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HP If 14 GOODWINS WEEKLY. H colved regular reports as to the whereabouts o H' the suspect, K The officer notified us one day that Forner B had been run down by an automobile and was now Hi In a hospital up town, with both legs broken. Hl The very next morning an attendant came H running In and announced that the graves had H again been disturbed. We all went out and found K an almost exact repetition of what we had pre- H; vlously witnessed. H Wo were now more perplexed than ever. For- K ner was up town in the hospital with nurses about H him day and night, yet our graveyard had been H invaded just as ibeforo and, apparently, by the H same sacriligious person. H Our next step was plainly indicated. Instead H of watching Forner wo must watch the ceme- H tery. H Accordingly wo placed two faithful night H watches on guard charged with this responsible H ty. They took a room in a near-by cottage from H the window of wliich they could see every grave. B Time went on without any developments and wo Hj reduced the night watch to one. After several H Aveeks he was withdrawn and wo concluded that H the episode would pass down as one of the un- H solved mysteries of institutional life. H We were mistaken in our security, however, H for the same thing occurred one night three Q months later, in early July. H While avo were discussing the incident in utter H dispair one of the charge nurses came in and H said, "Doctor, I have some information that may H throw some light on the graveyard mystery. You H know Duden he is one of the patients who be- H longs to the detail that digs the graves. Well, the H night watch reported to me that Duden, being a H specially trustworthy patient, always had the free- M dom of the ward, and that he often came in late 1 at night, or rose very early, but last night he got H out of bed about 2 o'clock in the morning, left the H cottage and remained away until day-light. When M he came in we noticed that his clothes were wet 1 with sweat his shoes covered with moist clay and m his face and hands begrimed with dirt. We gave M him a bath and a change of clothes and after HB breakfast let him go down to the barn, to join Btf his detail. I thought that, perhaps, If you would m have him watched, you would find that he Is the Hl person who has been causing you so much worry. B You know Duden always says that he is looking B for his wife. We never argue with him, except m when he tried to induce one of us to go along m and help him find her. He is kindly and helpful, H and when he talks about Ms wife, which he does H when ho talks at all, we feel intensely sorry for m After restoring the cemetery we placed a spe- fl clal watch over Duden, with instructions to tele- M phone us the moment the patient left the cottage M during the night. That same midnight, while I Hj was still at my desk, the telephone rang and the H night watch informed me that Duden had just H put on his clothes and had gone outside toward Kg the timber. According to instructions, he had HH permitted him to do this without offering the H slightest objection, or without allowing him to H suspect that he had been observed. M As pre-arranged, I summoned three of my physl- H clans and a general night watch and we stealthily H approached the cemetery. It was clear moonlight M and the shadow of every tree was plainly outlined H on the ground. Wo heard sounds of falling earth B as we approached the center of the lot and saw M one spadeful after another come out of the ground. H Drawing nearer Ave peered into an open grave, B and there Avas Duden perspiring freely aud Avork- H ing aAvay all unconscious of our presence. When M I spoke to him he dropped his spade and avo gave H him a hand and helpd him to the surface. HH Ho did not seem the least astonished, and when J I asked him Avhat.he Avas doing out here at this && time of the night he said: "I am looking for my Avife. They took her away from me tAventy years ago and I have been searching for her ever since. They said she died, but I don't believe it. She Avould not go aAvay and leave mo with the tAVo Httlo girls, and I knoAV the body they took from my house the day of tho funeral Avas not a corpse, hut was my living Avife, and she is somewhere in a grave now aAvait Ing for me to release her. I have opened graves all over the country, but can't find her. When I got doAvn to the coffin I find the Inmates dead and unable to answer me "Look at that skeleton! And that! And that!" And he pointed to the threo coffins' that he had exposed in his night's Avork There they lay all in a row as peaceful as if this uncanny intrusion had not taken place. To those Avho have never seen a body exhumed the process must seem gruesome, but to stand in a graveyard at 3 o'clock in the morning and have an Insane person point out the corpses AVhose rest ing places he had so unceremoniously Intruded upon, is an experience that Avould be destructive to nerves less used to the hallucinations and bizarre notions of the mentally afllicted. Duden obediently followed us back to the cot tage and Avent to bed. We left a guard over the graves to prevent further desecration and then separated, relieved to know that at last Ave had discovered the ghoul avIio had given us so much concern during the last six months. In the afternoon Ave had him brought over to the office and, pointing toward tho cemetery, he made this statement, Avhich is on file in the clin ical records of the institution: "My wife is not there, but I avIH find her yet. Why, I have