The Journal of Jonathon Lindey From the main part of the journal - Page 8
The next morning I purchased my newspaper as usual on my way to work. I glanced through it while waiting for the clerk to bring me in the collated results of the previous day's work. Suddenly my attention was arrested by a report of an attempted grave robbery at the very church where the funeral took place! I jumped up and dashed for the door, telling my clerk I would be back shortly. Arriving at the church I instructed the cab to wait and hurried into the graveyard to find my friend of the previous day. I found him standing by the grave of the late Mr McCandlass, talking to a policeman. "Why here is the gentleman I was just referring to!", he said, as I arrived. Of course, I then had to explain my interest in the funeral to the officer. The grave digger explained that he lived adjacent to the graveyard and late the previous night his dog had started barking, so he went out to investigate. Seeing a light in the graveyard he had crept towards it and by its light had seen two figures digging up the grave. Unfortunately, as he drew near, he knocked over a vase of flowers and the resulting noise had alerted the robbers to his presence. They immediately fled, leaving behind the lantern which was now in the possession of the police. At this point the policeman told me that it was an ordinary Coleman lamp with no distinguishing feature and was unlikely to provide any clue as to the owner. Thanking the digger and the officer for their time, and leaving my address, I made my way back to the office. Nothing much happened for the next ten days or so, except that I couldn't shake off the feeling that I was being followed every time I went out. It was a curious, maddening and somewhat frightening feeling. It was as though there was something constantly at the periphery of my vision. When I turned my head or moved my eyes in that direction it instantly vanished. At one stage it got so bad that I went to see an eye doctor. He tested my eyes and assured me that there was nothing wrong with them. As I left his surgery I spotted a black carriage rounding a corner. The sight did nothing to ease my fears. I was starting to feel as if I was trapped in a nightmare from which their was no waking. My behaviour must have seemed to others bizarre in the extreme. I would dart out of buildings to try to catch the black cab. I would spin round suddenly in the hope of catching the mysterious watcher. I spent hours loitering, looking in the windows of shops, in an effort to trick the follower - or followers - to inadvertently reveal themselves. But all to no avail. I never saw anyone, nor caught more than a passing glimpse of the cab that seemed to plague me. Then, suddenly, and inexplicably, the feeling of being watched stopped. You can imagine the relief I felt. I was almost as though a cloud that had hung over me for ever was suddenly blown away, allowing the sun to shine through. |
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