Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 April 1911 — THE MYSTERIOUS MESSENGER [ARTICLE]

THE MYSTERIOUS MESSENGER

Phantom Letter Delivered by a Dead Hand.

When the war with the Modoc Indians broke out in the early seventies Captain Wlnterto% left his bride at a frontier post and marched with his command to the lava beds. There he fought while the wife worried and fretted till the close of the struggle. One day she was sitting in the living room of her quarters, endeavoring to divert her mind by reading or sewing from the dangers to which he was exposed, when there came a tap at the door, and a young soldier—a mere boy of eighteen—entered and held out to her a letter, on which she saw at a glance the superscription in her husband’s handwriting. The young soldier was very pale, and she noticed that though the weather was fine his clothes were soaked with water. But she was too eager to read the message to dwell upon this. and. seizing it, she carried it to an open window for a better light to read it It, too. was soaked with water, and the lines were badly blurred. She managed to make out that the war was over, and Captain Winterton would soon return to her. though since he must accompany his command it would yet be a few days. Then she turned to the young soldier. He was gone. The sudden vanishment so startled her that she dropped the letter on the window sill.

Astonished that she bad not heard bis step, she walked into the ball. Which was not carpeted and would surely resound under any tread, especially that of a booted soldier. She ran to the front door, expecting to see him walking across the “parade” to the soldiers’ quarters, but no One except the sentries and a few loungers appeared. Starting back into the room, she vent to the window to reread the letter, when she noticed that it was not there. The apartments were not far above the ground, and she looked out expecting that it had blown out of the window and was lying below. She did not see it and went outside to look for it. but without success.

She was frightened. She dreaded lest this strange message from her husband. coming in such uncanny fashion, was a prelude to bad news. She Sent a request for the officer in command of the post to visit her, and When he came she told him the story, He declared that to his knowledge no messenger had come from the lava beds, but he would make sure by Inquiry of the officer of the day. That officer replied that no such messenger had b4en seen at the post. Half a dozen people were set to hunting for the missing letter, but it was not found. In the evening the post surgeon called on Mrs. Winterton at the commandant’s suggestion, ostensibly to ask for news from her husband, but really to see if she was not overwrought by anxiety. He found her pale and nervous, but could detect nothing further. It was the opinion of-the officers and their families that the mysterious courier and the letter were the creation of Mrs. Winterton’s brain. No one except herself had seen either courier or letter. The soldier could not have got into the post without having been seen by the sentry at the gate and the one pacing before the officers’ quarters. The police squad, whose duty It was to pick up every bit of paper that littered the inclosure, was instructed to look out for the letter, but they never produced it Mrs. Winterton’s nervousness Increased to hysteria, and word was sent to her hnsband to return as soon as possible. He obfalned leave to do so/and at once set out for The commandant met him before he saw his wife and told him of the vision, or whatever It might be, that bad visited Mrs. Winterton.

Winterton stood aghast. It was some time before he cotild reply to inquiries as to his astonishment, but at last he said: “They say the dead cannot visit as I have just had evidence that they can. Young Harding, the messenger, was as devoted to me as ever was soldier to his commander. He was the son of a banker in the east, and, being ambitious to be a soldier, he enlisted and would have now been promoted. He was a pet of mine, and twice during this war I saved his life, once by crawling out to him beyond our firing line, where he had been left after a retreat and could not raise his head without getting a bullet through it, again by forcing him to the ground a moment before a storm of bullets was sent over our works. As soon as hostilities had ceased I chose him to take the news to my wife. On my way here I learned that be was pursued by Indians who had not given up the struggle and was drowned attempting to swim the horse across the river.” It/was decided not to encourage Mrs. Winterton in the belief that she had been visited by the dead. By the surgeon’s advice her husband feigned to be ignorant of the messenger and told her that it had been reported to him that she had been ill and. about the time of young Harding’s supposed arrival, on the borders of delirium. Mrs. Winterton. however, could not* be deceived, and after a time, when she was in better physical condition, her husband admitted the facts. The admission did not alter her feelings in the matter. Ever since the mysterious visit she has bad a habit of waking fn the early morning and seeing again in fancy the dripping boy standing before her holding, out to her the water stained note.