The woman stared at me in a horrified silence. "How did you know these things?" she gasped.
"That is immaterial. When will the tragedy occur? Can I prevent it?"
"Yes, yes!" she exclaimed. "It will happen this very night! But no earthly power can prevent it!"
She came close to me and looked at me with an expression of the most acute terror.
"Merciful God! what will become of me? He is to be murdered, you understand--murdered in cold blood by a spirit--and he knows it and _I know it_! If he is spared long enough he will tell them at the garrison, and they will all think that I had something to do with it! Oh, this is terrible, terrible, and yet I dare not say a word in advance--nobody there would believe in what the spirits say, and they will think that I had a hand in the murder!" The woman's agony was pitiful.
"Be assured that he will say nothing about it," I said; "and if you keep your tongue from wagging you need fear nothing."
With this and a few other hurried words of comfort, I soothed her and hastened away.
For I had interesting work on hand: it is not often that one may be in at such a murder as that! I ran to a livery stable, secured a swift horse, mounted him, and spurred furiously for the reservation. The hack, with its generous start, had gone far on its way, but my horse was nimble, and his legs felt the pricking of my eagerness. A few miles of this furious pursuit brought me within sight of the hack just as it was crossing a dark ravine near the reservation. As I came nearer I imagined that the hack swayed somewhat, and that a fleeing shadow escaped from it into the tree-banked further wall of the ravine. I certainly was not in error with regard to the swaying, for it had roused the dull notice of the driver. I saw him turn, with an air of alarm in his action, and then pull up with a heavy swing upon the reins. At this moment I dashed up and halted.
"I don't know," he answered, getting down. "I felt the carriage sway, and I see that the door's wide open. Guess my load thought he'd sobered up enough to get out and walk, without troubling me or his pocket-book."
Meanwhile I too had alighted; then struck a match, and by its light we discovered, through the open door, the "load" huddled confusedly on the floor of the hack, face upward, his chin compressed upon his breast by his leaning against the further door, and looking altogether vulgar, misshapen, and miserably unlike a soldier. He neither moved nor spoke when we called. We hastily clambered within and lifted him upon the seat, but his head rolled about with an awful looseness and freedom, and another match disclosed a ghastly dead face and wide eyes that stared horribly at nothing.