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+Project Gutenberg's The Ape, the Idiot & Other People, by W. C. Morrow
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Ape, the Idiot & Other People
+
+Author: W. C. Morrow
+
+Release Date: May 26, 2007 [EBook #21616]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE APE, THE IDIOT & OTHER PEOPLE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Ape, The Idiot and Other People
+Fourth Edition
+
+
+
+THE APE, THE IDIOT & OTHER PEOPLE
+
+
+
+By
+
+W. C. MORROW
+
+
+
+PHILADELPHIA
+J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
+1910
+
+
+Copyright, 1897
+By
+J. B. Lippincott Company
+
+
+
+The stories in this volume are published with the kind permission of
+the periodicals in which they originally appeared--_Lippincott's
+Magazine_, Philadelphia, and the _Overland Monthly_, the _Argonaut_,
+the _Examiner_, the _News Letter_, and the _Call_, all of San
+Francisco.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                 Page
+
+The Resurrection of Little Wang Tai                 9
+
+The Hero of the Plague                             24
+
+His Unconquerable Enemy                            48
+
+The Permanent Stiletto                             67
+
+Over an Absinthe Bottle                            90
+
+The Inmate of the Dungeon                         109
+
+A Game of Honor                                   134
+
+Treacherous Velasco                               147
+
+An Uncommon View of It                            168
+
+A Story Told by the Sea                           188
+
+The Monster-Maker                                 213
+
+An Original Revenge                               245
+
+Two Singular Men                                  256
+
+The Faithful Amulet                               275
+
+
+
+
+The Resurrection of Little Wang Tai
+
+
+A train of circus-wagons, strung along a dusty road, in the Santa Clara
+Valley, crept slowly under the beating heat of a July sun. The dust
+rolled in clouds over the gaudy wagons of the menagerie. The outer
+doors of the cages had been opened to give access of air to the panting
+animals, but with the air came the dust, and the dust annoyed Romulus
+greatly. Never before had he longed for freedom so intensely. Ever
+since he could remember he had been in a cage like this; it had been so
+all through his childhood and youth. There was no trace in his memory
+of days when he of a time had been free. Not the faintest recollection
+existed of the time when he might have swung in the branches of
+equatorial forests. To him life was a desolation and a despair, and the
+poignancy of it all was sharpened by the clouds of dust which rolled
+through the grated door.
+
+Romulus, thereupon, sought means of escape. Nimble, deft,
+sharp-sighted, he found a weak place in his prison, worked it open, and
+leaped forth upon the highway a free anthropoid ape. None of the
+sleepy, weary drivers noticed his escape, and a proper sense of caution
+caused him to seek security under a way-side shrub until the procession
+had safely passed. Then the whole world lay before him.
+
+His freedom was large and sweet, but, for a while, perplexing. An
+almost instinctive leap to catch the trapeze-bar that had hung in his
+cage brought his hands in contact with only unresisting air. This
+confused and somewhat frightened him. The world seemed much broader and
+brighter since the black bars of his prison no longer striped his
+vision. And then, to his amazement, in place of the dingy covering of
+his cage appeared a vast and awful expanse of blue heaven, the
+tremendous depth and distance of which terrified him.
+
+The scampering of a ground-squirrel seeking its burrow soon caught his
+notice, and he watched the little animal with great curiosity. Then he
+ran to the burrow, and hurt his feet on the sharp wheat-stubble. This
+made him more cautious. Not finding the squirrel, he looked about and
+discovered two owls sitting on a little mound not far away. Their
+solemn gaze fastened upon him inspired him with awe, but his curiosity
+would not permit him to forego a closer view. He cautiously crept
+towards them; then he stopped, sat down, and made grotesque faces at
+them. This had no effect. He scratched his head and thought. Then he
+made a feint as though he would pounce upon them, and they flew.
+Romulus gazed at them with the greatest amazement, for never before had
+he seen anything skim through the air. But the world was so wide and
+freedom so large that surely everything free ought to fly; so Romulus
+sprang into the air and made motions with his arms like to those the
+owls had made with their wings; and the first grievous disappointment
+which his freedom brought came when he found himself sprawling on the
+field.
+
+His alert mind sought other exercise. Some distance away stood a house,
+and at the front gate was a man, and Romulus knew man to be the meanest
+and most cruel of all living things and the conscienceless taskmaster
+of weaker creatures. So Romulus avoided the house and struck out across
+the fields. Presently he came upon a very large thing which awed him.
+It was a live-oak, and the birds were singing in the foliage. But his
+persistent curiosity put a curb upon his fears, and he crept closer and
+closer. The kindly aspect of the tree, the sweetness of the shade which
+it cast, the cool depths of its foliage, the gentle swaying of the
+boughs in the soft north wind--all invited him to approach. This he
+did, until he arrived at the gnarled old bole, and then he leaped into
+the branches and was filled with delight. The little birds took flight.
+Romulus sat upon a limb, and then stretched himself at full length upon
+it and enjoyed the peace and comfort of the moment. But he was an ape
+and had to be employed, and so he ran out upon the smaller branches and
+shook them after the manner of his parents before him.
+
+These delights all exploited, Romulus dropped to the ground and began
+to explore the world again; but the world was wide and its loneliness
+oppressed him. Presently he saw a dog and made quickly for him. The
+dog, seeing the strange creature approach, sought to frighten it by
+barking; but Romulus had seen similar animals before and had heard
+similar sounds; he could not be frightened by them. He went boldly
+towards the dog by long leaps on all fours. The dog, terrified by the
+strange-looking creature, ran away yelping and left Romulus with
+freedom and the world again.
+
+On went Romulus over the fields, crossing a road now and then, and
+keeping clear of all living things that he found. Presently he came to
+a high picket-fence, surrounding a great inclosure, in which sat a
+large house in a grove of eucalyptus-trees. Romulus was thirsty, and
+the playing of a fountain among the trees tempted him sorely. He might
+have found courage to venture within had he not at that moment
+discovered a human being, not ten feet away, on the other side of the
+fence. Romulus sprang back with a cry of terror, and then stopped, and
+in a crouching attitude, ready to fly for his life and freedom, gazed
+at the enemy of all creation.
+
+But the look he received in return was so kindly, and withal so
+peculiar and so unlike any that he had ever seen before, that his
+instinct to fly yielded to his curiosity to discover. Romulus did not
+know that the great house in the grove was an idiot-asylum, nor that
+the lad with the strange but kindly expression was one of the inmates.
+He knew only that kindness was there. The look which he saw was not the
+hard and cruel one of the menagerie-keeper, nor the empty, idle,
+curious one of the spectators, countenancing by their presence and
+supporting with their money the infamous and exclusively human practice
+of capturing wild animals and keeping them all their lives in the
+torture of captivity. So deeply interested was Romulus in what he saw
+that he forgot his fear and cocked his head on one side and made a
+queer grimace; and his motions and attitude were so comical that Moses,
+the idiot, grinned at him through the pickets. But the grin was not the
+only manifestation of pleasure that Moses gave. A peculiar vermicular
+movement, beginning at his feet and ending at his head, was the
+precursor of a slow, vacant guffaw that expressed the most intense
+delight of which he was capable. Moses never before had seen so queer a
+creature as this little brown man all covered with hair; he never
+before had seen even a monkey, that common joy of ordinary childhood,
+and remoter from resemblance to human kind than was Romulus. Moses was
+nineteen; but, although his voice was childlike no longer and his face
+was covered with unsightly short hair, and he was large and strong,
+running mostly to legs and arms, he was simple and innocent. His
+clothes were much too small, and a thick growth of wild hair topped his
+poll, otherwise innocent of covering.
+
+Thus gazed these two strange beings at each other, held by sympathy and
+curiosity. Neither had the power of speech, and hence neither could lie
+to the other. Was it instinct which made Romulus believe that of all
+the bipedal devils which infested the face of the earth there was one
+of so gentle spirit that it could love him? And was it by instinct that
+Romulus, ignorant as he was of the larger ways of the world, discovered
+that his own mind was the firmer and cleverer of the two? And, feeling
+the hitherto unimaginable sweetness of freedom, did there come to him a
+knowledge that this fellow-being was a prisoner, as he himself had
+been, and longed for a taste of the open fields? And if Romulus so had
+reasoned, was it a sense of chivalry or a desire for companionship that
+led him to the rescue of this one weaker and more unfortunate than he?
+
+He went cautiously to the fence, and put through his hand and touched
+Moses. The lad, much pleased, took the hand of the ape in his, and at
+once there was a good understanding between them. Romulus teased the
+boy to follow him, by going away a few steps and looking back, and then
+going and pulling his hand through the fence--doing this
+repeatedly--until his intention worked its way into the idiot's mind.
+The fence was too high to be scaled; but now that the desire for
+freedom had invaded his being, Moses crushed the pickets with his huge
+feet and emerged from his prison.
+
+These two, then, were at large. The heavens were lifted higher and the
+horizon was extended. At a convenient ditch they slaked their thirst,
+and in an orchard they found ripe apricots; but what can satisfy the
+hunger of an ape or an idiot? The world was wide and sweet and
+beautiful, and the exquisite sense of boundless freedom worked like
+rich old wine in unaccustomed veins. These all brought infinite delight
+to Romulus and his charge as over the fields they went.
+
+I will not tell particularly of all they did that wild, mad, happy
+afternoon, while drunk and reeling with freedom. I might say in passing
+that at one place they tore open the cage of a canary-bird swinging in
+a cherry-tree out of sight of the house, and at another they unbuckled
+the straps which bound a baby in a cart, and might have made off with
+it but for fear of arrest; but these things have no relation to the
+climax of their adventures, now hastening to accomplishment.
+
+When the sun had sunk lower in the yellow splendor of the west and the
+great nickel dome of the observatory on Mount Hamilton had changed from
+silver to copper, the two revellers, weary and now hungry again, came
+upon a strange and perplexing place. It was a great oak with its long,
+cone-shaped shadow pointed towards the east and the cool depths of its
+foliage that first attracted them. About the tree were mounds with
+wooden head-boards, which wiser ones would have known the meaning of.
+But how could an ape or an idiot know of a freedom so sweet and silent
+and unencompassed and unconditional as death? And how could they know
+that the winners of so rich a prize should be mourned, should be wetted
+with tears, should be placed in the ground with the strutting pomp of
+grief? Knowing nothing at all of things like this, how could they know
+that this shabby burying-ground upon which they had strayed was so
+unlike that one which, in clear sight some distance away, was ordered
+in walks and drive-ways and ornamented with hedges, and fountains, and
+statues, and rare plants, and costly monuments--ah, my friends, how,
+without money, may we give adequate expression to grief? And surely
+grief without evidence of its existence is the idlest of indulgences!
+
+But there was no pomp in the shadow of the oak, for the broken fence
+setting apart this place from the influence of Christian civilization
+enclosed graves holding only such bones as could not rest easy in soil
+across which was flung the shadow of the cross. Romulus and Moses knew
+nothing of these things; knew nothing of laws prohibiting disinterment
+within two years; knew nothing of a strange, far-away people from Asia,
+who, scorning the foreign Christian soil upon which they walked,
+despising the civilization out of which they wrung money, buried their
+dead in obedience to law which they had not the strength to resist, and
+two years afterwards dug up the bones and sent them to the old home to
+be interred for everlasting rest in the soil made and nourished by a
+god of their own.
+
+Should either Romulus or Moses judge between these peoples? They were
+in better business than that.
+
+Their examination of a strange brick furnace in which printed prayers
+were burned, and of a low brick altar covered with the grease of
+used-up tapers, had hardly been finished when an approaching cloud of
+dust along the broken fence warned them to the exercise of caution.
+Romulus was the quicker to escape, for a circus-train makes a trail of
+dust along the road, and with swift alacrity he sprang into the boughs
+of the oak, the heavy Moses clambering laboriously after, emitting
+guffaws in praise of the superior agility of his guardian. It made
+Moses laugh again to see the little hairy man stretch himself on a
+branch and sigh with the luxurious comfort of repose, and he nearly had
+fallen in trying to imitate the nimble Romulus. But they were still and
+silent when the cloud of dust, parting at a gate, gave forth into the
+enclosure a small cavalcade of carriages and wagons.
+
+There was a grave newly dug, and towards this came the procession,--a
+shallow grave, for one must not lie too deep in the Christian soil of
+the white barbarian,--but it was so small a grave! Even Romulus could
+have filled it, and, as for Moses, it was hardly too large for his
+feet.
+
+For little Wang Tai was dead, and in this small grave were her fragile
+bones to rest for twenty-four months under three feet of Christian law.
+Interest tempered the fright which Romulus and Moses felt when from the
+forward carriage came the sound of rasping oboes, belly-less fiddles,
+brazen tom-toms, and harsh cymbals, playing a dirge for little Wang
+Tai; playing less for godly protection of her tiny soul than for its
+exemption from the torture of devils.
+
+With the others there came forth a little woman all bent with grief and
+weeping, for little Wang Tai had a mother, and every mother has a
+mother's heart. She was only a little yellow woman from Asia, with
+queer wide trousers for skirts and rocker-soled shoes that flapped
+against her heels. Her uncovered black hair was firmly knotted and
+securely pinned, and her eyes were black of color and soft of look, and
+her face, likely blank in content, was wet with tears and drawn with
+suffering. And there sat upon her, like a radiance from heaven, the
+sweetest, the saddest, the deepest, the tenderest of all human
+afflictions,--the one and the only one that time can never heal.
+
+So they interred little Wang Tai, and Romulus and Moses saw it all, and
+paper prayers were burned in the oven, and tapers were lighted at the
+altar; and for the refreshment of the angels that should come to bear
+little Wang Tai's soul to the farther depths of blue heaven some savory
+viands were spread upon the grave. The grave filled, the diggers hid
+their spades behind the oven, Romulus watching them narrowly. The
+little bent woman gathered her grief to her heart and bore it away; and
+a cloud of dust, widening away alongside the broken fence, disappeared
+in the distance. The dome of Mount Hamilton had changed from copper to
+gold; the purple canyons of the Santa Cruz Mountains looked cold
+against the blazing orange of the western sky; the crickets set up
+their cheerful notes in the great old oak, and night fell softly as a
+dream.
+
+Four hungry eyes saw the viands of the grave, and four greedy nostrils
+inhaled the aroma. Down dropped Romulus, and with less skill down fell
+Moses. Little Wang Tai's angels must go supperless to heaven this
+night--and it is a very long road from Christendom to heaven! The two
+outlaws snatched, and scrambled, and fought, and when all of this
+little was eaten they set their minds to other enterprises. Romulus
+fetched the spades and industriously began to dig into Wang Tai's
+grave, and Moses, crowing and laughing, fell to as assistant, and as
+the result of their labor the earth flew to either side. Only three
+feet of loose Christian law covered little Wang Tai!
+
+                    *      *      *      *      *
+
+A small yellow woman, moaning with grief, had tossed all night on her
+hard bed of matting and her harder pillow of hollowed wood. Even the
+familiar raucous sounds of early morning in the Chinese quarter of San
+Jose, remindful of that far-distant country which held all of her heart
+not lying dead under Christian sod, failed to lighten the burden which
+sat upon her. She saw the morning sun push its way through a sea of
+amber and the nickel dome of the great observatory on Mount Hamilton
+standing ebony against the radiant East. She heard the Oriental jargon
+of the early hucksters who cried their wares in the ill-smelling
+alleys, and with tears she added to the number of pearls which the dew
+had strewn upon the porch. She was only a small yellow woman from Asia,
+all bent with grief; and what of happiness could there be for her in
+the broad sunshine which poured forth from the windows of heaven,
+inviting the living babies of all present mankind to find life and
+health in its luxurious enfolding? She saw the sun climb the skies with
+imperious magnificence, and whispering voices from remote Cathay
+tempered the radiance of the day with memories of the past.
+
+Could you, had your hearts been breaking and your eyes blinded with
+tears, have seen with proper definition the figures of a strange
+procession which made its way along the alley under the porch? There
+were white men with three prisoners--three who so recently had tested
+the sweets of freedom, and they had been dragged back to servitude. Two
+of these had been haled from the freedom of life and one from the
+freedom of death, and all three had been found fast asleep in the early
+morning beside the open grave and empty coffin of little Wang Tai.
+There were wise men abroad, and they said that little Wang Tai, through
+imperfect medical skill, had been interred alive, and that Romulus and
+Moses, by means of their impish pranks, had brought her to life after
+raising her from the grave. But wherefore the need of all this talk? Is
+it not enough that these two brigands were whipped and sent back into
+servitude, and that when the little yellow woman from Asia had gathered
+her baby to her breast the windows of her soul were opened to receive
+the warmth of the yellow sunshine that poured in a flood from heaven?
+
+
+
+
+The Hero of the Plague
+
+
+I
+
+On a sweltering July day a long and ungainly shadow, stretching thirty
+feet upon the ground, crept noiselessly up an avenue leading to a
+fashionable hotel at a great summer resort. The sun was setting, and
+its slanting rays caused the shadow to assume the appearance of an
+anamorphosis of ludicrous proportions. It was a timid shadow--perhaps a
+shadow of strange and unnerving experiences.
+
+The original of it was worthy of study. He was a short, stout,
+stoop-shouldered man; his hair was ragged and dusty, his beard
+straggling and scant. His visible clothing consisted of a slouch hat,
+torn around the rim and covered with dust; a woollen shirt; a pair of
+very badly soiled cotton trousers; suspenders made of rawhide strips,
+fastened to his trousers with wooden pins, and the strangest of old
+boots, which turned high up at the toes like canoes (being much too
+long for his feet), and which had a rakish aspect.
+
+The man's face was a protest against hilarity. Apparently he had all
+the appurtenances of natural manhood, yet his whole expression would
+have at once aroused sympathy, for it was a mixture of childishness,
+confidence, timidity, humility, and honesty. His look was vague and
+uncertain, and seemed to be searching hopelessly for a friend--for the
+guidance of natures that were stronger and minds that were clearer. He
+could not have been older than thirty-five years, and yet his hair and
+beard were gray, and his face was lined with wrinkles. Occasionally he
+would make a movement as if to ward off a sudden and vicious blow.
+
+He carried a knotty stick, and his ample trousers-pockets were filled
+to such an extent that they made him appear very wide in the hips and
+very narrow in the shoulders. Their contents were a mystery. The
+pockets at least produced the good effect of toning down the marvellous
+ellipticity of his legs, and in doing this they performed a valuable
+service.
+
+"Hullo! who are you?" gruffly demanded a porter employed in the hotel,
+as the disreputable-looking man was picking his way with great nicety
+up the broad interior stairs, afraid that his dusty boots would deface
+the polished brasses under foot.
+
+"Baker," promptly replied the man, in a small, timid voice, coming to a
+halt and humbly touching his hat.
+
+"Baker? Well, what's your other name?"
+
+"Mine?"
+
+"Yes, yours."
+
+The stranger was evidently puzzled by the question. He looked vacantly
+around the ceiling until his gaze rested upon a glass chandelier above
+him; but, finding no assistance there, his glance wandered to an oriel,
+in which there was a caged mocking-bird.
+
+"Jess Baker--that's all," he answered at last, in his thin voice and
+slow, earnest manner.
+
+"What! don't know your other name?"
+
+"No, I reckin not," said Baker, after a thoughtful pause. "I reckin
+it's jess Baker--that's all."
+
+"Didn't they ever call you anything else?"
+
+"Me?"
+
+"Yes, you."
+
+Again Baker looked helplessly around until he found the chandelier, and
+then his eyes sought the oriel. Then he started as if he had received a
+blow, and immediately reached down and felt his ankles.
+
+"Yes, sir," he answered.
+
+"What was it?"
+
+"Hunder'd'n One," he quietly said, looking at his questioner with a
+shade of fear and suspicion in his face.
+
+The porter believed that a lunatic stood before him. He asked:
+
+"Where are you from?"
+
+"Georgy."
+
+"What part of Georgia?"
+
+Again was Baker at sea, and again did his glance seek the chandelier
+and the oriel.
+
+"Me?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, you. What part of Georgia are you from?"
+
+"Jess Georgy," he finally said.
+
+"What do you want here?"
+
+"Well, I'll tell you. I want you to hire me," he replied, with a faint
+look of expectancy.
+
+"What can you do?"
+
+"Me?"
+
+"Yes, you."
+
+"Oh, well, I'll tell you. Most everything."
+
+"What salary do you want?"
+
+"Me?"
+
+"Of course you."
+
+"Want?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Oh, well, about five dollars a day, I reckin."
+
+The porter laughed coarsely. "You needn't talk to me about it," he
+said; "I'm not the proprietor."
+
+"The which?" asked Baker.
+
+"The boss."
+
+"Oh, ain't you?" and then he looked very much puzzled indeed.
+
+The porter had had sufficient amusement, and so he demanded, in a
+brusque and menacing tone, "Now, say--you get away from here quick! We
+don't want no crazy tramps around here. You understand?"
+
+Baker did not stir, but stood looking helplessly at the porter,
+surprised and grieved.
+
+"Get out, I say, or I'll set the dogs on you!"
+
+A look of deep mortification settled on Baker's face, but he was not
+frightened; he did not move a muscle, except to glance quickly around
+for the dogs.
+
+"Ain't you going, you crazy old tramp? If you don't I'll lock you up
+and send for the sheriff;" and the porter rattled some keys in his
+pocket.
+
+Instantly a great horror overspread the countenance of Baker from
+Georgia. He looked wildly about and seemed ready to run, and labored
+with an imaginary weight that clung to his ankles. He took a single
+step in his agitation, and suddenly realized that no such encumbrance
+detained him. He shook off the delusion and sprang to the bottom of the
+stairs. His whole appearance had changed. Humility had given way to
+uncontrollable fear, and he had become a fleeing wild beast that was
+hunted for its life. He sprang through the outer door and reached the
+ground in another bound, and gathered his strength for immediate flight
+from terrors without a name.
+
+"Stop, there!" called a stern, full voice.
+
+Baker obeyed instantly; obeyed as might a man long accustomed to the
+most servile obedience; as might a dog that has been beaten until his
+spirit is broken. He bared his head, and stood in the warm glow of the
+fading light, meek and submissive. All signs of fear had disappeared
+from his face; but he was no longer the Baker from Georgia who, a few
+minutes ago, had trudged along the gravelled walk after the ungainly
+shadow. He had sought a thing and had not found it--had bitten a rosy
+apple and was choked with dust. Even the rakish boots looked
+submissive, and showed their brass teeth in solemn acquiescence to an
+inevitability; and somehow they looked not nearly so rakish as
+formerly.
+
+The voice that had checked Baker had not a kindly tone; it was that of
+a suspicious man, who believed that he had detected a thief in the act
+of making off with dishonest booty stored in ample pockets. Yet his
+face had a generous look, though anger made his eyes harsh. The two men
+surveyed each other, anger disappearing from the face of one to give
+place to pity, the other regarding him with mild docility.
+
+"Come along with me," said the gentleman to Baker.
+
+Evidently Baker had heard those words before, for he followed quietly
+and tamely, with his dusty old hat in his left hand and his head bowed
+upon his breast. He walked so slowly that the gentleman turned to
+observe him, and found him moving laboriously, with his feet wide apart
+and his right hand grasping an invisible something that weighted down
+his ankles. They were now passing the end of the hotel on their way to
+the rear, when they came near a hitching-post, to which rings were
+affixed with staples. Baker had been looking around for something, and,
+as the gentleman (who was Mr. Clayton, the proprietor of the hotel)
+stopped near the post, Baker walked straight up to it, without having
+looked to the left or the right. Upon reaching it he dropped the
+invisible something that he carried in his right hand, laid his hat on
+the ground, slipped the rawhide suspenders from his shoulders,
+unbuttoned his shirt, pulled it over his head, and laid it on the grass
+alongside his hat. He then humbly embraced the post and crossed his
+hands over a ring to which a chain was attached. He laid his cheek
+against his bare right arm and waited patiently, without having uttered
+a protest or made an appeal. The old boots looked up wistfully into his
+sorrowing face.
+
+His naked back glistened white. It was a map on which were traced a
+record of the bloody cruelties of many years; it was a fine piece of
+mosaic--human flesh inlaid with the venom of the lash. There were
+scars, and seams, and ridges, and cuts that crossed and recrossed each
+other in all possible directions. Thus stood Baker for some time, until
+Mr. Clayton kindly called to him:
+
+"Put on your shirt."
+
+He proceeded to obey silently, but was confused and embarrassed at this
+unexpected turn of events. He hesitated at first, however, for he
+evidently did not understand how he could put on his shirt until his
+hands had been released.
+
+"Your hands are not chained," explained Mr. Clayton.
+
+The revelation was so unexpected that it almost startled the man from
+Georgia. He pulled out one hand slowly, that a sudden jerk might not
+lacerate his wrist. Then he pulled out the other, resumed his shirt and
+hat, picked up the imaginary weight, and shuffled along slowly after
+his leader.
+
+"What is your name?" asked the gentleman.
+
+"Hunder'd'n One."
+
+They were soon traversing the corridor in the servants' quarter of the
+hotel, when Baker halted and ventured to say:
+
+"I reckin you'r in the wrong curryder." He was examining the ceiling,
+the floor, and the numbers on the doors.
+
+"No, this is right," said the gentleman.
+
+Again Baker hobbled along, never releasing his hold on the invisible
+weight. They halted at No. 13. Said Baker, with a shade of pity in his
+voice,--
+
+"'Taint right. Wrong curryder. Cell hunder'd'n one's mine."
+
+"Yes, yes; but we'll put you in this one for the present," replied the
+gentleman, as he opened the door and ushered Baker within. The room was
+comfortably furnished, and this perplexed Baker more and more.
+
+"Hain't you got it wrong?" he persisted. "Lifer, you know. Hunder'd'n
+One--lifer--plays off crazy--forty lashes every Monday. Don't you
+know?"
+
+"Yes, yes, I know; but we'll not talk about that now."
+
+They brought a good supper to his room, and he ate ravenously. They
+persuaded him to wash in a basin in the room, though he begged hard to
+be permitted to go to the pump. Later that night the gentleman went to
+his room and asked him if he wanted anything.
+
+"Well, I'll tell you. You forgot to take it off," Baker replied,
+pointing to his ankles.
+
+The gentleman was perplexed for a moment, and then he stooped and
+unlocked and removed an imaginary ball and chain. Baker seemed
+relieved. Said the gentleman, as Baker was preparing for bed:
+
+"This is not a penitentiary. It is my house, and I do not whip anybody.
+I will give you all you want to eat, and good clothes, and you may go
+wherever you please. Do you understand?"
+
+Baker looked at him with vacant eyes and made no reply. He undressed,
+lay down, sighed wearily, and fell asleep.
+
+
+II.
+
+A stifling Southern September sun beat down upon the mountains and
+valleys. The thrush and the mocking-bird had been driven to cool
+places, and their songs were not heard in the trees. The hotel was
+crowded with refugees from Memphis. A terrible scourge was sweeping
+through Tennessee, and its black shadow was creeping down to the Gulf
+of Mexico; and as it crept it mowed down young and old in its path.
+
+"Well, Baker, how are you getting along?" It was the round, cheerful
+voice of Mr. Clayton.
+
+The man from Georgia was stooping over a pail, scouring it with sand
+and a cloth. Upon hearing the greeting he hung the cloth over the pail
+and came slowly to the perpendicular, putting his hands, during the
+operation, upon the small of his back, as if the hinges in that region
+were old and rusty and needed care.
+
+"Oh, well, now, I'll tell you. Nothin' pertickler to complain on,
+excep'----"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I don't believe it's quite exactly right."
+
+"Tell me about it."
+
+"Well, now, you see--there ain't nobody a-listenin', is there?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I think they ought to give me one more piece, any way."
+
+"Piece of what?"
+
+"Mebbe two more pieces."
+
+"Of what?"
+
+"Pie. It was pie I was a-talkin' about all the time."
+
+"Don't they give you sufficient?"
+
+"Pie?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"No, sir; not nigh enough. An'--an'--come here closter. I'm a-gittin'
+weak--I'm a-starvin'!" he whispered.
+
+"You shall not starve. What do you want?"
+
+"Well, now, I was jess a-thinkin' that one or two more pieces fur
+dinner every day--every day----"
+
+"Pie?"
+
+"Yes, sir; pie. I was a-talkin' about pie."
+
+"You shall certainly have it; but don't they give you any?"
+
+"What? Pie?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Oh, well, they do give me some."
+
+"Every day?"
+
+"Yes, sir; every day."
+
+"How much do they give you?"
+
+"Pie?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, I'll tell you. About two pieces, I believe."
+
+"Aren't you afraid that much more than that would make you sick?"
+
+"Oh, well, now, I'm a-goin' to tell you about that, too, 'cause you
+don't know about it. You see, I'm mostly used to gittin' sick, an' I
+ain't mostly used to eatin' of pie." He spoke then, as he always spoke,
+with the most impressive earnestness.
+
+Baker had undergone a great change within the two months that had
+passed over him at the hotel. Kindness had driven away the vacant look
+in his eyes and his mind was stronger. He had found that for which his
+meagre soul had yearned--a sympathizing heart and a friend. He was fat,
+sleek, and strong. His old boots--the same as of yore, for he would not
+abandon them--looked less foolish and seemed almost cheerful. Were they
+not always in an atmosphere of gentleness and refinement, and did they
+not daily tread the very ground pressed by the bravest and richest
+boots in the land? It is true that they were often covered with slops
+and chickens' feathers, but this served only to bring out in bolder
+relief the elevating influences of a healthy morality and a generous
+prosperity that environed them. There are many boots that would have
+been spoiled by so sudden an elevation into a higher sphere of life;
+but the good traits of Baker's boots were strengthened not only by a
+rooting up of certain weaknesses, but also by the gaining of many good
+qualities which proved beneficial; and to the full extent of their
+limited capability did they appreciate the advantages which their
+surroundings afforded, and looked up with humble gratitude whenever
+they would meet a friend.
+
+There were six hundred guests at the hotel, and they all knew Baker and
+had a kind word to give him. But they could never learn anything about
+him other than that his name was Baker--"jess Baker, that's all"--and
+that he came from Georgia--"jess Georgy." Occasionally a stranger would
+ask him with urgent particularity concerning his past history, but he
+then would merely look helpless and puzzled and would say nothing. As
+to his name, it was "jess Baker;" but on rare occasions, when pressed
+with hard cruelty, his lips could be seen to form the words,
+"Hunder'd'n One," as though wondering how they would sound if he should
+utter them, and then the old blank, suffering look would come into his
+face. It had become quite seldom that he dodged an imaginary blow, and
+the memory of the ball and chain was buried with other bitter
+recollections of the past. He had free access to every part of the
+house, and was discreet, diligent, faithful, and honest. Sometimes the
+porters would impose upon his unfailing willingness and great strength
+by making him carry the heaviest trunks up three or four flights of
+stairs.
+
+One day the shadow of death that was stealing southward passed over the
+house containing so much life, and happiness, and wealth, and beauty.
+The train passed as usual, and among the passengers who alighted was a
+man who walked to the counter in a weary, uncertain manner. One or two
+persons were present who knew him, and upon grasping his hand they
+found that it was cold. This was strange, for the day was very hot. In
+his eyes was a look of restlessness and anxiety, but he said that he
+had only a pain across the forehead, and that after needed rest it
+would pass away. He was conducted to a room, and there he fell across
+the bed, quite worn out, he said. He complained of slight cramps in the
+legs and thought that they had been caused by climbing the stairs.
+After a half-hour had passed he rang his bell violently and sent for
+the resident physician. That gentleman went to see him, and after
+remaining a few minutes went to the office, looking anxious and pale.
+He was a tall, quiet man, with white hair. He asked for Mr. Clayton,
+but when he was informed that that gentleman was temporarily absent he
+asked for Baker.
+
+"Is your patient very ill, doctor?" inquired the cashier, privately and
+with a certain dread.
+
+"I want Baker," said the doctor, somewhat shortly.
+
+"Nothing serious, I hope."
+
+"Send me Baker instantly."
+
+The physician had a secret of life and death. To treat it wisely he
+required confidants of courage, sagacity, patience, tact, and prompt
+action. There were only two to whom he should impart it,--one was the
+proprietor and the other the man from Georgia.
+
+When Baker had come the physician led him up-stairs to the floor which
+held the patient's room, brought him to the window at the end of the
+corridor and turned him so that the light fell full upon his face.
+
+"Baker, can you keep a secret?"
+
+"Me?"
+
+"Yes; can you keep a secret?"
+
+"Well, let me tell you about it; I don't know; mebbe I can."
+
+"Have you ever seen people die?"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir!"
+
+"A great many in the same house?"
+
+"Yes, sir; yes, sir."
+
+"Baker," said the physician, placing his hand gently on the broad
+shoulder before him, and looking the man earnestly in the eyes, and
+speaking very impressively--"Baker, are you afraid to die?"
+
+"Me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Die?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+There was no expression whatever upon his patient, gentle face. He
+gazed past the physician through the window and made no reply.
+
+"Are you afraid of death, Baker?"
+
+"Who? Me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+There was no sign that he would answer the question or even that he
+comprehended it. He shifted his gaze to his upturned boot-toes and
+communed with them, but still kept silence.
+
+"There is a man here, Baker, who is very ill, and I think that he will
+die. I want some one to help me take care of him. If you go into his
+room, perhaps you, too, will die. Are you afraid to go?"
+
+"Was you a-talkin' 'bout wantin' me to wait on him?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+A brighter look came into Baker's face and he said:
+
+"Oh, now, I'll tell you; I'll go."
