Spectres on the Overland Trail

Overland Monthly, December 1889. Somehow missed this when going
through the issue years ago.


SFECTRES ON THE OVERLAND TRAIL.
[by Edward B. Payne]

Ix the summer of 1873 I was thirty years of age,-- in perfect
health, and of steady nerve. I was no believer in the uncanny--hardly
in the supernatural-- and had always pooh-poohed at tales of ghosts,
phantoms and visions of all sorts. But at the time mentioned above the
experience I am about to relate put my intellect and sensibility to
test in such a manner as to make me sparing thenceforward of ridicule,
and forced me to find a place in credence for the possibility of
apparition.

It is unnecessary to explain how I came to be traveling in the
far West without companions, except for horse, and dog, and gun.
Following the general route of the old overland trail, I camped one
night in the edge of a considerable forest, and at a point from which
I could look forth over a broad, open plain.

It was already after sundown. The good horse was picketed, and
having provided a supper for myself and the dog from a rabbit which my
gun had brought down an hour or two earlier, I disposed things for the
night, and, as the stars came out, lay down to sleep, comfortably
rolled in a blanket.

It was probably in the small hours of night that I awoke and rose
to a sitting posture. The moon was climbing the eastern sky, with not
a feather of cloud in her course, and every object stood forth as
clearly as in the day.

But it was not for me to contemplate in quietude the rare beauty
of the night. In almost the first moment of consciousness my eyes fell
upon a slowly moving object in the distance. It was one of those
canvas-covered wagons, the "prairie schooners" so familiar in the
early days of overland travel to California.

It was approaching almost directly toward me, and my curiosity
was at once aroused. Why anyone should he traveling thus, and so late
at night, I could not imagine. The movement was heavy, as if the
horses were jaded, and the man who walked by their side had a weary
step.

Twenty minutes passed, the vehicle approaching nearer and nearer.
Still on it came, until, when about thirty yards from me it suddenly
stopped, and the man looking about seemed to be considering the wisdom
of making camp.

At this point I suddenly realized that the approach of the wagon
had been utterly noiseless. Not a chuck of the wheels, not the sound
of a step, either of horses or man. And furthermore there was no
indication that I had been discovered, although I should have been as
visible to this man as he to me. What could this mean? Was I dreaming?
No, I was never more awake. Was this hallucination? No, for the dog,
who had been aroused by my movement in awakening, now turned his head
in the direction of the new arrival, and uttered a low growl. I laid
my hand on him to keep him quiet.

The man now stood by the forward wheel, looking in at the opening
of the canvas top, and though I heard no voice, I imagined that he was
speaking to some one within. A woman's head appeared, and after a
glance around gave a nod of assent, and the man proceeded to unharness
the horses and turn them loose to graze. Then after a moment, in which
he seemed to be anxiously surveying the trail over which they had
come, he helped the woman to alight.

And now their movements greatly puzzled me. Walking to and fro,
they seemed to be searching for some particular spot of ground. As I
said above, I had selected my camping ground in the outer edge of a
forest. They were moving about therefore amid mingled shadows and
moonbeams, but every motion was visible. Finally the woman pointed to
a space between two young trees, and the man after looking at it for a
moment went to the rear end of the wagon and brought forth a spade.
With the edge of this implement, he marked off a rectangular space
about five feet by two, and began to dig. All this, let it be
remembered, was in absolute silence. Here were apparently living
beings, actively engaged, and not more than a hundred feet away, and
yet no sound was borne to me on the quiet air.

By this time my curiosity had turned to marvel. Here was a
contradiction of common sense! I could not believe that what I saw was
real; these beings must be apparitions. And yet here by ray side was
the dog, as alert as I, and trembling with an impulse to investigate,
while obedient to my hand of restraint.

The digging proceeded, and the soil being soft, some five feet of
depth was soon reached, and then the man threw out the spade upon the
ground. The woman, meanwhile, had been plucking branches of evergreen,
bringing them in armfuls and throwing them beside the-- "the grave," I
thought. And now, with utmost care and patience, the whole cavity was
lined with these sprigs of evergreen, held in place by twigs thrust
into the banks on either side.

This done, the man sprang out. The two surveyed their work for a
moment, and then, after gazing once more as if in anxiety over the
route by which they had come, they approached the wagon. Having rolled
up the canvas on one side, they lifted out a small mattress,
depositing it upon a blanket which they had spread upon the ground.

This mattress was not without its burden. The beams of the full
moon enabled me to see thereon a slight form -- that of a little girl
who had scarcely lived out three years. The pretty white hands were
folded over the breast. Long golden curls fell on either side upon the
pillow. The face, which I could see with astonishing clearness, was
wonderfully beautiful in its aspect of innocence, and bore a life-like
smile, as if in answer to the radiant queen of the sky, who seemed to
be smiling too, as she looked steadfastly down upon the living and the
dead.

