffin fell apart with a dull crackling
protest.
I turned my head aside, put my hand in through the opening, felt
about, and taking a firm hold on one arm of the skeleton, I loosened
it from the body with a quick jerk. The movement loosened the head as
well, and it rolled out through the opening right to my very feet. I
took up the skull to lay it in the coffin again--and then I saw a
greenish phosphorescent glimmer in its empty eye sockets, a glimmer
which came and went. Mad terror shook me at the sight. I looked up at
the houses in the distance, then back again to the skull; the empty
sockets shone more brightly than before. I felt that I must have some
natural explanation for this appearance or I would go mad. I took up
the head again--and never in my life have I had so overpowering an
impression of the might of death and decay than in this moment.
Myriads of disgusting clammy insects poured out of every opening of
the skull, and a couple of shining, wormlike centipedes--_Geophiles_,
the scientists call them--crawled about in the eye sockets. I threw
the skull back into the coffin, sprang over the heaps of bones without
even taking time to pick up my lantern, and ran like a hunted thing
through the dark mill, over the factory courtyards, until I reached
the outer gate. Here I washed the arm at the fountain, and smoothed my
disarranged clothing. I hid my booty under my overcoat, nodded to the
sleepy old janitor as he opened the door to me, and a few moments
later I entered my own room with an expression which I had attempted
to make quite calm and careless.
"What the devil is the matter with you, Simsen?" cried Sölling as he
saw me. "Have you seen a ghost? Or is the punch wearing off already?
We thought you'd never come; why, it's nearly twelve o'clock!"
Without a word I drew back my overcoat and laid my booty on the table.
"By all the devils," exclaimed Sölling in anatomical enthusiasm,
"where did you find that superb arm? Simsen knows what he's about all
right. It's a girl's arm; isn't it beautiful? Just look at the
hand--how fine and delicate it is! Must have worn a No. 6 glove.
There's a pretty hand to caress and kiss!"
The arm passed from one to the other amid general admiration. Every
word that was said increased my disgust for myself and for what I had
done. It was a woman's arm, then--what sort of a woman might she have
been? Young and beautiful possibly--her brothers' pride, her parents'
joy. She had faded away in her youth, cared for by loving hands and
tender thoughts. She had fallen asleep gently, and those who loved her
had desired to give her in death the peace she had enjoyed throughout
her lifetime. For this they had made her coffin of thick, heavy oaken
boards. And this hand, loved and missed by so many--it lay there now
on an anatomical table, encircled by clouds of tobacco smoke, stared
at by curious glances, and made the object of coarse jokes. O God! how
terrible it was!
"I must have that arm," exclaimed Sölling, when the first burst of
admiration had passed. "When I bleach it and touch it up with varnish,
it will be a superb specimen. I'll take it home with me."
"No," I exclaimed, "I can't permit it. It was wrong of me to bring it
away from the churchyard. I'm going right back to put the arm in its
place."
"Well, will you listen to that?" cried Sölling, amid the hearty
laughter of the others. "Simsen's so lyric, he certainly must be
drunk. I must have that arm at any cost."
"Not much," cut in Niels Daae; "you have no right to it. It was buried
in the earth and dug out again; it is a find, and all the rest of us
have just as much right to it as you have."
"Yes, every one of us has some share in it," said some one else.
"But what are you going to do about it?" remarked Sölling. "It would
be vandalism to break up that arm. What God has joined together let no
man put asunder," he concluded with pathos.
"Let's auction it off," exclaimed Daae. "I will be the auctioneer, and
this key to the graveyard will serve me for a hammer."
The laughter broke out anew as Daae took his place solemnly at the
head of the table and began to whine out the following announcement:
"I hereby notify all present that on the 25th of November, at twelve
o'clock at midnight, in corridor No. 5 of the student barracks, a
lady's arm in excellent condition, with all its appurtenances of wrist
bones, joints, and finger tips, is to be offered at public auction.
The buyer can have possession of his purchase immediately after the
auction, and a credit of six weeks will be given to any reliable
customer. I bid a Danish shilling."
"One mark," cried Sölling mockingly.
"Two," cried somebody else.
"Four," exclaimed Sölling. "It's worth it. Why don't you join in,
Simsen? You look as if you were sitting in a hornet's nest."