+
+They entered the stranger's room and found him suffering terribly. The
+physician already had put him under vigorous treatment, but he was
+rapidly growing worse. Baker regarded him attentively a moment, and
+then felt his pulse and put his hand on the sufferer's forehead. A look
+of intelligence came into his sad, earnest face, but there was not a
+trace of pallor or fear. He beckoned the physician to follow him out to
+the passage, and the two went aside, closing the door.
+
+"He's a-goin' to die," said Baker, simply and quietly.
+
+"Yes; but how do you know?"
+
+"Well, I'll tell you about that; I know."
+
+"Have you seen it before?"
+
+"Hunderds."
+
+"Are you afraid of it?"
+
+"Me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Oh, well, they all ought to know it," he said, with a sweep of his
+hand towards the corridors.
+
+"Hurry and find Mr. Clayton first and bring him to me."
+
+Baker met Mr. Clayton at the main entrance below and beckoned him to
+follow. He led the way into a dark room stored with boxes and then into
+the farther corner of it. There he stood Mr. Clayton with his back
+against the wall and looked straight into his face. His manner was so
+mysterious, and there was so strange an expression in his face,--a kind
+of empty exaltation it seemed,--and his familiarity in touching Mr.
+Clayton's person was so extraordinary, that that gentleman was alarmed
+for Baker's sanity. Then Baker leaned forward and whispered one
+terrible word,--
+
+"_Cholery!_"
+
+Cholera! Great God! No wonder that Mr. Clayton turned deathly pale and
+leaned heavily against the wall.
+
+At midnight the stranger died, and none in the house had heard of the
+frightful danger which had come to assail them. The physician and Baker
+had been with him constantly, but their efforts had availed nothing;
+and after preparing him for the grave they went out and locked the
+door. Mr. Clayton was waiting for them. The anxious look in the faces
+of the two gentlemen was intensified; Baker's evinced nothing but calm
+consciousness of responsibility. The guests were slumbering.
+
+"We must alarm the house," whispered Mr. Clayton.
+
+The doctor shook his head sadly. "If we do," he said, "there will be a
+panic; and, besides, the night air of these mountains is very cool, and
+if they go from their warm beds into it, likely without taking time to
+dress, the danger will be great."
+
+They both seemed helpless and undecided, and in need of some one to
+choose between two evils for them. They turned to Baker in silence and
+for his decision. He seemed to have expected it, for without a word,
+without submitting it for their concurrence, he went to the end of that
+passage and rapped upon a door. There was an answer, Baker mentioned
+his name, the door was opened, and the dreadful news was quietly
+imparted. The guest was terror-stricken, but a word from Baker gave him
+heart, and he hastily but quietly began preparations to leave the
+house. Thus went Baker from one door to another, imposing silence and
+care and careful dressing, and advising the people to take with them
+such bedding as they could. Mr. Clayton and the physician, observing
+the remarkable success of Baker's method, adopted it, and soon the
+three men had the great house swarming. It was done swiftly, quietly,
+and without panic, and the house became empty.
+
+But selfishness appeared without shame or covering. Every one in the
+house wanted Baker's assistance, for all the porters had fled, and
+there was none other than he to work. So he staggered and toiled under
+the weight of enormous trunks; listened to a hundred orders at once;
+bore frightened children and fainting women in his strong, sure arms;
+labored until his face was haggard and his knees trembled from
+exhaustion. He did the work of fifty men--a hundred men.
+
+The seeds of the plague had been sown. Towards morning the physician
+retired to his room, stricken down. Baker administered to his needs,
+and discovered a surprising knowledge of the malady and its treatment.
+A few of those who had scattered about in the surrounding hills were
+taken down and brought to the house moaning with fear and pain. Baker
+treated them all. Mr. Clayton and a few other stout hearts provided him
+with whatever he ordered, and assisted in watching and in administering
+the simple remedies under his direction. These were such as the
+resources of the hotel permitted,--warm blankets, hot brandy, with
+water and sugar, or pepper and salt in hot water, heated bricks at the
+feet, and rubbing the body with spirits of camphor. Many recovered,
+others grew worse; the physician was saved.
+
+At sunrise, while Baker was working vigorously on a patient, he
+suddenly straightened himself, looked around somewhat anxiously, and
+reeled backward to the wall. The strong man had collapsed at last.
+Leaning against the partition, and spreading out his arms against it to
+keep from falling, he worked his way a few feet to the door, and when
+he turned to go out his hand slipped on the door-facing and he fell
+heavily upon his face in the passage. He lay still for a moment, and
+then crawled slowly to the end of the passage and lay down. He had not
+said a word nor uttered a groan. It was there, silent, alone, and
+uncomplaining, that Mr. Clayton found this last victim of the plague
+waiting patiently for death. Others were hastily summoned. They put him
+upon a bed, and were going to undress him and treat him, but he firmly
+stopped them with uplifted hand, and his sunken eyes and anxious face
+implored more eloquently than his words, when he said:
+
+"No, no! Now, let me tell you: Go an' take care of 'em."
+
+Mr. Clayton sent them away, he alone remaining.
+
+"Here, Baker; take this," he gently urged.
+
+But the man from Georgia knew better. "No, no," he said; "it won't do
+no good." His speech was faint and labored. "I'll tell you: I'm struck
+too hard. It won't do no good. I'm so tired.... I'll go quick ...
+'cause I'm ... so tired."
+
+His extreme exhaustion made him an easy prey. Death sat upon his face,
+and was reflected from his hollow, suffering, mournful eyes. In an hour
+they were dimmer; then he became cold and purple. In another hour his
+pulse was not perceptible. After two more hours his agony had passed.
+
+"Baker, do you want anything?" asked Mr. Clayton, trying to rouse him.
+
+"Me?" very faintly came the response.
+
+"Yes. Do you want anything?"
+
+"Oh, ... I'll tell you: The governor ... he found out my brother ...
+done it ... an' ... an' he's goin' to ... pardon me.... Fifteen years,
+an' played off ... played off crazy.... Forty lashes every Monday ...
+mornin'.... Cell hunder'd'n one's mine.... Well, I'll tell you:
+Governor's goin' to ... pardon me out."
+
+He ceased his struggling to speak. A half-hour passed in silence, and
+then he roused himself feebly and whispered:
+
+"He'll ... pardon ... me."
+
+The old boots stared blankly and coldly at the ceiling; their patient
+expression no longer bore a trace of life or suffering, and their calm
+repose was undisturbed by the song of the mocking-bird in the oriel.
+
+
+
+
+His Unconquerable Enemy
+
+
+I was summoned from Calcutta to the heart of India to perform a
+difficult surgical operation on one of the women of a great rajah's
+household. I found the rajah a man of a noble character, but possessed,
+as I afterwards discovered, of a sense of cruelty purely Oriental and
+in contrast to the indolence of his disposition. He was so grateful for
+the success that attended my mission that he urged me to remain a guest
+at the palace as long as it might please me to stay, and I thankfully
+accepted the invitation.
+
+One of the male servants early attracted my notice for his marvellous
+capacity of malice. His name was Neranya, and I am certain that there
+must have been a large proportion of Malay blood in his veins, for,
+unlike the Indians (from whom he differed also in complexion), he was
+extremely alert, active, nervous, and sensitive. A redeeming
+circumstance was his love for his master. Once his violent temper led
+him to the commission of an atrocious crime,--the fatal stabbing of a
+dwarf. In punishment for this the rajah ordered that Neranya's right
+arm (the offending one) be severed from his body. The sentence was
+executed in a bungling fashion by a stupid fellow armed with an axe,
+and I, being a surgeon, was compelled, in order to save Neranya's life,
+to perform an amputation of the stump, leaving not a vestige of the
+limb remaining.
+
+After this he developed an augmented fiendishness. His love for the
+rajah was changed to hate, and in his mad anger he flung discretion to
+the winds. Driven once to frenzy by the rajah's scornful treatment, he
+sprang upon the rajah with a knife, but, fortunately, was seized and
+disarmed. To his unspeakable dismay the rajah sentenced him for this
+offence to suffer amputation of the remaining arm. It was done as in
+the former instance. This had the effect of putting a temporary curb on
+Neranya's spirit, or, rather, of changing the outward manifestations of
+his diabolism. Being armless, he was at first largely at the mercy of
+those who ministered to his needs,--a duty which I undertook to see was
+properly discharged, for I felt an interest in this strangely distorted
+nature. His sense of helplessness, combined with a damnable scheme for
+revenge which he had secretly formed, caused Neranya to change his
+fierce, impetuous, and unruly conduct into a smooth, quiet, insinuating
+bearing, which he carried so artfully as to deceive those with whom he
+was brought in contact, including the rajah himself.
+
+Neranya, being exceedingly quick, intelligent, and dexterous, and
+having an unconquerable will, turned his attention to the cultivating
+of an enlarged usefulness of his legs, feet, and toes, with so
+excellent effect that in time he was able to perform wonderful feats
+with those members. Thus his capability, especially for destructive
+mischief, was considerably restored.
+
+One morning the rajah's only son, a young man of an uncommonly amiable
+and noble disposition, was found dead in bed. His murder was a most
+atrocious one, his body being mutilated in a shocking manner, but in my
+eyes the most significant of all the mutilations was the entire removal
+and disappearance of the young prince's arms.
+
+The death of the young man nearly brought the rajah to the grave. It
+was not, therefore, until I had nursed him back to health that I began
+a systematic inquiry into the murder. I said nothing of my own
+discoveries and conclusions until after the rajah and his officers had
+failed and my work had been done; then I submitted to him a written
+report, making a close analysis of all the circumstances and closing by
+charging the crime to Neranya. The rajah, convinced by my proof and
+argument, at once ordered Neranya to be put to death, this to be
+accomplished slowly and with frightful tortures. The sentence was so
+cruel and revolting that it filled me with horror, and I implored that
+the wretch be shot. Finally, through a sense of gratitude to me, the
+rajah relaxed. When Neranya was charged with the crime he denied it, of
+course, but, seeing that the rajah was convinced, he threw aside all
+restraint, and, dancing, laughing, and shrieking in the most horrible
+manner, confessed his guilt, gloated over it, and reviled the rajah to
+his teeth,--this, knowing that some fearful death awaited him.
+
+The rajah decided upon the details of the matter that night, and in the
+morning he informed me of his decision. It was that Neranya's life
+should be spared, but that both of his legs should be broken with
+hammers, and that then I should amputate the limbs at the trunk!
+Appended to this horrible sentence was a provision that the maimed
+wretch should be kept and tortured at regular intervals by such means
+as afterwards might be devised.
+
+Sickened to the heart by the awful duty set out for me, I nevertheless
+performed it with success, and I care to say nothing more about that
+part of the tragedy. Neranya escaped death very narrowly and was a long
+time in recovering his wonted vitality. During all these weeks the
+rajah neither saw him nor made inquiries concerning him, but when, as
+in duty bound, I made official report that the man had recovered his
+strength, the rajah's eyes brightened, and he emerged with deadly
+activity from the stupor into which he so long had been plunged.
+
+The rajah's palace was a noble structure, but it is necessary here to
+describe only the grand hall. It was an immense chamber, with a floor
+of polished, inlaid stone and a lofty, arched ceiling. A soft light
+stole into it through stained glass set in the roof and in high windows
+on one side. In the middle of the room was a rich fountain, which threw
+up a tall, slender column of water, with smaller and shorter jets
+grouped around it. Across one end of the hall, half-way to the ceiling,
+was a balcony, which communicated with the upper story of a wing, and
+from which a flight of stone stairs descended to the floor of the hall.
+During the hot summers this room was delightfully cool; it was the
+rajah's favorite lounging-place, and when the nights were hot he had
+his cot taken thither, and there he slept.
+
+This hall was chosen for Neranya's permanent prison; here was he to
+stay so long as he might live, with never a glimpse of the shining
+world or the glorious heavens. To one of his nervous, discontented
+nature such confinement was worse than death. At the rajah's order
+there was constructed for him a small pen of open iron-work, circular,
+and about four feet in diameter, elevated on four slender iron posts,
+ten feet above the floor, and placed between the balcony and the
+fountain. Such was Neranya's prison. The pen was about four feet in
+depth, and the pen-top was left open for the convenience of the
+servants whose duty it should be to care for him. These precautions for
+his safe confinement were taken at my suggestion, for, although the man
+was now deprived of all four of his limbs, I still feared that he might
+develop some extraordinary, unheard-of power for mischief. It was
+provided that the attendants should reach his cage by means of a
+movable ladder.
+
+All these arrangements having been made and Neranya hoisted into his
+cage, the rajah emerged upon the balcony to see him for the first time
+since the last amputation. Neranya had been lying panting and helpless
+on the floor of his cage, but when his quick ear caught the sound of
+the rajah's footfall he squirmed about until he had brought the back of
+his head against the railing, elevating his eyes above his chest, and
+enabling him to peer through the open-work of the cage. Thus the two
+deadly enemies faced each other. The rajah's stern face paled at sight
+of the hideous, shapeless thing which met his gaze; but he soon
+recovered, and the old hard, cruel, sinister look returned. Neranya's
+black hair and beard had grown long, and they added to the natural
+ferocity of his aspect. His eyes blazed upon the rajah with a terrible
+light, his lips parted, and he gasped for breath; his face was ashen
+with rage and despair, and his thin, distended nostrils quivered.
+
+The rajah folded his arms and gazed down from the balcony upon the
+frightful wreck that he had made. Oh, the dreadful pathos of that
+picture; the inhumanity of it; the deep and dismal tragedy of it! Who
+might look into the wild, despairing heart of the prisoner and see and
+understand the frightful turmoil there; the surging, choking passion;
+unbridled but impotent ferocity; frantic thirst for a vengeance that
+should be deeper than hell! Neranya gazed, his shapeless body heaving,
+his eyes aflame; and then, in a strong, clear voice, which rang
+throughout the great hall, with rapid speech he hurled at the rajah the
+most insulting defiance, the most awful curses. He cursed the womb that
+had conceived him, the food that should nourish him, the wealth that
+had brought him power; cursed him in the name of Buddha and all the
+wise men; cursed by the sun, the moon, and the stars; by the
+continents, mountains, oceans, and rivers; by all things living; cursed
+his head, his heart, his entrails; cursed in a whirlwind of
+unmentionable words; heaped unimaginable insults and contumely upon
+him; called him a knave, a beast, a fool, a liar, an infamous and
+unspeakable coward.
+
+The rajah heard it all calmly, without the movement of a muscle,
+without the slightest change of countenance; and when the poor wretch
+had exhausted his strength and fallen helpless and silent to the floor,
+the rajah, with a grim, cold smile, turned and strode away.
+
+The days passed. The rajah, not deterred by Neranya's curses often
+heaped upon him, spent even more time than formerly in the great hall,
+and slept there oftener at night; and finally Neranya wearied of
+cursing and defying him, and fell into a sullen silence. The man was a
+study for me, and I observed every change in his fleeting moods.
+Generally his condition was that of miserable despair, which he
+attempted bravely to conceal. Even the boon of suicide had been denied
+him, for when he would wriggle into an erect position the rail of his
+pen was a foot above his head, so that he could not clamber over and
+break his skull on the stone floor beneath; and when he had tried to
+starve himself the attendants forced food down his throat; so that he
+abandoned such attempts. At times his eyes would blaze and his breath
+would come in gasps, for imaginary vengeance was working within him;
+but steadily he became quieter and more tractable, and was pleasant and
+responsive when I would converse with him. Whatever might have been the
+tortures which the rajah had decided on, none as yet had been ordered;
+and although Neranya knew that they were in contemplation, he never
+referred to them or complained of his lot.
+
+The awful climax of this situation was reached one night, and even
+after this lapse of years I cannot approach its description without a
+shudder.
+
+It was a hot night, and the rajah had gone to sleep in the great hall,
+lying on a high cot placed on the main floor just underneath the edge
+of the balcony. I had been unable to sleep in my own apartment, and so
+I had stolen into the great hall through the heavily curtained entrance
+at the end farthest from the balcony. As I entered I heard a peculiar,
+soft sound above the patter of the fountain. Neranya's cage was partly
+concealed from my view by the spraying water, but I suspected that the
+unusual sound came from him. Stealing a little to one side, and
+crouching against the dark hangings of the wall, I could see him in the
+faint light which dimly illuminated the hall, and then I discovered
+that my surmise was correct--Neranya was quietly at work. Curious to
+learn more, and knowing that only mischief could have been inspiring
+him, I sank into a thick robe on the floor and watched him.
+
+To my great astonishment Neranya was tearing off with his teeth the bag
+which served as his outer garment. He did it cautiously, casting sharp
+glances frequently at the rajah, who, sleeping soundly on his cot
+below, breathed heavily. After starting a strip with his teeth,
+Neranya, by the same means, would attach it to the railing of his cage
+and then wriggle away, much after the manner of a caterpillar's
+crawling, and this would cause the strip to be torn out the full length
+of his garment. He repeated this operation with incredible patience and
+skill until his entire garment had been torn into strips. Two or three
+of these he tied end to end with his teeth, lips, and tongue,
+tightening the knots by placing one end of the strip under his body and
+drawing the other taut with his teeth. In this way he made a line
+several feet long, one end of which he made fast to the rail with his
+mouth. It then began to dawn upon me that he was going to make an
+insane attempt--impossible of achievement without hands, feet, arms, or
+legs--to escape from his cage! For what purpose? The rajah was asleep
+in the hall--ah! I caught my breath. Oh, the desperate, insane thirst
+for revenge which could have unhinged so clear and firm a mind! Even
+though he should accomplish the impossible feat of climbing over the
+railing of his cage that he might fall to the floor below (for how
+could he slide down the rope?), he would be in all probability killed
+or stunned; and even if he should escape these dangers it would be
+impossible for him to clamber upon the cot without rousing the rajah,
+and impossible even though the rajah were dead! Amazed at the man's
+daring, and convinced that his sufferings and brooding had destroyed
+his reason, nevertheless I watched him with breathless interest.
+
+With other strips tied together he made a short swing across one side
+of his cage. He caught the long line in his teeth at a point not far
+from the rail; then, wriggling with great effort to an upright
+position, his back braced against the rail, he put his chin over the
+swing and worked toward one end. He tightened the grasp of his chin on
+the swing, and with tremendous exertion, working the lower end of his
+spine against the railing, he began gradually to ascend the side of his
+cage. The labor was so great that he was compelled to pause at
+intervals, and his breathing was hard and painful; and even while thus
+resting he was in a position of terrible strain, and his pushing
+against the swing caused it to press hard against his windpipe and
+nearly strangle him.
+
+After amazing effort he had elevated the lower end of his body until it
+protruded above the railing, the top of which was now across the lower
+end of his abdomen. Gradually he worked his body over, going backward,
+until there was sufficient excess of weight on the outer side of the
+rail; and then, with a quick lurch, he raised his head and shoulders
+and swung into a horizontal position on top of the rail. Of course, he
+would have fallen to the floor below had it not been for the line which
+he held in his teeth. With so great nicety had he estimated the
+distance between his mouth and the point where the rope was fastened to
+the rail, that the line tightened and checked him just as he reached
+the horizontal position on the rail. If one had told me beforehand that
+such a feat as I had just seen this man accomplish was possible, I
+should have thought him a fool.
+
+Neranya was now balanced on his stomach across the top of the rail, and
+he eased his position by bending his spine and hanging down on either
+side as much as possible. Having rested thus for some minutes, he began
+cautiously to slide off backward, slowly paying out the line through
+his teeth, finding almost a fatal difficulty in passing the knots. Now,
+it is quite possible that the line would have escaped altogether from
+his teeth laterally when he would slightly relax his hold to let it
+slip, had it not been for a very ingenious plan to which he had
+resorted. This consisted in his having made a turn of the line around
+his neck before he attacked the swing, thus securing a threefold
+control of the line,--one by his teeth, another by friction against his
+neck, and a third by his ability to compress it between his cheek and
+shoulder. It was quite evident now that the minutest details of a most
+elaborate plan had been carefully worked out by him before beginning
+the task, and that possibly weeks of difficult theoretical study had
+been consumed in the mental preparation. As I observed him I was
+reminded of certain hitherto unaccountable things which he had been
+doing for some weeks past--going through certain hitherto inexplicable
+motions, undoubtedly for the purpose of training his muscles for the
+immeasurably arduous labor which he was now performing.
+
+A stupendous and seemingly impossible part of his task had been
+accomplished. Could he reach the floor in safety? Gradually he worked
+himself backward over the rail, in imminent danger of falling; but his
+nerve never wavered, and I could see a wonderful light in his eyes.
+With something of a lurch, his body fell against the outer side of the
+railing, to which he was hanging by his chin, the line still held
+firmly in his teeth. Slowly he slipped his chin from the rail, and then
+hung suspended by the line in his teeth. By almost imperceptible
+degrees, with infinite caution, he descended the line, and, finally,
+his unwieldy body rolled upon the floor, safe and unhurt!
+
+What miracle would this superhuman monster next accomplish? I was quick
+and strong, and was ready and able to intercept any dangerous act; but
+not until danger appeared would I interfere with this extraordinary
+scene.
+
+I must confess to astonishment upon having observed that Neranya,
+instead of proceeding directly toward the sleeping rajah, took quite
+another direction. Then it was only escape, after all, that the wretch
+contemplated, and not the murder of the rajah. But how could he escape?
+The only possible way to reach the outer air without great risk was by
+ascending the stairs to the balcony and leaving by the corridor which
+opened upon it, and thus fall into the hands of some British soldiers
+quartered thereabout, who might conceive the idea of hiding him; but
+surely it was impossible for Neranya to ascend that long flight of
+stairs! Nevertheless, he made directly for them, his method of
+progression this: He lay upon his back, with the lower end of his body
+toward the stairs; then bowed his spine upward, thus drawing his head
+and shoulders a little forward; straightened, and then pushed the lower
+end of his body forward a space equal to that through which he had
+drawn his head; repeating this again and again, each time, while
+bending his spine, preventing his head from slipping by pressing it
+against the floor. His progress was laborious and slow, but sensible;
+and, finally, he arrived at the foot of the stairs.
+
+It was manifest that his insane purpose was to ascend them. The desire
+for freedom must have been strong within him! Wriggling to an upright
+position against the newel-post, he looked up at the great height which
+he had to climb and sighed; but there was no dimming of the light in
+his eyes. How could he accomplish the impossible task?
+
+His solution of the problem was very simple, though daring and perilous
+as all the rest. While leaning against the newel-post he let himself
+fall diagonally upon the bottom step, where he lay partly hanging over,
+but safe, on his side. Turning upon his back, he wriggled forward along
+the step to the rail and raised himself to an upright position against
+it as he had against the newel-post, fell as before, and landed on the
+second step. In this manner, with inconceivable labor, he accomplished
+the ascent of the entire flight of stairs.
+
+It being apparent to me that the rajah was not the object of Neranya's
+movements, the anxiety which I had felt on that account was now
+entirely dissipated. The things which already he had accomplished were
+entirely beyond the nimblest imagination. The sympathy which I had
+always felt for the wretched man was now greatly quickened; and as
+infinitesimally small as I knew his chances for escape to be, I
+nevertheless hoped that he would succeed. Any assistance from me,
+however, was out of the question; and it never should be known that I
+had witnessed the escape.
+
+Neranya was now upon the balcony, and I could dimly see him wriggling
+along toward the door which led out upon the balcony. Finally he
+stopped and wriggled to an upright position against the rail, which had
+wide openings between the balusters. His back was toward me, but he
+slowly turned and faced me and the hall. At that great distance I could
+not distinguish his features, but the slowness with which he had
+worked, even before he had fully accomplished the ascent of the stairs,
+was evidence all too eloquent of his extreme exhaustion. Nothing but a
+most desperate resolution could have sustained him thus far, but he had
+drawn upon the last remnant of his strength. He looked around the hall
+with a sweeping glance, and then down upon the rajah, who was sleeping
+immediately beneath him, over twenty feet below. He looked long and
+earnestly, sinking lower, and lower, and lower upon the rail. Suddenly,
+to my inconceivable astonishment and dismay, he toppled through and
+shot downward from his lofty height! I held my breath, expecting to see
+him crushed upon the stone floor beneath; but instead of that he fell
+full upon the rajah's breast, driving him through the cot to the floor.
+I sprang forward with a loud cry for help, and was instantly at the
+scene of the catastrophe. With indescribable horror I saw that
+Neranya's teeth were buried in the rajah's throat! I tore the wretch
+away, but the blood was pouring from the rajah's arteries, his chest
+was crushed in, and he was gasping in the agony of death. People came
+running in, terrified. I turned to Neranya. He lay upon his back, his
+face hideously smeared with blood. Murder, and not escape, had been his
+intentions from the beginning; and he had employed the only method by
+which there was ever a possibility of accomplishing it. I knelt beside
+him, and saw that he too was dying; his back had been broken by the
+fall. He smiled sweetly into my face, and a triumphant look of
+accomplished revenge sat upon his face even in death.
+
+
+
+
+The Permanent Stiletto
+
+
+I had sent in all haste for Dr. Rowell, but as yet he had not arrived,
+and the strain was terrible. There lay my young friend upon his bed in
+the hotel, and I believed that he was dying. Only the jewelled handle
+of the knife was visible at his breast; the blade was wholly sheathed
+in his body.
+
+"Pull it out, old fellow," begged the sufferer through white, drawn
+lips, his gasping voice being hardly less distressing than the
+unearthly look in his eyes.
+
+"No, Arnold," said I, as I held his hand and gently stroked his
+forehead. It may have been instinct, it may have been a certain
+knowledge of anatomy that made me refuse.
+
+"Why not? It hurts," he gasped. It was pitiful to see him suffer, this
+strong, healthy, daring, reckless young fellow.
+
+Dr. Rowell walked in--a tall, grave man, with gray hair. He went to the
+bed and I pointed to the knife-handle, with its great, bold ruby in the
+end and its diamonds and emeralds alternating in quaint designs in the
+sides. The physician started. He felt Arnold's pulse and looked
+puzzled.
+
+"When was this done?" he asked.
+
+"About twenty minutes ago," I answered.
+
+The physician started out, beckoning me to follow.
+
+"Stop!" said Arnold. We obeyed. "Do you wish to speak of me?" he asked.
+
+"Yes," replied the physician, hesitating.
+
+"Speak in my presence then," said my friend; "I fear nothing." It was
+said in his old, imperious way, although his suffering must have been
+great.
+
+"If you insist----"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Then," said the physician, "if you have any matters to adjust they
+should be attended to at once. I can do nothing for you."
+
+"How long can I live?" asked Arnold.
+
+The physician thoughtfully stroked his gray beard. "It depends," he
+finally said; "if the knife be withdrawn you may live three minutes; if
+it be allowed to remain you may possibly live an hour or two--not
+longer."
+
+Arnold never flinched.
+
+"Thank you," he said, smiling faintly through his pain; "my friend here
+will pay you. I have some things to do. Let the knife remain." He
+turned his eyes to mine, and, pressing my hand, said, affectionately,
+"And I thank you, too, old fellow, for not pulling it out."
+
+The physician, moved by a sense of delicacy, left the room, saying,
+"Ring if there is a change. I will be in the hotel office." He had not
+gone far when he turned and came back. "Pardon me," said he, "but there
+is a young surgeon in the hotel who is said to be a very skilful man.
+My specialty is not surgery, but medicine. May I call him?"
+
+"Yes," said I, eagerly; but Arnold smiled and shook his head. "I fear
+there will not be time," he said. But I refused to heed him and
+directed that the surgeon be called immediately. I was writing at
+Arnold's dictation when the two men entered the room.
+
+There was something of nerve and assurance in the young surgeon that
+struck my attention. His manner, though quiet, was bold and
+straightforward and his movements sure and quick. This young man had
+already distinguished himself in the performance of some difficult
+hospital laparotomies, and he was at that sanguine age when ambition
+looks through the spectacles of experiment. Dr. Raoul Entrefort was the
+new-comer's name. He was a Creole, small and dark, and he had travelled
+and studied in Europe.
+
+"Speak freely," gasped Arnold, after Dr. Entrefort had made an
+examination.
+
+"What think you, doctor?" asked Entrefort of the older man.
+
+"I think," was the reply, "that the knife-blade has penetrated the
+ascending aorta, about two inches above the heart. So long as the blade
+remains in the wound the escape of blood is comparatively small, though
+certain; were the blade withdrawn the heart would almost instantly
+empty itself through the aortal wound."
+
+Meanwhile, Entrefort was deftly cutting away the white shirt and the
+undershirt, and soon had the breast exposed. He examined the
+gem-studded hilt with the keenest interest.
+
+"You are proceeding on the assumption, doctor," he said, "that this
+weapon is a knife."
+
+"Certainly," answered Dr. Rowell, smiling; "what else can it be?"
+
+"It _is_ a knife," faintly interposed Arnold.
+
+"Did you see the blade?" Entrefort asked him, quickly.
+
+"I did--for a moment."
+
+Entrefort shot a quick look at Dr. Rowell and whispered, "Then it is
+_not_ suicide." Dr. Rowell looked puzzled and said nothing.
+
+"I must disagree with you, gentlemen," quietly remarked Entrefort;
+"this is not a knife." He examined the handle very narrowly. Not only
+was the blade entirely concealed from view within Arnold's body, but
+the blow had been so strongly delivered that the skin was depressed by
+the guard. "The fact that it is not a knife presents a very curious
+series of facts and contingencies," pursued Entrefort, with amazing
+coolness, "some of which are, so far as I am informed, entirely novel
+in the history of surgery."
+
+A quizzical expression, faintly amused and manifestly interested, was
+upon Dr. Rowell's face. "What is the weapon, doctor?" he asked.
+
+"A stiletto."
+
+Arnold started. Dr. Rowell appeared confused. "I must confess," he
+said, "my ignorance of the differences among these penetrating weapons,
+whether dirks, daggers, stilettos, poniards, or bowie-knives."
+
+"With the exception of the stiletto," explained Entrefort, "all the
+weapons you mention have one or two edges, so that in penetrating they
+cut their way. A stiletto is round, is ordinarily about half an inch or
+less in diameter at the guard, and tapers to a sharp point. It
+penetrates solely by pushing the tissues aside in all directions. You
+will understand the importance of that point."
+
+Dr. Rowell nodded, more deeply interested than ever.
+
+"How do you know it is a stiletto, Dr. Entrefort?" I asked.
+
+"The cutting of these stones is the work of Italian lapidaries," he
+said, "and they were set in Genoa. Notice, too, the guard. It is much
+broader and shorter than the guard of an edged weapon; in fact, it is
+nearly round. This weapon is about four hundred years old, and would be
+cheap at twenty thousand florins. Observe, also, the darkening color of
+your friend's breast in the immediate vicinity of the guard; this
+indicates that the tissues have been bruised by the crowding of the
+'blade,' if I may use the term."
+
+"What has all this to do with me?" asked the dying man.
+
+"Perhaps a great deal, perhaps nothing. It brings a single ray of hope
+into your desperate condition."
+
+Arnold's eyes sparkled and he caught his breath. A tremor passed all
+through him, and I felt it in the hand I was holding. Life was sweet to
+him, then, after all--sweet to this wild dare-devil who had just faced
+death with such calmness! Dr. Rowell, though showing no sign of
+jealousy, could not conceal a look of incredulity.
+
+"With your permission," said Entrefort, addressing Arnold, "I will do
+what I can to save your life."
+
+"You may," said the poor boy.
+
+"But I shall have to hurt you."
+
+"Well."
+
+"Perhaps very much."
+
+"Well."
+
+"And even if I succeed (the chance is one in a thousand) you will never
+be a sound man, and a constant and terrible danger will always be
+present."
+
+"Well."
+
+Entrefort wrote a note and sent it away in haste by a bell-boy.
+
+"Meanwhile," he resumed, "your life is in imminent danger from shock,
+and the end may come in a few minutes or hours from that cause. Attend
+without delay to whatever matters may require settling, and Dr.
+Rowell," glancing at that gentleman, "will give you something to brace
+you up. I speak frankly, for I see that you are a man of extraordinary
+nerve. Am I right?"
+
+"Be perfectly candid," said Arnold.
+
+Dr. Rowell, evidently bewildered by his cyclonic young associate, wrote
+a prescription, which I sent by a boy to be filled. With unwise zeal I
+asked Entrefort,--
+
+"Is there not danger of lockjaw?"
+
+"No," he replied; "there is not a sufficiently extensive injury to
+peripheral nerves to induce traumatic tetanus."
+
+I subsided. Dr. Rowell's medicine came and I administered a dose. The
+physician and the surgeon then retired. The poor sufferer straightened
+up his business. When it was done he asked me,--
+
+"What is that crazy Frenchman going to do to me?"
+
+"I have no idea; be patient."
+
+In less than an hour they returned, bringing with them a keen-eyed,
+tall young man, who had a number of tools wrapped in an apron.
+Evidently he was unused to such scenes, for he became deathly pale upon
+seeing the ghastly spectacle on my bed. With staring eyes and open
+mouth he began to retreat towards the door, stammering,--
+
+"I--I can't do it."
+
+"Nonsense, Hippolyte! Don't be a baby. Why, man, it is a case of life
+and death!"
+
+"But--look at his eyes! he is dying!"
+
+Arnold smiled. "I am not dead, though," he gasped.
+
+"I--I beg your pardon," said Hippolyte.
+
+Dr. Entrefort gave the nervous man a drink of brandy and then said,--
+
+"No more nonsense, my boy; it must be done. Gentlemen, allow me to
+introduce Mr. Hippolyte, one of the most original, ingenious, and
+skilful machinists in the country."
+
+Hippolyte, being modest, blushed as he bowed. In order to conceal his
+confusion he unrolled his apron on the table with considerable noise of
+rattling tools.
