THE THING AT NOLAN
by Ambrose Bierce
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. May's family
consisted of a wife, an adult son and two young
girls. The son's 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 o'clock 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 men's 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 blacksmith's 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
May's 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 o'clock 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 man's
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. Odell's store at Nolan?
~~~~~~~ THE END ~~~~~~~
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