was perfectly free from the savages, the other was
dangerous. Here Gerstaecker separated from his companion, giving him the
safe road, and, with his rifle on his arm and his knapsack slung upon
his shoulders, struck off alone into the forest-path light-hearted as a
boy, and sure, whatever might happen, of enjoying a fresher and
healthier excitement in that journey through the woods of Australia than
the dwellers in crowded cities enjoy in all their lives.

A MYSTERIOUS HISTORY.

Paris, says the _Independence Belge_, the leading journal of Brussels,
is now occupied not with politics so much as with ghost stories. At the
theatres, the _Vampyre_ and the _Imagier de Harlaem_, feed this appetite
for supernatural horrors. Among other incidents of that kind, says the
_Independance_, the following narrative was told to the company in the
_salon_ of an aristocratic Polish lady by the Comte de R----. He had
promised to tell a recent adventure with an inhabitant of the other
world, and when the clock struck midnight he began, while his auditors
gathered around him in breathless attention. His story we translate for
the _International_:--

At the beginning of last December, one of his friends, the Marquis de
N., came to see him. "You know, Count," said the Marquis, "what an
invincible repugnance I feel against returning to my chateau in
Normandy, where I had last summer the misfortune to lose my wife. But I
left there in a writing desk some important papers, which now happen to
be indispensable in a matter of family business. Here is the key; do me
the kindness to go and get the papers, for so delicate a mission I can
only intrust to you." M. de R. agreed to the request of his friend, and
set out the following day. He stopped at a station on the Rouen
railroad, whence a drive of two hours brought him to his friend's house.
He stopped before it, and a gardener came out and spoke with him through
the latticed iron gate, which he did not open. The Count was surprised
at this distrust, which even a card of admission from the proprietor of
the chateau did not overcome. Finally, after a brief absence, which
seemed to have been employed in seeking the advice of some one within,
the gardener came back and opened the gate. When the Count entered the
court-yard he saw that the blinds on the hundred windows of the chateau
were all closed, with one exception, where the blind had fallen off and
lay upon the ground. As he afterwards di