+
+"I have to make some preparations before you may begin, Hippolyte, and
+I want you to observe me that you may become used not only to the sight
+of fresh blood, but also, what is more trying, the odor of it."
+
+Hippolyte shivered. Entrefort opened a case of surgical instruments.
+
+"Now, doctor, the chloroform," he said, to Dr. Rowell.
+
+"I will not take it," promptly interposed the sufferer; "I want to know
+when I die."
+
+"Very well," said Entrefort; "but you have little nerve now to spare.
+We may try it without chloroform, however. It will be better if you can
+do without. Try your best to lie still while I cut."
+
+"What are you going to do?" asked Arnold.
+
+"Save your life, if possible."
+
+"How? Tell me all about it."
+
+"Must you know?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Very well, then. The point of the stiletto has passed entirely through
+the aorta, which is the great vessel rising out of the heart and
+carrying the aerated blood to the arteries. If I should withdraw the
+weapon the blood would rush from the two holes in the aorta and you
+would soon be dead. If the weapon had been a knife, the parted tissue
+would have yielded, and the blood would have been forced out on either
+side of the blade and would have caused death. As it is, not a drop of
+blood has escaped from the aorta into the thoracic cavity. All that is
+left for us to do, then, is to allow the stiletto to remain permanently
+in the aorta. Many difficulties at once present themselves, and I do
+not wonder at Dr. Rowell's look of surprise and incredulity."
+
+That gentleman smiled and shook his head.
+
+"It is a desperate chance," continued Entrefort, "and is a novel case
+in surgery; but it is the only chance. The fact that the weapon is a
+stiletto is the important point--a stupid weapon, but a blessing to us
+now. If the assassin had known more she would have used----"
+
+Upon his employment of the noun "assassin" and the feminine pronoun
+"she," both Arnold and I started violently, and I cried out to the man
+to stop.
+
+"Let him proceed," said Arnold, who, by a remarkable effort, had calmed
+himself.
+
+"Not if the subject is painful," Entrefort said.
+
+"It is not," protested Arnold; "why do you think the blow was struck by
+a woman?"
+
+"Because, first, no man capable of being an assassin would use so gaudy
+and valuable a weapon; second, no man would be so stupid as to carry so
+antiquated and inadequate a thing as a stiletto, when that most
+murderous and satisfactory of all penetrating and cutting weapons, the
+bowie-knife, is available. She was a strong woman, too, for it requires
+a good hand to drive a stiletto to the guard, even though it miss the
+sternum by a hair's breadth and slip between the ribs, for the muscles
+here are hard and the intercostal spaces narrow. She was not only a
+strong woman, but a desperate one also."
+
+"That will do," said Arnold. He beckoned me to bend closer. "You must
+watch this man; he is too sharp; he is dangerous."
+
+"Then," resumed Entrefort, "I shall tell you what I intend to do. There
+will undoubtedly be inflammation of the aorta, which, if it persist,
+will cause a fatal aneurism by a breaking down of the aortal walls; but
+we hope, with the help of your youth and health, to check it.
+
+"Another serious difficulty is this: With every inhalation, the entire
+thorax (or bony structure of the chest) considerably expands. The aorta
+remains stationary. You will see, therefore, that as your aorta and
+your breast are now held in rigid relation to each other by the
+stiletto, the chest, with every inhalation, pulls the aorta forward out
+of place about half an inch. I am certain that it is doing this,
+because there is no indication of an escape of arterial blood into the
+thoracic cavity; in other words, the mouths of the two aortal wounds
+have seized upon the blade with a firm hold and thus prevent it from
+slipping in and out. This is a very fortunate occurrence, but one which
+will cause pain for some time. The aorta, you may understand, being
+made by the stiletto to move with the breathing, pulls the heart
+backward and forward with every breath you take; but that organ, though
+now undoubtedly much surprised, will accustom itself to its new
+condition.
+
+"What I fear most, however, is the formation of a clot around the
+blade. You see, the presence of the blade in the aorta has already
+reduced the blood-carrying capacity of that vessel; a clot, therefore,
+need not be very large to stop up the aorta, and, of course, if that
+should occur death would ensue. But the clot, if one form, may be
+dislodged and driven forward, in which event it may lodge in any one of
+the numerous branches from the aorta and produce results more or less
+serious, possibly fatal. If, for instance, it should choke either the
+right or the left carotid, there would ensue atrophy of one side of the
+brain, and consequently paralysis of half the entire body; but it is
+possible that in time there would come about a secondary circulation
+from the other side of the brain, and thus restore a healthy condition.
+Or the clot (which, in passing always from larger arteries to smaller,
+must unavoidably find one not sufficiently large to carry it, and must
+lodge somewhere) may either necessitate amputation of one of the four
+limbs or lodge itself so deep within the body that it cannot be reached
+with the knife. You are beginning to realize some of the dangers which
+await you."
+
+Arnold smiled faintly.
+
+"But we shall do our best to prevent the formation of a clot,"
+continued Entrefort; "there are drugs which may be used with effect."
+
+"Are there more dangers?"
+
+"Many more; some of the more serious have not been mentioned. One of
+these is the probability of the aortal tissues pressing upon the weapon
+relaxing their hold and allowing the blade to slip. That would let out
+the blood and cause death. I am uncertain whether the hold is now
+maintained by the pressure of the tissues or the adhesive quality of
+the serum which was set free by the puncture. I am convinced, though,
+that in either event the hold is easily broken and that it may give way
+at any moment, for it is under several kinds of strains. Every time the
+heart contracts and crowds the blood into the aorta, the latter expands
+a little, and then contracts when the pressure is removed. Any unusual
+exercise or excitement produces stronger and quicker heart-beats, and
+increases the strain on the adhesion of the aorta to the weapon. A
+fright, fall, a jump, a blow on the chest--any of these might so jar
+the heart and aorta as to break the hold."
+
+Entrefort stopped.
+
+"Is that all?" asked Arnold.
+
+"No; but is not that enough?"
+
+"More than enough," said Arnold, with a sudden and dangerous sparkle in
+his eyes. Before any of us could think, the desperate fellow had seized
+the handle of the stiletto with both hands in a determined effort to
+withdraw it and die. I had had no time to order my faculties to the
+movement of a muscle, when Entrefort, with incredible alertness and
+swiftness, had Arnold's wrists. Slowly Arnold relaxed his hold.
+
+"There, now!" said Entrefort, soothingly; "that was a careless act and
+might have broken the adhesion! You'll have to be careful."
+
+Arnold looked at him with a curious combination of expressions.
+
+"Dr. Entrefort," he quietly remarked, "you are the devil."
+
+Bowing profoundly, Entrefort replied: "You do me too great honor;" then
+he whispered to his patient: "If you do _that_"--with a motion towards
+the hilt--"I will have _her_ hanged for murder."
+
+Arnold started and choked, and a look of horror overspread his face. He
+withdrew his hands, took one of mine in both of his, threw his arms
+upon the pillow above his head, and, holding my hand, firmly said to
+Entrefort,--
+
+"Proceed with your work."
+
+"Come closer, Hippolyte," said Entrefort, "and observe narrowly. Will
+you kindly assist me, Dr. Rowell?" That gentleman had sat in wondering
+silence.
+
+Entrefort's hand was quick and sure, and he used the knife with
+marvellous dexterity. First he made four equidistant incisions outward
+from the guard and just through the skin. Arnold held his breath and
+ground his teeth at the first cut, but soon regained command of
+himself. Each incision was about two inches long. Hippolyte shuddered
+and turned his head aside. Entrefort, whom nothing escaped,
+exclaimed,--
+
+"Steady, Hippolyte! Observe!"
+
+Quickly was the skin peeled back to the limit of the incisions. This
+must have been excruciatingly painful. Arnold groaned, and his hands
+were moist and cold. Down sank the knife into the flesh from which the
+skin had been raised, and blood flowed freely; Dr. Rowell handled the
+sponge. The keen knife worked rapidly. Arnold's marvellous nerve was
+breaking down. He clutched my hand fiercely; his eyes danced; his mind
+was weakening. Almost in a moment the flesh had been cut away to the
+bones, which were now exposed,--two ribs and the sternum. A few quick
+cuts cleared the weapon between the guard and the ribs.
+
+"To work, Hippolyte--be quick!"
+
+The machinist had evidently been coached before he came. With slender,
+long-fingered hands, which trembled at first, he selected certain tools
+with nice precision, made some rapid measurements of the weapon and of
+the cleared space around it, and began to adjust the parts of a queer
+little machine. Arnold watched him curiously.
+
+"What----" he began to say; but he ceased; a deeper pallor set on his
+face, his hands relaxed, and his eyelids fell.
+
+"Thank God!" exclaimed Entrefort; "he has fainted--he can't stop us
+now. Quick, Hippolyte!"
+
+The machinist attached the queer little machine to the handle of the
+weapon, seized the stiletto in his left hand, and with his right began
+a series of sharp, rapid movements backward and forward.
+
+"Hurry, Hippolyte!" urged Entrefort.
+
+"The metal is very hard."
+
+"Is it cutting?"
+
+"I can't see for the blood."
+
+In another moment something snapped. Hippolyte started; he was very
+nervous. He removed the little machine.
+
+"The metal is very hard," he said; "it breaks the saws."
+
+He adjusted another tiny saw and resumed work. After a little while he
+picked up the handle of the stiletto and laid it on the table. He had
+cut it off, leaving the blade inside Arnold's body.
+
+"Good, Hippolyte!" exclaimed Entrefort. In a minute he had closed the
+bright end of the blade from view by drawing together the skin-flaps
+and sewing them firmly.
+
+Arnold returned to consciousness and glanced down at his breast. He
+seemed puzzled. "Where is the weapon?" he asked.
+
+"Here is part of it," answered Entrefort, holding up the handle.
+
+"And the blade----"
+
+"That is an irremovable part of your internal machinery." Arnold was
+silent. "It had to be cut off," pursued Entrefort, "not only because it
+would be troublesome and an undesirable ornament, but also because it
+was advisable to remove every possibility of its withdrawal." Arnold
+said nothing. "Here is a prescription," said Entrefort; "take the
+medicine as directed for the next five years without fail."
+
+"What for? I see that it contains muriatic acid."
+
+"If necessary I will explain five years from now."
+
+"If I live."
+
+"If you live."
+
+Arnold drew me down to him and whispered, "Tell her to fly at once;
+this man may make trouble for her."
+
+Was there ever a more generous fellow?
+
+                    *      *      *      *      *
+
+I thought that I recognized a thin, pale, bright face among the
+passengers who were leaving an Australian steamer which had just
+arrived at San Francisco.
+
+"Dr. Entrefort!" I cried.
+
+"Ah!" he said, peering up into my face and grasping my hand; "I know
+you now, but you have changed. You remember that I was called away
+immediately after I had performed that crazy operation on your friend.
+I have spent the intervening four years in India, China, Tibet,
+Siberia, the South Seas, and God knows where not. But wasn't that a
+most absurd, hare-brained experiment that I tried on your friend!
+Still, it was all that could have been done. I have dropped all that
+nonsense long ago. It is better, for more reasons than one, to let them
+die at once. Poor fellow! he bore it so bravely! Did he suffer much
+afterwards? How long did he live? A week--perhaps a month?"
+
+"He is alive yet."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Entrefort, startled.
+
+"He is, indeed, and is in this city."
+
+"Incredible!"
+
+"It is true; you shall see him."
+
+"But tell me about him now!" cried the surgeon, his eager eyes
+glittering with the peculiar light which I had seen in them on the
+night of the operation. "Has he regularly taken the medicine which I
+prescribed?"
+
+"He has. Well, the change in him, from what he was before the
+operation, is shocking. Imagine a young dare-devil of twenty-two, who
+had no greater fear of danger or death than of a cold, now a cringing,
+cowering fellow; apparently an old man, nursing his life with pitiful
+tenderness, fearful that at any moment something may happen to break
+the hold of his aorta-walls on the stiletto-blade; a confirmed
+hypochondriac, peevish, melancholic, unhappy in the extreme. He keeps
+himself confined as closely as possible, avoiding all excitement and
+exercise, and even reads nothing exciting. The constant danger has worn
+out the last shred of his manhood and left him a pitiful wreck. Can
+nothing be done for him?"
+
+"Possibly. But has he consulted no physician?"
+
+"None whatever; he has been afraid that he might learn the worst."
+
+"Let us find him at once. Ah, here comes my wife to meet me! She
+arrived by the other steamer."
+
+I recognized her immediately and was overcome with astonishment.
+
+"Charming woman," said Entrefort; "you'll like her. We were married
+three years ago at Bombay. She belongs to a noble Italian family and
+has travelled a great deal."
+
+He introduced us. To my unspeakable relief she remembered neither my
+name nor my face. I must have appeared odd to her, but it was
+impossible for me to be perfectly unconcerned. We went to Arnold's
+rooms, I with much dread. I left her in the reception-room and took
+Entrefort within. Arnold was too greatly absorbed in his own troubles
+to be dangerously excited by meeting Entrefort, whom he greeted with
+indifferent hospitality.
+
+"But I heard a woman's voice," he said. "It sounds----" He checked
+himself, and before I could intercept him he had gone to the
+reception-room; and there he stood face to face with the beautiful
+adventuress,--none other than Entrefort's wife now,--who, wickedly
+desperate, had driven a stiletto into Arnold's vitals in a hotel four
+years before because he had refused to marry her. They recognized each
+other instantly and both grew pale; but she, quicker witted, recovered
+her composure at once and advanced towards him with a smile and an
+extended hand. He stepped back, his face ghastly with fear.
+
+"Oh!" he gasped, "the excitement, the shock,--it has made the blade
+slip out! The blood is pouring from the opening,--it burns,--I am
+dying!" and he fell into my arms and instantly expired.
+
+The autopsy revealed the surprising fact that there was no blade in his
+thorax at all; it had been gradually consumed by the muriatic acid
+which Entrefort had prescribed for that very purpose, and the
+perforations in the aorta had closed up gradually with the wasting of
+the blade and had been perfectly healed for a long time. All his vital
+organs were sound. My poor friend, once so reckless and brave, had died
+simply of a childish and groundless fear, and the woman unwittingly had
+accomplished her revenge.
+
+
+
+
+Over an Absinthe Bottle
+
+
+Arthur Kimberlin, a young man of very high spirit, found himself a
+total stranger in San Francisco one rainy evening, at a time when his
+heart was breaking; for his hunger was of that most poignant kind in
+which physical suffering is forced to the highest point without
+impairment of the mental functions. There remained in his possession
+not a thing that he might have pawned for a morsel to eat; and even as
+it was, he had stripped his body of all articles of clothing except
+those which a remaining sense of decency compelled him to retain. Hence
+it was that cold assailed him and conspired with hunger to complete his
+misery. Having been brought into the world and reared a gentleman, he
+lacked the courage to beg and the skill to steal. Had not an
+extraordinary thing occurred to him, he either would have drowned
+himself in the bay within twenty-four hours or died of pneumonia in the
+street. He had been seventy hours without food, and his mental
+desperation had driven him far in its race with his physical needs to
+consume the strength within him; so that now, pale, weak, and
+tottering, he took what comfort he could find in the savory odors which
+came steaming up from the basement kitchens of the restaurants in
+Market Street, caring more to gain them than to avoid the rain. His
+teeth chattered; he shambled, stooped, and gasped. He was too desperate
+to curse his fate--he could only long for food. He could not reason; he
+could not understand that ten thousand hands might gladly have fed him;
+he could think only of the hunger which consumed him, and of food that
+could give him warmth and happiness.
+
+When he had arrived at Mason Street, he saw a restaurant a little way
+up that thoroughfare, and for that he headed, crossing the street
+diagonally. He stopped before the window and ogled the steaks, thick
+and lined with fat; big oysters lying on ice; slices of ham as large as
+his hat; whole roasted chickens, brown and juicy. He ground his teeth,
+groaned, and staggered on.
+
+A few steps beyond was a drinking-saloon, which had a private door at
+one side, with the words "Family Entrance" painted thereon. In the
+recess of the door (which was closed) stood a man. In spite of his
+agony, Kimberlin saw something in this man's face that appalled and
+fascinated him. Night was on, and the light in the vicinity was dim;
+but it was apparent that the stranger had an appearance of whose
+character he himself must have been ignorant. Perhaps it was the
+unspeakable anguish of it that struck through Kimberlin's sympathies.
+The young man came to an uncertain halt and stared at the stranger. At
+first he was unseen, for the stranger looked straight out into the
+street with singular fixity, and the death-like pallor of his face
+added a weirdness to the immobility of his gaze. Then he took notice of
+the young man.
+
+"Ah," he said, slowly and with peculiar distinctness, "the rain has
+caught you, too, without overcoat or umbrella! Stand in this
+doorway--there is room for two."
+
+The voice was not unkind, though it had an alarming hardness. It was
+the first word that had been addressed to the sufferer since hunger had
+seized him, and to be spoken to at all, and have his comfort regarded
+in the slightest way, gave him cheer. He entered the embrasure and
+stood beside the stranger, who at once relapsed into his fixed gaze at
+nothing across the street. But presently the stranger stirred himself
+again.
+
+"It may rain a long time," said he; "I am cold, and I observe that you
+tremble. Let us step inside and get a drink."
+
+He opened the door and Kimberlin followed, hope beginning to lay a warm
+hand upon his heart. The pale stranger led the way into one of the
+little private booths with which the place was furnished. Before
+sitting down he put his hand into his pocket and drew forth a roll of
+bank-bills.
+
+"You are younger than I," he said; "won't you go to the bar and buy a
+bottle of absinthe, and bring a pitcher of water and some glasses? I
+don't like for the waiters to come around. Here is a twenty-dollar
+bill."
+
+Kimberlin took the bill and started down through the corridor towards
+the bar. He clutched the money tightly in his palm; it felt warm and
+comfortable, and sent a delicious tingling through his arm. How many
+glorious hot meals did that bill represent? He clutched it tighter and
+hesitated. He thought he smelled a broiled steak, with fat little
+mushrooms and melted butter in the steaming dish. He stopped and looked
+back towards the door of the booth. He saw that the stranger had closed
+it. He could pass it, slip out the door, and buy something to eat. He
+turned and started, but the coward in him (there are other names for
+this) tripped his resolution; so he went straight to the bar and made
+the purchase. This was so unusual that the man who served him looked
+sharply at him.
+
+"Ain't goin' to drink all o' that, are you?" he asked.
+
+"I have friends in the box," replied Kimberlin, "and we want to drink
+quietly and without interruption. We are in Number 7."
+
+"Oh, beg pardon. That's all right," said the man.
+
+Kimberlin's step was very much stronger and steadier as he returned
+with the liquor. He opened the door of the booth. The stranger sat at
+the side of the little table, staring at the opposite wall just as he
+had stared across the street. He wore a wide-brimmed, slouch hat, drawn
+well down. It was only after Kimberlin had set the bottle, pitcher, and
+glasses on the table, and seated himself opposite the stranger and
+within his range of vision, that the pale man noticed him.
+
+"Oh! you have brought it? How kind of you! Now please lock the door."
+
+Kimberlin had slipped the change into his pocket, and was in the act of
+bringing it out when the stranger said,--
+
+"Keep the change. You will need it, for I am going to get it back in a
+way that may interest you. Let us first drink, and then I will
+explain."
+
+The pale man mixed two drinks of absinthe and water, and the two drank.
+Kimberlin, unsophisticated, had never tasted the liquor before, and he
+found it harsh and offensive; but no sooner had it reached his stomach
+than it began to warm him, and sent the most delicious thrill through
+his frame.
+
+"It will do us good," said the stranger; "presently we shall have more.
+Meanwhile, do you know how to throw dice?"
+
+Kimberlin weakly confessed that he did not.
+
+"I thought not. Well, please go to the bar and bring a dice-box. I
+would ring for it, but I don't want the waiters to be coming in."
+
+Kimberlin fetched the box, again locked the door, and the game began.
+It was not one of the simple old games, but had complications, in which
+judgment, as well as chance, played a part. After a game or two without
+stakes, the stranger said,--
+
+"You now seem to understand it. Very well--I will show you that you do
+not. We will now throw for a dollar a game, and in that way I shall win
+the money that you received in change. Otherwise I should be robbing
+you, and I imagine you cannot afford to lose. I mean no offence. I am a
+plain-spoken man, but I believe in honesty before politeness. I merely
+want a little diversion, and you are so kind-natured that I am sure you
+will not object."
+
+"On the contrary," replied Kimberlin, "I shall enjoy it."
+
+"Very well; but let us have another drink before we start. I believe I
+am growing colder."
+
+They drank again, and this time the starving man took his liquor with
+relish--at least, it was something in his stomach, and it warmed and
+delighted him.
+
+The stake was a dollar a side. Kimberlin won. The pale stranger smiled
+grimly, and opened another game. Again Kimberlin won. Then the stranger
+pushed back his hat and fixed that still gaze upon his opponent,
+smiling yet. With this full view of the pale stranger's face, Kimberlin
+was more appalled than ever. He had begun to acquire a certain
+self-possession and ease, and his marvelling at the singular character
+of the adventure had begun to weaken, when this new incident threw him
+back into confusion. It was the extraordinary expression of the
+stranger's face that alarmed him. Never upon the face of a living being
+had he seen a pallor so death-like and chilling. The face was more than
+pale; it was white. Kimberlin's observing faculty had been sharpened by
+the absinthe, and, after having detected the stranger in an
+absent-minded effort two or three times to stroke a beard which had no
+existence, he reflected that some of the whiteness of the face might be
+due to the recent removal of a full beard. Besides the pallor, there
+were deep and sharp lines upon the face, which the electric light
+brought out very distinctly. With the exception of the steady glance of
+the eyes and an occasional hard smile, that seemed out of place upon
+such a face, the expression was that of stone inartistically cut. The
+eyes were black, but of heavy expression; the lower lip was purple; the
+hands were fine, white, and thin, and dark veins bulged out upon them.
+The stranger pulled down his hat.
+
+"You are lucky," he said. "Suppose we try another drink. There is
+nothing like absinthe to sharpen one's wits, and I see that you and I
+are going to have a delightful game."
+
+After the drink the game proceeded. Kimberlin won from the very first,
+rarely losing a game. He became greatly excited. His eyes shone; color
+came to his cheeks. The stranger, having exhausted the roll of bills
+which he first produced, drew forth another, much larger and of higher
+denominations. There were several thousand dollars in the roll. At
+Kimberlin's right hand were his winnings,--something like two hundred
+dollars. The stakes were raised, and the game went rapidly on. Another
+drink was taken. Then fortune turned the stranger's way, and he won
+easily. It went back to Kimberlin, for he was now playing with all the
+judgment and skill he could command. Once only did it occur to him to
+wonder what he should do with the money if he should quit winner; but a
+sense of honor decided him that it would belong to the stranger.
+
+By this time the absinthe had so sharpened Kimberlin's faculties that,
+the temporary satisfaction which it had brought to his hunger having
+passed, his physical suffering returned with increased aggressiveness.
+Could he not order a supper with his earnings? No; that was out of the
+question, and the stranger said nothing about eating. Kimberlin
+continued to play, while the manifestations of hunger took the form of
+sharp pains, which darted through him viciously, causing him to writhe
+and grind his teeth. The stranger paid no attention, for he was now
+wholly absorbed in the game. He seemed puzzled and disconcerted. He
+played with great care, studying each throw minutely. No conversation
+passed between them now. They drank occasionally, the dice continued to
+rattle, the money kept piling up at Kimberlin's hand.
+
+The pale man began to behave strangely. At times he would start and
+throw back his head, as though he were listening. For a moment his eyes
+would sharpen and flash, and then sink into heaviness again. More than
+once Kimberlin, who had now begun to suspect that his antagonist was
+some kind of monster, saw a frightfully ghastly expression sweep over
+his face, and his features would become fixed for a very short time in
+a peculiar grimace. It was noticeable, however, that he was steadily
+sinking deeper and deeper into a condition of apathy. Occasionally he
+would raise his eyes to Kimberlin's face after the young man had made
+an astonishingly lucky throw, and keep them fixed there with a
+steadiness that made the young man quail.
+
+The stranger produced another roll of bills when the second was gone,
+and this had a value many times as great as the others together. The
+stakes were raised to a thousand dollars a game, and still Kimberlin
+won. At last the time came when the stranger braced himself for a final
+effort. With speech somewhat thick, but very deliberate and quiet, he
+said,--
+
+"You have won seventy-four thousand dollars, which is exactly the
+amount I have remaining. We have been playing for several hours. I am
+tired, and I suppose you are. Let us finish the game. Each will now
+stake his all and throw a final game for it."
+
+Without hesitation, Kimberlin agreed. The bills made a considerable
+pile on the table. Kimberlin threw, and the box held but one
+combination that could possibly beat him; this combination might be
+thrown once in ten thousand times. The starving man's heart beat
+violently as the stranger picked up the box with exasperating
+deliberation. It was a long time before he threw. He made his
+combinations and ended by defeating his opponent. He sat looking at the
+dice a long time, and then he slowly leaned back in his chair, settled
+himself comfortably, raised his eyes to Kimberlin's, and fixed that
+unearthly stare upon him. He said not a word; his face contained not a
+trace of emotion or intelligence. He simply looked. One cannot keep
+one's eyes open very long without winking, but the stranger did. He sat
+so motionless that Kimberlin began to be tortured.
+
+"I will go now," he said to the stranger--said that when he had not a
+cent and was starving.
+
+The stranger made no reply, but did not relax his gaze; and under that
+gaze the young man shrank back in his own chair, terrified. He became
+aware that two men were cautiously talking in an adjoining booth. As
+there was now a deathly silence in his own, he listened, and this is
+what he heard:
+
+"Yes; he was seen to turn into this street about three hours ago."
+
+"And he had shaved?"
+
+"He must have done so; and to remove a full beard would naturally make
+a great change in a man."
+
+"But it may not have been he."
+
+"True enough; but his extreme pallor attracted attention. You know that
+he has been troubled with heart-disease lately, and it has affected him
+seriously."
+
+"Yes, but his old skill remains. Why, this is the most daring
+bank-robbery we ever had here. A hundred and forty-eight thousand
+dollars--think of it! How long has it been since he was let out of
+Joliet?"
+
+"Eight years. In that time he has grown a beard, and lived by
+dice-throwing with men who thought they could detect him if he should
+swindle them; but that is impossible. No human being can come winner
+out of a game with him. He is evidently not here; let us look farther."
+
+Then the two men clinked glasses and passed out.
+
+The dice-players--the pale one and the starving one--sat gazing at each
+other, with a hundred and forty-eight thousand dollars piled up between
+them. The winner made no move to take in the money; he merely sat and
+stared at Kimberlin, wholly unmoved by the conversation in the
+adjoining room. His imperturbability was amazing, his absolute
+stillness terrifying.
+
+Kimberlin began to shake with an ague. The cold, steady gaze of the
+stranger sent ice into his marrow. Unable to bear longer this
+unwavering look, Kimberlin moved to one side, and then he was amazed to
+discover that the eyes of the pale man, instead of following him,
+remained fixed upon the spot where he had sat, or, rather, upon the
+wall behind it. A great dread beset the young man. He feared to make
+the slightest sound. Voices of men in the bar-room were audible, and
+the sufferer imagined that he heard others whispering and tip-toeing in
+the passage outside his booth. He poured out some absinthe, watching
+his strange companion all the while, and drank alone and unnoticed. He
+took a heavy drink, and it had a peculiar effect upon him: he felt his
+heart bounding with alarming force and rapidity, and breathing was
+difficult. Still his hunger remained, and that and the absinthe gave
+him an idea that the gastric acids were destroying him by digesting his
+stomach. He leaned forward and whispered to the stranger, but was given
+no attention. One of the man's hands lay upon the table; Kimberlin
+placed his upon it, and then drew back in terror--the hand was as cold
+as a stone.
+
+The money must not lie there exposed. Kimberlin arranged it into neat
+parcels, looking furtively every moment at his immovable companion, and
+_in mortal fear that he would stir_! Then he sat back and waited. A
+deadly fascination impelled him to move back into his former position,
+so as to bring his face directly before the gaze of the stranger. And
+so the two sat and stared at each other.
+
+Kimberlin felt his breath coming heavier and his heart-beats growing
+weaker, but these conditions gave him comfort by reducing his anxiety
+and softening the pangs of hunger. He was growing more and more
+comfortable and yawned. If he had dared he might have gone to sleep.
+
+Suddenly a fierce light flooded his vision and sent him with a bound to
+his feet. Had he been struck upon the head or stabbed to the heart? No;
+he was sound and alive. The pale stranger still sat there staring at
+nothing and immovable; but Kimberlin was no longer afraid of him. On
+the contrary, an extraordinary buoyancy of spirit and elasticity of
+body made him feel reckless and daring. His former timidity and
+scruples vanished, and he felt equal to any adventure. Without
+hesitation he gathered up the money and bestowed it in his several
+pockets.
+
+"I am a fool to starve," he said to himself, "with all this money ready
+to my hand."
+
+As cautiously as a thief he unlocked the door, stepped out, reclosed
+it, and boldly and with head erect stalked out upon the street. Much to
+his astonishment, he found the city in the bustle of the early evening,
+yet the sky was clear. It was evident to him that he had not been in
+the saloon as long as he had supposed. He walked along the street with
+the utmost unconcern of the dangers that beset him, and laughed softly
+but gleefully. Would he not eat now--ah, would he not? Why, he could
+buy a dozen restaurants! Not only that, but he would hunt the city up
+and down for hungry men and feed them with the fattest steaks, the
+juiciest roasts, and the biggest oysters that the town could supply. As
+for himself, he must eat first; after that he would set up a great
+establishment for feeding other hungry mortals without charge. Yes, he
+would eat first; if he pleased, he would eat till he should burst. In
+what single place could he find sufficient to satisfy his hunger? Could
+he live sufficiently long to have an ox killed and roasted whole for
+his supper? Besides an ox he would order two dozen broiled chickens,
+fifty dozen oysters, a dozen crabs, ten dozen eggs, ten hams, eight
+young pigs, twenty wild ducks, fifteen fish of four different kinds,
+eight salads, four dozen bottles each of claret, burgundy, and
+champagne; for pastry, eight plum-puddings, and for dessert, bushels of
+nuts, ices, and confections. It would require time to prepare such a
+meal, and if he could only live until it could be made ready it would
+be infinitely better than to spoil his appetite with a dozen or two
+meals of ordinary size. He thought he could live that long, for he felt
+amazingly strong and bright. Never in his life before had he walked
+with so great ease and lightness; his feet hardly touched the
+ground--he ran and leaped. It did him good to tantalize his hunger, for
+that would make his relish of the feast all the keener. Oh, but how
+they would stare when he would give his order, and how comically they
+would hang back, and how amazed they would be when he would throw a few
+thousands of dollars on the counter and tell them to take their money
+out of it and keep the change! Really, it was worth while to be so
+hungry as that, for then eating became an unspeakable luxury. And one
+must not be in too great a hurry to eat when one is so hungry--that is
+beastly. How much of the joy of living do rich people miss from eating
+before they are hungry--before they have gone three days and nights
+without food! And how manly it is, and how great self-control it shows,
+to dally with starvation when one has a dazzling fortune in one's
+pocket and every restaurant has an open door! To be hungry without
+money--that is despair; to be starving with a bursting pocket--that is
+sublime! Surely the only true heaven is that in which one famishes in
+the presence of abundant food, which he might have for the taking, and
+then a gorged stomach and a long sleep.
+
+The starving wretch, speculating thus, still kept from food. He felt
+himself growing in stature, and the people whom he met became pygmies.
+The streets widened, the stars became suns and dimmed the electric
+lights, and the most intoxicating odors and the sweetest music filled
+the air. Shouting, laughing, and singing, Kimberlin joined in a great
+chorus that swept over the city, and then----
+
+                    *      *      *      *      *
+
+The two detectives who had traced the famous bank-robber to the saloon
+in Mason Street, where Kimberlin had encountered the stranger of the
+pallid face, left the saloon; but, unable to pursue the trail farther,
+had finally returned. They found the door of booth No. 7 locked. After
+rapping and calling and receiving no answer, they burst open the door,
+and there they saw two men--one of middle age and the other very
+young--sitting perfectly still, and in the strangest manner imaginable
+staring at each other across the table. Between them was a great pile
+of money, arranged neatly in parcels. Near at hand were an empty
+absinthe bottle, a water-pitcher, glasses, and a dice-box, with the
+dice lying before the elder man as he had thrown them last. One of the
+detectives covered the elder man with a revolver and commanded,--
+
+"Throw up your hands!"
+
+But the dice-thrower paid no attention. The detectives exchanged
+startled glances. They looked closer into the faces of the two men, and
+then they discovered that both were dead.
+
+
+
+
+The Inmate of the Dungeon
+
+
+After the Board of State Prison Directors, sitting in session at the
+prison, had heard and disposed of the complaints and petitions of a
+number of convicts, the warden announced that all who wished to appear
+had been heard. Thereupon a certain uneasy and apprehensive expression,
+which all along had sat upon the faces of the directors, became visibly
+deeper. The chairman--a nervous, energetic, abrupt, incisive
+man--glanced at a slip of paper in his hand, and said to the warden,--
+
+"Send a guard for convict No. 14,208."
+
+The warden started and became slightly pale. Somewhat confused, he
+haltingly replied, "Why, he has expressed no desire to appear before
+you."
+
+"Nevertheless, you will send for him at once," responded the chairman.
+
+The warden bowed stiffly and directed a guard to produce the convict.
