ASLEEP WITH A CORPSE. 



337 



" Oh, hush, Juan, you make me afraid," 

 replied the girl, shuddering as she glanced 

 at the dark mass where the dead one lay. 



Just at that moment Sullivan gave a 

 smothered sigh in his sleep and with a half 

 shriek the girl, catching her lover, ex- 

 claimed, 



" Jesu, what was that? " 



" What! " exclaimed he, for he, too, fan- 

 cied he had heard something; but all seem- 

 ing quiet he was about to assure her it was 

 nothing, when another sigh and a half groan 

 came plainly from the bed. " Ah, Holy 

 Mother preserve us!" exclaimed Juan, his 

 hair commencing to rise. The girl, too ter- 

 rified to even call, clutched him convul- 

 sively. Then with eyes nearly starting from 

 their sockets they beheld in the gloom the 

 mass on the bed arise, and a white face peer 

 fixedly at them. It was too much for human 

 nerves. 



With a half cry and half groan Juan 

 jumped out of the casement, saying the 

 dead had come to life. The girl, with a shriek 

 of despair, followed him, and the 2 'fled wildly 

 down the street. The next instant an awful 

 yell rang out. They half turned and beheld 

 a white robed figure pursuing them. Filled 

 with the idea that it was the spirit of the dead 

 rushing after them to punish them for their 

 sacrilege, the fugitives rushed the faster, fill- 

 ing the air with shriek on shriek. The 

 demon behind seemed to follow with even 

 faster steps, uttering horrible cries. 



It seems the muttered talking of the lov- 

 ers had wakened Sullivan. In his maud- 



lin condition he sat up in bed to see what the 

 matter was, when his hand touched the cold, 

 clammy corpse in the bed beside him and he- 

 came to his full understanding immediately. 

 Knowing he was in bed with a corpse, he 

 sprang out with a cry of horror. Niven 

 waked from a sound sleep and, hearing his 

 friend's voice, leaped out of his bed in the 

 adjoining room, and rushed into the dead 

 room just in time to see his comrade disap- 

 pear through the open window, half dressed. 

 He followed, his one idea being to catch Sul- 

 livan and stop him. Sullivan, seeing a white 

 figure pursuing hi, 1, was sure it was the 

 corpse after him and so the faster Niven ran 

 to catch him the faster Sullivan went to es- 

 cape, all the time uttering more and more 

 awful cries. 



With such an uproar as this, it was but a 

 few minutes until the entire town was awake 

 and rushing after the fugitives. Suddenly 

 Pepita stumbled and in her fall caused Juan 

 to fall also. . Before he could rise Sullivan 

 was up with them. The next instant Niven 

 was on Sullivan and then all the inhabitants 

 around the 4. After some moments spent 

 in disengaging the tangled quartette and a 

 longer time in subduing poor Pepita's fright, 

 the officers, who had rushed from the hotel 

 with the crowd, succeeded in getting their 

 2 servants away and out of the clutches of 

 the native police, but only by a liberal gift 

 of silver. The rest of the night the 2 heroes 

 spent on the floor of the inn, for nothing 

 would induce Sullivan to go back to the 

 house of the dead. 



AMATEUR PHOTO BY H. S. HUMPHREY. 



"HURRY UP, THEY'VE GOT 'EM!" 