Avorked in half tho undertakers' shops in the country, and every time a Avoman's body came in I Avas sure that it Avas my Avife; but they Avere all strangers. I hired out to the sextons of the big cemeteries in San Francisco and Cincinnati and Philadelphia, and every time I had a chance I Avould slip out at night and open a grave and look for my Avife; but it was always a mistake and I Avould carefully refill the grave and rake up all of the clay and loose dirt so that the superintendent of the ground never sus pected Avhat I had done. "Once in the Old Rochester cemetery I found a man all doubled up and lying on his side in his coffin Avith his clothing torn into shreds. His fingers and toes Avere completely Avorn aAvay In his frantic efforts to release himself, for he had been burled alive. All the others Avere dead though, and none ever spoke to me. I Avorked in a place only long enough to earn the cost of go ing to the next city. Finally I quit looking for her among the dead and began to search for her among the living, and, just because I stood on the street corner and looked every Avoman in the face, I Avas arrested and sent to the insane asy lum; but, doctor you know I am not insane. I only Avant to find my Avife and Avhen I do and am relieved of this great responsibility that has ab sorbed my very thought for tAventy years, I Avill ' apply myself for her comfort and you Avill be sur prised that you ever considered me insane." Poor Duden did not have long to Avalt. The strain of thought under Avhich he labored and the loss of sleep and great physical strain he un derwent during his long continued incursions Avere having their effect. Noav that avo had a closer vieAV of him Ave noted that his features Avere draAvn and that he had evidently lost considerable In Aveight. Wo sent him out to the farm colony and told the housekeeper not to alloAV him to Avork and to give him extra rations, for Ave hoped that this Avould soon restore him to his old-time vigor. I Avent to see him occasionally, but the de cline seemed to bo progressive, so we ordered him brought to the hospital and placed in Every doctor on making his rounds Avould stop at his cot and urge the nurses to do their utmost in caring for him. By this time his sad life's history had become known throughout the institution and every nurse, Avith the natural In stinct of her sex, Avas anxious to help the man AVhose devotion of his Avife led him to search for her even among the dead. fy, The stand at his bedside Avas never Avithout fresh flowers, and no nurse Avent up toAVn but upon her return sho brought some delicacy for the sick man, purchased out of her oAvn meager moans. There Avas just enough romance in his mania, just enough chivalry in his ghoulish act to excite a feeling of admiration as Avell as 'sympa thy for his lonely figure, the sands of AVhose life Avere rapidly running out. It Is a notable tact that in the insane, no matter how completely or how long the intellect has been shattered, there Is, Avith the approach of death, a return to reason. I have seen It many times. Patients Avho had not spoken a rational '. Avord for years and Avho had almost maliciously refused to speak to their kinsfolk Avould, upon their death-bed, not only recognize them, but Avould ask their forgiveness and leave many lov ing messages for those at home. I left word with the nurses to note any return of sanity in Duden ,and to send for me at once, I Avas very close to my patients. I purposely sur rendered all of my other interests in order to deyote myself to their Avelfare. Of them I could truthful say: "The deaths ye died I have Avatched beside, And the lives that ye led Avere mine. The nurses all knew this and never hesitated to ask me to the bedside of a patient Avho express ed a desire to see me or to speak to me. I did not Avait to be called to the death-bed of Duden, for -the marks of approaching disso lution Avere too plain to be mistaken and I con cluded to remain Avith him to the end. I sat be side his bed and asked the nurses to remain. He Avas breathing heavily, Avhen all at once his fea tures brightened and ho stretched out his emaciat ed arms and pointed .ato space, exclaiming, "There she is; I knew I Avould find her. Doctor, look! look! Don't you see her? She is calling mo to come and I am going to her." He half arose in bed, but sank back exhausted. Down in the engine room they usually shifted the belt of the dynamo about 9 o'clock and this Avould cause just a momentary darkness. This occurred just as Duden fell back in collapse. In a flash tho light Avas on again, but in this almost imperceptible interval the end had come and Avhen we again saAV him he Avas dead. His features Avere cairn and the look of dis tress and Avorry Avhich marked them throughout his residence in the institution Avas gone. We all felt that at last he had found his Avife. v- We laid him away in the same cemetery that had been the scene of his fruitless search, and tho devotion of the nurses shoAved itself in a beautiful floral piece ordered 'by them and brought from the city. They asked If they might be permitted to mark tho grave Avith a marble headstone lnstoad of the usual cement slab. This Avas granted, and tho stone stands there conspicuously in the ceme tery Avhere it may be seen at any time anyone desires to visit that interesting spot. Upon it Avas inscribed this legend: To the 'Memory of , Peter Duden ' As avo studied tho inscription something seemed lacking, and tAVo Aveeks later we had the marble cutter come out and add tho words: And His Wife.