+Then, turning to the chairman, he said,--
+
+"I am ignorant of your purpose in summoning this man, but of course I
+have no objection. I desire, however, to make a statement concerning
+him before he appears."
+
+"When we shall have called for a statement from you," coldly responded
+the chairman, "you may make one."
+
+The warden sank back into his seat. He was a tall, fine-looking man,
+well-bred and intelligent, and had a kindly face. Though ordinarily
+cool, courageous, and self-possessed, he was unable to conceal a strong
+emotion, which looked much like fear. A heavy silence fell upon the
+room, disturbed only by the official stenographer, who was sharpening
+his pencils. A stray beam of light from the westering sun slipped into
+the room between the edge of the window-shade and the sash, and fell
+across the chair reserved for the convict. The uneasy eyes of the
+warden finally fell upon this beam and there his glance rested. The
+chairman, without addressing any one particularly, remarked,--
+
+"There are ways of learning what occurs in a prison without the
+assistance of either the warden or the convicts."
+
+Just then the guard appeared with the convict, who shambled in
+painfully and laboriously, as with a string he held up from the floor
+the heavy iron ball which was chained to his ankles. He was about
+forty-five years old. Undoubtedly he once had been a man of uncommon
+physical strength, for a powerful skeleton showed underneath the sallow
+skin which covered his emaciated frame. His sallowness was peculiar and
+ghastly. It was partly that of disease, and partly of something worse;
+and it was this something that accounted also for his shrunken muscles
+and manifest feebleness.
+
+There had been no time to prepare him for presentation to the board. As
+a consequence, his unstockinged toes showed through his gaping shoes;
+the dingy suit of prison stripes which covered his gaunt frame was
+frayed and tattered; his hair had not been recently cut to the prison
+fashion, and, being rebellious, stood out upon his head like bristles;
+and his beard, which, like his hair, was heavily dashed with gray, had
+not been shaved for weeks. These incidents of his appearance combined
+with a very peculiar expression of his face to make an extraordinary
+picture. It is difficult to describe this almost unearthly expression.
+With a certain suppressed ferocity it combined an inflexibility of
+purpose that sat like an iron mask upon him. His eyes were hungry and
+eager; they were the living part of him, and they shone luminous from
+beneath shaggy brows. His forehead was massive, his head of fine
+proportions, his jaw square and strong, and his thin, high nose showed
+traces of an ancestry that must have made a mark in some corner of the
+world at some time in history. He was prematurely old; this was seen in
+his gray hair and in the uncommonly deep wrinkles which lined his
+forehead and the corners of his eyes and of his mouth.
+
+Upon stumbling weakly into the room, faint with the labor of walking
+and of carrying the iron ball, he looked around eagerly, like a bear
+driven to his haunches by the hounds. His glance passed so rapidly and
+unintelligently from one face to another that he could not have had
+time to form a conception of the persons present, until his swift eyes
+encountered the face of the warden. Instantly they flashed; he craned
+his neck forward; his lips opened and became blue; the wrinkles
+deepened about his mouth and eyes; his form grew rigid, and his
+breathing stopped. This sinister and terrible attitude--all the more so
+because he was wholly unconscious of it--was disturbed only when the
+chairman sharply commanded, "Take that seat."
+
+The convict started as though he had been struck, and turned his eyes
+upon the chairman. He drew a deep inspiration, which wheezed and
+rattled as it passed into his chest. An expression of excruciating pain
+swept over his face. He dropped the ball, which struck the floor with a
+loud sound, and his long, bony fingers tore at the striped shirt over
+his breast. A groan escaped him, and he would have sunk to the floor
+had not the guard caught him and held him upright. In a moment it was
+over, and then, collapsing with exhaustion, he sank into the chair.
+There he sat, conscious and intelligent, but slouching, disorganized,
+and indifferent.
+
+The chairman turned sharply to the guard. "Why did you manacle this
+man," he demanded, "when he is evidently so weak, and when none of the
+others were manacled?"
+
+"Why, sir," stammered the guard, "surely you know who this man is: he
+is the most dangerous and desperate----"
+
+"We know all about that. Remove his manacles."
+
+The guard obeyed. The chairman turned to the convict, and in a kindly
+manner said, "Do you know who we are?"
+
+The convict got himself together a little and looked steadily at the
+chairman. "No," he replied, after a pause. His manner was direct, and
+his voice was deep, though hoarse.
+
+"We are the State Prison Directors. We have heard of your case, and we
+want you to tell us the whole truth about it."
+
+The convict's mind worked slowly, and it was some time before he could
+comprehend the explanation and request. When he had accomplished that
+task he said, very slowly, "I suppose you want me to make a complaint,
+sir."
+
+"Yes,--if you have any to make."
+
+The convict was getting himself in hand. He straightened up, and gazed
+at the chairman with a peculiar intensity. Then firmly and clearly he
+answered, "I've no complaint to make."
+
+The two men sat looking at each other in silence, and as they looked a
+bridge of human sympathy was slowly reared between them. The chairman
+rose, passed around an intervening table, went up to the convict, and
+laid a hand on his gaunt shoulder. There was a tenderness in his voice
+that few men had ever heard there.
+
+"I know," said he, "that you are a patient and uncomplaining man, or we
+should have heard from you long ago. In asking you to make a statement
+I am merely asking for your help to right a wrong, if a wrong has been
+done. Leave your own wishes entirely out of consideration, if you
+prefer. Assume, if you will, that it is not our intention or desire
+either to give you relief or to make your case harder for you. There
+are fifteen hundred human beings in this prison, and they are under the
+absolute control of one man. If a serious wrong is practised upon one,
+it may be upon others. I ask you in the name of common humanity, and as
+one man of another, to put us in the way of working justice in this
+prison. If you have the instincts of a man within you, you will comply
+with my request. Speak out, therefore, like a man, and have no fear of
+anything."
+
+The convict was touched and stung. He looked up steadily into the
+chairman's face, and firmly said, "There is nothing in this world that
+I fear." Then he hung his head, and presently he raised it and added,
+"I will tell you all about it."
+
+At that moment he shifted his position so as to bring the beam of light
+perpendicularly across his face and chest, and it seemed to split him
+in twain. He saw it, and feasted his gaze upon it as it lay upon his
+breast. After a time he thus proceeded, speaking very slowly, and in a
+strangely monotonous voice:
+
+"I was sent up for twenty years for killing a man. I hadn't been a
+criminal: I killed him without thinking, for he had robbed me and
+wronged me. I came here thirteen years ago. I had trouble at first--it
+galled me to be a convict; but I got over that, because the warden that
+was here then understood me and was kind to me, and he made me one of
+the best men in the prison. I don't say this to make you think I'm
+complaining about the present warden, or that he didn't treat me
+kindly: I can take care of myself with him. I am not making any
+complaint. I ask no man's favor, and I fear no man's power."
+
+"That is all right. Proceed."
+
+"After the warden had made a good man out of me I worked faithfully,
+sir; I did everything they told me to do; I worked willingly and like a
+slave. It did me good to work, and I worked hard. I never violated any
+of the rules after I was broken in. And then the law was passed giving
+credits to the men for good conduct. My term was twenty years, but I
+did so well that my credits piled up, and after I had been here ten
+years I could begin to see my way out. There were only about three
+years left. And, sir, I worked faithfully to make those years good. I
+knew that if I did anything against the rules I should lose my credits
+and have to stay nearly ten years longer. I knew all about that, sir: I
+never forgot it. I wanted to be a free man again, and I planned to go
+away somewhere and make the fight all over,--to be a man in the world
+once more."
+
+"We know all about your record in the prison. Proceed."
+
+"Well, it was this way. You know they were doing some heavy work in the
+quarries and on the grades, and they wanted the strongest men in the
+prison. There weren't very many: there never are very many strong men
+in a prison. And I was one of 'em that they put on the heavy work, and
+I did it faithfully. They used to pay the men for extra work,--not pay
+'em money, but the value of the money in candles, tobacco, extra
+clothes, and things like that. I loved to work, and I loved to work
+extra, and so did some of the other men. On Saturdays the men who had
+done extra work would fall in and go up to the captain of the guard,
+and he would give to each man what was coming to him. He had it all
+down in a book, and when a man would come up and call for what was due
+him the captain would give it to him, whatever he wanted that the rules
+allowed.
+
+"One Saturday I fell in with the others. A good many were ahead of me
+in the line, and when they got what they wanted they fell into a new
+line, waiting to be marched to the cells. When my turn in the line came
+I went up to the captain and said I would take mine in tobacco. He
+looked at me pretty sharply, and said, 'How did you get back in that
+line?' I told him I belonged there,--that I had come to get my extra.
+He looked at his book, and he said, 'You've had your extra: you got
+tobacco.' And he told me to fall into the new line. I told him I hadn't
+received any tobacco; I said I hadn't got my extra, and hadn't been up
+before. He said, 'Don't spoil your record by trying to steal a little
+tobacco. Fall in.' ... It hurt me, sir. I hadn't been up; I hadn't got
+my extra; and I wasn't a thief, and I never had been a thief, and no
+living man had a right to call me a thief. I said to him, straight, 'I
+won't fall in till I get my extra, and I'm not a thief, and no man can
+call me one, and no man can rob me of my just dues.' He turned pale,
+and said, 'Fall in, there.' I said, 'I won't fall in till I get my
+dues.'
+
+"With that he raised his hand as a signal, and the two guards behind
+him covered me with their rifles, and a guard on the west wall, and one
+on the north wall, and one on the portico in front of the arsenal, all
+covered me with rifles. The captain turned to a trusty and told him to
+call the warden. The warden came out, and the captain told him I was
+trying to run double on my extra, and said I was impudent and
+insubordinate and refused to fall in. The warden said, 'Drop that and
+fall in.' I told him I wouldn't fall in. I said I hadn't run double,
+that I hadn't got my extra, and that I would stay there till I died
+before I would be robbed of it. He asked the captain if there wasn't
+some mistake, and the captain looked at his book and said there was no
+mistake; he said he remembered me when I came up and got the tobacco
+and he saw me fall into the new line, but he didn't see me get back in
+the old line. The warden didn't ask the other men if they saw me get my
+tobacco and slip back into the old line. He just ordered me to fall in.
+I told him I would die before I would do that. I said I wanted my just
+dues and no more, and I asked him to call on the other men in line to
+prove that I hadn't been up.
+
+"He said, 'That's enough of this.' He sent all the other men to the
+cells, and left me standing there. Then he told two guards to take me
+to the cells. They came and took hold of me, and I threw them off as if
+they were babies. Then more guards came up, and one of them hit me over
+the head with a club, and I fell. And then, sir,"--here the convict's
+voice fell to a whisper,--"and then he told them to take me to the
+dungeon."
+
+The sharp, steady glitter of the convict's eyes failed, and he hung his
+head and looked despairingly at the floor.
+
+"Go on," said the chairman.
+
+"They took me to the dungeon, sir. Did you ever see the dungeon?"
+
+"Perhaps; but you may tell us about it."
+
+The cold, steady gleam returned to the convict's eyes, as he fixed them
+again upon the chairman.
+
+"There are several little rooms in the dungeon. The one they put me in
+was about five by eight. It has steel walls and ceiling, and a granite
+floor. The only light that comes in passes through a slit in the door.
+The slit is an inch wide and five inches long. It doesn't give much
+light, because the door is thick. It's about four inches thick, and is
+made of oak and sheet-steel, bolted through. The slit runs this
+way,"--making a horizontal motion in the air,--"and it is four inches
+above my eyes when I stand on tiptoe. And I can't look out at the
+factory-wall forty feet away unless I hook my fingers in the slit and
+pull myself up."
+
+He stopped and regarded his hands, the peculiar appearance of which we
+all had observed. The ends of the fingers were uncommonly thick; they
+were red and swollen, and the knuckles were curiously marked with deep
+white scars.
+
+"Well, sir, there wasn't anything at all in the dungeon, but they gave
+me a blanket, and they put me on bread and water. That's all they ever
+give you in the dungeon. They bring the bread and water once a day, and
+that is at night, because if they come in the daytime it lets in the
+light.
+
+"The next night after they put me in--it was Sunday night--the warden
+came with the guard and asked me if I was all right. I said I was. He
+said, 'Will you behave yourself and go to work to-morrow?' I said, 'No,
+sir; I won't go to work till I get what is due me.' He shrugged his
+shoulders, and said, 'Very well: maybe you'll change your mind after
+you have been in here a week.'
+
+"They kept me there a week. The next Sunday night the warden came and
+said, 'Are you ready to go to work to-morrow?' and I said, 'No; I will
+not go to work till I get what is due me.' He called me hard names. I
+said it was a man's duty to demand his rights, and that a man who would
+stand to be treated like a dog was no man at all."
+
+The chairman interrupted. "Did you not reflect," he asked, "that these
+officers would not have stooped to rob you?--that it was through some
+mistake they withheld your tobacco, and that in any event you had a
+choice of two things to lose,--one a plug of tobacco, and the other
+seven years of freedom?"
+
+"But they angered me and hurt me, sir, by calling me a thief, and they
+threw me in the dungeon like a beast.... I was standing for my rights,
+and my rights were my manhood; and that is something a man can carry
+sound to the grave, whether he's bond or free, weak or powerful, rich
+or poor."
+
+"Well, after you refused to go to work what did the warden do?"
+
+The convict, although tremendous excitement must have surged and boiled
+within him, slowly, deliberately, and weakly came to his feet. He
+placed his right foot on the chair, and rested his right elbow on the
+raised knee. The index finger of his right hand, pointing to the
+chairman and moving slightly to lend emphasis to his narrative, was the
+only thing that modified the rigid immobility of his figure. Without a
+single change in the pitch or modulation of his voice, never hurrying,
+but speaking with the slow and dreary monotony with which he had begun,
+he nevertheless--partly by reason of these evidences of his incredible
+self-control--made a formidable picture as he proceeded:
+
+"When I told him that, sir, he said he'd take me to the ladder and see
+if he couldn't make me change my mind.... Yes, sir; he said he'd take
+me to the ladder." (Here there was a long pause.) "And I a human being,
+with flesh on my bones and the heart of a man in my body. The other
+warden hadn't tried to break my spirit on the ladder. He did break it,
+though; he broke it clear to the bottom of the man inside of me; but he
+did it with a human word, and not with the dungeon and the ladder. I
+didn't believe the warden when he said he would take me to the ladder.
+I couldn't imagine myself alive and put through at the ladder, and I
+couldn't imagine any human being who could find the heart to put me
+through. If I had believed him I would have strangled him then and
+there, and got my body full of lead while doing it. No, sir; I could
+not believe it.
+
+"And then he told me to come on. I went with him and the guards. He
+brought me to the ladder. I had never seen it before. It was a heavy
+wooden ladder, leaned against the wall, and the bottom was bolted to
+the floor and the top to the wall. A whip was on the floor." (Again
+there was a pause.) "The warden told me to strip, sir, and I
+stripped.... And still I didn't believe he would whip me. I thought he
+just wanted to scare me.
+
+"Then he told me to face up to the ladder. I did so, and reached my
+arms up to the straps. They strapped my arms to the ladder, and
+stretched so hard that they pulled me up clear of the floor. Then they
+strapped my legs to the ladder. The warden then picked up the whip. He
+said to me, 'I'll give you one more chance: will you go to work
+to-morrow?' I said, 'No; I won't go to work till I get my dues.' 'Very
+well,' said he, 'you'll get your dues now.' And then he stepped back
+and raised the whip. I turned my head and looked at him, and I could
+see it in his eyes that he meant to strike.... And when I saw that,
+sir, I felt that something inside of me was about to burst."
+
+The convict paused to gather up his strength for the crisis of his
+story, yet not in the least particular did he change his position, the
+slight movement of his pointing finger, the steady gleam of his eye, or
+the slow monotony of his speech. I had never witnessed any scene so
+dramatic as this, and yet all was absolutely simple and unintentional.
+I had been thrilled by the greatest actors, as with matchless skill
+they gave rein to their genius in tragic situations; but how
+inconceivably tawdry and cheap such pictures seemed in comparison with
+this! The claptrap of the music, the lights, the posing, the wry faces,
+the gasps, lunges, staggerings, rolling eyes,--how flimsy and
+colorless, how mocking and grotesque, they all appeared beside this
+simple, uncouth, but genuine expression of immeasurable agony!
+
+The stenographer held his pencil poised above the paper, and wrote no
+more.
+
+"And then the whip came down across my back. The something inside of me
+twisted hard and then broke wide open, and went pouring all through me
+like melted iron. It was a hard fight to keep my head clear, but I did
+it. And then I said to the warden this: 'You've struck me with a whip,
+in cold blood. You've tied me up hand and foot, to whip me like a dog.
+Well, whip me, then, till you fill your belly with it. You are a
+coward. You are lower, and meaner, and cowardlier than the lowest and
+meanest dog that ever yelped when his master kicked him. You were born
+a coward. Cowards will lie and steal, and you are the same as a thief
+and liar. No hound would own you for a friend. Whip me hard and long,
+you coward. Whip me, I say. See how good a coward feels when he ties up
+a man and whips him like a dog. Whip me till the last breath quits my
+body; if you leave me alive I will kill you for this.'
+
+"His face got white. He asked me if I meant that, and I said, 'Yes;
+before God I do.' Then he took the whip in both hands and came down
+with all his might."
+
+"That was nearly two years ago," said the chairman. "You would not kill
+him now, would you?"
+
+"Yes. I will kill him if I get a chance; and I feel it in me that the
+chance will come."
+
+"Well, proceed."
+
+"He kept on whipping me. He whipped me with all the strength of both
+hands. I could feel the broken skin curl up on my back, and when my
+head got too heavy to hold it straight it hung down, and I saw the
+blood on my legs and dripping off my toes into a pool of it on the
+floor. Something was straining and twisting inside of me again. My back
+didn't hurt much; it was the thing twisting inside of me that hurt. I
+counted the lashes, and when I counted to twenty-eight the twisting got
+so hard that it choked me and blinded me; ... and when I woke up I was
+in the dungeon again, and the doctor had my back all plastered up, and
+he was kneeling beside me, feeling my pulse."
+
+The prisoner had finished. He looked around vaguely, as though he
+wanted to go.
+
+"And you have been in the dungeon ever since?"
+
+"Yes, sir; but I don't mind that."
+
+"How long?"
+
+"Twenty-three months."
+
+"On bread and water?"
+
+"Yes; but that was all I wanted."
+
+"Have you reflected that so long as you harbor a determination to kill
+the warden you may be kept in the dungeon? You can't live much longer
+there, and if you die there you will never find the chance you want. If
+you say you will not kill the warden he may return you to the cells."
+
+"But that would be a lie, sir; I will get a chance to kill him if I go
+to the cells. I would rather die in the dungeon than be a liar and
+sneak. If you send me to the cells I will kill him. But I will kill him
+without that. I will kill him, sir.... And he knows it."
+
+Without concealment, but open, deliberate, and implacable, thus in the
+wrecked frame of a man, so close that we could have touched it, stood
+Murder,--not boastful, but relentless as death.
+
+"Apart from weakness, is your health good?" asked the chairman.
+
+"Oh, it's good enough," wearily answered the convict. "Sometimes the
+twisting comes on, but when I wake up after it I'm all right."
+
+The prison surgeon, under the chairman's direction, put his ear to the
+convict's chest, and then went over and whispered to the chairman.
+
+"I thought so," said that gentleman. "Now, take this man to the
+hospital. Put him to bed where the sun will shine on him, and give him
+the most nourishing food."
+
+The convict, giving no heed to this, shambled out with a guard and the
+surgeon.
+
+                    *      *      *      *      *
+
+The warden sat alone in the prison office with No. 14,208. That he at
+last should have been brought face to face, and alone, with the man
+whom he had determined to kill, perplexed the convict. He was not
+manacled; the door was locked, and the key lay on the table between the
+two men. Three weeks in the hospital had proved beneficial, but a
+deathly pallor was still in his face.
+
+"The action of the directors three weeks ago," said the warden, "made
+my resignation necessary. I have awaited the appointment of my
+successor, who is now in charge. I leave the prison to-day. In the mean
+time, I have something to tell you that will interest you. A few days
+ago a man who was discharged from the prison last year read what the
+papers have published recently about your case, and he has written to
+me confessing that it was he who got your tobacco from the captain of
+the guard. His name is Salter, and he looks very much like you. He had
+got his own extra, and when he came up again and called for yours the
+captain, thinking it was you, gave it to him. There was no intention on
+the captain's part to rob you."
+
+The convict gasped and leaned forward eagerly.
+
+"Until the receipt of this letter," resumed the warden, "I had opposed
+the movement which had been started for your pardon; but when this
+letter came I recommended your pardon, and it has been granted.
+Besides, you have a serious heart trouble. So you are now discharged
+from the prison."
+
+The convict stared and leaned back speechless. His eyes shone with a
+strange, glassy expression, and his white teeth glistened ominously
+between his parted lips. Yet a certain painful softness tempered the
+iron in his face.
+
+"The stage will leave for the station in four hours," continued the
+warden. "You have made certain threats against my life." The warden
+paused; then, in a voice that slightly wavered from emotion, he
+continued: "I shall not permit your intentions in that regard--for I
+care nothing about them--to prevent me from discharging a duty which,
+as from one man to another, I owe you. I have treated you with a
+cruelty the enormity of which I now comprehend. I thought I was right.
+My fatal mistake was in not understanding your nature. I misconstrued
+your conduct from the beginning, and in doing so I have laid upon my
+conscience a burden which will embitter the remaining years of my life.
+I would do anything in my power, if it were not too late, to atone for
+the wrong I have done you. If, before I sent you to the dungeon, I
+could have understood the wrong and foreseen its consequences, I would
+cheerfully have taken my own life rather than raised a hand against
+you. The lives of us both have been wrecked; but your suffering is in
+the past,--mine is present, and will cease only with my life. For my
+life is a curse, and I prefer not to keep it."
+
+With that the warden, very pale, but with a clear purpose in his face,
+took a loaded revolver from a drawer and laid it before the convict.
+
+"Now is your chance," he said, quietly: "no one can hinder you."
+
+The convict gasped and shrank away from the weapon as from a viper.
+
+"Not yet--not yet," he whispered, in agony.
+
+The two men sat and regarded each other without the movement of a
+muscle.
+
+"Are you afraid to do it?" asked the warden.
+
+A momentary light flashed in the convict's eyes.
+
+"No!" he gasped; "you know I am not. But I can't--not yet,--not yet."
+
+The convict, whose ghastly pallor, glassy eyes, and gleaming teeth sat
+like a mask of death upon his face, staggered to his feet.
+
+"You have done it at last! you have broken my spirit. A human word has
+done what the dungeon and the whip could not do.... It twists inside of
+me now.... I could be your slave for that human word." Tears streamed
+from his eyes. "I can't help crying. I'm only a baby, after all--and I
+thought I was a man."
+
+He reeled, and the warden caught him and seated him in the chair. He
+took the convict's hand in his and felt a firm, true pressure there.
+The convict's eyes rolled vacantly. A spasm of pain caused him to raise
+his free hand to his chest; his thin, gnarled fingers--made shapeless
+by long use in the slit of the dungeon-door--clutched automatically at
+his shirt. A faint, hard smile wrinkled his wan face, displaying the
+gleaming teeth more freely.
+
+"That human word," he whispered,--"if you had spoken it long
+ago,--if--but it's all--it's all right--now. I'll go--I'll go to
+work--to-morrow."
+
+There was a slightly firmer pressure of the hand that held the
+warden's; then it relaxed. The fingers which clutched the shirt slipped
+away, and the hand dropped to his side. The weary head sank back and
+rested on the chair; the strange, hard smile still sat upon the marble
+face, and a dead man's glassy eyes and gleaming teeth were upturned
+towards the ceiling.
+
+
+
+
+A Game of Honor
+
+
+Four of the five men who sat around the card-table in the cabin of the
+"Merry Witch" regarded the fifth man with a steady, implacable look of
+scorn. The solitary one could not face that terrible glance. His head
+drooped, and his gaze rested upon some cards which he idly fumbled as
+he waited, numbed and listless, to hear his sentence.
+
+The more masterful one of the four made a disdainful gesture towards
+the craven one, and thus addressed the others:
+
+"Gentlemen, none of us can have forgotten the terms of our compact. It
+was agreed at the beginning of this expedition that only men of
+unflinching integrity should be permitted to participate in its known
+dangers and possible rewards. To find and secure the magnificent
+treasure which we are seeking with a sure prospect of discovering it,
+we must run the risk of encounters with savage Mexican soldiers and
+marines, and take all the other dangerous chances of which you are
+aware. As the charterer of this vessel and the leader of the expedition
+I have exercised extraordinary care in selecting my associates. We have
+been and still are equals, and my leadership as the outfitter of the
+expedition gives me no advantage in the sharing of the treasure. As
+such leader, however, I am in authority, and have employed, unsuspected
+by you, many devices to test the manhood of each of you. Were it not
+for the fact that I have exhausted all reasonable resources to this
+end, and have found all of you trustworthy except one, I would not now
+be disclosing the plan which I have been pursuing."
+
+The three others, who had been gazing at the crestfallen one, now
+stared at their leader with a startled interest.
+
+"The final test of a man's character," calmly pursued the leader, "is
+the card-table. Whatever there may be in him of weakness, whether it be
+a mean avarice, cowardice, or a deceitful disposition, will there
+inevitably appear. If I were the president of a bank, the general of an
+army, or the leader of any other great enterprise I would make it a
+point to test the character of my subordinates in a series of games at
+cards, preferably played for money. It is the only sure test of
+character that the wisdom of the ages has been able to devise."
+
+He paused, and then turned his scornful glance upon the cringing man,
+who meanwhile had mustered courage to look up, and was employing his
+eyes as well as his ears to comprehend the strange philosophy of his
+judge. Terror and dismay were elements of the expression which
+curiously wrinkled his white face, as though he found himself standing
+before a court of inscrutable wisdom and relentless justice. But his
+glance fell instantly when it encountered that of his judge, and his
+weak lower lip hung trembling.
+
+"We have all agreed," impressively continued the leader, "that the one
+found guilty of deceiving or betraying the others to the very smallest
+extent should pay the penalty which we are all sworn to exact. A part
+of this agreement, as we all remember, is that the one found derelict
+shall be the first to insist on the visitation of the penalty, and that
+should he fail to do so--but I trust that it is unnecessary to mention
+the alternative."
+
+There was another pause, and the culprit sat still, hardly breathing,
+and permitting the cards to slip from his fingers to the floor.
+
+"Mr. Rossiter," said the leader, addressing the hapless man in a tone
+so hard and cold that it congealed the marrow which it pierced, "have
+you any suggestion to make?"
+
+The doomed man made such a pitiful struggle for self-mastery as the
+gallows often reveals. If there was a momentary flash of hope based on
+a transient determination to plead, it faded instantly before the stern
+and implacable eyes that greeted him from all sides of the table.
+Certainly there was a fierce struggle under which his soul writhed, and
+which showed in a passing flush that crimsoned his face. That went by,
+and an acceptance of doom sat upon him. He raised his head and looked
+firmly at the leader, and as he did so his chest expanded and his
+shoulders squared bravely.
+
+"Captain," said he, with a very good voice, "whatever else I may be, I
+am not a coward. I have cheated. In doing so I have betrayed the
+confidence of all. I remember the terms of the compact. Will you kindly
+summon the skipper?"
+
+Without any change of countenance, the leader complied.
+
+"Mr. Rossiter," he said to the skipper, "has a request to make of you,
+and whatever it may be I authorize you to comply with it."
+
+"I wish," asked Mr. Rossiter of the skipper, "that you would lower a
+boat and put me aboard, and that you would furnish the boat with one
+oar and nothing else whatever."
+
+"Why," exclaimed the skipper, aghast, looking in dismay from one to
+another of the men, "the man is insane! There is no land within five
+hundred miles. We are in the tropics, and a man couldn't live four days
+without food or water, and the sea is alive with sharks. Why, this is
+suicide!"
+
+The leader's face darkened, but before he could speak Mr. Rossiter
+calmly remarked,--
+
+"That is my own affair, sir;" and there was a fine ring in his voice.
+
+                    *      *      *      *      *
+
+The man in the boat, bareheaded and stripped nearly naked in the
+broiling sun, was thus addressing something which he saw close at hand
+in the water:
+
+"Let me see. Yes, I think it is about four days now that we have
+travelled together, but I am not very positive about that. You see, if
+it hadn't been for you I should have died of loneliness.... Say! aren't
+you hungry, too? I was a few days ago, but I'm only thirsty now. You've
+got the advantage of me, because you don't get thirsty. As for your
+being hungry--ha, ha, ha! Who ever heard of a shark that wasn't always
+hungry? Oh, I know well enough what's in your mind, companion mine, but
+there's time enough for that. I hate to disturb the pleasant relation
+which exists between us at present. That is to say--now, here is a
+witticism--I prefer the outside relation to the inside intimacy. Ha,
+ha, ha! I knew you'd laugh at that, you sly old rogue! What a very sly,
+patient old shark you are! Don't you know that if you didn't have those
+clumsy fins, and that dreadfully homely mouth away down somewhere on
+the under side of your body, and eyes so grotesquely wide apart, and
+should go on land and match your wit against the various and amusing
+species of sharks which abound there, your patience in pursuing a
+manifest advantage would make you a millionaire in a year? Can you get
+that philosophy through your thick skull, my friend?
+
+"There, there, there! Don't turn over like that and make a fool of
+yourself by opening your pretty mouth and dazzling the midday sun with
+the gleam of your white belly. I'm not ready yet. God! how thirsty I
+am! Say, did you ever feel like that? Did you ever see blinding flashes
+that tear through your brain and turn the sun black?
+
+"You haven't answered my question yet. It's a hypothetical
+question--yes, hypothetical. I'm sure that's what I want to say.
+Hypo--hypothetical question. Question; yes, that's right. Now, suppose
+you'd been a pretty wild young shark, and had kept your mother anxious
+and miserable, and had drifted into gambling and had gone pretty well
+to the dogs. Do sharks ever go to the dogs? Now, that's a poser.
+Sharks; dogs. Oh, what a very ridiculously, sublimely amusing old
+shark! Dreadfully discreet you are. Never disclose your hand except on
+a showdown. What a glum old villain you are!
+
+"Pretty well to the dogs, and then braced up and left home to make a
+man of yourself. Think of a shark making a man of himself! And
+then--easy there! Don't get excited. I only staggered that time and
+didn't quite go overboard. And don't let my gesticulations excite you.
+Keep your mouth shut, my friend; you're not pretty when you smile like
+that. As I was saying--oh!...
+
+"How long was I that way, old fellow? Good thing for me that you don't
+know how to climb into a boat when a fellow is that way. Were you ever
+that way, partner? Come on like this: Biff! Big blaze of red fire in
+your head. Then--then--well, after awhile you come out of it, with the
+queerest and crookedest of augers boring through your head, and a
+million tadpoles of white fire darting in every direction through the
+air. Don't ever get that way, my friend, if you can possibly keep out
+of it. But then, you never get thirsty. Let me see. The sun was over
+there when the red fire struck, and it's over here now. Shifted about
+thirty degrees. Then, I was that way about two hours.
+
+"Where are those dogs? Do they come to you or do you go to them? That
+depends. Now, say you had some friends that wanted to do you a good
+turn; wanted to straighten you up and make a man of you. They had
+ascertained the exact situation of a wonderful treasure buried in an
+island of the Pacific. All right. They knew you had some of the
+qualities useful for such an expedition--reckless dare-devil, afraid of
+nothing--things like that. Understand, my friend? Well, all swore oaths
+as long as your leg--as long as your--oh, my! Think of a shark having a
+leg! Ha, ha, ha! Long as your leg! Oh, my! Pardon my levity, old man,
+but I must laugh. Ha, ha, ha! Oh, my!
+
+"All of you swore--you and the other sharks. No lying; no deceit; no
+swindling. First shark that makes a slip is to call the skipper and be
+sent adrift with one oar and nothing else. And all, my friend, after
+you had pledged your honor to your mother, your God, yourself, and your
+friends, to be a true and honorable shark. It isn't the hot sun
+broiling you and covering you with bursting blisters, and changing the
+marrow of your bones to melted iron and your blood to hissing lava--it
+isn't the sun that hurts; and the hunger that gnaws your intestines to
+rags, and the thirst that changes your throat into a funnel of hot
+brass, and blinding bursts of red fire in your head, and lying dead in
+the waist of the boat while the sun steals thirty degrees of time out
+the sky, and a million fiery tadpoles darting through the air--none of
+them hurts so much as something infinitely deeper and more cruel,--your
+broken pledge of honor to your mother, your God, yourself, and your
+friends. That is what hurts, my friend.
+
+"It is late, old man, to begin life all over again while you are in the
+article of death, and resolve to be good when it is no longer possible
+to be bad. But that is our affair, yours and mine; and just at this
+time we are not choosing to discuss the utility of goodness. But I
+don't like that sneer in your glance. I have only one oar, and I will
+cheerfully break it over your wretched head if you come a yard
+nearer....
+
+"Aha! Thought I was going over, eh? See; I can stand steady when I try.
+But I don't like that sneer in your eyes. You don't believe in the
+reformation of the dying, eh? You are a contemptible dog; a low, mean,
+outcast dog. You sneer at the declaration of a man that he can and will
+be honest at last and face his Maker humbly, but still as a man. Come,
+then, my friend, and let us see which of us two is the decent and
+honorable one. Stake your manhood against mine, and stake your life
+with your manhood. We'll see which is the more honorable of the two;
+for I tell you now, Mr. Shark, that we are going to gamble for our
+lives and our honor.