I bid one mark more, and Sölling raised me a thaler. There were no
more bids, the hammer fell, and the arm belonged to Sölling.
"Here, take this," he said, handing me a mark piece; "it's part of
your commission as grave robber. You shall have the rest later, unless
you prefer that I should turn it over to the drinking fund." With
these words Sölling wrapped the arm in a newspaper, and the gay crowd
ran noisily down the stairs and through the streets, until their
singing and laughter were lost in the distance.
I stood alone, still dazed and bewildered, staring at the piece of
money in my hand. My thoughts were far too much excited that I should
hope to sleep. I turned up my lamp and took out one of my books to try
and study myself into a quieter mood. But without success.
Suddenly I heard a sound like that of a swinging pendulum. I raised my
head and listened attentively. There was no clock either in my room or
in the neighboring ones--but I could still hear the sound. At the same
moment my lamp began to flicker. The oil was apparently exhausted. I
was about to rise to fill it again, when my eyes fell upon the door,
and I saw the graveyard key, which I had hung there, moving slowly
back and forth with a rhythmic swing. Just as its motion seemed about
to die away, it would receive a gentle push as from an unseen hand,
and would swing back and forth more than ever. I stood there with open
mouth and staring eyes, ice-cold chills ran down my back, and drops of
perspiration stood out on my forehead. Finally, I could endure it no
longer. I sprang to the door, seized the key with both hands and put
it on my desk under a pile of heavy books. Then I breathed a sigh of
relief.
My lamp was about to go out and I discovered that I had no more oil.
With feverish haste I threw my clothes off, blew out the light and
sprang into bed as if to smother my fears.
But once alone in the darkness the fears grew worse than ever. They
grew into dreams and visions. It seemed to me as if I were out in the
graveyard again, and heard the screaming of the rusty weather vane as
the wind turned it. Then I was in the mill again; the wheels were
turning and stretching out ghostly hands to draw me into the yawning
maw of the machine. Then again, I found myself in a long, low,
pitch-black corridor, followed by Something I could not see--Something
that drove me to the mouth of a bottomless abyss. I would start up out
of my half sleep, listen and look about me, then fall back again into
an uneasy slumber.
Suddenly something fell from the ceiling onto the bed, and
"buzz--buzz--buzz" sounded about my head. It was a huge fly which had
been sleeping in a corner of my room and had been roused by the heat
of the stove. It flew about in great circles, now around the bed, now
in all four corners of the chamber--"buzz--buzz--buzz"--it was
unendurable! At last I heard it creep into a bag of sugar which had
been left on the window sill. I sprang up and closed the bag tight.
The fly buzzed worse than ever, but I went back to bed and attempted
to sleep again, feeling that I had conquered the enemy.
I began to count: I counted slowly to one hundred, two hundred,
finally up to one thousand, and then at last I experienced that
pleasant weakness which is the forerunner of true sleep. I seemed to
be in a beautiful garden, bright with many flowers and odorous with
all the perfumes of spring. At my side walked a beautiful young girl.
I seemed to know her well, and yet it was not possible for me to
remember her name, or even to know how we came to be wandering there
together. As we walked slowly through the paths she would stop to pick
a flower or to admire a brilliant butterfly swaying in the air.
Suddenly a cold wind blew through the garden. The young girl trembled
and her cheeks grew pale. "I am cold," she said to me, "do you not
see? It is Death who is approaching us."
I would have answered, but in the same moment another stronger and
still more icy gust roared through the garden. The leaves turned pale
on the trees, the flowerets bent their heads, and the bees and
butterflies fell lifeless to the earth. "That is Death," whispered my
companion, trembling.
A third icy gust blew the last leaves from the bushes, white crosses
and gravestones appeared between the bare twigs--and I was in the
churchyard again and heard the screaming of the rusty weather vane.
Beside me stood a heavy brass-bound coffin with a metal plate on the
cover. I bent down to read the inscription, the cover rolled off
suddenly, and from out the coffin rose the form of the young girl who
had been with me in the garden. I stretched out my arms to clasp her
to my breast--then, oh horror! I saw the greenish-gleaming, empty eye
sockets of the skull. I felt bony arms around me, dragging me back
into the coffin. I screamed aloud for help and woke up.