The mother forthwith proceeded to arrange the spreads upon the
child, tucking them and smoothing them down, as if she were only
putting her little one to bed, although while I heard no sob nor any
expression of grief, I could see that her breast was heaving with
sorrow and her face was visited by tears.
The two now knelt on either side, kissing their darling many times,
and weeping over her, though trying apparently to comfort one another
in their mutual wretchedness, if perchance there might come in their
hearts a calm like that with which the moon was still sending down her
beams to illumine the tearful scene.

Then laying hold of the blanket they carried their darling to the
grave, and by the aid of the bridle reins let the precious burden down
into the place which they had so carefully prepared. Green boughs were
scattered over her, until they covered the beautiful form many inches
deep, and then the clods were gently replaced, and a little mound was
heaped, and the child transferred from her mother's bosom was sleeping
at last in the bosom of that greater mother-- Earth. The two sad
mourners knelt again beside the grave, and seemed to be engaged, in
prayer, lifting their faces now and then to the sky, as if in its
infinite clear depths they saw the future hopes.

All this -- though I still thought it unreal -- had awakened in
me the keenest interest and sympathy. But my attention was now
suddenly diverted to a line of figures in the distance, somewhat
beyond the spot where I had seen the wagon when I first awoke. These
were horsemen, who came sweeping on at a rapid pace, as if engaged in
eager pursuit. From the manner in which they rode I knew that they
were Indians. Ah! I saw it all now, and understood why these spectral
visitors had so often looked back, apprehensively in the direction
from which they had approached. These pilgrims across the plains had
seen signs of savages, and had used the night to push on beyond their
reach, if haply they might bury their dead in peace and find safety
for themselves. But the foe had discovered their trail and followed
them, bent on massacre.

I laid my hand instinctively on the rifle under the edge of my
blanket, that I might join in a defense, and was about to cry out in
warning of the danger that I saw approaching, but instantly bethought
myself that this was unreality, a mere vision, calling for no
practical action, and I might better let these shadows work out their
tragedy to the end. I again restrained the dog, who seemed agitated,
whether because he saw what I was seeing, or out of sympathy with my
emotion - I know not which.

The two at the grave seemed unconscious of the threatened danger
until their enemies were within a hundred yards, when the man sprang
up and lifted the woman also to her feet. They turned toward the
wagon, as if to gain its shelter and secure weapons for defense. It
was too late. I saw flashes of fire, and also a flight of arrows,
still without a sound, however, to break the calm of night.

Both the man and the woman staggered as if wounded. They stopped
and turned face to face, throwing their arms about each other, as if
realizing that this was their last embrace. Another volley, and, still
clinging to each other in the agony of death, they fell together upon
the grave of their child.

The Indians are not long in completing their work. Then catching
the horses and harnessing them into the wagon they hastened away, as
though themselves in fear of pursuit. I watched them until they
disappeared, and then was alone with my thoughts and the brilliant
night.

I realized that I had seen a vision, and though I turned myself
resolutely to rest, my sleep for the remainder of the night was fitful
and disturbed. When finally I awakened again, the sun had risen, and
under the influence of that great dispeller of illusions, and in spite
of the vividness of the night's experience, I began to think that
after all I might have been only dreaming; especially when I saw that
the space where I had seen the burial and the tragedy that followed
was not open and clear, but overgrown with brush and young trees.

Nevertheless, yielding to a curiosity of which I was meanwhile
almost ashamed, I soon made my way into the bushes. Parting these with
my hands as I went forward and scanning the ground closely, I shortly
experienced a new shock of surprise. For there, in the exact spot
marked by the night scene, was a little mound, and over it the remains
of two skeletons.

And now for a retrospective fact which gave to this weird
experience of the night a personal significance. While I was yet a lad
in my teens, my brother, twenty years older, had taken his young wife
and only child, and set out to cross the plains in pursuit of fortune.
The mails had brought home tidings of the progress of their journey,
up to a certain point. Beyond this all trace was lost, and we bad
never heard of them again.

I have not been able to account satisfactorily for what I have
related. Was this an indubitable information, vouchsafed to me from
another world as to the fate of my relatives? If so, why was it
reserved for this time and place? Was it impossible that I should have
this vision elsewhere? And if this is the case, then why? Had Nature
photographed these tragic scenes, and preserved their reflection, to
reproduce them for an eye that was fitted by some occult law of
sympathy to behold? Let the savants answer if they can -- I can not.