Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost StoriesBierce, Ambrose
General
Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories
Bierce, Ambrose
Ghost stories, American; Horror tales, American; Short stories, American
Brower was as courageous a criminal as ever lived to be hanged; that was
shown by the conditions of awful personal peril in which he had coolly
killed his brother-in-law. It is needless to relate them here; they came
out at his trial, and the revelation of his calmness in confronting them
came near to saving his neck. But what would you have?—when a brave man
is beaten, he submits.
So they pursued their journey jailward along the old road through the
woods. Only once did Brower venture a turn of the head: just once, when
he was in deep shadow and he knew that the other was in moonlight, he
looked backward. His captor was Burton Duff, the jailer, as white as
death and bearing upon his brow the livid mark of the iron bar. Orrin
Brower had no further curiosity.
Eventually they entered the town, which was all alight, but deserted;
only the women and children remained, and they were off the streets.
Straight toward the jail the criminal held his way. Straight up to the
main entrance he walked, laid his hand upon the knob of the heavy iron
door, pushed it open without command, entered and found himself in the
presence of a half-dozen armed men. Then he turned. Nobody else
entered.
On a table in the corridor lay the dead body of Burton Duff.
SOLDIER-FOLK
A MAN WITH TWO LIVES
HERE is the queer story of David William Duck, related by himself. Duck
is an old man living in Aurora, Illinois, where he is universally
respected. He is commonly known, however, as “Dead Duck.”
“In the autumn of 1866 I was a private soldier of the Eighteenth
Infantry. My company was one of those stationed at Fort Phil Kearney,
commanded by Colonel Carrington. The country is more or less familiar
with the history of that garrison, particularly with the slaughter by the
Sioux of a detachment of eighty-one men and officers—not one
escaping—through disobedience of orders by its commander, the brave but
reckless Captain Fetterman. When that occurred, I was trying to make my
way with important dispatches to Fort C. F. Smith, on the Big Horn. As
the country swarmed with hostile Indians, I traveled by night and
concealed myself as best I could before daybreak. The better to do so, I
went afoot, armed with a Henry rifle and carrying three days’ rations in
my haversack.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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