Otis Adelbert Kline

“ What's the matter? Are you afraid?"
"Afraid, hell!" growled Hoyne. "Can't a man ask you a question—"
"No time to answer questions now. Get in there and do as I say if you want to be of any assistance."
"All right, Doc. It's your party."
The big detective entered the room of the sobbing child and squeezed his great bulk into a dainty rocking chair from which he could view her bed. She tossed from side to side, moaning as if in pain, and Hoyne, pitying her, wondered why the doctor did not awaken her. ”

“ With forced bravado he stepped up beside the still figure and turned back the sheet. The corpse, which lay on the third slab from the end, was that of a middle aged man, gray haired, slightly bald, and dressed in the garb of a laborer. No doubt the face had not been unpleasant to look at in life but in death it was hardly a thing of beauty, with its glassy, staring eyes, sagging lower jaw, and protruding, blue-white tongue.
Ryan replaced the sheet with a shudder and hurried to his chair: The place certainly got on his nerves. ”

“ His instructions were to patrol the place every half hour. As it took him only five minutes to make the rounds, there was twenty-five minute intervals of rest twice in every hour. He hurried his pace a little as he neared the chair. Once seated thereon, he would at least be rid of the sound of those haunting footsteps.
He was walking along, swinging his nightstick with attempted jauntiness, when, out of the tail of his eye, he saw, or imagined he saw a slight movement of the sheet covering the corpse at his right. ”

“ Have you seen one?"
"Have I seen one?" groaned Ritsky. "Good Lord, man, I'd give every cent I own to be rid of that thing! For two years it's turned my nights into hell! From a perfectly healthy, normal human being I've been reduced to a physical wreck. Sometimes I think my reason is slipping. The thing will either kill me or drive me mad if it is not stopped."
He buried his face in his hands.
"This is most strange," said the doctor. "You say the apparition first troubled you two years ago?" ”

“ No heat—no blankets—nothing. The beds are cold as ice and hard as rocks, and the sheets are thin as paper."
Ryan was astounded. Could it be possible that this corpse didn't know it was in the morgue?
The thing yawned, disclosing its ghastly, blue-white tongue.
"Ho, hum. Gettin' sleepy again. Guess I'll crawl back in the old sheetrock bunk. G'night, bottle-nose."
This was too much for Ryan. His naturally florid countenance turned purple with anger as he watched the ghoulish figure stagger slowly toward the third slab. If he could only move! He concentrated his gaze on his little finger. ”

“ Someone was walking toward him with slow, dragging footsteps from the direction of the third slab!
RYAN was no coward. On the contrary, he had shown marked bravery in many encounters with desperate bandits and thugs of the underworld. Neither was he superstitious. He believed that when a man was dead he was gone; and that was that. His soul might go to purgatory, and thence to heaven or hell, but never return to earth. ”

“ Each night that body grew a little larger until it assumed the full proportions of a Russian wolfhound. Recently it has attempted to attack me, but I have always frustrated it by switching on the light."
"Are you positive that you have not been dreaming all this?" asked the doctor.
"Would it be possible for some one else to hear a dream of mine?" countered Ritsky. "We have only been able to retain one servant on account of those noises. All, with the exception of our housekeeper, who is quite deaf, heard the noises and left us as a result." ”

“ At length he remembered, and glanced suspiciously toward the third slab. It was occupied, nor had the corpse apparently been disturbed, for it lay just as he had seen it when he passed at one o'clock, with the sheet draping its angular figure.
The sound of voices grew more distinct. Someone had opened the office door. Chief Howell was holding it open while two attendants entered, bearing a litter on which lay the body of a coarse, thick-featured woman. Her face was horribly mutilated and her hair and clothing were stained and matted with blood. ”

“ No more dead 'n you are."
"The hell you ain't!" growled Ryan.
"Tell you I ain't," wheezed the corpse, testily. "Can't I walk? Can't I talk? Can't I do anything any live person can do?"
"Course yez can," agreed Ryan, who felt that he was beginning to see the light. "Anything can walk in a dream—even a corpse. ”

“ That's the name!" broke in Hoyne, excitedly. "After that white thing floated out of the room she made noises like a dog and then answered them, saying 'Good old Shag,' and patting an imaginary head. She sure gave me the creeps, though, when she let out that growl."
"The vengeful Ritsky," continued the doctor, "was determined that Shag should die, and found an opportunity to shoot him with a pistol when the girl was in the house. Shortly after, the faithful creature dragged himself to the feet of his mistress and died in her arms. ”

“ Hoyne surveyed the finished job with frank admiration.
"If there's anything in this room when Ritsky turns the switch those three mechanical eyes will sure spot it," he said enthusiastically,
"Now, Mr. Ritsky," began the doctor, "I want you to place yourself entirely in our hands for the night. Keep cool, fear nothing, and carry out my instructions to the letter. I suggest that you go to bed now and endeavor to get some sleep. If the apparition troubles you, do just as you have done in the past—turn on the light. ”

“ The amazed detective stared with open mouth, so frightened that he forgot to chew his cigar. The filmy material continued to pour forth for several minutes that seemed like hours to the tense watcher. Then it formed a nebulous, wispy cloud above the bed, completely detached itself from the girl, and floated out through the half-opened door.
"Doctor Dorp, standing in the hallway, saw a white, misty thing of indefinite outline emerge from the bedroom. It floated through the hall and paused directly in front of Ritsky's door. ”

“ Let me enlighten you on that score first:
"The man told the truth when he said he was appointed guardian of his niece, and also when he said that he had shot a dog. The dog, in question, was a Russian wolfhound, a present sent to the girl by her parents while they were touring Russia. He was only half grown when he arrived, and the two soon became boon companions, frolicking and playing about the grounds together or romping through the big house.
"Some time after the death of Olga's parents, Ritsky, then editor of a radical newspaper in New York, took up his abode at Villa Rogers. ”

“ There are undoubtedly more things in heaven and earth, as Shakespeare said, than we have dreamed of in our philosophy. However, I would consider a materialization of the disembodied spirit of a canine, or any of the other lower animals, as highly improbable. ”

“ She developed the power subjectively without objective knowledge that it existed. One of the most striking of psychic powers is that of creating or assembling the substance called psychoplasm, causing it to assume various forms, and to move as if endowed with a mind of its own. ”

“ Most people have potential mediumistic power. How this power is developed in certain individuals and remains practically dormant in others is a question that has never been satisfactorily explained. I personally believe that it is often developed because of intense emotional repressions which, unable to find an outlet in a normal manner through the objective mind, find expression in abnormal psychic manifestations. ”

“ Then he straightened gravely.
"No earthly power can bring him to," he said, softly. "Ritsky is dead!"
IV.
THE DETECTIVE remained in the house, pending the arrival of the coroner and undertaker, while Doctor Dorp hurried home with his paraphernalia and the sample of slime he had scraped from the corpse. Hoyne was puzzled by the fact that the doctor searched the house and the clothing of the dead man before departing.
The detective was kept busy at the Ritsky apartment until nearly ten o'clock. ”

“ Neighbors, hearing the rumpus, called the officer on the beat. When he arrived the woman was dead and the man, beastly drunk, had to be clubbed almost into insensibility before he would submit to arrest. ”