My room seemed unusually light; but I remembered that it was a
moonlight night and thought no more of it. I tried to explain the
visions of my dream with various natural noises about me. The
imprisoned fly buzzed as loudly as a whole swarm of bees; one half of
my window had blown open, and the cold night air rushed in gusts into
my room.
I sprang up to close the window, and then I saw that the strong white
light that filled my room did not come from the moon, but seemed to
shine out from the church opposite. I heard the chiming of the bells,
soft at first, as if in far distance, then stronger and stronger
until, mingled with the rolling notes of the organ, a mighty rush of
sound struck against my windows. I stared out into the street and
could scarcely believe my eyes. The houses in the market place just
beyond were all little one-story buildings with bow windows and wooden
eave troughs ending in carved dragon heads. Most of them had balconies
of carved woodwork, and high stone stoops with gleaming brass rails.
But it was the church most of all that aroused my astonishment. Its
position was completely changed. Its front turned toward our house
where usually the side had stood. The church was brilliantly lighted,
and now I perceived that it was this light which filled my room. I
stood speechless amid the chiming of the bells and the roaring of the
organ, and I saw a long wedding procession moving slowly up the center
aisle of the church toward the altar. The light was so brilliant that
I could distinguish each one of the figures. They were all in strange
old-time costumes; the ladies in brocades and satins with strings of
pearls in their powdered hair, the gentlemen in uniform with knee
breeches, swords, and cocked hats held under their arms. But it was
the bride who drew my attention most strongly. She was clothed in
white satin, and a faded myrtle wreath was twisted through the
powdered locks beneath her sweeping veil. The bridegroom at her side
wore a red uniform and many decorations. Slowly they approached the
altar, where an old man in black vestments and a heavy white wig was
awaiting them. They stood before him, and I could see that he was
reading the ritual from a gold-lettered book.
One of the train stepped forward and unbuckled the bridegroom's sword,
that his right hand might be free to take that of the bride. She
seemed about to raise her own hand to his, when she suddenly sank
fainting at his feet. The guests hurried toward the altar, the lights
went out, the music stopped, and the figures floated together like
pale white mists.
But outside in the square it was still brighter than before, and I
suddenly saw the side portal of the church burst open and the wedding
procession move out across the market place.
I turned as if to flee, but could not move a muscle. Quiet, as if
turned to stone, I stood and watched the ghostly figures that came
nearer and nearer. The clergyman led the train, then came the
bridegroom and the bride, and as the latter raised her eyes to me I
saw that it was the young girl of the garden. Her eyes were so full of
pain, so full of sad entreaty that I could scarce endure them; but how
shall I explain the feeling that shot through me as I suddenly
discovered that the right sleeve of her white satin gown hung empty at
her side? The train disappeared, and the tone of the church bells
changed to a strange, dry, creaking sound, and the gate below me
complained as it turned on its rusty hinges. I faced toward my own
door. I knew that it was shut and locked, but I knew that the ghostly
procession were coming to call me to account, and I felt that no walls
could keep them out. My door flew open, there was a rustling as of
silken gowns, but the figures seemed to float in in the changing forms
of swaying white mists. Closer and closer they gathered around me,
robbing me of breath, robbing me of the power to move. There was a
silence as of the grave--and then I saw before me the old priest with
his gold-lettered book. He raised his hand and spoke with a soft, deep
voice: "The grave is sacred! Let no one dare to disturb the peace of
the dead."
"The grave is sacred!" an echo rolled through the room as the swaying
figures moved like reeds in the wind.
"What do you want? What do you demand?" I gasped in the grip of a
deathly fear.
"Give back to the grave that which belongs to it," said the deep voice
again.
"Give back to the grave that which belongs to it," repeated the echo
as the swaying forms pressed closer to me.
"But it's impossible--I can't--I have sold it--sold it at auction!" I
screamed in despair. "It was buried and found in the earth--and sold
for five marks eight shillings----"
A hideous scream came from the ghostly ranks. They threw themselves
upon me as the white fog rolls in from the sea, they pressed upon me
until I could no longer breathe. Beside myself, I threw open the window
and attempted to spring out, screaming aloud: "Help! help! murder!
they are murdering me!"
