The phantoms of the foot-bridge: 1895Craddock, Charles Egbert
General
The phantoms of the foot-bridge: 1895
Craddock, Charles Egbert
Fiction
but up above the air war a-stirrin’. An’ Em’ry he ‘lowed Mill’cent
shouldn’t cross the foot-bredge whilst the light warn’t clar--I wonder
the critter hed that much sense! An’ she jes’ drapped down on that rock
thar ter rest”--he pointed up the slope to a great fragment that had
broken off from the ledges and lay near the bank: the bulk of the mass
was overgrown with moss and lichen, but the jagged edges of the recent
fracture gleamed white and crystalline among the brown and olive-green
shadows about it. A tree was close beside it. “Agin that thar pine trunk
Em’ry he stood an’ leaned. The rest war behind, a-comin’ down the
hill. An’ all of a suddenty a light fell on the furder eend o’
the foot-bredge--a waverin’ light, mighty white an’ misty in the
darksomeness. Mill’cent ‘lowed ez fust she thunk it war the moon. An’
lookin’ up, she seen the cloud; it held the moon close kivered. An’
lookin’ down, she seen the light war movin’--movin’ from the furder eend
o’ the bredge, straight acrost it. Sometimes a hand war held afore it,
ez ef ter shield it from the draught, an’ then Mill’cent ‘seen twar a
candle, an’ the white in the mistiness war a ‘oman wearin’ white an’
carryn’ it.
[Illustration: The Phantom of the Foot-bridge 025]
Lookin’ ter right an’ then ter lef the ‘oman kem, with now her right
hand shieldin’ the candle she held, an’ now layin’ it on the hand-rail.
The candle shone on the water, fur it didn’t flare, an’ when the ‘oman
held her hand before it the light made a bright spot on the foot-bredge
an’ in the dark air about her, an’ on the fir branches over her head.
An’ a thin mist seemed to hang about her white frock, but not over her
face, fur when she reached the middle o’ the foot-bredge she laid her
hand agin on the rail, an’ in the clear light o’ the candle Mill’cent
seen the harnt’s face. An’ thar she beheld her own face; _her own
face_ she looked upon ez she waited thar under the tree watchin’ the
foot-bredge; _her own face_ pale an’ troubled; her own self dressed in
white, crossin’ the foot-bredge, an’ lightin’ her steps with a corpse’s
candle.” He drew up the reins abruptly. He seemed in sudden haste to go.
His companion looked with deepening interest at the bridge, although he
followed his guide’s surging pathway to the opposite bank. As the two
dripping horses struggled up the steep incline he asked, “Did the man
with her see the manifestation also?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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