+
+"Come up closer and watch the throw. No? Afraid of the oar? You
+sneaking coward! You would be a decent shark at last did the oar but
+split your skull. See this visiting card, you villain? Look at it as I
+hold it up. There is printing on one side; that is my name; it is I.
+The other side is blank; that is you. Now, I am going to throw this
+into the water. If it falls name up, I win; if blank side up, you win.
+If I win, I eat you; if you win, you eat me. Is that a go?
+
+"Hold on. You see, I can throw a card so as to bring uppermost either
+side I please. That wouldn't be fair. For this, the last game of my
+life, is to be square. So I fold one end down on this side, and the
+other down on that side. When you throw a card folded like that no
+living shark, whether he have legs or only a tail, can know which side
+will fall uppermost. That is a square game, old man, and it will settle
+the little difference that has existed between you and me for four days
+past--a difference of ten or fifteen feet.
+
+"Mind you, if I win, you are to come alongside the boat and I am to
+kill you and eat you. That may sustain my life until I am picked up. If
+you win, over I go and you eat me. Are you in the game? Well, here
+goes, then, for life or death.... Ah! you have won! And this is a game
+of honor!"
+
+                    *      *      *      *      *
+
+A black-smoking steamer was steadily approaching the drifting boat, for
+the lookout had reported the discovery, and the steamer was bearing
+down to lend succor. The captain, standing on the bridge, saw through
+his glass a wild and nearly naked man making the most extraordinary
+signs and gestures, staggering and lurching in imminent danger of
+falling overboard. When the ship had approached quite near the captain
+saw the man toss a card into the water, and then stand with an ominous
+rigidity, the meaning of which was unmistakable. He sounded a blast
+from the whistle, and the drifting man started violently and turned to
+see the steamer approaching, and observed hasty preparations for the
+lowering of a boat. The outcast stood immovable, watching the strange
+apparition, which seemed to have sprung out of the ocean.
+
+The boat touched the water and shot lustily forward.
+
+"Pull with all your might, lads, for the man is insane, and is
+preparing to leap overboard. A big shark is lying in wait for him, and
+the moment he touches the water he is gone."
+
+The men did pull with all their might and hallooed to the drifting one
+and warned him of the shark.
+
+"Wait a minute," they cried, "and we'll take you on the ship!"
+
+The purpose of the men seemed at last to have dawned upon the
+understanding of the outcast. He straightened himself as well as he
+could into a wretched semblance of dignity, and hoarsely replied,--
+
+"No; I have played a game and lost; an honest man will pay a debt of
+honor."
+
+And with such a light in his eyes as comes only into those whose vision
+has penetrated the most wonderful of all mysteries, he leaped forth
+into the sea.
+
+
+
+
+Treacherous Velasco
+
+
+Sitting at the open window of her room in the upper story of the
+farmhouse, on the Rancho San Gregorio, Senora Violante Ovando de
+McPherson watched, with the deepest interest, a cloud of dust which
+rose in the still May air far down the valley; for it was evident that
+the color in her cheeks and the sparkle in her violet-black eyes spoke
+a language of devotion and happiness. Her husband was coming home, and
+with him his vaqueros, after a tedious drive of cattle to San
+Francisco. He had been gone but a month; but what an interminable
+absence that is to a wife of a year! She had watched the fading of the
+wild golden poppies; she had seen the busy workers of the bee-hives
+laying up their stores of honey culled from the myriads of flowers
+which carpeted the valley; and she had ridden over the Gabilan Hills to
+see the thousands of her husband's cattle which dotted them. She had
+been respectful of her housekeeping duties, and had directed Alice, the
+sewing-girl, in the making of garments for the approaching hot season.
+Yet, busy as she thought she was, and important as she imagined herself
+to be in the management of the great ranch, time had dragged itself by
+in manacles. But now was coming the cloud of dust to lift the cloud of
+loneliness; and if ever a young wife's heart quickened with gladness,
+it was hers.
+
+Presently the fine young Scotchman leaped from his horse, clasped his
+wife in his arms, asked a few hurried questions concerning her welfare
+during his absence, untied a small buckskin bag which depended from the
+pommel of his saddle, and, remarking, "I thought you might need some
+spending-money, Violante," held up the bag containing gold, containing
+a hundred times more gold than her simple tastes and restricted
+opportunities would permit her to employ. But was not her Robert the
+most generous of men? Other eyes than hers saw it--those of Basilio
+Velasco, one of the vaqueros; a small, swarthy man, with the blackest
+and sharpest of eyes, in which just then was a strange glitter.
+
+What a handsome couple were the young husband and wife, as, arm-in-arm,
+they entered the house--he so large, and red, and masculine; she so
+dark, and reliant, and feminine! Beautiful Spanish girls were plentiful
+in those youthful days of California; but Violante had been known as
+the most beautiful of all the maidens between the Santa Barbara Channel
+and the Bay of Monterey. Hard-headed and fiery-tempered Scotch
+Presbyterian; gentle, patient, and faithful Catholic; they were the
+happiest and most devoted of couples.
+
+"Well, little Violante," he said, "take the bag up to your room, and
+give us dinner; for before we rest we must ride over to the range and
+look after the cattle, and after that you and I shall have a good, long
+visit."
+
+These pleasant duties were quickly dispatched, and the dusty men, led
+by her husband, galloped away. From the open window of her room she saw
+the receding cloud of dust, wondering at that urgent sense of duty
+which could make so fond a husband leave her, even though for a short
+time, after so long a separation. Thus she sat, dreamily thinking of
+her great happiness in having him once again at home, and drinking in
+the rich perfume of the racemes of wistaria-blossoms which covered the
+massive vine against the house. This old vine, springing from the
+ground beneath the window at which she sat, spread its long arms almost
+completely over that part of the wall, divided on either side for the
+window, and hung gracefully from beneath the eaves, embowering their
+lovely owner in a tangled mass of purple blossoms. It was an exquisite
+picture--the pretty wife sitting there, in the whitest of lawns,
+looking out over the hills from this frame of gorgeous flowers--all the
+more charming from her unconsciousness of its beauty. Behind her, at
+the opposite side of the room, sat her maid, Alice, sewing in silence.
+
+As the senora looked dreamily over the hills, she became aware of the
+peculiar actions of a man on horseback, who was approaching the house
+from the direction in which her husband and the vaqueros had
+disappeared. That which summoned her attention was the fact that the
+man was approaching by an irregular route, which no ordinary
+circumstance would have required. He had such a way of keeping behind
+the trees that she could not determine his identity. It looked strange
+and mysterious, and something impelled her to drop the lace curtain
+over the window, for behind it she could watch without danger of being
+seen.
+
+The horseman disappeared, and this made her uneasiness all the greater,
+but she said nothing to Alice. Soon she noticed the man on foot
+approaching the house, in a watchful, skulking fashion, slipping from
+one tree or one bit of shrubbery to another. Then, with a swift run, he
+came near, and, stealthily and noiselessly as a cat, began to ascend to
+her window by clambering up the wistaria-vine. Her spirit quailed and
+her cheeks blanched when she saw the naked blade of a dagger held
+between his teeth. She understood his mission--it was her life and the
+gold; and the glittering eyes of the robber she recognized as those of
+Basilio Velasco. After a moment of nerveless terror the ancient
+resisting blood of the Ovandos sprang into alert activity, and this
+gentlest and sweetest of young women armed her soul to meet Death on
+his own ground and his own terms, and try the issue with him.
+
+She gave no alarm, for there was none in the house except herself and
+Alice. To have given way to fear would have destroyed her only hope of
+life. Quietly, in a low tone, she said,--
+
+"Alice, listen, but do not say a word." There was an impressiveness in
+her manner that startled the nervous, timid girl; but there were also
+in it a strength and a self-reliance that reassured her. She dropped
+her work and regarded her mistress with wonder. "Look in the second
+drawer of the bureau. You will find a pistol there. Bring it to me
+quickly, without a word, for a man is clambering up the vine under my
+window to rob me, and if we make any outcry or lose our heads we are
+dead. Place full confidence in me, and it will be all right."
+
+Alice, numb and nervous with fear, found the pistol and brought it to
+her mistress.
+
+"Go and sit down and keep quiet," she was told; and this she did.
+
+Violante, seeing that the weapon was loaded, cocked it, and glanced out
+the window. Basilio was climbing very slowly and carefully, fearing
+that the least disturbance of the vine would alarm the senora. When he
+had come sufficiently near to make her aim sure, Violante suddenly
+thrust aside the curtain, leaned out the window, and brought the barrel
+of the weapon in line with Velasco's head.
+
+"What do you want, Basilio?" she asked.
+
+Hearing the musical voice, the Spaniard quickly looked up. Had the
+bullet then imprisoned in the weapon been sent crashing through his
+vitals, he would have received hardly a greater shock than that which
+quivered through his nerves when he saw the black barrel of the pistol,
+the small but steady hand which held it aimed at his brain, and the
+pale and beautiful face above it. Thus holding the robber at her mercy,
+she said firmly to the girl,--
+
+"Alice, there is nothing to fear now. Run as fast as you can to the
+west end of the house, about a hundred yards away, and you will find
+this man's horse tied there somewhere in the shrubbery. Mount it, and
+ride as fast as God will let you. Find my husband, and tell him I have
+a robber as prisoner."
+
+The girl, almost fainting, passed out of the room, found the horse, and
+galloped away, leaving these two mortal enemies facing each other.
+
+Velasco had heard all this, and he heard the horse clattering up the
+road to the range beyond the hills of Gabilan. The picture of a fierce
+and angry young Scotchman dashing up to the house and slaying him
+without a parley needed no elaboration in his dazed imagination. He
+gazed steadily at the senora and she at him; and, while he saw a
+strange pity and a sorrow in her glance, he saw also an unyielding
+determination. He could not speak, for the knife between his teeth held
+his tongue a prisoner. If only he could plead with her and beg for his
+life!
+
+"Basilio," she quietly said, seeing that he was preparing to release
+one hand by finding a firmer hold for the other, "if you take either of
+your hands away from the vine I will shoot you. Keep perfectly still.
+If you make the least movement, I will shoot. You have seen me throw
+apples in the air and send a bullet through every one with this
+pistol."
+
+There was no boastfulness in this, and Velasco knew it to be true.
+
+"I would have given you money, Basilio, if you had asked me for it; but
+to come thus with a knife! You would have killed me, Basilio, and I
+have never been unkind to you."
+
+If he could only remove the dagger from his mouth! Surely one so kind
+and gentle as she would let him go in peace if he could only plead with
+her! But to let the dagger fall from his teeth would be to disarm
+himself, and he was hardly ready for that; and there was much thinking
+and planning to be done within a very few minutes.
+
+Velasco, still with his gaze on the black hole in the pistol-barrel,
+soon made a discouraging discovery; the position in which he had been
+arrested was insecure and uncomfortable, and the unusual strain that it
+brought upon his muscles became painful and exhausting. To shift his
+position even in the smallest way would be to invite the bullet. As the
+moments flew the strain upon particular sets of muscles increased his
+pain with alarming rapidity, and unconsciously he began to speculate
+upon the length of time that remained before his suffering would lead
+him into recklessness and death. While he was thus approaching a very
+agony of pain, with the end of all human endurance not far away,
+another was suffering in a different manner, but hardly less severely.
+
+The beautiful senora held the choice of two lives in the barrel of her
+pistol; but that she should thus hold any life at all was a matter that
+astounded, perplexed, and agonized her; that she had the courage to be
+in so extraordinary a position amazed her beyond estimation. Now, when
+one reflects that one is courageous, one's courage is questionable. And
+then, she was really so tender-hearted that she wondered if she could
+make good her threat to shoot if the murderer should move. That he
+believed she would was sufficient.
+
+But after the arrival of her husband--what then? With his passionate
+nature could he resist the temptation to cut the fellow's throat before
+her very eyes? That was too horrible to think of. But--God!--the robber
+himself had a knife! By thus summoning her husband was she not inviting
+him to a mortal struggle with a desperate man better armed than he? It
+would have been easy to liberate Basilio and let him go his way; but
+she knew that her husband would follow and find him. Now that the
+mischief of notifying him had been done, it was best to keep the
+prisoner with her, that she might plead for his life. Therein lay her
+hope that she could avert the shedding of blood by either of the men.
+Her suspense; her self-questionings; her dread of a terrible
+termination to an incident which already had assumed the shape of a
+tragedy; her fearful responsibility; the menacing possibility that she
+herself, in simple defence of her life, might have to kill Basilio; her
+trepidation on the score of her aim and the reliability of the
+pistol--all these things and others were wearing her out; and at last
+she, too, began to wonder how long she could bear the strain, and
+whether or not her husband would arrive in time to save her.
+
+Meanwhile, Velasco, racked to the marrow by the pains which tortured
+him, and driven by a desire to drop the dagger and plead for his life
+and by fear of parting with his weapon, was urged to despair, and
+finally to desperation. All the supplication that his face and eyes
+could show pleaded eloquently for him, and with this silent pleading
+came evidence of his physical agony. The muscles of his arms and legs
+twitched and trembled, and his labored breathing hissed as it split
+upon the edge of the knife. He was unable longer to control the muscles
+of his lips; the keen edge of his weapon found a way into the flesh at
+either side of his mouth, and two small streams of blood trickled down
+his chin and fell upon his breast. Not for a moment did he take his
+gaze from her eyes; and thus these two regarded each other in a silence
+and a stillness that were terrible. A crisis had to come. Here was a
+test of nerve that inevitably would make a victim of one or the other.
+The spectacle of the man's agony, the pitiful sight of his imploring
+look, were more than the feminine flesh of which Violante was composed
+could bear.
+
+The crash came--Basilio was the first to break down. Whether
+voluntarily or not, he released his hold upon the knife, which went
+clattering through the vine-branches to the ground. In another instant
+his tongue, now free, began pouring forth a supplication in the Spanish
+language with an eloquence which Violante had never heard equalled.
+
+"Oh, senora!" he said, "who but an angel could show a mercy tenderer
+than human? And yet, as I hope for the mercy of the Holy Virgin, there
+are a sweetness and a kindness in your face that belong to an angel of
+mercy. Oh, Mother of God! surely thy unworthy son has been brought into
+this strait for the trying of his soul, and for its chastisement and
+purification at the hands of thy sweetest and gentlest of daughters;
+for thou hast put it into her heart--which is as pure as her face is
+beautiful--to spare me from a most horrible end. Thou hast whispered
+into her mother-soul that one of thy sons, however base and
+undeserving, should not be sent unshriven to the judgment-seat of the
+most Holy Christ, thy son. Through the holy church thou hast
+enlightened her soul to the duties of a Christian, for in her beautiful
+face shines the radiance of heaven.--Ah, senora! see me plead for
+mercy! Behold the agonies which beset me, and let my sufferings unlock
+the door of your heart. Let me go in peace, senora; and you shall find
+in me a slave all the days of my life--the humblest and most devoted of
+slaves, happy if you beat me, glorying in my slavery if you starve me,
+and giving praise to Almighty God if you trample me under your feet.
+Senora, senora, release me, for time is pressing--I can barely escape
+if you let me go this instant. Would you have my blood on your hands?
+Can you face the Virgin with that? Oh, senora--senora----"
+
+Her head swam, and all her senses were afloat in a sea of agonies.
+Still she looked down into his eyes as he continued his pleadings, but
+the outlines of his body were wavering and uncertain, and inexpressible
+suffering numbed her faculties. Still she listened vaguely to his
+outpouring of speech; and it was not until her husband, with two of his
+vaqueros, dashed up on horseback that either of these two strangely
+situated sufferers was aware of his approach. Seeing him, Violante
+threw her arms abroad, and the pistol went flying to the ground; and
+then she sank down to the floor, and the brilliant sunshine became
+night and the shining glories of the day all nothingness.
+
+                    *      *      *      *      *
+
+She awoke and found herself lying on her bed, with her husband sitting
+beside her, caressing her hands and watching her anxiously. It was a
+little time before she could summon her faculties to exercise and to an
+understanding of her husband's endearing words; but, seeing him safe
+with her, her next thought was of Velasco.
+
+"Where is Basilio?" she asked, starting up and looking fearfully about.
+
+"He is safe, my dear one. Think no more of Basilio, who would have
+harmed my Violante. Be calm, for my sake, sweet wife."
+
+"Oh, I can't, I can't! You must tell me about Basilio." And, in a
+frightened whisper, she asked, "Did you kill him?"
+
+"No, loved one; Basilio is alive."
+
+She sank back upon her pillow. "God be praised!" she whispered.
+
+Suddenly she started again and looked keenly into her husband's eyes.
+"You have never deceived me," she hurriedly said; "but, Robert, I must
+know the truth. Have no fear--I can bear it. For God's sake, my
+husband, tell me the truth!"
+
+Alarmed, he took her in his arms, and said, "Be calm, my Violante; for
+as the Almighty is my witness, Basilio is alive."
+
+"Alive! alive!" she cried; "what does that mean? You are keeping
+something back, my husband. I know your passionate nature too well--you
+could not let him off so easily. Tell me the whole truth, Robert, or I
+shall go mad!"
+
+There was a frantic earnestness in this that would have made evasion
+unwise.
+
+"I will, Violante; I will. Listen--for upon my soul, this is the whole
+truth: When I saw you drop the pistol and sink back upon the floor, I
+knew that you had fainted. I ordered the vaqueros to secure the weapon
+and make Basilio descend to the ground. Then I ran upstairs, placed you
+on the bed, loosened your clothing, and did what I could to restore
+you. But you remained unconscious----"
+
+"Basilio! Basilio! tell me about him."
+
+"I went to the window and sent one of the men to the hacienda for a
+doctor for you, and told the other to bring Basilio to this room. He
+came in very weak and trembling, for he had fallen from the vine and
+was slightly stunned, but not much hurt. He expected me to kill him
+here in this room, but I could not do that--I was afraid on your
+account, Violante. He was very quiet and ill----"
+
+"Hurry, Robert, hurry!"
+
+"He said nothing. I spoke to him. He hung his head and asked me if I
+would let him pray. I told him I would not kill him. A great light
+broke over his face. He fell at my feet and clasped my knees and kissed
+my boots and wept like a child. It was pitiful, Violante."
+
+"Poor Basilio!"
+
+"He begged me to punish him. He removed his shirt and implored me to
+beat him. I told him I would not touch him. He said he would be your
+slave and mine all his life; but he insisted that he must make some
+physical atonement--he must be punished. 'Very well,' I said. Then I
+turned to Nicolas and told him to give Basilio some light punishment,
+as that would relieve his mind. Nicolas took him down and lashed him to
+the back of a horse, and turned the animal into the horse-corral. Then
+Nicolas came back and told me what he had done. I replied that it was
+all right, and that as soon as I could leave you I would go and release
+Basilio. And then I told Nicolas to go to the range and look up Alice
+and bring her home, for she was too weak to come back with me."
+
+"And Basilio is in the corral now?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"How was he lashed to the horse?"
+
+"I don't know--Nicolas didn't tell me; but you may be sure that he is
+all right."
+
+She threw her arms around her husband's neck and kissed him again and
+again, saying, "My noble, generous husband! I love you a thousand times
+more than ever. Now go, Robert, at once, and release Basilio."
+
+"I can't leave you, dear."
+
+"You must--you shall! I am fully recovered. If you don't go, I will."
+
+"Very well."
+
+No sooner had he left the room than she sprang out of the bed, caught
+up a penknife, and noiselessly followed him; he did not suspect her
+presence close behind him as he went towards the corral. When they had
+gone thus a short distance from the house her alert ear caught a
+peculiar sound that sent icicles through her body. They were feeble
+cries of human agony, and they came from a direction other than that of
+the corral. Heedlessly, and therefore unwisely, she ran towards their
+source, without having summoned her husband, and soon she came upon a
+fearful spectacle.
+
+McPherson pursued his way to the corral; but when he arrived there he
+was surprised not to find Basilio in the enclosure. The gate was
+closed--the horse to which he was lashed could not have escaped through
+it. Looking about, he read the signs of a commotion that must have
+occurred among the horses, caused, undoubtedly, by the strange sight of
+a man lashed in some peculiar way to the back of one of their number.
+The ground was torn by flying hoofs in all directions; there had been a
+wild stampede among the animals. Even when he entered, possibly more
+than a half-hour after Basilio was introduced among them, they were
+huddled in a corner, and snorted in alarm when he approached them. The
+horse to which Nicolas had lashed Basilio was not to be seen. Annoyed
+at the stupidity of Nicolas, McPherson looked about until he found the
+place in the fence through which Basilio's horse had broken; only two
+of the rails had been thrown down. Alarmed and distressed, McPherson
+leaped over the fence, took up the trail of the horse, and followed it,
+running. Presently he discovered that the horse, in his mad flight, had
+broken through the fence enclosing the apiary, and had played havoc
+among the twenty or more bee-hives therein. Then McPherson saw a
+spectacle that for a little while took all the strength out of his
+body.
+
+The senora, guided by a quicker sense than that of her husband, had
+gone straight to the apiary. There she saw the horse, with Basilio,
+naked to the waist, strapped upon his back, the animal plunging madly
+among the bee-hives, kicking them to fragments as the vicious insects
+plied him with their stings. Basilio was tied with his face to the sun,
+which poured its fierce rays into his eyes; for Nicolas was devoted to
+the senora, and he had been determined to make matters as uncomfortable
+for the ingrate as possible. Upon Basilio's unprotected body the bees
+swarmed by hundreds, giving him a score of stings to one for the horse,
+and he was utterly helpless to protect himself. Already the poison of a
+thousand stings had been poured into his face and body; his features
+were hideously swollen and distorted, and his chest was puffed out of
+resemblance to a human shape, and was livid and ghastly.
+
+Without a moment's hesitation, the senora flew through the gate and
+went to the deliverance of Basilio, praying to God with every breath.
+His cries were feeble, for his strength was nearly gone, and his
+incredible agony, aided by the poison of the bees, had sent his wits
+astray. For Violante to approach the maddened horse and the swarming
+bees was to offer herself to death; but what cared she for that, when
+another's life was at stake? Into this desperate situation she threw
+herself. With the coolness of a trained horsewoman, she finally twisted
+the fingers of one hand into the frantic horse's nostrils, bringing him
+instantly under control. In another moment, unmindful of the stings
+which the bees inflicted upon her face and hands, she had cut Basilio's
+lashings and caught his shapeless body in her arms as it slipped to the
+ground. Then, taking him under the arms, she dragged him, with uncommon
+strength, from the enclosure and away from the murderous assaults of
+the bees.
+
+He moaned; his head rolled from one side to the other. His eyes were
+closed by the swelling of the lids, and he could not see her; but even
+had this not been so, he was past knowing her. She laid him down in the
+shade of a great oak, and she saw from his faint and interrupted gasps
+that in another moment all would be over with him. Unconscious of the
+presence of her husband, who now stood reverently, with uncovered head,
+behind her, she raised to heaven her blanched face and beautiful eyes,
+and softly prayed, "Holy mother of Jesus, hear the prayer of thy
+wretched daughter, and intercede for this unshriven spirit." She
+glanced down at Basilio, and saw that he was dead. Feebly she staggered
+to her feet, and, seeing her husband, cried out his name, stretched out
+her arms towards him, and sank unconscious into his strong grasp; and
+thus he bore her to the house, kissing her face, while tears streamed
+down his cheeks.
+
+
+
+
+An Uncommon View of It
+
+
+Mr. Clarke Randolph was stupefied by a discovery which he had just
+made--his wife had proved unfaithful, and the betrayer was his nearest
+friend, Henry Stockton. If there had been the least chance for a doubt,
+the unhappy husband would have seized upon it, but there was none
+whatever.
+
+Let us try to understand what this meant to such a man as Randolph. He
+was a high-bred, high-spirited man of thirty, descended from a long
+line of proud and chivalrous men; educated, refined, sensitive,
+generous, and brave. His fine talents, his dash, his polished manner,
+his industry, his integrity, his loftiness of character, had lifted him
+upon the shoulders of popularity and prosperity; so that, in the city
+of his home, there was not another man of his age, a member of his
+profession, the law, who was so well known, so well liked, or wielded
+such a power.
+
+He had been married four years. His wife was beautiful, winning, and
+intelligent; and she had always had from him the best devotion that a
+husband could give his wife. He and Stockton had been friends for many
+years. Next to his wife, Randolph had loved and trusted him above all
+others.
+
+Such was the situation. At one stroke he had lost his wife, his home,
+his best friend, his confidence in human nature, his spirit, his
+ambition. These--and essentially they were all that made up his life,
+except the operation of purely animal functions--had gone all at once
+without a moment's warning.
+
+Well, there was something to be done. A keen sense of the betrayal, a
+smarting under the gross humiliation, urged him to the natural course
+of revenge. This, as he sat crouched down in a chair in his locked
+office, he began systematically to prepare. The first idea--always
+first in such cases--was to kill. That, in the case of a man of his
+spirit and temperament, was a matter of course. Fear of the legal
+consequences found no place within him. Besides, suicide after the
+killing would settle that exceedingly small part of the difficulty.
+
+So it was first decided that as the result of this discovery three
+persons had to die,--his wife, his friend, and himself. Very well; that
+took a load from his mind. An orderly and intelligent arrangement of
+details now had to be worked out. A plan which would bring the largest
+results in the satisfaction of a desire for revenge must be chosen. The
+simple death of those two, the bare stoppage of breath, would be wholly
+inadequate. First, the manner of taking their lives must have the
+quality of strength and a force which in itself would have a large
+element of satisfaction; hence it must be striking, deliberate, brutal
+if you wish, revolting if you are particular. Second, it must be
+preceded by exposure, denunciation, publication, scorn, contempt, and
+terror.
+
+That much was good--what next? There were various available means for
+taking life. A revolver suggested itself. It makes a dark, red spot;
+the very sight of the weapon, held steadily and longer than necessary,
+levelled at the place where the spot is to appear, is terrifying; there
+is a look of fright; then uplifted arms, an appeal for mercy, a protest
+of innocence, a cry to God; after that the crash, a white face, a
+toppling to the floor, eyes rolled upward, bluish lips apart, a dark
+pool on the carpet--all that was very good. The wretched man felt
+better now that he was beginning to think so clearly.
+
+But there was poison also--poison in variety: arsenic, which burns and
+corrodes, causing great pain, often for hours; strychnine, which acts
+through the nerves, producing convulsions and sometimes a fixed
+distortion of the features, which even the relaxation of death cannot
+remove; corrosive sublimate, prussic acid, cyanide of potassium--too
+quick and deadly. It must be a poison, if poison at all, which will
+bring about a sensible progression through perceptible stages of
+suffering, so that during this time the efficiency of physical pain may
+be raised by the addition of mental suffering.
+
+Were these all the methods? Yes--enough for this purpose. Then, which
+should it be--revolver or poison? It was a difficult problem. Let it
+first be settled that the three should be together, locked in a room,
+and that the two guilty ones should suffer first, one at a time.
+
+The revolver won.
+
+Randolph was in the act of leaving his office to go and buy the weapon,
+when he was startled by what he saw in his office-mirror. It required a
+moment for him to recognize his own reflection. His face was
+unnaturally white; a discoloration was under his eyes, which had a
+glassy appearance; his lips were pressed tightly together, the corners
+of his mouth drawn down, large dark veins standing out on his temples.
+Fearing that if, while in this condition, he should apply to a gunsmith
+for a revolver he would be refused, he stood for some time before the
+mirror trying to restore the natural expression of his face. He kneaded
+his lips to remove their stiffness, pinched his cheeks to bring back
+their color, rubbed down the ridged veins, and scraped a little of the
+white plaster from the wall and with it concealed the dark color under
+his eyes. Then he went forth with a firm step, bought the revolver
+without difficulty, tried it, satisfied himself that it was reliable,
+loaded it, put it into his pocket, and returned to his office.
+
+For there were certain matters of property to be attended to. He had a
+considerable fortune, all his separate possession; his wife had brought
+him nothing. He now felt sufficiently clear-minded to dispose of his
+estate intelligently. He drew his will--a holographic instrument--devising
+his wealth to various persons and benevolent societies.
+
+He glanced at his office-clock. There would be four long hours yet
+before the time for going home to dinner. Fortunately for his plans,
+Stockton was to dine with them that evening, and neither of the guilty
+ones knew that they had been discovered. How should Randolph employ
+these weary hours? There was nothing to do, nothing even to think of.
+He tried to read a newspaper, then a book, and failed; looked out upon
+the crowds which thronged the street; counted the passing cars awhile;
+tried other things, failed at everything, and then sat down.
+
+Something was beginning to work in the wretched man. Let us see: his
+wife, while pretending the warmest affection for him, was receiving the
+guilty attentions of a traitor in the house; she had betrayed her
+husband, had wrecked his life, had driven him to his death. Really,
+therefore, she had swept aside all the obligations which the marriage
+relation imposed. In essence she was no longer his wife, but a criminal
+enemy who, with deliberate and abounding malice, had destroyed him. He
+could go to the grave with a willing heart, but he could not permit her
+to live and enjoy his downfall and gloat over his destruction.
+
+But would she really do that? And, then,--God!--she was a woman! In
+spite of all that she had done, she was a woman! A strong man, his
+strength reinforced by a revolver, employs deception to bring a woman
+into a room, locks the door, insults, humiliates, and terrifies her,
+brandishes a revolver, and then kills her like a rat in its hole. Can a
+brave man, of mature judgment and in possession of his faculties, do
+such a thing? Why, it would be not only murder, but cowardice as well!
+No; it could not be done. She was still a woman, with all the weakness,
+all the frailty which her sex imposed. It could not be done.
+
+After all, it would be far sweeter revenge to let her live, bearing
+through life a brand of infamy. That would be much better. She would
+lose her high position and the respect of her friends; the newspapers
+would publish her shame to the world, pointing her out by name as the
+depraved woman who had betrayed her husband and driven him to murder
+and suicide; they would have her portrait in their columns; her name
+and crime would be hawked upon the street by loud-crying news-boys;
+sermons denouncing her would be preached in all the churches; her shame
+would be discussed everywhere--in homes, shops, hotels, and bar-rooms
+in many cities.
+
+Not only that, but she would be stripped of all the property which she
+had enjoyed so much. She would be turned adrift upon the streets, for
+no one would help her, none have a kind word for her, none give her
+even the respect which money might command. Being thus turned out upon
+the world all friendless and alone, and being naturally depraved, she
+would seek the protection of fast and shady men. Thus started, and soon
+taking to drink, as such women always do, down she would plunge into a
+reckless and shameless career, sinking lower and lower, losing her
+beauty; becoming coarse, loud, and vulgar; then, arriving at that stage
+when her beauty no longer could be a source of revenue, drifting into
+vile dens, consorting with the lowest and most brutal blackguards,
+finding herself dragged often before police-magistrates, first for
+drunkenness and then for theft, serving short terms in prison with
+others as low; finally, one night brought shrieking with delirium
+tremens to the police-station, bundled out to the hospital, strapped
+firmly to an iron bed, and then dying with foul oaths on her lips--such
+a life would be infinitely worse than death; such revenge immeasurably
+vaster than that of the pistol. Then it was finally decided that she
+must live and suffer.
+
+As to the friend--as to Stockton, the betrayer, the sneak, the
+coward--_he_ should die like a dog. _That_ decision could not be
+reconsidered. He should not be granted the privilege of a duel, for not
+only was he wholly undeserving of such consideration, but by such means
+his life might be spared. Undoubtedly _she_ loved him; perhaps he loved
+her. He living and the husband killed in a duel, their satisfaction
+would be doubled--having wrecked and humiliated him and driven him to
+despair, they then killed him. After that they could enjoy each other's
+society openly, unmolested, and without fear of detection or
+punishment. Besides, they might marry and both be happy. This was
+unthinkable. He must be killed, he must die like a dog, and he must go
+to his death with a foul stain on his name.
+
+These things being settled, the wretched man reread the will. As the
+woman was to live, she must be mentioned in the document. He tore up
+the will and wrote another, in which he bequeathed her one dollar,
+setting forth her shame as the reason for so small a bequest. Then he
+wrote out a separate statement of the whole affair, sealed it,
+addressed it to the coroner, and placed it in his pocket. It would be
+found there after awhile.
+
+Well, why this trembling in every member, this unaccountable nausea,
+this unconquerable feeling of horror and repugnance as the draft of the
+picture was contemplated? Did instinct arise and dumbly plead for
+mercy? What mercy had been shown that mercy could be expected? None
+whatever. There was not only revenge to be satisfied, but justice also.
+Still, it was horrible! Admit that she deserved it all, deserved even
+more, she was a woman! No act of hers could deprive her of her natural
+claims upon the stronger sex. As a woman she had inalienable rights
+which even she could not forfeit, which men may not withhold. And then,
+where could be the benefit of adding physical suffering to mental? One
+surely would weaken the force of the other. The lower she should fall
+and the deeper her degradation, the smaller would become the efficiency
+of her mental agony; and yet mental suffering was the kind which it was
+desired should fall upon her.
+
+It would be well, therefore, to leave her some money--a considerable
+amount of money--in order that, holding herself above the want which,
+in her case, would lead to degradation and a blunting of the
+sensibilities, she might suffer all the more keenly; in order that the
+memory of her shame might be forever poignant, forever a cause for the
+sharpest regrets. This would be better in other ways: her shame
+published, she could never associate with those fine characters who had
+been her friends; her lover dead and his memory disgraced, he could not
+be present to console her; for society she would have only those whom
+her fortune would attract, and they were not of a kind to satisfy such
+a woman as she; she would always be within sight of the old life and
+its pleasures, but just beyond the pale--sufficiently near to see and
+long for, but too far to reach, and forever kept back by the cold
+glance of contempt and disdain from the high circle in which she had
+been reared.
