(1891) The Thing at Nolan (Ambrose Bierce)

Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories/The
Thing at Nolan
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< Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories
THE THING AT NOLAN
To the south of where the road between Leesville and Hardy, in the State of Missouri, crosses the east fork of May Creek stands
an abandoned house. Nobody has lived in it since the summer of 1879, and it is fast going to pieces. For some three years
before the date mentioned above, it was occupied by the family of Charles May, from one of whose ancestors the creek near
which it stands took its name.
Mr. Mays family consisted of a wife, an adult son and two young girls. The sons name was John - the names of the daughters
are unknown to the writer of this sketch.
John May was of a morose and surly disposition, not easily moved to anger, but having an uncommon gift of sullen, implacable
hate. His father was quite otherwise; of a sunny, jovial disposition, but with a quick temper like a sudden flame kindled in a
wisp of straw, which consumes it in a flash and is no more. He cherished no resentments, and his anger gone, was quick to
make overtures for reconciliation. He had a brother living near by who was unlike him in respect of all this, and it was a current
witticism in the neighborhood that John had inherited his disposition from his uncle.
One day a misunderstanding arose between father and son, harsh words ensued, and the father struck the son full in the face
with his fist. John quietly wiped away the blood that followed the blow, fixed his eyes upon the already penitent offender and
said with cold composure, You will die for that.
The words were overheard by two brothers named Jackson, who were approaching the men at the moment; but seeing them
engaged in a quarrel they retired, apparently unobserved. Charles May afterward related the unfortunate occurrence to his wife
and explained that he had apologized to the son for the hasty blow, but without avail; the young man not only rejected his
overtures, but refused to withdraw his terrible threat. Nevertheless, there was no open rupture of relations: John continued
living with the family, and things went on very much as before.
One Sunday morning in June, 1879, about two weeks after what has been related, May senior left the house immediately after
breakfast, taking a spade. He said he was going to make an excavation at a certain spring in a wood about a mile away, so that
the cattle could obtain water. John remained in the house for some hours, variously occupied in shaving himself, writing letters
and reading a newspaper. His manner was very nearly what it usually was; perhaps he was a trifle more sullen and surly.
At two oclock he left the house. At five, he returned. For some reason not connected with any interest in his movements, and
which is not now recalled, the time of his departure and that of his return were noted by his mother and sisters, as was attested
at his trial for murder. It was observed that his clothing was wet in spots, as if (so the prosecution afterward pointed out) he had
been removing blood-stains from it. His manner was strange, his look wild. He complained of illness, and going to his room
took to his bed.
May senior did not return. Later that evening the nearest neighbors were aroused, and during that night and the following day a
search was prosecuted through the wood where the spring was. It resulted in little but the discovery of both mens footprints in
the clay about the spring. John May in the meantime had grown rapidly worse with what the local physician called brain fever,
and in his delirium raved of murder, but did not say whom he conceived to have been murdered, nor whom he imagined to have
done the deed. But his threat was recalled by the brothers Jackson and he was arrested on suspicion and a deputy sheriff put in
charge of him at his home. Public opinion ran strongly against him and but for his illness he would probably have been hanged
by a mob. As it was, a meeting of the neighbors was held on Tuesday and a committee appointed to watch the case and take
such action at any time as circumstances might seem to warrant.
On Wednesday all was changed. From the town of Nolan, eight miles away, came a story which put a quite different light on
the matter. Nolan consisted of a school house, a blacksmiths shop, a store and a half-dozen dwellings. The store was kept by
one Henry Odell, a cousin of the elder May. On the afternoon of the Sunday of Mays disappearance Mr. Odell and four of his
neighbors, men of credibility, were sitting in the store smoking and talking. It was a warm day; and both the front and the back
door were open. At about three oclock Charles May, who was well known to three of them, entered at the front door and
passed out at the rear. He was without hat or coat. He did not look at them, nor return their greeting, a circumstance which did
not surprise, for he was evidently seriously hurt. Above the left eyebrow was a wound - a deep gash from which the blood
flowed, covering the whole left side of the face and neck and saturating his light-gray shirt. Oddly enough, the thought
uppermost in the minds of all was that he had been fighting and was going to the brook directly at the back of the store, to wash
himself.
Perhaps there was a feeling of delicacy - a backwoods etiquette which restrained them from following him to offer assistance;
the court records, from which, mainly, this narrative is drawn, are silent as to anything but the fact. They waited for him to
return, but he did not return.
Bordering the brook behind the store is a forest extending for six miles back to the Medicine Lodge Hills. As soon as it became
known in the neighborhood of the missing mans dwelling that he had been seen in Nolan there was a marked alteration in
public sentiment and feeling. The vigilance committee went out of existence without the formality of a resolution. Search along
the wooded bottom lands of May Creek was stopped and nearly the entire male population of the region took to beating the
bush about Nolan and in the Medicine Lodge Hills. But of the missing man no trace was found.
One of the strangest circumstances of this strange case is the formal indictment and trial of a man for murder of one whose
body no human being professed to have seen - one not known to be dead. We are all more or less familiar with the vagaries and
eccentricities of frontier law, but this instance, it is thought, is unique. However that may be, it is of record that on recovering
from his illness John May was indicted for the murder of his missing father. Counsel for the defense appears not to have
demurred and the case was tried on its merits. The prosecution was spiritless and perfunctory; the defense easily established -
with regard to the deceased - an alibi. If during the time in which John May must have killed Charles May, if he killed him at
all, Charles May was miles away from where John May must have been, it is plain that the deceased must have come to his
death at the hands of someone else.
John May was acquitted, immediately left the country, and has never been heard of from that day. Shortly afterward his mother
and sisters removed to St. Louis. The farm having passed into the possession of a man who owns the land adjoining, and has a
dwelling of his own, the May house has ever since been vacant, and has the somber reputation of being haunted.
One day after the May family had left the country, some boys, playing in the woods along May Creek, found concealed under a
mass of dead leaves, but partly exposed by the rooting of hogs, a spade, nearly new and bright, except for a spot on one edge,
which was rusted and stained with blood. The implement had the initials C. M. cut into the handle.
This discovery renewed, in some degree, the public excitement of a few months before. The earth near the spot where the spade
was found was carefully examined, and the result was the finding of the dead body of a man. It had been buried under two or
three feet of soil and the spot covered with a layer of dead leaves and twigs. There was but little decomposition, a fact
attributed to some preservative property in the mineral-bearing soil.
Above the left eyebrow was a wound - a deep gash from which blood had flowed, covering the whole left side of the face and
neck and saturating the light-gray shirt. The skull had been cut through by the blow. The body was that of Charles May.
But what was it that passed through Mr. Odells store at Nolan?
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Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories/The

THE THING AT NOLAN

Retrieved from "https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?

This page was last edited on 7 March 2013, at 20:31.

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