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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1878)
November, 1878. THE WEST SHORE. 69 monotonously and meaningless as rain upon a cottage thatch. As he pro ceeded droning out his details a singu lar rage took possession of mc ; and I believe I should have throttled him where he stood had I not c'''7cd my hat and abruptly quitted the oflice. It seemed to me that the open air would bring relief ; but it did not. I walked not with my accustomed firm ness of tread, but with a jcrkiness, as a jumping-jack might if endowed with automatic motion. Somehow I scarce ly knew when my feet touched the ground ; it seemed that I was stepping upon air. A friend met mc, and, with a familiar slap upon the back, asked me to take a drink. I started, and shrunk as his hand fell upon me as though from a thunder-bolt it seemed a trip hammer delivered between my shoul ders. His face was familiar to me as my own, but 1 looked into it with a frightened expression which prompted the inquiry : " What the devil ails you ?" " A little under the weather," I re plied. "A drink will set you all right," he returned, and then I explained to him that I was forbidden stimulants. " Devilish dangerous," he said, "(put ting so luddenly ; you can't stop a horse at full speed without Hinging him But on his haunches. I wouldn't dare go back on my whisky in that style nohow. It would bring on a spell of the Jim Jims sure ! " Hut I was true to my pledge and my physician, ami my friend left me with a pitying look. " Rats in your boots to-morrow morning," he said, "and no mistake. I'm betting on it." Feeling it useless to make any at tempt at dinner, and fully assured that 1 would cut but a sorry figure in (he after-talk, I made my way to my room, remarking to myself in a patronizing way that, a good night's sleep would restore me to my normal self. I was utterly prostrated, mentally and physically. In the course of the evening a number of friends dropped in ; 1 was reclining on the sofa. Re questing them to excuse me from ris ing, on the plea that I was thoroughly tired out by the duties of the day, I re tained my position, but it was useless to endeavor to take part in the conver sation. And very soon, in spite of my endeavors, I dropped olf to sleep, If sleep it could be called, for at intervals nf every few minutes I awoke with a sudden start and clutch, the impression upon my mind being that I was falling from some place. So busily engaged were my friends in discussing an ab sorbing topic of the day that lin y did not notice my nervousness, but seeing that I was indeed fatigued they each and all took early leave. I went to bed. So thoroughly ex hausted was I, for I had slept very fit fully the two preceding nights, that 1 dropped into a heavy slumber as soon as my head touched the pillow. In the dream which came to me I found my self on a very steep root. It was im possible i Btand up, so sharp was the incline, and t threw myself llat on my face, clutching at the shingles. Hut ail was useless; s,,wy but surely 1 slipped toward the enves. I dug my nails into the wood in a tierce endeavor to avert the fate which threatened me; but all effort was in vain. Occasionally a pro truding nail-head offered me a mo mentary respite, hut the bold was in sufficient, and soon 1 was acratn alumina down, down toward the eaves. It seemed hours hours of agony and ap prehension. At last the enves weir reached and the end seemed immedi ate. My legs dangled in air; my hands clutched the tin water-spout which ran along the edge of the roof in one last, wild effort at self-preservation; it gave way under my weight--and with all the breath gone out from my body I awoke. At least ten hours seemed to have been consumed. Looking at my watch I found it was precisely seven minutes since I had goj into bed. Thankful, most thankful, that it was all a dream, and that I had not indeed fallen from the roof of a fouritori frame-house, with a tin water spout clattering about my ears, I closed my eyes and endeavored to again compose myself to slumber. To my surprise my eyelids teemed lined with blue, and they were us transparent as flame. This scarcely seemed in accordance with the eternal lilness of tilings, anil I popped my head under the bed -clothes to secure opaqueness; but still my eye lids, lined with blue llamis. dickered and glowed as qucerly us ever. And I n in ot what my Inciiil hail said about the Jim-Jims. Very soon again, however, I was asleep, How long I slept I do not know. Hut I was awakened with a boom in my ear like the tollimr of a mighty bell. Hoom boom Immiiii ev ery stioKc smote on my aiilal sense, echoing and vibrating through m brain until I was ueailv dcalem-il. I prang up Instinctively anil tin- sound . I !!. I I I I ccascii; i lain in v ncan win n aiam .mil it recommenced. Wishing to time the hour of the unusual disturbance I touched the stop of (be watch, which lay under my pillow. All was quiet at once. Here was a clew to (he ins lery. I released the stop.unl again the bell thundered in my eats. K,n I, nrnc strained to a tension like that of a harp string, the ticking of the watch umh-i my head was sonorous .is the tones of a great bell. And so it was with e . sound of the night. I never was sub ject to physical fear, but now I started That one an m chension aside, ihr w dot al a breath. A mouse gnawing at the, thing teemed an entertainment, gotten door made a noise as though a legion ! up for my special amusement, and I of burglars, with a full equipment of' was sitting apart in a private box. In- carpenters' saws, were attempting to cut their way into the apartment. I propped myself up in bed, revolver in band, ready to deliver n volley at the first mnn who rrnswl the thrcJiuM My movement! alarmed the mouse, probably at least I heard no more of burglars. Again I fell asleep. My dreams were all of violence and hlood, but Strangely Vivid. Alter a prolonged battle with bearded rullians I thought One stole upon mo in mv sleep and was lilting my mouth with pitch. 1 awoke nearly stilled, and leaiing black jvAi from my mouth, with an impression that a man was standing over me. And indeed in the darkness I distinctly saw the outline of u man a few feet distant from mv hadaMa Quietly grasping thepistoi which alwaj my rciuiv in my liaml, I cocked it quick ly and noiselessly, when it occurred to me that perhaps it was my chum, who, sleeping in an adjoining room, had oc casion to come into mine for something. As I gazed the figure assumed a new shape that of a grinning skeleton. And wdiile I looked a whole procession of skeletons tiled in and marched in solemn procession through the room. The bar of moonlight upon the walls shining through the lattice-work of the blinds, began to dance and burn in vari colored Haines. And I said to myself, " Here are the Jim-Jains !" The first idea that occurred to me was that a pistol, under the cininn stances, was scarcely the thing to have within convenient and toady reach. So I deposited it safely iii the w., I, bowl, then I sat up in bed ami pre pared to enjoy myself as much as could be cpe ted Undei sin h strangely ah normal conditions. There were more flames ami burning wheels, spiral rock ets ami scintillations and corruscations of all kinds than I evet saw on uny Fourth of Inly day. Dragons Hew ami aerial toads hopped through the air. My skeleton friends ranged themselves for the Lancers and went through that dam e in grand style, butting then b o, skulls together in the ...urtlincss of their bows, and shaking their Res hi est shins in the wild cestui y of convolution and involution till tin s i idled Ilka ' lands. 1 wjs fully conscious the while th.it the scene was unreal, thut all was mi illusion. Hut still the figures ami Haines were us plain to mc as the light is at this moment. The only alarm which 1 fait artise from an apprehension that this might be the beginning ol a really sc. lions attack; that I might lose the eon tiol of mysell v In. Ii I then p md come to regard the shapes as n al rome, in short, a ' deuuutiou m i mac." As It was I had no other fear.