+
+Therefore, it were better to leave her the bulk of his fortune. So he
+tore up the second will and wrote a third, in which, while naming her
+as his principal legatee, he incorporated the story of her shame. He
+felt better now than at any other time since his discovery. He walked
+about the room, looked out the window, then fell into his chair again.
+
+How strangely alike in many respects are all animals, including man! he
+thought. There are qualities and passions common to them all,--hate,
+fear, anger, revenge, love, fondness for offspring. In what is man
+superior to the others? Manifestly in self-control, a sense of justice,
+the attribute of mercy, the quality of charity, the power to forgive,
+the force of benevolence, the operation of gratitude; an appreciation
+of abstractions; an ability to compare, contrast, and adjust;
+consciousness of an inherent tendency to higher and better
+achievements. To the extent that he lacks these does he approach more
+closely to the lower orders. To the degree that the passions common to
+all have mastery over him does he lack the finer qualities which
+distinguish his species. The desire to kill when hurt, angered, or
+threatened is the stronger the lower we descend in the scale of the
+orders--the lower we descend even among the members of the same order.
+The least developed men are the most brutal. Revenge is the malice of
+anger.
+
+It is strange that his thoughts should have taken such a turn!
+
+And then, the fundamental instinct which guards the perpetuation of the
+species is common to all, and its manifestations are controlled by a
+universal law, whose simple variations do not impair its integrity.
+Love and mating--these are the broad lines upon which the perpetuation
+of the species starts. What possible abstractions are there in them? Is
+not their character concrete and visible? Whatever fine sentiments are
+evolved, we know their source and comprehend their function. There is
+no mystery here.
+
+What is this jealousy, which all animals may have? It is an instinctive
+resentment, by one of a mated pair, of something which interferes with
+a pleasant established system, the basis of which is perpetuation of
+the species. Higher mankind has the ability to dissect it, analyze it,
+understand it, and guard against its harmful operation; herein lie
+distinguishing qualities of superiority. If, when his jealousy is
+roused, he is unable to act any differently from the lion, the horse,
+or the dog, then, in that regard, he is not superior to them. Man,
+being an eater of meat, is a savage animal, like the dog, the tiger,
+the panther, the lion. His passions are strong, as are theirs; but he
+has qualities which enable him to hold them in check. If an animal have
+a strong attachment for his mate, he will fight if she be taken from
+him; this is the operation of jealousy. If he be a savage animal, he
+will kill if he can or dare. Few males among the animals will kill
+their deserting mates; that is left for man, the noblest of the
+animals. The others are content to kill the seducer. What thankfulness
+there is for escape from an act, so recently contemplated, which would
+have placed its perpetrator below the level of the most savage of the
+brutes! In what, of all that was now proposed to be done, was there any
+quality to distinguish the acts from those of the most savage brute,
+except a more elaborate detail, the work of superior malice and
+ferocity? Is it a wonder that Randolph shuddered when he thought of it?
+
+The broadest characteristic of all animals, including man, is
+selfishness. In man it reaches its highest form and becomes vanity,
+pride, and a ridiculous sense of self-importance. But man alone is
+conscious of its existence, character, and purpose; he alone encourages
+its rational development and suppresses the most evil of its abuses.
+The animal which would fight or kill from jealousy is moved by a
+selfish motive only. It proceeds to satisfy its anger or gratify its
+revenge without any regard to the ethics, without any thought of its
+obligations to nature, without the slightest wish to inquire whether
+there may not be in the cause of its jealousy a natural purpose which
+is proceeding upon the very lines that led to its mating. A man,
+however, can think of these things, weigh them carefully, understand
+them approximately, and then advance in the light of wisdom. If not, he
+is no better, in this regard, than the animal which cannot so reason
+and understand.
+
+This manner of thinking was bringing the unhappy man closer to himself.
+
+Then, having faced the proposition that he had been considering his own
+case all along, he found the situation to be somewhat like this: He had
+a certain understanding which should operate to remove him from
+influences which with men of inferior conceptions would be more
+powerful; not being a brute, he should rise above impulses which a
+brute is constrained by its nature to obey. So much was clear. Then
+what should he do? He pondered this long and seriously.
+
+Was it possible to wipe out the past with exposure, humiliation, shame,
+and blood? He had been proud of her; he had loved her; he had been
+very, very happy with her. She had been his inspiration; a part of his
+hopes, ambition, life. True, she had undone all this, but the memory of
+it remained. Until this recent act of shame, she had been kind,
+unselfish, gentle, and faithful. Who knows why she fell? Who could
+sound the depths of this strange mystery; who measure the capacity of
+her resistance; who judge her frailty with a righteous mind; who say
+that at that very moment she was not suffering unspeakable things? And
+then, was there any one so noble of character, with integrity so
+unfailing and so far beyond temptation, that he might say he was better
+than she? Her weakness--should we presume to call it depravity when we
+cannot know, and might we with intelligent knowledge of our own conduct
+lay the whole responsibility upon her, and none upon that which made
+her? If we are human, let us seek wherein we may convince ourselves
+that we are not brutes. Compassion is an attribute of a noble
+character. The test of manhood is the exercise of manly qualities.
+
+What good would come from this revenge of humiliation and exposure? It
+would not mend the wrong; it would not save life; it would be only
+proof of the vanity, the sense of self-importance, of the injured one.
+Would it be possible to spare her? Yes. That finally was settled. She
+should live; she should have the property; she should be left to enjoy
+life as best she could without the shadow of a stain upon her name.
+That were the nobler part, the test of manhood. And then, the past
+could not be forgotten!
+
+Randolph felt so much better after arriving at this decision that he
+marvelled at himself. He walked about the room feeling strong and
+elastic. He tore up the will because it charged her crime upon her;
+tore up the letter to the coroner; collected all the scraps of paper
+and carefully burned them. Then he drew a new will, free from stain,
+leaving all his property to his wife. He did not only that, but he
+wrote her a letter--formal, of course--merely saying that he had found
+his life a mistake; this he sealed, addressed, and placed in his
+pocket.
+
+Stockton--the false friend, the betrayer and destroyer--he should die,
+he should die like a dog. But not with a stain on his name--that were
+impossible, because it would reflect upon _her_.
+
+Here was a new situation. The two men would be found dead, likely in
+the same room--the friend and the husband. What would people think? A
+duel? For what reason? Murder and suicide? Who had handled the weapon,
+and for what possible cause? The road which suspicion would travel was
+too short and wide. The fair name of the wife was to be guarded--that
+had been decided upon, and now it was the first consideration.
+
+There were other matters to be thought of. Suppose that Stockton had
+been the husband and Randolph the friend. God! let us think. Have
+brutes, frenzied with rage and jealousy, the power to hold nature's
+mirror before the heart, to feel compassion, to exercise charity, to
+weigh with a steady hand the weaknesses and frailties of their kind, to
+feel humility, to bow the head before the inscrutable ways of nature?
+Have they not? No? Well, then, have men? If they have not, they are no
+better in that regard than brutes. Besides, would it punish Stockton to
+kill him? There can be no punishment in death; it can be only in dying;
+but even dying is not unpleasant, and death is the absence of
+suffering. There was no way under heaven to give him adequate
+punishment.
+
+Nor was that all. _She_ loved him--that must be so. What would be the
+benefit of removing him from her life? It would be merely revenge--revenge
+upon both of them; and where lies the nobility of such revenge? If they
+both should live, both go unexposed, they might be happy together.
+
+After all, whom would that disturb, with whose pleasure interfere?
+Surely no sound of their happiness could penetrate the grave; violence
+would be done to none of nature's laws. Why should they not be happy?
+If they could, why should they not? Was there any reason under the sun
+that wisdom, charity, compassion, and a high manhood could give why
+they should not be happy?
+
+But suppose that she should suspect the cause of her husband's suicide;
+this would likely poison her life, for the consciousness of guilt would
+give substance to suspicion. The result would be an abhorrence of self,
+a detestation of the participant in her sin, a belief that the blood of
+her husband was upon her head, and a long train of evils which would
+seriously impair, if not wholly destroy, the desired serenity of her
+life. Was there any way to prevent the birth of such a suspicion?
+
+Yes; there was a way. As soon as Randolph had worked it out he felt as
+if an enormous load had been removed from him. His eyes shone brightly,
+his cheeks were flushed, and a look of pride and triumph lighted up his
+face.
+
+He returned to his chair, removed the revolver from his pocket, and
+laid it on the table; wrote his wife an affectionate letter, in which
+he told her that he had just become aware of an incurable ailment which
+he had not the courage to face through months or years of suffering,
+and begged her to look to Stockton for friendship and advice; wrote to
+Stockton, charging him with her protection; burned the last will that
+he had made and drew a new one, in which he left them the property
+jointly, on condition that they marry within two years. Then, with a
+perfectly clear head, he laid down his pen and sighed, but his face was
+bright and tranquil. He picked up the revolver, cocked it, placed the
+muzzle against his temple, and without the tremor of a nerve he pressed
+the trigger.
+
+
+
+
+A Story Told by the Sea
+
+
+One night, when the storm had come up from the south, apparently for
+the sole purpose of renewing war with its old enemy, the Peninsula of
+Monterey, I left the ancient town, crossed the neck of the peninsula,
+and descended on the other side of the Santa Lucia slope to see the
+mighty battle on Carmel Bay. The tearing wind, which, charged with
+needles of rain, assailed me sharply, did nobler work with the ocean
+and the cypresses, sending the one upon a riotous course and rending
+the other with groans. I arrived upon a cliff just beyond a pebbly
+beach, and with bared head and my waistcoat open, stood facing the
+ocean and the storm. It was not a cold night, though a winter storm was
+at large; but it was a night of blind agonies and struggles, in which a
+mad wind lashed the sea and a maddened sea assailed the shore, while a
+flying rain and a drenching spray dimmed the sombre colors of the
+scene. It was a night for the sea to talk in its travail and yield up
+some of its mysteries.
+
+I left the cliff and went a little distance to the neighborhood of a
+Chinese fishing-station, where there was a sand-beach; and here, after
+throwing off my coat and waistcoat, I went down to have a closer touch
+with my treacherous friend. The surf sprang at me, and the waves,
+retreating gently, beckoned me to further ventures, which I made with a
+knowledge of my ground, but with a love of this sweet danger also. A
+strong breaker lifted me from my footing, but I outwitted it and
+pursued it in retreat; there came another afterwards, and it was armed,
+for, towering above me, it came down upon me with a bludgeon, which
+fell heavily upon me. I seized it, but there my command upon my powers
+ceased; and the wave, returning, bore me out. A blindness, a vague
+sense of suffocation, an uncertain effort of instinct to regain my hold
+upon the ground, a flight through the air, a soft fall upon the
+sand--it was thus that I was saved; and I still held in my hand the
+weapon with which my old friend had dealt me the blow.
+
+It was a bottle. Afterwards, in my room at Monterey, I broke it and
+found within it a writing of uncommon interest. After weeks of study
+and deciphering (for age and imperfect execution made the task serious
+and the result uncertain), I put together such fragments of it as had
+the semblance of coherence; and I found that the sea in its travail had
+yielded up one of its strangest mysteries. No hope of a profitable
+answer to this earnest cry for help prompts its publication; it is
+brought forth rather to show a novel and fearful form of human
+suffering, and also to give knowledge possibly to some who, if they be
+yet alive, would rather know the worst than nothing. The following is
+what my labor has accomplished:
+
+I am Amasa D. Keating, an unhappy wretch, who, with many others, am
+suffering an extraordinary kind of torture; and so great is the mental
+disturbance which I suffer, that I fear I shall not be able to make an
+intelligent report. I am but just from a scene of inconceivable
+terrors, and, although I am a man of some education and usually equal
+to the task of intelligent expression, I am now in a condition of
+violent mental disturbance, and of great physical suffering as well,
+which I fear will prove a hindrance to the understanding of him who may
+find this report. At the outset, I most earnestly beg such one to use
+the swiftest diligence in publishing the matter of this writing, to the
+end that haply an expedition for our relief may be outfitted without
+delay; for, if the present state of affairs continue much longer with
+those whom I have left behind, any measure taken for their relief will
+be useless. As for myself and my companion, we expect nothing but
+death.
+
+I will hasten to the material part of my narrative, with the relation
+only of so much of the beginning as may serve for our identification.
+
+On the 14th of October, 1852, we sailed from Boston in the brig
+"Hopewell," Captain Campbell, bound for the islands of the South
+Pacific Ocean. We carried a cargo of general merchandise, with the
+purpose of trading with the natives; but we desired also to find some
+suitable island which we might take possession of in the name of the
+United States and settle upon for our permanent home. With this end in
+view, we had formed a company and bought the brig, so that it might
+remain our property and be used as a means of communication between us
+and the civilized world. These facts and many others are so familiar to
+our friends in Boston, that I deem it wholly unnecessary to set them
+forth in fuller detail. The names of all our passengers and crew stand
+upon record in Boston, and are not needed to be written here for ampler
+identification.
+
+No ill-fortune assailed us until we arrived in the neighborhood of the
+Falkland Islands. Cape Horn wore its ugliest aspect (for the brig was a
+slow sailer, and the Antarctic summer was well gone before we had
+encountered bad weather),--an unusual thing, Captain Campbell assured
+us; from that time forward we had a series of misfortunes, which ended
+finally, after two or three months, in a fearful gale, which not only
+cost some of the crew their lives, but dismasted our vessel. The storm
+continued, and, the brig being wholly at the mercy of the wind and the
+sea, we saw that she must founder. We therefore took to the boats with
+what provisions and other necessary things we could stow away. With no
+land in sight, and in the midst of a boiling sea, which appeared every
+moment to be on the eve of swamping us, we bent to our oars and headed
+for the northwest. It is hardly necessary to say that we had lost our
+reckoning; but, after a manner, we made out that we were nearly in
+longitude 136.30 west, and about upon the Tropic of Capricorn. This
+would have made our situation about a hundred and seventy miles from a
+number of small islands lying to the eastward of the one hundred and
+fortieth meridian. The prospect was discouraging, as there was hardly a
+sound person in the boats to pull an oar, so badly had the weather used
+us; and besides that, the ship's instruments had been lost and our
+provisions were badly damaged.
+
+Nevertheless, we made some headway. The poor abandoned brig, seemingly
+conscious of our desertion, behaved in a very singular fashion; urged
+doubtless by the wind, she pursued us with pathetic struggles--now beam
+on, again stern foremost, and still again plunging forward with her
+nose under the water. Her pitching and lurching were straining her
+heavily, and, with her hold full of water, she evidently could live but
+a few minutes longer. Meanwhile, it was no small matter for us to keep
+clear of her, for whether we would pull to this side or that she
+followed us, and sometimes we were in danger. There came an end,
+however, for the brig, now heavily water-logged, rose majestically on a
+great wave and came down side on into the trough; she made a brave
+struggle to right herself, but in another moment she went over upon her
+beam, settled, steadied herself a moment, and then sank straight down
+like a mass of lead. This brought upon us a peculiar sense of
+desolation; for, so far as we knew (and Captain Campbell had sailed
+these seas before), there was hardly a chance of our gaining land
+alive.
+
+Much to our surprise, we had not rowed more than twenty knots when (it
+being about midnight) a fire was sighted off our port bow,--that is to
+say, due west. This gave us so great courage that we rowed heartily
+towards it, and at three in the morning, to our unspeakable happiness,
+we dragged our boats upon a beautiful sand-beach. So exhausted were we
+that with small loss of time we made ourselves comfortable and soon
+were sound asleep upon firm ground.
+
+The next sun had done more than half its work before any of us were
+awake. Excepting some birds of lively plumage, there was not a living
+thing in sight; but no sooner had we begun to stir about than a number
+of fine brown men approached us simultaneously from different
+directions. A belt was around their waists, and from it hung a short
+garment, made of bark woven into a coarse fabric; and also hanging from
+the belt was a heavy sword of metal. Undoubtedly the men were savages;
+but there was a dignity in their manner which set them wholly apart
+from the known inhabitants of these South Sea Islands. Our captain, who
+understood many of the languages and dialects of the sub-tropical
+islanders, found himself at fault in attempting verbal intercourse with
+these visitors, but it was not long before we found them exceedingly
+apt in understanding signs. They showed much commiseration for us, and
+with manifestations of friendship invited us to follow them and test
+their hospitality. This we were not slow in doing.
+
+The island--we were made to know on the way--was a journey of ten hours
+long and seven wide, and our eyes gave us proof of its wonderful
+fecundity of soil, for there were great banana plantations and others
+of curious kinds of grain. The narrowness of the roads convinced us
+that there were no wagons or beasts of burden, but there were many
+evidences of a civilization which, for these parts, was of
+extraordinary development; such, for instance, as finely cultivated
+fields and good houses of stone, with such evidences of an aesthetic
+taste as found expression in the domestic cultivation of many of the
+beautiful flowers which grew upon the island. These matters I mention
+with some particularity, in order that the island may be recognized by
+the rescuers for whom we are eagerly praying.
+
+The town to which we were led is a place of singular beauty. While
+there is no orderly arrangement of streets (the houses being scattered
+about confusedly), there is a large sense of comfort and room and a
+fine character of neatness. The buildings are all of rough stone and
+are not divided into apartments; the windows and doors are hung with
+matting, giving testimony of an absence of thieves. A little to one
+side, upon a knoll, is the house of the king, or chief. It is much like
+the others, except that it is larger, a chamber in front serving as an
+executive-room, where the king disposes of the business of his
+rulership.
+
+Into this audience-room we were led, and presently the king himself
+appeared. He was dressed with more barbaric profusion than his
+subjects; about his neck and in his ears were many fine pieces of
+jewelry of gold and silver, evidently the work of European artisans,
+but worn with a complete disregard of their original purpose. The king,
+a large, strong, and handsome man, received us with a kindly smile; if
+ever a human face showed kindness of heart, it was his. He had us to
+understand at once that we were most welcome, that he sympathized with
+us in our distress, and that all our wants should be attended to until
+means should be found for restoring us to our country, or sending us
+whithersoever else we might desire to go.
+
+It was not at all likely, he said (for he spoke German a little), that
+any vessel from the outside world would ever visit the island, as it
+appeared to be unknown to navigators, and it was a law upon the island
+that the inhabitants of no other islands should approach. At certain
+times of the moon, however, he sent a boat to an island, many leagues
+away, to bear some rare products of his people in exchange for other
+commodities, and, should we so desire, we might be taken, one at a
+time, in the boat, and thus eventually be put in the way of passing
+vessels. With what appeared to be an embarrassed hesitation, he
+informed us that he was compelled to impose a certain mild restraint
+upon us--one which, he hurried to add, would in no way interfere with
+our comfort or pleasure. This was that we be kept apart from his
+people, as they were simple and happy, and he feared that association
+with us would bring discontent among them. Their present condition had
+come about solely through the policy of complete isolation which had
+been followed in the past.
+
+We received this communication with a delight which we took no pains to
+conceal; and the king seemed touched by our expressions of gratitude.
+So in a little while we were established as a colony about three miles
+from the town, the quick hands of the natives having made for us, out
+of poles, matting, and thatch, a sufficient number of houses for our
+comfort; and the king placed at our disposal a large acreage for our
+use, if we should desire to help ourselves with farming; for which
+purpose an intelligent native was sent to instruct us. It was on the
+10th day of May, 1853, that we went upon the island, and the 14th when
+we went into colony.
+
+I cannot pause to give any further description of this beautiful island
+and our delightful surroundings, but must hasten away to a relation of
+the terrible things which presently befell us. We had been upon the
+island about a month, when the king (who had been to visit us twice)
+sent a messenger to say that a boat would leave on the morrow, and that
+if any one of us wished to go he could be taken. The messenger said
+that the king's best judgment was that the sickly ones ought to go
+first, as, in the event of serious illness, it would be better that
+they should die at home. We overlooked this singular and savage way of
+stating the case, for our sense of gratitude to the king was so great
+that the expression of a slight wish from him was as binding upon us as
+law. Hence from our number we selected John Foley, a carpenter, of
+Boston, as the hardships of the voyage had developed in him a quick
+consumption, and he had no family or relatives in the colony, as many
+others of us had. The poor fellow was overcome with gratitude, and he
+left us the happiest man I ever saw.
+
+I must now mention a very singular thing, which upon the departure of
+Foley was given a conspicuous place in our attention. We were in a
+roomy valley, which was nearly surrounded by perpendicular walls of
+great height, and from no accessible point was the sea visible. On
+several occasions some of the younger men had sought to leave the
+valley for the shore, but at each attempt the native guards set over us
+had suddenly appeared at the few passes which nature had left in the
+wall, and kindly but firmly had turned our young men back, saying that
+it was the king's wish we should not leave the valley. The older heads
+among us discouraged these attempts to escape, holding them to be
+breaches of faith and hospitality; but the knowledge of being absolute
+prisoners weighed upon us nevertheless, and became more and more
+irksome. When, therefore, our companion was taken away, an organized
+movement was made among the young men to gain an elevated position
+commanding a view of the sea, in order to observe the direction taken
+by Foley's boat. The plan was to divide into bodies and move
+simultaneously in force upon all the points of egress, and overcome,
+without any resort to dangerous violence, the two or three guards who
+had been seen at those points. When our men arrived at these places
+they encountered the small number it was customary to see, and were
+pushing their way through, when suddenly there appeared a strong body
+of natives, who drew their heavy swords and assumed so threatening an
+attitude that our men lost no time in retreating. A report of this
+occurrence was made to the colony, each of the parties of young men
+having had an exactly similar experience. While there appeared to be no
+good ground for the feeling of uneasiness which spread throughout the
+colony, a sense of oppression came over the stronger ones and of fear
+over the weaker; and, a council having been held, it was decided to ask
+an explanation of the king.
+
+Other things of some interest had happened; among them, a surreptitious
+acquiring of considerable knowledge of the island language by me. For
+this reason I was chosen as ambassador to the king. My mission was a
+failure, as the king, though gracious, informed me that this plan was
+necessary in securing complete isolation from his people; and he
+instructed me to tell my people that any member of our colony found
+beyond the lines would be punished with death. In addition to this, the
+king, seemingly hurt that we should have questioned the propriety of
+his actions, said that thenceforward he himself would make the
+selections of our people for deportation. The man's evident superiority
+of character impressed me with no little effect, and the sincerity with
+which he regarded us as belonging to a race inferior to his in mental
+and moral strength confounded me and placed me at a disadvantage.
+
+When I took the news to the colony, a mood bordering upon hopelessness
+came upon our people. The ones of hastier temper suggested a revolt and
+a seizure of the island; but this was so insane an idea that it was put
+away at once.
+
+Not long afterwards the king sent for Absalom Maywood, one of our young
+men, unmarried, but with a mother among us. Maywood, at first very low
+with scurvy on the brig, had drifted into other ailments, and was now
+an invalid and much wasted. I will not dwell upon the pathetic parting
+between him and his aged mother, nor upon the deeper gloom that fell
+upon the colony. What was becoming of these men? None might know
+whither they were taken and none could guess their after-fate. Behind
+our efforts to be cheerful and industrious there were heavy hearts, and
+possibly thoughts and fears that dared not seek expression.
+
+The third man was taken--again a sickly one--this time a consumptive
+farmer, named Jackson; and some time afterward a fourth, an elderly
+woman, with a cancer; she was Mrs. Lyons, formerly a milliner in South
+Boston. Then the patience and hope which had sustained us gave way, and
+we were in a condition close upon despair. The cooler ones among the
+men assembled quietly apart and debated what to do. Our captain, a man
+quiet and brave, still the leader in our councils, and always advising
+patience and obedience, presided at this meeting. There was one
+dreadful thought upon every mind, but no man had the courage to bring
+it forth; but after there had been some discussion without any profit,
+Captain Campbell made this speech:
+
+"My friends, it does not become us longer to seek to conceal the
+thought which all of us have, and which, sooner or later, must be
+spoken. It is a matter of common knowledge that upon many of the
+islands of these seas there exists the horrible practice of
+cannibalism."
+
+Not a word was spoken for a long time, and all were glad that it had
+come out at last. Not one man looked at his neighbor or dared raise his
+glance from the ground, and there was a weight upon the hearts of all.
+
+"Nevertheless," resumed the captain, "it is extremely difficult to
+believe that this evil is upon us, for you must have noticed that only
+the lean and sickly ones have been taken, and surely this cannot mean
+cannibalism."
+
+Some had not thought of this, and they looked up quickly, with brighter
+faces; whereupon Captain Campbell proceeded:
+
+"You must have observed, however, that all of the sick and weakly have
+gone, and this brings a new situation upon us. I have an idea, which I
+will not give expression to now, and my desire in calling you together
+was to determine its correctness or falsity. For this purpose, some man
+of daring and agility must risk his life."
+
+Nearly every man present made offer of his services, but the captain
+shook his head and begged them all to remain quiet.
+
+"It is necessary," he added, "that this man understand the language,
+and I fear there is not one among you."
+
+Each man, taken aback, looked at his neighbor and then all at me, as I
+stepped forward. The captain regarded me gratefully and said:
+
+"Let there now be a binding secrecy among us, for the others of the
+colony must not know now, and perhaps never. If our fear find a ground
+in truth, there is all the greater reason for keeping these matters
+secret among ourselves. Is that well understood? Then, Mr. Keating, the
+plan is this: When the next one of us is taken, you are by strategy,
+but in no event by violence, to escape from this imprisonment and
+discover the fate of that one and make report to us."
+
+A week afterwards (these things occurring now with greater frequency)
+Lemuel Arthur, a young man of twenty-two, was taken away about one
+o'clock in the afternoon. My whole plan having been studied out, I
+arrayed myself in the style of the natives, stained my skin with ochre,
+blackened my eyebrows and hair with a mixture of soot and tallow, and
+without difficulty slipped by the guards and found myself at large and
+free upon the island. I gained a high point and saw no sign of a boat
+making ready to put off with Arthur. When darkness had come I descended
+to the village. I kept upon the outskirts and remained as much as
+possible in shadow. I dared not talk with any one, but I could listen;
+and presently I learned something that made my heart stand still.
+
+"It has been so long since we had one," said a native to his fellow.
+
+"Yes; and this one will be delicious. They say he is young and fat.
+Why, we have not touched any since the four men and their woman with
+the jewelry came upon the island from a wreck."
+
+"True; but this one will not go around among so many of us--many must
+go without."
+
+"What of that? Those not supplied now will have all the keener relish
+when their turn comes. All that are left now are good and fat, as the
+king has taken away all the lean and sickly ones. He would not allow
+the people to touch them, although some of them begged very hard. So,
+to make sure, they were placed in the kiln."
+
+So heavy a sickness fell upon me when I heard this that I was near upon
+a betrayal of my presence; and certainly I lost some of the talk which
+these men were having. Presently I realized that nothing indicating a
+horrible fate for my friends had been said; my own fears were
+sufficient to give a frightful color to their language. When I looked
+about me again they were gone, and so with much caution I moved to
+another part of the town, keeping always in shadow. At a certain place
+I heard another conversation, as follows:
+
+"Does he know what they will do with him?"
+
+"No; but he fears something. He does not understand the language. He
+tried to get away this afternoon to go to the sea-shore, where he
+thought the boat was waiting, and when they made an effort to keep him
+quiet he became very angry."
+
+"What did they do then?"
+
+"They took him to the king, who was so kind that the young man became
+quiet. Our king is so gentle, and they always believe what he tells
+them,"--whereupon the fellow broke into a hearty laugh.
+
+"And do the others suspect nothing?"
+
+"There is doubt about that. Kololu, the farmer, has reported that they
+appear uneasy and disturbed, and hold secret meetings."
+
+"What do you think they would do if they should discover everything?"
+
+"Revolt, I think, for they appear to be fighters."
+
+"But they have no arms, and we are more than a hundred to one."
+
+"That is true, and so no lives would be lost on either side. After the
+revolt they would merely be kept in closer confinement, and no harm
+would come in the end. They could be taken one at a time, as is the
+present intention."
+
+"They might refuse to eat sufficient, and hence become lean."
+
+"That would come about surely, but it would last only for a time; for
+you have noticed that even our own people, when condemned, though they
+lose flesh at first, invariably become reconciled to their end, and at
+last become fatter than ever."
+
+The words of this man, who was evidently a functionary of the king,
+inspired me with so great a horror that I could bear to hear no more;
+so I moved away, considering whether I should return to the colony and
+report what I had heard already or remain to see this ghastly tragedy
+to the end. As there was nothing to be gained by returning at once, I
+decided to stay, for through the horror of it all might come some
+suggestion of a means of deliverance.
+
+I soon became aware, by the making of all the people towards a certain
+quarter, that something of unusual importance was afoot; so as best I
+could I worked my way around to the point of convergence, which was in
+the neighborhood of the king's house, and there I saw an extraordinary
+preparation under way. A large bonfire was burning in an open place;
+standing around it, in a circle having a generous radius, were hundreds
+of the strange half-savages of the island, kept at their proper
+distance by an armed patrol; in a clear space at one side, on higher
+ground, was an elevated seat, which I surmised was reserved for the
+king. Manifestly a matter of some moment was to be attended to, having
+likely a ceremonious character. The most curious feature of all this
+affair was the activity of a number of workers engaged in dragging
+large, hot stones from the fire and arranging them in the form of an
+oblong mound. This mound had one peculiar feature: a hollow space,
+about six feet long and two feet wide, was left within it, and the men,
+under the instructions of a leader, were fashioning it to a depth
+approaching two feet, all the stones being very hot and difficult to
+handle, even with the aid of barrows.
+
+While they were still at work, the great repressed excitement under
+which the people labored found an excuse for expression in the arrival
+of the king, who, tricked out in unusual finery, walked solemnly ahead
+of his attendants to his elevated seat. Then he gave an order which,
+from my distance, I could not hear. I pushed a little closer under the
+safety which the occasion lent, and overheard this conversation:
+
+"How many will get some of it?"
+
+"Only forty, I hear. You know the women are not allowed to have it."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"The leading men will be supplied. It makes them strong and wise. The
+next one will be given to sixty of the men who carry swords."
+
+"And the next after that?"
+
+"To more of the swordsmen; and so on until they all have had some, and
+then the common people will be taken in like rotation, but given a
+smaller allowance."
+
+At this juncture, a strange procession moved from the king's house. It
+was led by two priests chanting dolefully; behind them walked four men,
+armed with curious implements--flails, no doubt. Then came four
+warriors, and behind them, firmly bound and completely naked, walked my
+young friend, Arthur; after him came six warriors. Arthur's white skin
+showed in strong contrast to that of the brown men around him. His face
+was very pale, and his eyes, staring wide, swept a quick glance around
+for a stray hope.
+
+The group stopped in front of the king; the natives faced and made an
+obeisance and awaited further orders. Before all this had been done, a
+man in front of me said to another:
+
+"Those hot stones will cool, I fear."
+
+"There is no danger; they will keep their heat a long time. If they
+were too hot, they would burn it."
+
+"True."
+
+"They are much too hot now, but it will be some time before they will
+be needed."
+
+"Will they use the sword first, as they did with those who had the
+jewelry?"
+
+"No; the best part then was spilled. This is a new idea of the king's.
+The flails will do just as well and will make it very tender besides.
+Our king is a wise man."
+
+By this time young Arthur (the king having given his order) was
+surrounded by the armed men, and between him and them were the four who
+carried flails. His hands had been bound to a strong post sunk in the
+ground. The king raised his hand as a signal, and the four men brought
+down their flails with moderate force upon Arthur's naked body. These
+implements were heavy, and evidently care was taken not to break the
+skin. When the poor fellow felt the blows, he shrank and quivered, but
+uttered no sound. They fell again.
+
+What was I doing all this time? What was I thinking? I do not know; but
+when the second blows had been delivered and Arthur had cried out in
+his agony, I sprang through the encircling line of savages, dashed into
+the midst of the group surrounding the prisoner, snatched a sword from
+a warrior, leaped upon the king and split his head in twain, turned,
+cut Arthur's bonds, caught him by the hand, and fled at full speed with
+him into the darkness. Never had been a surprise more complete--the
+people had seen one of their own number, as they supposed, free the
+prisoner and murder their king. Soon there came a howl, and some
+started in pursuit; but--there was the body of the king, and the stones
+were hot and waiting! There was no longer authority! Our pursuers fell
+off, one by one, and the others, thus discouraged, gave up the chase.
+We ran to the shore, found a boat, and put out to sea.
+
+We are free--we two; but to what purpose? We have no idea of the
+direction of the land; we are without food; we dare not return to our
+friends, for only in the desperate hope of our finding land can there
+be the least encouragement for their rescue. We have rowed all night;
+it is now well into the following afternoon; we have had nothing to eat
+or drink, and we are beginning to suffer; we both are naked and the sun
+seemingly will burn us up. I therefore make this record with material
+which I had been prudent to provide for such an emergency, and I shall
+now give it to the sea, with such earnest prayers for its discovery as
+can come only from a most unhappy human being in a desperate extremity.
+
+
+
+
+The Monster-Maker
+
+
+A young man of refined appearance, but evidently suffering great mental
+distress, presented himself one morning at the residence of a singular
+old man, who was known as a surgeon of remarkable skill. The house was
+a queer and primitive brick affair, entirely out of date, and tolerable
+only in the decayed part of the city in which it stood. It was large,
+gloomy, and dark, and had long corridors and dismal rooms; and it was
+absurdly large for the small family--man and wife--that occupied it.