The sound of my own voice awoke me. I found myself in my night clothes
on the window sill, one leg already out of the window and both hands
clutching at the center post. On the street below me stood the night
watchman, staring up at me in astonishment, while faint white clouds
of mist rolled out of my window like smoke. All around outside lay the
November fog, gray and moist, and as the fresh air of the early dawn
blew cool on my face I felt my senses returning to me. I looked down
at the night watchman--God bless him! He was a big, strong,
comfortably fat fellow made of real flesh and blood, and no ghost
shape of the night. I looked at the round tower of the church--how
massive and venerable it stood there, gray in the gray of the morning
mists. I looked over at the market place. There was a light in the
baker shop and a farmer stood before it, tying his horse to a post.
Back in my own room everything was in its usual place. Even the little
paper bag with the sugar lay there on the window sill, and the
imprisoned fly buzzed louder than ever. I knew that I was really awake
and that the day was coming. I sprang back hastily from the window and
was about to jump into bed, when my foot touched something hard and
sharp.
I stooped to see what it was, felt about on the floor in the half
light, and touched a long, dry, skeleton arm which held a tiny roll of
paper in its bony fingers. I felt about again, and found still another
arm, also holding a roll of paper. Then I began to think that my
reason must be going. What I had seen thus far was only an unusually
vivid dream--a vision of my heated imagination. But I knew that I was
awake now, and yet here lay two--no, three (for there was still
another arm)--hard, undeniable, material proofs that what I had
thought was hallucination, might have been reality. Trembling in the
thought that madness was threatening me, I tore open the first roll of
paper. On it was written the name: "Sölling." I caught at the second
and opened it. There stood the word: "Nansen."
I had just strength enough left to catch the third paper and open
it--there was my own name: "Simsen."
Then I sank fainting to the floor.
When I came to myself again, Niels Daae stood beside me with an empty
water bottle, the contents of which were dripping off my person and
off the sofa upon which I was lying. "Here, drink this," he said in a
soothing tone. "It will make you feel better."
I looked about me wildly, as I sipped at the glass of brandy which put
new life into me once more. "What has happened?" I asked weakly.
"Oh, nothing of importance," answered Niels. "You were just about to
commit suicide by means of charcoal gas. Those are mighty bad
ventilators on your old stove there. The wind must have blown them
shut, unless you were fool enough to close them yourself before you
went to bed. If you had not opened the window, you would have already
been too far along the path to Paradise to be called back by a glass
of brandy. Take another."
"How did you get up here?" I asked, sitting upright on the sofa.
"Through the door in the usual simple manner," answered Niels Daae. "I
was on watch last night in the hospital; but Mathiesen's punch is
heavy and my watching was more like sleeping, so I thought it better
to come away in the early morning. As I passed your barracks here, I
saw you sitting in the window in your nightshirt and calling down to
the night watchman that some one was murdering you. I managed to wake
up Jansen down below you, and got into the house through his window.
Do you usually sleep on the bare floor?"
"But where did the arms come from?" I asked, still half bewildered.
"Oh, the devil take those arms," cried Niels. "Just see if you can
stand up all right now. Oh, those arms there? Why, those are the arms
I cut off your skeletons. Clever idea, wasn't it? You know how grumpy
Sölling gets if anything interferes with his tutoring. You see, I'd
had the geese sent me, and I wanted you to all come with me to
Mathiesen's place. I knew you were going to read the osteology of the
arm, so I went up into Sölling's room, opened it with his own keys and
took the arms from his skeleton. I did the same here while you were
downstairs in the reading room. Have you been stupid enough to take
them down off their frames, and take away their tickets? I had marked
them so carefully, that each man should get his own again."
I dressed hastily and went out with Niels into the fresh, cool morning
air. A few minutes later we separated, and I turned toward the street
where Sölling lived. Without heeding the protest of his old landlady,
I entered the room where he still slept the sleep of the just. The
arm, still wrapped in newspaper, lay on his desk. I took it up, put
the mark piece in its place and hastened with all speed to the
churchyard.
How different it looked in the early dawn! The fog had risen and
shining frost pearls hung in the bare twigs of the tall trees where
the sparrows were already twittering their morning song. There was no
one to be seen. The churchyard lay quiet and peaceful. I stepped over
the heaps of bones to where the heavy oaken coffin lay under a tree.
Cautiously I pushed the arm back into its interior, and hammered the
rusty nails into their places again, just as the first rays of the
pale November sun touched a gleam of light from the metal plate on the
cover.--Then the weight was lifted from my soul.