THE BED SKELETON 



He went out, and came in again quickly, say- 

 ing in agitation, " The red thing has come nearer 

 and is close to the house." 



The men laughed, but the boy hid himself. Al- 

 most immediately after this the men in the kashim 

 saw a fiery figure dancing on the gut-skin cover- 

 ing over the roof hole, and an instant after a 

 human skeleton came crawling into the room 

 through the passageway, creeping on its knees 

 and elbows. 



When the skeleton was in the room it made a 

 motion toward the people which caused them all 

 to fall on their knees and elbows in the same posi- 

 tion as it had. Then, turning about, it crawled 

 out as it had come, followed by the people, who 

 were forced to go with it. Outside, the skeleton 

 crept through the snow toward the edge of the 

 village, followed by all the men, and in a short 

 time every one of them was dead and the skeleton 

 had vanished. 



Some of the villagers had been absent when the 

 spook came, and when they returned they found 

 dead people lying all about on the cold ground. 

 Entering the kashim, they found the orphan boy, 

 who told them how the people had been killed. 



They followed the tracks of the skeleton 

 through the snow, and were led up the side of the 



109 