+The house described, the man is portrayed--but not the woman. He could
+be agreeable on occasion, but, for all that, he was but animated
+mystery. His wife was weak, wan, reticent, evidently miserable, and
+possibly living a life of dread or horror--perhaps witness of repulsive
+things, subject of anxieties, and victim of fear and tyranny; but there
+is a great deal of guessing in these assumptions. He was about
+sixty-five years of age and she about forty. He was lean, tall, and
+bald, with thin, smooth-shaven face, and very keen eyes; kept always at
+home, and was slovenly. The man was strong, the woman weak; he
+dominated, she suffered.
+
+Although he was a surgeon of rare skill, his practice was almost
+nothing, for it was a rare occurrence that the few who knew of his
+great ability were brave enough to penetrate the gloom of his house,
+and when they did so it was with deaf ear turned to sundry ghoulish
+stories that were whispered concerning him. These were, in great part,
+but exaggerations of his experiments in vivisection; he was devoted to
+the science of surgery.
+
+The young man who presented himself on the morning just mentioned was a
+handsome fellow, yet of evident weak character and unhealthy
+temperament--sensitive, and easily exalted or depressed. A single
+glance convinced the surgeon that his visitor was seriously affected in
+mind, for there was never bolder skull-grin of melancholia, fixed and
+irremediable.
+
+A stranger would not have suspected any occupancy of the house. The
+street door--old, warped, and blistered by the sun--was locked, and the
+small, faded-green window-blinds were closed. The young man rapped at
+the door. No answer. He rapped again. Still no sign. He examined a slip
+of paper, glanced at the number on the house, and then, with the
+impatience of a child, he furiously kicked the door. There were signs
+of numerous other such kicks. A response came in the shape of a
+shuffling footstep in the hall, a turning of the rusty key, and a sharp
+face that peered through a cautious opening in the door.
+
+"Are you the doctor?" asked the young man.
+
+"Yes, yes! Come in," briskly replied the master of the house.
+
+The young man entered. The old surgeon closed the door and carefully
+locked it. "This way," he said, advancing to a rickety flight of
+stairs. The young man followed. The surgeon led the way up the stairs,
+turned into a narrow, musty-smelling corridor at the left, traversed
+it, rattling the loose boards under his feet, at the farther end opened
+a door at the right, and beckoned his visitor to enter. The young man
+found himself in a pleasant room, furnished in antique fashion and with
+hard simplicity.
+
+"Sit down," said the old man, placing a chair so that its occupant
+should face a window that looked out upon a dead wall about six feet
+from the house. He threw open the blind, and a pale light entered. He
+then seated himself near his visitor and directly facing him, and with
+a searching look, that had all the power of a microscope, he proceeded
+to diagnosticate the case.
+
+"Well?" he presently asked.
+
+The young man shifted uneasily in his seat.
+
+"I--I have come to see you," he finally stammered, "because I'm in
+trouble."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"Yes; you see, I--that is--I have given it up."
+
+"Ah!" There was pity added to sympathy in the ejaculation.
+
+"That's it. Given it up," added the visitor. He took from his pocket a
+roll of banknotes, and with the utmost deliberation he counted them out
+upon his knee. "Five thousand dollars," he calmly remarked. "That is
+for you. It's all I have; but I presume--I imagine--no; that is not the
+word--_assume_--yes; that's the word--assume that five thousand--is it
+really that much? Let me count." He counted again. "That five thousand
+dollars is a sufficient fee for what I want you to do."
+
+The surgeon's lips curled pityingly--perhaps disdainfully also. "What
+do you want me to do?" he carelessly inquired.
+
+The young man rose, looked around with a mysterious air, approached the
+surgeon, and laid the money across his knee. Then he stooped and
+whispered two words in the surgeon's ear.
+
+These words produced an electric effect. The old man started violently;
+then, springing to his feet, he caught his visitor angrily, and
+transfixed him with a look that was as sharp as a knife. His eyes
+flashed, and he opened his mouth to give utterance to some harsh
+imprecation, when he suddenly checked himself. The anger left his face,
+and only pity remained. He relinquished his grasp, picked up the
+scattered notes, and, offering them to the visitor, slowly said:
+
+"I do not want your money. You are simply foolish. You think you are in
+trouble. Well, you do not know what trouble is. Your only trouble is
+that you have not a trace of manhood in your nature. You are merely
+insane--I shall not say pusillanimous. You should surrender yourself to
+the authorities, and be sent to a lunatic asylum for proper treatment."
+
+The young man keenly felt the intended insult, and his eyes flashed
+dangerously.
+
+"You old dog--you insult me thus!" he cried. "Grand airs, these, you
+give yourself! Virtuously indignant, old murderer, you! Don't want my
+money, eh? When a man comes to you himself and wants it done, you fly
+into a passion and spurn his money; but let an enemy of his come and
+pay you, and you are only too willing. How many such jobs have you done
+in this miserable old hole? It is a good thing for you that the police
+have not run you down, and brought spade and shovel with them. Do you
+know what is said of you? Do you think you have kept your windows so
+closely shut that no sound has ever penetrated beyond them? Where do
+you keep your infernal implements?"
+
+He had worked himself into a high passion. His voice was hoarse, loud,
+and rasping. His eyes, bloodshot, started from their sockets. His whole
+frame twitched, and his fingers writhed. But he was in the presence of
+a man infinitely his superior. Two eyes, like those of a snake, burned
+two holes through him. An overmastering, inflexible presence confronted
+one weak and passionate. The result came.
+
+"Sit down," commanded the stern voice of the surgeon.
+
+It was the voice of father to child, of master to slave. The fury left
+the visitor, who, weak and overcome, fell upon a chair.
+
+Meanwhile, a peculiar light had appeared in the old surgeon's face, the
+dawn of a strange idea; a gloomy ray, strayed from the fires of the
+bottomless pit; the baleful light that illumines the way of the
+enthusiast. The old man remained a moment in profound abstraction,
+gleams of eager intelligence bursting momentarily through the cloud of
+sombre meditation that covered his face. Then broke the broad light of
+a deep, impenetrable determination. There was something sinister in it,
+suggesting the sacrifice of something held sacred. After a struggle,
+mind had vanquished conscience.
+
+Taking a piece of paper and a pencil, the surgeon carefully wrote
+answers to questions which he peremptorily addressed to his visitor,
+such as his name, age, place of residence, occupation, and the like,
+and the same inquiries concerning his parents, together with other
+particular matters.
+
+"Does any one know you came to this house?" he asked.
+
+"No."
+
+"You swear it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But your prolonged absence will cause alarm and lead to search."
+
+"I have provided against that."
+
+"How?"
+
+"By depositing a note in the post, as I came along, announcing my
+intention to drown myself."
+
+"The river will be dragged."
+
+"What then?" asked the young man, shrugging his shoulders with careless
+indifference. "Rapid undercurrent, you know. A good many are never
+found."
+
+There was a pause.
+
+"Are you ready?" finally asked the surgeon.
+
+"Perfectly." The answer was cool and determined.
+
+The manner of the surgeon, however, showed much perturbation. The
+pallor that had come into his face at the moment his decision was
+formed became intense. A nervous tremulousness came over his frame.
+Above it all shone the light of enthusiasm.
+
+"Have you a choice in the method?" he asked.
+
+"Yes; extreme anaesthesia."
+
+"With what agent?"
+
+"The surest and quickest."
+
+"Do you desire any--any subsequent disposition?"
+
+"No; only nullification; simply a blowing out, as of a candle in the
+wind; a puff--then darkness, without a trace. A sense of your own
+safety may suggest the method. I leave it to you."
+
+"No delivery to your friends?"
+
+"None whatever."
+
+Another pause.
+
+"Did you say you are quite ready?" asked the surgeon.
+
+"Quite ready."
+
+"And perfectly willing?"
+
+"Anxious."
+
+"Then wait a moment."
+
+With this request the old surgeon rose to his feet and stretched
+himself. Then with the stealthiness of a cat he opened the door and
+peered into the hall, listening intently. There was no sound. He softly
+closed the door and locked it. Then he closed the window-blinds and
+locked them. This done, he opened a door leading into an adjoining
+room, which, though it had no window, was lighted by means of a small
+skylight. The young man watched closely. A strange change had come over
+him. While his determination had not one whit lessened, a look of great
+relief came into his face, displacing the haggard, despairing look of a
+half-hour before. Melancholic then, he was ecstatic now.
+
+The opening of the second door disclosed a curious sight. In the centre
+of the room, directly under the skylight, was an operating-table, such
+as is used by demonstrators of anatomy. A glass case against the wall
+held surgical instruments of every kind. Hanging in another case were
+human skeletons of various sizes. In sealed jars, arranged on shelves,
+were monstrosities of divers kinds preserved in alcohol. There were
+also, among innumerable other articles scattered about the room, a
+manikin, a stuffed cat, a desiccated human heart, plaster casts of
+various parts of the body, numerous charts, and a large assortment of
+drugs and chemicals. There was also a lounge, which could be opened to
+form a couch. The surgeon opened it and moved the operating-table
+aside, giving its place to the lounge.
+
+"Come in," he called to his visitor.
+
+The young man obeyed without the least hesitation.
+
+"Take off your coat."
+
+He complied.
+
+"Lie down on that lounge."
+
+In a moment the young man was stretched at full length, eyeing the
+surgeon. The latter undoubtedly was suffering under great excitement,
+but he did not waver; his movements were sure and quick. Selecting a
+bottle containing a liquid, he carefully measured out a certain
+quantity. While doing this he asked:
+
+"Have you ever had any irregularity of the heart?"
+
+"No."
+
+The answer was prompt, but it was immediately followed by a quizzical
+look in the speaker's face.
+
+"I presume," he added, "you mean by your question that it might be
+dangerous to give me a certain drug. Under the circumstances, however,
+I fail to see any relevancy in your question."
+
+This took the surgeon aback; but he hastened to explain that he did not
+wish to inflict unnecessary pain, and hence his question.
+
+He placed the glass on a stand, approached his visitor, and carefully
+examined his pulse.
+
+"Wonderful!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"It is perfectly normal."
+
+"Because I am wholly resigned. Indeed, it has been long since I knew
+such happiness. It is not active, but infinitely sweet."
+
+"You have no lingering desire to retract?"
+
+"None whatever."
+
+The surgeon went to the stand and returned with the draught.
+
+"Take this," he said, kindly.
+
+The young man partially raised himself and took the glass in his hand.
+He did not show the vibration of a single nerve. He drank the liquid,
+draining the last drop. Then he returned the glass with a smile.
+
+"Thank you," he said; "you are the noblest man that lives. May you
+always prosper and be happy! You are my benefactor, my liberator. Bless
+you, bless you! You reach down from your seat with the gods and lift me
+up into glorious peace and rest. I love you--I love you with all my
+heart!"
+
+These words, spoken earnestly, in a musical, low voice, and accompanied
+with a smile of ineffable tenderness, pierced the old man's heart. A
+suppressed convulsion swept over him; intense anguish wrung his vitals;
+perspiration trickled down his face. The young man continued to smile.
+
+"Ah, it does me good!" said he.
+
+The surgeon, with a strong effort to control himself, sat down upon the
+edge of the lounge and took his visitor's wrist, counting the pulse.
+
+"How long will it take?" the young man asked.
+
+"Ten minutes. Two have passed." The voice was hoarse.
+
+"Ah, only eight minutes more!... Delicious, delicious! I feel it
+coming.... What was that?... Ah, I understand. Music.... Beautiful!...
+Coming, coming.... Is that--that--water?... Trickling? Dripping?
+Doctor!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Thank you,... thank you.... Noble man,... my saviour,... my bene ...
+bene ... factor.... Trickling,... trickling.... Dripping, dripping....
+Doctor!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Doctor!"
+
+"Past hearing," muttered the surgeon.
+
+"Doctor!"
+
+"And blind."
+
+Response was made by a firm grasp of the hand.
+
+"Doctor!"
+
+"And numb."
+
+"Doctor!"
+
+The old man watched and waited.
+
+"Dripping, ... dripping."
+
+The last drop had run. There was a sigh, and nothing more.
+
+The surgeon laid down the hand.
+
+"The first step," he groaned, rising to his feet; then his whole frame
+dilated. "The first step--the most difficult, yet the simplest. A
+providential delivery into my hands of that for which I have hungered
+for forty years. No withdrawal now! It is possible, because scientific;
+rational, but perilous. If I succeed--_if?_ I _shall_ succeed. I _will_
+succeed.... And after success--what?... Yes; what? Publish the plan and
+the result? The gallows.... So long as _it_ shall exist, ... and _I_
+exist, the gallows. That much.... But how account for its presence? Ah,
+that pinches hard! I must trust to the future."
+
+He tore himself from the revery and started.
+
+"I wonder if _she_ heard or saw anything."
+
+With that reflection he cast a glance upon the form on the lounge, and
+then left the room, locked the door, locked also the door of the outer
+room, walked down two or three corridors, penetrated to a remote part
+of the house, and rapped at a door. It was opened by his wife. He, by
+this time, had regained complete mastery over himself.
+
+"I thought I heard some one in the house just now," he said, "but I can
+find no one."
+
+"I heard nothing."
+
+He was greatly relieved.
+
+"I did hear some one knock at the door less than an hour ago," she
+resumed, "and heard you speak, I think. Did he come in?"
+
+"No."
+
+The woman glanced at his feet and seemed perplexed.
+
+"I am almost certain," she said, "that I heard foot-falls in the house,
+and yet I see that you are wearing slippers."
+
+"Oh, I had on my shoes then!"
+
+"That explains it," said the woman, satisfied; "I think the sound you
+heard must have been caused by rats."
+
+"Ah, that was it!" exclaimed the surgeon. Leaving, he closed the door,
+reopened it, and said, "I do not wish to be disturbed to-day." He said
+to himself, as he went down the hall, "All is clear there."
+
+He returned to the room in which his visitor lay, and made a careful
+examination.
+
+"Splendid specimen!" he softly exclaimed; "every organ sound, every
+function perfect; fine, large frame; well-shaped muscles, strong and
+sinewy; capable of wonderful development--if given opportunity.... I
+have no doubt it can be done. Already I have succeeded with a dog,--a
+task less difficult than this, for in a man the cerebrum overlaps the
+cerebellum, which is not the case with a dog. This gives a wide range
+for accident, with but one opportunity in a lifetime! In the cerebrum,
+the intellect and the affections; in the cerebellum, the senses and the
+motor forces; in the medulla oblongata, control of the diaphragm. In
+these two latter lie all the essentials of simple existence. The
+cerebrum is merely an adornment; that is to say, reason and the
+affections are almost purely ornamental. I have already proved it. My
+dog, with its cerebrum removed, was idiotic, but it retained its
+physical senses to a certain degree."
+
+While thus ruminating he made careful preparations. He moved the couch,
+replaced the operating-table under the skylight, selected a number of
+surgical instruments, prepared certain drug-mixtures, and arranged
+water, towels, and all the accessories of a tedious surgical operation.
+Suddenly he burst into laughter.
+
+"Poor fool!" he exclaimed. "Paid me five thousand dollars to kill him!
+Didn't have the courage to snuff his own candle! Singular, singular,
+the queer freaks these madmen have! You thought you were dying, poor
+idiot! Allow me to inform you, sir, that you are as much alive at this
+moment as ever you were in your life. But it will be all the same to
+you. You shall never be more conscious than you are now; and for all
+practical purposes, so far as they concern you, you are dead
+henceforth, though you shall live. By the way, how should you feel
+_without a head_? Ha, ha, ha!... But that's a sorry joke."
+
+He lifted the unconscious form from the lounge and laid it upon the
+operating-table.
+
+                    *      *      *      *      *
+
+About three years afterwards the following conversation was held
+between a captain of police and a detective:
+
+"She may be insane," suggested the captain.
+
+"I think she is."
+
+"And yet you credit her story!"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Singular!"
+
+"Not at all. I myself have learned something."
+
+"What!"
+
+"Much, in one sense; little, in another. You have heard those queer
+stories of her husband. Well, they are all nonsensical--probably with
+one exception. He is generally a harmless old fellow, but peculiar. He
+has performed some wonderful surgical operations. The people in his
+neighborhood are ignorant, and they fear him and wish to be rid of him;
+hence they tell a great many lies about him, and they come to believe
+their own stories. The one important thing that I have learned is that
+he is almost insanely enthusiastic on the subject of surgery--especially
+experimental surgery; and with an enthusiast there is hardly such a
+thing as a scruple. It is this that gives me confidence in the woman's
+story."
+
+"You say she appeared to be frightened?"
+
+"Doubly so--first, she feared that her husband would learn of her
+betrayal of him; second, the discovery itself had terrified her."
+
+"But her report of this discovery is very vague," argued the captain.
+"He conceals everything from her. She is merely guessing."
+
+"In part--yes; in other part--no. She heard the sounds distinctly,
+though she did not see clearly. Horror closed her eyes. What she thinks
+she saw is, I admit, preposterous; but she undoubtedly saw something
+extremely frightful. There are many peculiar little circumstances. He
+has eaten with her but few times during the last three years, and
+nearly always carries his food to his private rooms. She says that he
+either consumes an enormous quantity, throws much away, or is feeding
+something that eats prodigiously. He explains this to her by saying
+that he has animals with which he experiments. This is not true. Again,
+he always keeps the door to these rooms carefully locked; and not only
+that, but he has had the doors doubled and otherwise strengthened, and
+has heavily barred a window that looks from one of the rooms upon a
+dead wall a few feet distant."
+
+"What does it mean?" asked the captain.
+
+"A prison."
+
+"For animals, perhaps."
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"Why!"
+
+"Because, in the first place, cages would have been better; in the
+second place, the security that he has provided is infinitely greater
+than that required for the confinement of ordinary animals."
+
+"All this is easily explained: he has a violent lunatic under
+treatment."
+
+"I had thought of that, but such is not the fact."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"By reasoning thus: He has always refused to treat cases of lunacy; he
+confines himself to surgery; the walls are not padded, for the woman
+has heard sharp blows upon them; no human strength, however morbid,
+could possibly require such resisting strength as has been provided; he
+would not be likely to conceal a lunatic's confinement from the woman;
+no lunatic could consume all the food that he provides; so extremely
+violent mania as these precautions indicate could not continue three
+years; if there is a lunatic in the case it is very probable that there
+should have been communication with some one outside concerning the
+patient, and there has been none; the woman has listened at the keyhole
+and has heard no human voice within; and last, we have heard the
+woman's vague description of what she saw."
+
+"You have destroyed every possible theory," said the captain, deeply
+interested, "and have suggested nothing new."
+
+"Unfortunately, I cannot; but the truth may be very simple, after all.
+The old surgeon is so peculiar that I am prepared to discover something
+remarkable."
+
+"Have you suspicions?"
+
+"I have."
+
+"Of what?"
+
+"A crime. The woman suspects it."
+
+"And betrays it?"
+
+"Certainly, because it is so horrible that her humanity revolts; so
+terrible that her whole nature demands of her that she hand over the
+criminal to the law; so frightful that she is in mortal terror; so
+awful that it has shaken her mind."
+
+"What do you propose to do?" asked the captain.
+
+"Secure evidence. I may need help."
+
+"You shall have all the men you require. Go ahead, but be careful. You
+are on dangerous ground. You would be a mere plaything in the hands of
+that man."
+
+Two days afterwards the detective again sought the captain.
+
+"I have a queer document," he said, exhibiting torn fragments of paper,
+on which there was writing. "The woman stole it and brought it to me.
+She snatched a handful out of a book, getting only a part of each of a
+few leaves."
+
+These fragments, which the men arranged as best they could, were (the
+detective explained) torn by the surgeon's wife from the first volume
+of a number of manuscript books which her husband had written on one
+subject,--the very one that was the cause of her excitement. "About the
+time that he began a certain experiment three years ago," continued the
+detective, "he removed everything from the suite of two rooms
+containing his study and his operating-room. In one of the bookcases
+that he removed to a room across the passage was a drawer, which he
+kept locked, but which he opened from time to time. As is quite common
+with such pieces of furniture, the lock of the drawer is a very poor
+one; and so the woman, while making a thorough search yesterday, found
+a key on her bunch that fitted this lock. She opened the drawer, drew
+out the bottom book of a pile (so that its mutilation would more likely
+escape discovery), saw that it might contain a clew, and tore out a
+handful of the leaves. She had barely replaced the book, locked the
+drawer, and made her escape when her husband appeared. He hardly ever
+allows her to be out of his sight when she is in that part of the
+house."
+
+The fragments read as follows: "... the motory nerves. I had hardly
+dared to hope for such a result, although inductive reasoning had
+convinced me of its possibility, my only doubt having been on the score
+of my lack of skill. Their operation has been only slightly impaired,
+and even this would not have been the case had the operation been
+performed in infancy, before the intellect had sought and obtained
+recognition as an essential part of the whole. Therefore I state, as a
+proved fact, that the cells of the motory nerves have inherent forces
+sufficient to the purposes of those nerves. But hardly so with the
+sensory nerves. These latter are, in fact, an offshoot of the former,
+evolved from them by natural (though not essential) heterogeneity, and
+to a certain extent are dependent on the evolution and expansion of a
+contemporaneous tendency, that developed into mentality, or mental
+function. Both of these latter tendencies, these evolvements, are
+merely refinements of the motory system, and not independent entities;
+that is to say, they are the blossoms of a plant that propagates from
+its roots. The motory system is the first ... nor am I surprised that
+such prodigious muscular energy is developing. It promises yet to
+surpass the wildest dreams of human strength. I account for it thus:
+The powers of assimilation had reached their full development. They had
+formed the habit of doing a certain amount of work. They sent their
+products to all parts of the system. As a result of my operation the
+consumption of these products was reduced fully one-half; that is to
+say, about one-half of the demand for them was withdrawn. But force of
+habit required the production to proceed. This production was strength,
+vitality, energy. Thus double the usual quantity of this strength, this
+energy, was stored in the remaining ... developed a tendency that did
+surprise me. Nature, no longer suffering the distraction of extraneous
+interferences, and at the same time being cut in two (as it were), with
+reference to this case, did not fully adjust herself to the new
+situation, as does a magnet, which, when divided at the point of
+equilibrium, renews itself in its two fragments by investing each with
+opposite poles; but, on the contrary, being severed from laws that
+theretofore had controlled her, and possessing still that mysterious
+tendency to develop into something more potential and complex, she
+blindly (having lost her lantern) pushed her demands for material that
+would secure this development, and as blindly used it when it was given
+her. Hence this marvellous voracity, this insatiable hunger, this
+wonderful ravenousness; and hence also (there being nothing but the
+physical part to receive this vast storing of energy) this strength
+that is becoming almost hourly herculean, almost daily appalling. It is
+becoming a serious ... narrow escape to-day. By some means, while I was
+absent, it unscrewed the stopper of the silver feeding-pipe (which I
+have already herein termed 'the artificial mouth'), and, in one of its
+curious antics, allowed all the chyle to escape from its stomach
+through the tube. Its hunger then became intense--I may say furious. I
+placed my hands upon it to push it into a chair, when, feeling my
+touch, it caught me, clasped me around the neck, and would have crushed
+me to death instantly had I not slipped from its powerful grasp. Thus I
+always had to be on my guard. I have provided the screw stopper with a
+spring catch, and ... usually docile when not hungry; slow and heavy in
+its movements, which are, of course, purely unconscious; any apparent
+excitement in movement being due to local irregularities in the
+blood-supply of the cerebellum, which, if I did not have it enclosed in
+a silver case that is immovable, I should expose and ..."
+
+The captain looked at the detective with a puzzled air.
+
+"I don't understand it at all," said he.
+
+"Nor I," agreed the detective.
+
+"What do you propose to do?"
+
+"Make a raid."
+
+"Do you want a man?"
+
+"Three. The strongest men in your district."
+
+"Why, the surgeon is old and weak!"
+
+"Nevertheless, I want three strong men; and for that matter, prudence
+really advises me to take twenty."
+
+                    *      *      *      *      *
+
+At one o'clock the next morning a cautious, scratching sound might have
+been heard in the ceiling of the surgeon's operating-room. Shortly
+afterwards the skylight sash was carefully raised and laid aside. A man
+peered into the opening. Nothing could be heard.
+
+"That is singular," thought the detective.
+
+He cautiously lowered himself to the floor by a rope, and then stood
+for some moments listening intently. There was a dead silence. He shot
+the slide of a dark-lantern, and rapidly swept the room with the light.
+It was bare, with the exception of a strong iron staple and ring,
+screwed to the floor in the centre of the room, with a heavy chain
+attached. The detective then turned his attention to the outer room; it
+was perfectly bare. He was deeply perplexed. Returning to the inner
+room, he called softly to the men to descend. While they were thus
+occupied he re-entered the outer room and examined the door. A glance
+sufficed. It was kept closed by a spring attachment, and was locked
+with a strong spring-lock that could be drawn from the inside.
+
+"The bird has just flown," mused the detective. "A singular accident!
+The discovery and proper use of this thumb-bolt might not have happened
+once in fifty years, if my theory is correct."
+
+By this time the men were behind him. He noiselessly drew the
+spring-bolt, opened the door, and looked out into the hall. He heard a
+peculiar sound. It was as though a gigantic lobster was floundering and
+scrambling in some distant part of the old house. Accompanying this
+sound was a loud, whistling breathing, and frequent rasping gasps.
+
+These sounds were heard by still another person--the surgeon's wife;
+for they originated very near her rooms, which were a considerable
+distance from her husband's. She had been sleeping lightly, tortured by
+fear and harassed by frightful dreams. The conspiracy into which she
+had recently entered, for the destruction of her husband, was a source
+of great anxiety. She constantly suffered from the most gloomy
+forebodings, and lived in an atmosphere of terror. Added to the natural
+horror of her situation were those countless sources of fear which a
+fright-shaken mind creates and then magnifies. She was, indeed, in a
+pitiable state, having been driven first by terror to desperation, and
+then to madness.
+
+Startled thus out of fitful slumber by the noise at her door, she
+sprang from her bed to the floor, every terror that lurked in her
+acutely tense mind and diseased imagination starting up and almost
+overwhelming her. The idea of flight--one of the strongest of all
+instincts--seized upon her, and she ran to the door, beyond all control
+of reason. She drew the bolt and flung the door wide open, and then
+fled wildly down the passage, the appalling hissing and rasping gurgle
+ringing in her ears apparently with a thousandfold intensity. But the
+passage was in absolute darkness, and she had not taken a half-dozen
+steps when she tripped upon an unseen object on the floor. She fell
+headlong upon it, encountering in it a large, soft, warm substance that
+writhed and squirmed, and from which came the sounds that had awakened
+her. Instantly realizing her situation, she uttered a shriek such as
+only an unnamable terror can inspire. But hardly had her cry started
+the echoes in the empty corridor when it was suddenly stifled. Two
+prodigious arms had closed upon her and crushed the life out of her.
+
+The cry performed the office of directing the detective and his
+assistants, and it also aroused the old surgeon, who occupied rooms
+between the officers and the object of their search. The cry of agony
+pierced him to the marrow, and a realization of the cause of it burst
+upon him with frightful force.
+
+"It has come at last!" he gasped, springing from his bed.
+
+Snatching from a table a dimly-burning lamp and a long knife which he
+had kept at hand for three years, he dashed into the corridor. The four
+officers had already started forward, but when they saw him emerge they
+halted in silence. In that moment of stillness the surgeon paused to
+listen. He heard the hissing sound and the clumsy floundering of a
+bulky, living object in the direction of his wife's apartments. It
+evidently was advancing towards him. A turn in the corridor shut out
+the view. He turned up the light, which revealed a ghastly pallor in
+his face.
+
+"Wife!" he called.
+
+There was no response. He hurriedly advanced, the four men following
+quietly. He turned the angle of the corridor, and ran so rapidly that
+by the time the officers had come in sight of him again he was twenty
+steps away. He ran past a huge, shapeless object, sprawling, crawling,
+and floundering along, and arrived at the body of his wife.
+
+He gave one horrified glance at her face, and staggered away. Then a
+fury seized him. Clutching the knife firmly, and holding the lamp
+aloft, he sprang toward the ungainly object in the corridor. It was
+then that the officers, still advancing cautiously, saw a little more
+clearly, though still indistinctly, the object of the surgeon's fury,
+and the cause of the look of unutterable anguish in his face. The
+hideous sight caused them to pause. They saw what appeared to be a man,
+yet evidently was not a man; huge, awkward, shapeless; a squirming,
+lurching, stumbling mass, completely naked. It raised its broad
+shoulders. _It had no head_, but instead of it a small metallic ball
+surmounting its massive neck.
+
+"Devil!" exclaimed the surgeon, raising the knife.
+
+"Hold, there!" commanded a stern voice.
+
+The surgeon quickly raised his eyes and saw the four officers, and for
+a moment fear paralyzed his arm.
+
+"The police!" he gasped.
+
+Then, with a look of redoubled fury, he sent the knife to the hilt into
+the squirming mass before him. The wounded monster sprang to its feet
+and wildly threw its arms about, meanwhile emitting fearful sounds from
+a silver tube through which it breathed. The surgeon aimed another
+blow, but never gave it. In his blind fury he lost his caution, and was
+caught in an iron grasp. The struggling threw the lamp some feet toward
+the officers, and it fell to the floor, shattered to pieces.
+Simultaneously with the crash the oil took fire, and the corridor was
+filled with flame. The officers could not approach. Before them was the
+spreading blaze, and secure behind it were two forms struggling in a
+fearful embrace. They heard cries and gasps, and saw the gleaming of a
+knife.
+
+The wood in the house was old and dry. It took fire at once, and the
+flames spread with great rapidity. The four officers turned and fled,
+barely escaping with their lives. In an hour nothing remained of the
+mysterious old house and its inmates but a blackened ruin.
+
+
+
+
+An Original Revenge
+
+
+On a certain day I received a letter from a private soldier, named
+Gratmar, attached to the garrison of San Francisco. I had known him but
+slightly, the acquaintance having come about through his interest in
+some stories which I had published, and which he had a way of calling
+"psychological studies." He was a dreamy, romantic, fine-grained lad,
+proud as a tiger-lily and sensitive as a blue-bell. What mad caprice
+led him to join the army I never knew; but I did know that there he was
+wretchedly out of place, and I foresaw that his rude and repellant
+environment would make of him in time a deserter, or a suicide, or a
+murderer. The letter at first seemed a wild outpouring of despair, for
+it informed me that before it should reach me its author would be dead
+by his own hand. But when I had read farther I understood its spirit,
+and realized how coolly formed a scheme it disclosed and how terrible
+its purport was intended to be. The worst of the contents was the
+information that a certain officer (whom he named) had driven him to
+the deed, and that _he was committing suicide for the sole purpose of
+gaining thereby the power to revenge himself upon his enemy_! I
+learned afterward that the officer had received a similar letter.
+
+This was so puzzling that I sat down to reflect upon the young man's
+peculiarities. He had always seemed somewhat uncanny, and had I proved
+more sympathetic he doubtless would have gone farther and told me of
+certain problems which he professed to have solved concerning the life
+beyond this. One thing that he had said came back vividly: "If I could
+only overcome that purely gross and animal love of life that makes us
+all shun death, I would kill myself, for I know how far more powerful I
+could be in spirit than in flesh."
+
+The manner of the suicide was startling, and that was what might have
+been expected from this odd character. Evidently scorning the flummery
+of funerals, he had gone into a little canyon near the military
+reservation and blown himself into a million fragments with dynamite,
+so that all of him that was ever found was some minute particles of
+flesh and bone.
+
+I kept the letter a secret, for I desired to observe the officer
+without rousing his suspicion of my purpose; it would be an admirable
+test of a dead man's power and deliberate intention to haunt the
+living, for so I interpreted the letter. The officer thus to be
+punished was an oldish man, short, apoplectic, overbearing, and
+irascible. Generally he was kind to most of the men in a way; but he
+was gross and mean, and that explained sufficiently his harsh treatment
+of young Gratmar, whom he could not understand, and his efforts to
+break that flighty young man's spirit.
+
+Not very long after the suicide certain modifications in the officer's
+conduct became apparent to my watchful oversight. His choler, though
+none the less sporadic, developed a quality which had some of the
+characteristics of senility; and yet he was still in his prime, and
+passed for a sound man. He was a bachelor, and had lived always alone;
+but presently he began to shirk solitude at night and court it in
+daylight. His brother-officers chaffed him, and thereupon he would
+laugh in rather a forced and silly fashion, quite different from the
+ordinary way with him, and would sometimes, on these occasions, blush
+so violently that his face would become almost purple. His soldierly
+alertness and sternness relaxed surprisingly at some times and at
+others were exaggerated into unnecessary acerbity, his conduct in this
+regard suggesting that of a drunken man who knows that he is drunk and
+who now and then makes a brave effort to appear sober. All these
+things, and more, indicating some mental strain, or some dreadful
+apprehension, or perhaps something worse than either, were observed
+partly by me and partly by an intelligent officer whose watch upon the
+man had been secured by me.
+
+To be more particular, the afflicted man was observed often to start
+suddenly and in alarm, look quickly round, and make some unintelligent
+monosyllabic answer, seemingly to an inaudible question that no visible
+person had asked. He acquired the reputation, too, of having taken
+lately to nightmares, for in the middle of the night he would shriek in
+the most dreadful fashion, alarming his roommates prodigiously. After
+these attacks he would sit up in bed, his ruddy face devoid of color,
+his eyes glassy and shining, his breathing broken with gasps, and his
+body wet with a cold perspiration.
