Yet his manner was
indescribably impressive.
I have tried to set down what he said as accurately as I can, but I fear
I have omitted a good deal. What is to be the end of this strange
affair? I must go in for a course of religion and holy water. Not a
word to Chamberlain or Elliott. They tell me I am looking like a ghost
this morning.
_Evening_.--Have managed to compare notes with Gunner Rufus Smith of the
Artillery, who knocked the old fellow over with the butt of his gun.
His experience has been the same as mine. He has heard the sound, too.
What is the meaning of it all? My brain is in a whirl.
Oct. 10 (four days later).--God help us!
This last laconic entry terminated the journal. It seemed to me that,
coming as it did after four days' complete silence, it told a clearer
tale of shaken nerve and a broken spirit than could any more elaborate
narrative. Pinned on to the journal was a supplementary statement which
had evidently been recently added by the general.
"From that day to this," it said, "I have had no night or day free from
the intrusion of that dreadful sound with its accompanying train of
thought. Time and custom have brought me no relief, but on the
contrary, as the years pass over my head my physical strength decreases
and my nerves become less able to bear up against the continual strain.
"I am a broken man in mind and body. I live in a state of tension,
always straining my ears for the hated sound, afraid to converse
with my fellows for fear of exposing my dreadful condition to them, with
no comfort or hope of comfort on this side of the grave.
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