Mystery of Ambrose Bierce On the cold evening of November 8, 1878, a sixteen year-old boy named Charles Ashmore walked out of the back door of his family’s farm house near Quincy, Illinois. He carried with him a bucket with which to fetch fresh water from the spring a short distance away. When he did not return, his family became uneasy and Christian Ashmore and his oldest daughter, Martha, took a lantern and went in search of the boy. A new snow had just fallen and Charles’ footprints were plainly visible as they went out the back door and started across the yard. His father and sister followed his trail for a short distance but after going about 75 yards, they saw that the trail abruptly ended. Beyond the last footprint was nothing other than smooth, unbroken snow - the boy’s tracks simply came to an end with nowhere for him to go! Ashmore and his daughter made a wide circle around the tracks, careful not to disturb them, then went on to the spring. They found the water covered with a layer of unbroken ice and it became apparent that Charles had gotten no closer to the spring than his tracks had indicated. The boy had vanished without explanation! But the story does not end there. Four days later, the grief-stricken mother of the young man went to the spring for water and insisted that she heard the voice of her son calling to her when she passed the spot where his footprints had ended. She wandered the area, thinking that the voice was coming from one direction and then another. Later, when questioned about the voice, she said that the words were very clear, and the voice definitely that of her son, and yet she could make out no message from them. For months afterward, the voice was heard every few days by one family member, or sometimes many of them. It seemed to come from a great distance and yet was entirely distinct, although none of them could determine its message or repeat its words. Soon, the intervals of silence grew longer and longer and the voice much fainter and by mid-summer of 1879, it was heard no more.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 20:49:50 +0000
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