+
+Knowledge of these developments and transformations spread throughout
+the garrison; but the few (mostly women) who dared to express sympathy
+or suggest a tonic encountered so violent rebuffs that they blessed
+Heaven for escaping alive from his word-volleys. Even the garrison
+surgeon, who had a kindly manner, and the commanding general, who was
+constructed on dignified and impressive lines, received little thanks
+for their solicitude. Clearly the doughty old officer, who had fought
+like a bulldog in two wars and a hundred battles, was suffering deeply
+from some undiscoverable malady.
+
+The next extraordinary thing which he did was to visit one evening (not
+so clandestinely as to escape my watch) a spirit medium--extraordinary,
+because he always had scoffed at the idea of spirit communications. I
+saw him as he was leaving the medium's rooms. His face was purple, his
+eyes were bulging and terrified, and he tottered in his walk. A
+policeman, seeing his distress, advanced to assist him; whereupon the
+soldier hoarsely begged,--
+
+"Call a hack."
+
+Into it he fell, and asked to be driven to his quarters. I hastily
+ascended to the medium's rooms, and found her lying unconscious on the
+floor. Soon, with my aid, she recalled her wits, but her conscious
+state was even more alarming than the other. At first she regarded me
+with terror, and cried,--
+
+"It is horrible for you to hound him so!"
+
+I assured her that I was hounding no one.
+
+"Oh, I thought you were the spir--I mean--I--oh, but it was standing
+exactly where you are!" she exclaimed.
+
+"I suppose so," I agreed, "but you can see that I am not the young
+man's spirit. However, I am familiar with this whole case, madam, and
+if I can be of any service in the matter I should be glad if you would
+inform me. I am aware that our friend is persecuted by a spirit, which
+visits him frequently, and I am positive that through you it has
+informed him that the end is not far away, and that our elderly
+friend's death will assume some terrible form. Is there anything that I
+can do to avert the tragedy?"
+
+The woman stared at me in a horrified silence. "How did you know these
+things?" she gasped.
+
+"That is immaterial. When will the tragedy occur? Can I prevent it?"
+
+"Yes, yes!" she exclaimed. "It will happen this very night! But no
+earthly power can prevent it!"
+
+She came close to me and looked at me with an expression of the most
+acute terror.
+
+"Merciful God! what will become of me? He is to be murdered, you
+understand--murdered in cold blood by a spirit--and he knows it and
+_I know it_! If he is spared long enough he will tell them at the
+garrison, and they will all think that I had something to do with it!
+Oh, this is terrible, terrible, and yet I dare not say a word in
+advance--nobody there would believe in what the spirits say, and they
+will think that I had a hand in the murder!" The woman's agony was
+pitiful.
+
+"Be assured that he will say nothing about it," I said; "and if you
+keep your tongue from wagging you need fear nothing."
+
+With this and a few other hurried words of comfort, I soothed her and
+hastened away.
+
+For I had interesting work on hand: it is not often that one may be in
+at such a murder as that! I ran to a livery stable, secured a swift
+horse, mounted him, and spurred furiously for the reservation. The
+hack, with its generous start, had gone far on its way, but my horse
+was nimble, and his legs felt the pricking of my eagerness. A few miles
+of this furious pursuit brought me within sight of the hack just as it
+was crossing a dark ravine near the reservation. As I came nearer I
+imagined that the hack swayed somewhat, and that a fleeing shadow
+escaped from it into the tree-banked further wall of the ravine. I
+certainly was not in error with regard to the swaying, for it had
+roused the dull notice of the driver. I saw him turn, with an air of
+alarm in his action, and then pull up with a heavy swing upon the
+reins. At this moment I dashed up and halted.
+
+"Anything the matter?" I asked.
+
+"I don't know," he answered, getting down. "I felt the carriage sway,
+and I see that the door's wide open. Guess my load thought he'd sobered
+up enough to get out and walk, without troubling me or his
+pocket-book."
+
+Meanwhile I too had alighted; then struck a match, and by its light we
+discovered, through the open door, the "load" huddled confusedly on the
+floor of the hack, face upward, his chin compressed upon his breast by
+his leaning against the further door, and looking altogether vulgar,
+misshapen, and miserably unlike a soldier. He neither moved nor spoke
+when we called. We hastily clambered within and lifted him upon the
+seat, but his head rolled about with an awful looseness and freedom,
+and another match disclosed a ghastly dead face and wide eyes that
+stared horribly at nothing.
+
+"You would better drive the body to headquarters," I said.
+
+Instead of following, I cantered back to town, housed my horse, and
+went straightway to bed; and this will prove to be the first
+information that I was the "mysterious man on a horse," whom the
+coroner could never find.
+
+About a year afterwards I received the following letter (which is
+observed to be in fair English) from Stockholm, Sweden:
+
+    "Dear Sir,--For some years I have been reading your remarkable
+    psychological studies with great interest, and I take the liberty
+    to suggest a theme for your able pen. I have just found in a
+    library here a newspaper, dated about a year ago, in which is an
+    account of the mysterious death of a military officer in a hack."
+
+Then followed the particulars, as I have already detailed them, and the
+very theme of post-mortem revenge which I have adopted in this setting
+out of facts. Some persons may regard the coincidence between my
+correspondent's suggestion and my private and exclusive knowledge as
+being a very remarkable thing; but there are likely even more wonderful
+things in the world, and at none of them do I longer marvel. More
+extraordinary still is his suggestion that in the dynamite explosion a
+dog or a quarter of beef might as well have been employed as a
+suicide-minded man; that, in short, the man may not have killed himself
+at all, but might have employed a presumption of such an occurrence to
+render more effective a physical persecution ending in murder by the
+living man who had posed as a spirit. The letter even suggested an
+arrangement with a spirit medium, and I regard that also as a queer
+thing.
+
+The declared purpose of this letter was to suggest material for another
+of my "psychological studies;" but I submit that the whole affair is of
+too grave a character for treatment in the levity of fiction. And if
+the facts and coincidences should prove less puzzling to others than to
+me, a praiseworthy service might be done to humanity by the
+presentation of whatever solution a better understanding than mine
+might evolve.
+
+The only remaining disclosure which I am prepared now to make is that
+my correspondent signed himself "Ramtarg,"--an odd-sounding name, but
+for all I know it may be respectable in Sweden. And yet there is
+something about the name that haunts me unceasingly, much as does some
+strange dream which we know we have dreamt and yet which it is
+impossible to remember.
+
+
+
+
+Two Singular Men
+
+
+The first of these was a powerful Italian, topped with a dense brush of
+rebellious black hair. The circumstances leading up to his employment
+in the Great Oriental Dime Museum as the "Marvellous Tuft-nosed Wild
+Man, Hoolagaloo, captured on the Island of Milo, in the AEgean Sea,
+after a desperate struggle," were these:
+
+He had been a wood-chopper, possessed of prodigious strength and a
+violent temper. One day he and a companion in the mountains fell out
+and fought. The Italian then had to walk twenty miles to find a
+surgeon, being in great need of his services. When he presented himself
+to the surgeon his face was heavily bandaged with blood-soaked cloths.
+He began to fumble in his pockets, and his face betrayed deep anxiety
+when he failed to find what he sought.
+
+"What is the matter?" asked the surgeon, "and what are you seeking?"
+
+The man uncovered his mouth and in a voice like the sound of an
+ophicleide, answered:
+
+"Mina nosa."
+
+"Your nose!"
+
+"Aha. T'ought I bring 'im, butta no find."
+
+"Brought your nose in your pocket!"
+
+"Dunno--may be losta. Fella fighta me; cut offa da nose."
+
+The surgeon assured him that the severed nose would have been useless.
+
+"But I wanta da nose!" exclaimed the man, in despair.
+
+The surgeon said that he could make a new one, and the man appeared
+greatly relieved in mind. A removal of the bandages disclosed the fact
+that a considerable part of the nose was gone. The surgeon then
+proceeded to perform the familiar rhinoplastic operation, which
+consists in making a V-shaped incision through the skin of the forehead
+immediately above the nose, loosening it, and bringing it down with a
+half-turn, to keep the cuticle outward, and covering the nose-stump
+with it. In preparing for this he made an interesting discovery. The
+place for the man's nose was long and his forehead low, so that in
+order to secure sufficient length for the flap he had to encroach on
+the hair-covered scalp. There was no help for it. With some misgivings
+the surgeon shaved the hair and then performed the operation with
+admirable success.
+
+His fears, however, in time were realized. All around the end of the
+nose there appeared a broad line of black hair. When the skin was in
+its normal position above the forehead the hair on the upper edge of it
+had grown downward; but as the skin was inverted in its new position
+the hair, of course, grew upward, curving towards the eyes. It gave the
+man a grotesque and hideous appearance, and this made him furious. The
+surgeon, having a quick wit and a regard for the integrity of his
+bones, introduced him to Signor Castellani, proprietor of the Great
+Oriental Dime Museum, and that enterprising worthy immediately engaged
+him. And thus it was that the man became the greatest curiosity in the
+world.
+
+Among his companions in the museum were the Severed Lady, who
+apparently was nonexistent below the waist; the Remarkable Tattooed
+Lady, who had been rescued from Chinese pirates in the Coral Sea, and
+some others. To them the tuft-nosed man was known as Bat--surmised to
+be a contraction of Bartolommeo.
+
+The other singular man with which this narrative is concerned was a
+small, delicate, mild-mannered, impecunious fellow, who made a living
+by writing for the press. He and Castellani were friends, and he was on
+excellent terms with the "freaks." But as this narrative is to tell the
+little secrets of the museum, it should be explained that the real
+object of the young man's deepest admiration was Mademoiselle Zoe, the
+Severed Lady, billed also as the Wonderful French Phenomenon. She was
+known in private life as Muggie (formerly Muggy, and probably
+originally Margaret), and she was the only daughter and special pride
+of Castellani. Zoe was rosy-cheeked, pretty, and had a freckled nose.
+The impecunious writer was named Sampey. Sampey secretly loved Zoe.
+
+As the Severed Lady, Mademoiselle Zoe's professional duties were
+monotonous. They gave her abundant opportunities for observation and
+reflection, and, being young and of the feminine sex, she dreamed.
+
+What she observed most was eyes. These were the eyes that looked at her
+as she rested in her little swing when on exhibition. Her gilt booth
+was very popular, for she was pretty, and some kind-hearted visitors at
+the show pitied the poor thing because she ended at the waist! But far
+from being depressed by the apparent absence of all below the lower
+edge of her gold belt with its glittering diamond buckle, she was
+cheerful, and now and then would sing a little song. Her sweetness of
+manner and voice and the plumpness of her rounded arms and shoulders
+were what had won Sampey's heart and made him all the more zealous in
+his useful occupation of devising the names which Castellani bestowed
+on his freaks.
+
+Hoolagaloo had suffered a turning of the head by his good fortune. He
+imagined that because he was monstrous he was great. That made him
+arrogant and presumptuous. He, too, loved Zoe. Thus it came about that
+a rivalry was established between Sampey and the Wild Man of Milo. How
+was it with Zoe? Which loved she?--or loved she either? Observing and
+reflecting, she dreamed. As it was eyes only that she saw, it was of
+eyes only that she dreamed.
+
+"Ah," sighed this innocent girl, "that I could see in reality the eyes
+of my dreams! So many, many eyes stare at me in my booth, and yet the
+eyes of my dreams come not! Blue eyes, brown eyes, black eyes, hazel
+eyes, gray eyes, all of every shade, but not yet have come the eyes I
+so long to see! Those which do come are commonplace; their owners are
+commonplace--just ordinary mortals. I'm sure that princes, knights, and
+heroes _must_ have the eyes that beam on me as I sleep. I'm sure,
+indeed, that such eyes will come in time, and that by such a sign I
+shall know my hero, my master, my love!"
+
+She cautiously asked the Wild Man of Milo about it one day, but his
+answer was a coarse guffaw; then, seeing that he had made a mistake, he
+kissed her. The hair of his tufted nose thus got into her pretty blue
+eyes, and she shuddered.
+
+Then she went to Sampey, who was wise, cool, and politic. He listened,
+amazed, but attentive. The opportunity of his life had come. When he
+had gathered up his dismayed and scattered wits, he gravely answered:
+
+"Muggie, these eyes that appear in your dreams--is it a particular
+color or a certain expression which they have?"
+
+"Color," she answered.
+
+"What color?"
+
+"A soft, pale, limpid amber."
+
+She said it so innocently, so earnestly, so sweetly, that he could
+doubt neither her sincerity nor her sanity. Thus the crisis had fallen
+upon him and had nearly crushed him.
+
+Nevertheless, he set his wits at work. Pondering, analyzing, ransacking
+every nook in the warehouse of his mental resources, he fought bravely
+with despair. Presently a bright ray of intelligence, descended Heaven
+knows whence, swept across his thought-pinched face. This bright beam,
+growing more and more effulgent, mounting higher and higher till it
+illuminated all his faculties, finally lighted up his way to become one
+of the two singular men of this narrative.
+
+"I see," he said, trying to veil the glow of triumph in his face, "that
+you have not wholly mastered the problem of the eyes. True, it is only
+heroes that have amber eyes. But such eyes are a badge of heroism sent
+by heaven; and, though a man may not have been heroic in any outward
+sense, when the essence of true heroism is breathed into him his eyes,
+without his knowledge of the fact, may assume the amber hue of your
+dreams. Sometimes, in the development of the spirit of heroism, this
+color is only transient; in time it may become permanent. Muggie, these
+dreams indicate your destiny. You should marry none but a hero, and
+when he comes you will know him by his amber eyes." With this Sampey
+sighed, for Muggie was looking earnestly into his gray eyes.
+
+Had he thus, in blind self-sacrifice to the whim of a foolish girl,
+cast himself into a pit? If so, what meant his light step and cheerful
+smile as soon as she was out of sight?
+
+Mademoiselle Zoe, the Severed Lady, swung in half-person and sang her
+little song on a night a week or two afterwards, just as she had sung
+and swung many a night before. Wondering eyes of every kind were
+staring at her, and presently her foolish little heart gave a great
+bound. There before her, regarding her with infinite tenderness, was a
+divine pair of soft, pale, limpid amber eyes! (A woman in the audience
+happened also to see this extraordinary spectacle, and it frightened
+her so badly that she fainted, thinking she had seen a corpse.)
+
+The amber eyes instantly disappeared, along with their owner, one
+Sampey. A thumpy little heart in a round, plump body knew that it was
+he; knew, therefore, that her destiny was come, and, most extraordinary
+of all, in the shape of her good father's literary bureau! Yet what
+shock there was next day, when the hero of her dreams came to her with
+his ordinary pale-gray eyes, blurred somewhat and inclined to humidity!
+
+"Sampey!" she exclaimed in dismay, tumbled thus rudely from the clouds.
+
+"Muggie!"
+
+"Your eyes last night--then you were a hero; but to-day----"
+
+"A hero!" innocently echoed Sampey.
+
+"Why, yes! Last night you had amber eyes--such beautiful eyes--the
+hero-eyes of my dreams!"
+
+"My dear child, you certainly were dreaming."
+
+"Oh, no! I saw them! My heart jumped so! I knew you--I knew you--and
+your eyes were amber!"
+
+Sampey smiled sadly and a little complacently, and with great modesty
+said:
+
+"I can't doubt you, my dear child, but I assure you that I was
+unconscious of my amber eyes. I wish that I could feel at liberty to
+confess to you that lately I have had strange whisperings of heroism in
+my soul--but that would be boasting, and true heroism is always modest.
+Still, I ought not to be surprised that you discovered the actual
+presence before I was aware even of its existence; but such, indeed, my
+dear, is the peculiarity of the true hero--he is ever unaware of his
+own heroism." He took her hand languishingly and squeezed it. She
+blushed and fled.
+
+Signor Castellani, besides being wealthy, was a man of business. His
+daughter should marry a man who had money sufficient to insure his
+worth. With perspicacity rare in a man, he had observed that the two
+singular men of this narrative admired his daughter. Now, Bat, being a
+freak, was making money rapidly, while Sampey was only a poor literary
+bureau! Castellani felt the need of a partner. Why should not a partner
+be a son-in-law? Surely Bat was much more desirable than Sampey!
+
+Sampey was wise and Bat was foolish. On the other hand, Bat was
+courageous and Sampey was timid. Bat had the courage of a brute. Sampey
+knew that there were certain ways of frightening brave brutes--he had
+even seen a prize-fighter join a church. He prepared for Bat.
+
+One day he entered the museum between exhibitions and sought the Wild
+Man of Milo. That worthy was leisurely smoking a cigarette in a quiet
+corner, and was making the smoke curl up gracefully over the hairy tuft
+on his nose. Sampey was paler than usual and a little nervous, for the
+business of his visit was tinged with hazard. Bat, who happened to feel
+good-natured, gave the first greeting.
+
+"Hey!" he called out.
+
+Sampey went straight to him.
+
+"You lika da show, ha, Samp? You come effery day. Gooda place, ha,
+Samp?"
+
+"A very good place, Bat," quietly answered Sampey, who tried hard to
+appear indifferent as he fumbled nervously in his pocket.
+
+"Signor Castellani, he biga mon, reecha mon, gooda mon. You like 'im?"
+
+"Very much." Sampey was acting strangely.
+
+Bat's eyes twinkled a little dangerously.
+
+"You lika da gal, too, ha, Samp?"
+
+"The--ah--the tattooed woman? Yes, very well, indeed."
+
+"Ha, you sly Samp! I spik about da leetle ploompa gal--da Mug."
+
+"Oh! Muggie? Castellani's daughter?"
+
+"Ha."
+
+"Well, I don't know her so very well."
+
+"You don' know da Mugga?" Bat's look was becoming dangerously fierce.
+He straightened himself up from his lounging posture, and his big
+muscles swelled. "You don' know da Mugga! You tink I no see. You loafa
+da Mugga! You wanta marry her! You tink 'er reecha, pooty. You miseraba
+sneaka!" Here Bat, who had worked himself into a fury, swore an
+eloquent Italian oath.
+
+Sampey's time had come. The two men were alone,--Bat furious and
+desperate with jealousy; Sampey fearful, but determined; brutality
+against wit, strength against cunning, fury against patience, a bulldog
+matched with a mink, a game-cock pitted against an owl.
+
+Sampey pretended to have dropped something accidentally. He stooped to
+pick it up, and some seconds elapsed before he pretended to have found
+it. While he was searching for it he approached nearer to Bat, and when
+he straightened up he brought his face very close to Bat's, and
+suddenly raised his eyes and stared steadily into those of the Wild Man
+of Milo.
+
+Bat meanwhile had kept up an insulting tirade, his evident purpose
+being to force the gentle writer into a fight. But when Sampey raised
+his eyes and fixed them in a peculiar stare, Bat regarded him a moment
+in speechless wonder, and then sprang back with a livid face, and in
+terror cried out:
+
+"Santa Maria!"
+
+For half a minute he gazed, horrified, at the sight which confronted
+him, his mouth open, his eyes staring--fascinated, terror-stricken, and
+aghast. Sampey, the gentle, usually dove-eyed, was now transformed.
+Those were not the accustomed gray eyes with which Bat was familiar,
+nor yet the limpid, amber eyes which had set poor Zoe's heart bounding;
+Sampey gazed upon his victim with eyes that were a fierce and
+insurrectionary scarlet!
+
+Bat, contumelious now no longer, dashed wildly away. He spread his
+wonderful tale. Castellani, whom it finally reached, frowned, thinking
+that Bat was drunk. The Tattooed Lady laughed outright. Zoe wondered
+and was troubled; but that night, just before the curtain of her gilt
+booth was drawn at the close of the exhibition, there stood her hero
+Sampey, gazing tenderly at her with eyes of a soft, pale, limpid amber.
+And she slept soundly after that.
+
+When Sampey visited the museum next day, he was eyed with considerable
+curiosity by the freaks. Castellani asked him directly what Bat meant
+by his stories. Sampey had expected this question, and was ready for
+it. After binding the showman to everlasting secrecy, he said:
+
+"I have made a great discovery, but it is impossible for me to go into
+all its details. It must be sufficient at present for me to say that
+after many years of scientific experiment I have learned the secret of
+changing the color of my eyes at will."
+
+He said this very simply, as though unconscious of announcing one of
+the most extraordinary things to which the ages have given birth.
+
+But Castellani was a study. Some great shock, resembling apoplexy,
+seemed to have invaded his system. Being a shrewd business man, he
+presently recovered his composure, and then in the most indifferent
+manner remarked that a person who could change the color of his eyes at
+will ought to be able, perhaps, if he should get started right, to make
+a little money, possibly, out of the accomplishment; and then he
+offered Sampey forty dollars a week to pose as a freak in the Great
+Oriental Dime Museum. Sampey, who knew that the Wild Man of Milo's
+salary was two hundred dollars a week (which, although large, was well
+earned, seeing that everybody had to pull the tuft on his nose to be
+sure that it grew there), asked time to consider the splendid offer,
+which to him was a fortune.
+
+There was the certainty of losing Zoe when she should learn that his
+amber eyes were not really heroic. He went to a retired showman and
+asked him what salaries might be commanded by a man with a hair-tufted
+nose and a man who could change the color of his eyes to any other
+color at will. This showman answered:
+
+"I've seen Castellani's man with the tuft. He gets two hundred dollars
+a week. That is pretty high. If you can bring me a man who can change
+the color of his eyes at will to any other color, I will pay him a
+thousand dollars a week and start in the business again."
+
+Sampey slept not a wink that night.
+
+Meanwhile a change had taken place in Zoe: she had suddenly become more
+charming than ever. Her gentleness and sweetness had become conspicuously
+augmented, and she was so kind and sweet-mannered to all, including the
+Wild Man of Milo (whom she had formerly avoided through instinctive
+fear), that Bat took greater heart and swore to win her, though he
+might have to wade through oceans of Sampey blood. Mark this: Stake not
+too much on a woman's condescension to _you_; it may come through love
+for another.
+
+Zoe was innocent, honest, and confiding. Innocence measures the
+strength of faith. The charm of faith is its absurdity. Zoe believed in
+Sampey.
+
+Sampey, grown surprisingly bold and self-reliant, named his terms to
+Castellani--a half-interest in the business--and Castellani, swear and
+bully and bluster as he might, must accept. This made Sampey a rich man
+at once. Castellani, exceedingly gracious and friendly after the
+signing of the compact, proposed a quiet supper in his private
+apartments in celebration of the new arrangement, and presently he and
+Zoe and Sampey were enjoying a very choice meal. Zoe was dazzlingly
+radiant and pretty, but a certain strange constraint sat between her
+and Sampey. Once, when she dropped her napkin and Sampey picked it up,
+his hand accidentally touched one of her daintily slippered feet, and
+his blushes were painful to see.
+
+While they were thus engaged, Bat, without ceremony, burst in upon
+them, his face aglow and his eyes flashing triumph. He carried in his
+hand a small box, which he rudely thrust under their noses. When Sampey
+saw it he turned deathly pale and shrank back, powerless to move or
+speak.
+
+"I ketcha da scound!" exclaimed Bat, shaking his finger in the cowering
+Sampey's face. "I watch 'im; I ketcha da scound! He play you da dirtee
+tr-r-icks!"
+
+The Wild Man of Milo placed the box on the table and raised the lid.
+Within appeared a number of curious, small, cup-shaped trinkets of
+opaque white glass, each marked in the centre with an annular band of
+color surrounding a centre of clear glass, the range of colors being
+great, and the trinkets arranged in pairs according to color. There
+were also a vial labelled "cocaine" and a small camel's-hair brush.
+
+"You looka me," resumed Hoolagaloo, greatly excited. "I maka mine eye
+changa colah, lika da scounda Samp."
+
+With that he dipped the brush into the vial and applied it to his eyes.
+Then he picked up two of the curious little glass cups, and slipped
+them, one at a time, over his eyeballs and under his eyelids, where
+they fitted snugly. They were artificial eyes which Sampey had had made
+to cover his natural eyeballs on occasion. Bat struck a mock-tragic
+attitude and hissed:
+
+"Diavolo!"
+
+By a strange accident he had picked out two which were not mates. One
+of his eyes was a soft, pale, limpid amber and the other a fierce and
+insurrectionary red. These, with his tufted nose and his tragic
+attitude, gave him an appearance so grotesque and hideous that Zoe,
+after springing to her feet and throwing her arms wildly aloft, fell in
+a dead faint into Sampey's arms.
+
+Bat gloated over his rival; Castellani was dumfounded. Presently
+Sampey's nerve returned with his wits.
+
+"Well," he remarked, contemptuously, drawing Zoe closer and holding her
+with a tender solicitude--"well, what of it?"
+
+His insolence enraged Hoolagaloo. "H--hwat of eet! Santa Maria! Da
+scound! Ha, ha! Da gal no marry you now!"
+
+Sampey deliberately moved Zoe so that he might reach his watch, and
+after looking calmly at it a moment he said:
+
+"Muggie and I have been married just thirty hours."
+
+The announcement stunned the Wild Man. Castellani himself had a hard
+mental struggle to realize the situation, and then, with his accustomed
+equanimity and his old-time air of authority, he said:
+
+"Well, phat is oll the row aboot, annyhow? D'ye want to shpile th'
+mon's thrick, Misther Bat? An' thin, Misther Bat, it's a domned gude
+wan, it is; an' more'n thot, me gintlemanly son-in-law is me partner,
+too, Misther Bat, I'd have ye know, an' he's got aut'ority in this
+show."
+
+That finished the Wild Man of Milo. He staggered out, shaved his nose,
+bought an axe, and fled to the mountains to chop wood again, leaving
+the Mysterious Man with the Spectre Eyes to become the happiest husband
+and the most prosperous freak and showman in the world.
+
+
+
+
+The Faithful Amulet
+
+
+A quaint old rogue, who called himself Rabaya, the Mystic, was one of
+the many extraordinary characters of that odd corner of San Francisco
+known as the Latin Quarter. His business was the selling of charms and
+amulets, and his generally harmless practices received an impressive
+aspect from his Hindu parentage, his great age, his small, wizened
+frame, his deeply wrinkled face, his outlandish dress, and the barbaric
+fittings of his den.
+
+One of his most constant customers was James Freeman, the
+half-piratical owner and skipper of the "Blue Crane." This queer little
+barkentine, of light tonnage but wonderful sailing qualities, is
+remembered in every port between Sitka and Callao. All sorts of strange
+stories are told of her exploits, but these mostly were manufactured by
+superstitious and highly imaginative sailors, who commonly demonstrate
+the natural affinity existing between idleness and lying. It has been
+said not only that she engaged in smuggling, piracy, and "blackbirding"
+(which is kidnapping Gilbert Islanders and selling them to the
+coffee-planters of Central America), but that she maintained special
+relations with Satan, founded on the power of mysterious charms which
+her skipper was supposed to have procured from some mysterious source
+and was known to employ on occasion. Beyond the information which his
+manifests and clearance papers divulged, nothing of his supposed shady
+operations could be learned either from him or his crew; for his
+sailors, like him, were a strangely silent lot--all sharp, keen-eyed
+young fellows who never drank and who kept to themselves when in port.
+An uncommon circumstance was that there were never any vacancies in the
+crew, except one that happened as the result of Freeman's last visit to
+Rabaya, and it came about in the following remarkable manner:
+
+Freeman, like most other men who follow the sea, was superstitious, and
+he ascribed his fair luck to the charms which he secretly procured from
+Rabaya. It is now known that he visited the mystic whenever he came to
+the port of San Francisco, and there are some to-day who believe that
+Rabaya had an interest in the supposed buccaneering enterprises of the
+"Blue Crane."
+
+Among the most intelligent and active of the "Blue Crane's" crew was a
+Malay known to his mates as the Flying Devil. This had come to him by
+reason of his extraordinary agility. No monkey could have been more
+active than he in the rigging; he could make flying leaps with
+astonishing ease. He could not have been more than twenty-five years
+old, but he had the shrivelled appearance of an old man, and was small
+and lean. His face was smooth-shaved and wrinkled, his eyes deep-set
+and intensely black and brilliant. His mouth was his most forbidding
+feature. It was large, and the thin lips were drawn tightly over large
+and protruding teeth, its aspect being prognathous and menacing.
+Although quiet and not given to laughter, at times he would smile, and
+then the expression of his face was such as to give even Freeman a
+sensation of impending danger.
+
+It was never clearly known what was the real mission of the "Blue
+Crane" when she sailed the last time from San Francisco. Some supposed
+that she intended to loot a sunken vessel of her treasure; others that
+the enterprise was one of simple piracy, involving the killing of the
+crew and the scuttling of the ship in mid-ocean; others that a certain
+large consignment of opium, for which the customs authorities were on
+the lookout, was likely about to be smuggled into some port of Puget
+Sound. In any event, the business ahead must have been important, for
+it is now known that in order to ensure its success Freeman bought an
+uncommonly expensive and potent charm from Rabaya.
+
+When Freeman went to buy this charm he failed to notice that the Flying
+Devil was slyly following him; neither he nor the half-blind
+charm-seller observed the Malay slip into Rabaya's den and witness the
+matter that there went forward. The intruder must have heard something
+that stirred every evil instinct in him. Rabaya (whom I could hardly be
+persuaded to believe under oath) years afterwards told me that the
+charm which he sold to Freeman was one of extraordinary virtue. For
+many generations it had been in the family of one of India's proudest
+rajahs, and until it was stolen the arms of England could not prevail
+over that part of the far East. If borne by a person of lofty character
+(as he solemnly informed me he believed Freeman to be) it would never
+fail to bring the highest good fortune; for, although the amulet was
+laden with evil powers as well as good, a worthy person could resist
+the evil and employ only the good. Contrariwise, the amulet in the
+hands of an evil person would be a most potent and dangerous engine of
+harm.
+
+It was a small and very old trinket, made of copper and representing a
+serpent twined grotesquely about a human heart; through the heart a
+dagger was thrust, and the loop for holding the suspending string was
+formed by one of the coils of the snake. The charm had a wonderful
+history, which must be reserved for a future story; the sum of it being
+that as it had been as often in the hands of bad men as of good, it had
+wrought as many calamities as blessings. It was perfectly safe and
+useful--so Rabaya soberly told me--in the hands of such a man as
+Freeman.
+
+Now, as no one knows the soundings and breadth of his own wickedness,
+the Flying Devil (who, Rabaya explained, must have overheard the
+conversation attending its transference to Freeman) reflected only that
+if he could secure possession of the charm his fortune would be made;
+as he could not procure it by other means, he must steal it. Moreover,
+he must have seen the price--five thousand dollars in gold--which
+Freeman paid for the trinket; and that alone was sufficient to move the
+Malay's cupidity. At all events, it is known that he set himself to
+steal the charm and desert from the barkentine.
+
+From this point on to the catastrophe my information is somewhat hazy.
+I cannot say, for instance, just how the theft was committed, but it is
+certain that Freeman was not aware of it until a considerable time had
+passed. What did concern him particularly was the absence of the Malay
+when the barkentine was weighing anchor and giving a line for a tow out
+to sea. The Malay was a valuable sailor; to replace him adequately was
+clearly so impossible a task that Freeman decided, after a profitless
+and delaying search of hours, to leave port without him or another in
+his place. It was with a heavy heart, somewhat lightened by a confident
+assumption that the amulet was safe in his possession, that Freeman
+headed down the channel for the Golden Gate.
+
+Meanwhile, the Flying Devil was having strange adventures. In a hastily
+arranged disguise, the principal feature of which was a gentleman's
+street dress, in which he might pass careless scrutiny as a thrifty
+Japanese awkwardly trying to adapt himself to the customs of his
+environment, he emerged from a water-front lodging-house of the poorer
+sort, and ascended leisurely to the summit of Telegraph Hill, in order
+to make a careful survey of the city from that prominent height; for it
+was needful that he know how best to escape. From that alluring
+eminence he saw not only a great part of the city, but also nearly the
+whole of the bay of San Francisco and the shores, towns, and mountains
+lying beyond. His first particular attention was given to the "Blue
+Crane," upon which he looked nearly straight down as she rolled gently
+at her moorings at the foot of Lombard Street. Two miles to the west he
+saw the trees which conceal the soldiers' barracks, and the commanding
+general's residence on the high promontory known as Black Point, and
+these invited him to seek concealment in their shadows until the advent
+of night would enable him to work his way down the peninsula of San
+Francisco to the distant blue mountains of San Mateo. Surmising that
+Freeman would make a search for him, and that it would be confined to
+the docks and their near vicinity, he imagined that it would not be a
+difficult matter to escape.
+
+After getting his bearings the Malay was in the act of descending the
+hill by its northern flank, when he observed a stranger leaning against
+the parapet crowning the hill. The man seemed to be watching him. Not
+reflecting that his somewhat singular appearance might have accounted
+for the scrutiny, his suspicions were roused; he feared, albeit
+wrongly, that he was followed, for the stranger had come up soon after
+him. Assuming an air of indifference, he strolled about until he was
+very near the stranger, and then with the swiftness and ferocity of a
+tiger he sprang and slipped a knife-blade between the man's ribs. The
+stranger sank with a groan, and the Malay fled down the hill.
+
+It was a curious circumstance that the man fell in front of one of the
+openings which neglect had permitted the rains to wash underneath the
+parapet. He floundered as some dying men will, and these movements
+caused him to work his body through the opening. That done, he started
+rolling down the steep eastern declivity, the speed of his flight
+increasing with every bound. Many cottages are perched precariously on
+this precipitous slope. Mrs. Armour, a resident of one of them, was
+sitting in a rear room near the window, sewing, when she was amazed to
+see a man flying through the sash close beside her. He came with so
+great violence that he tore through a thin partition into an adjoining
+room and landed in a shapeless heap against the opposite wall. Mrs.
+Armour screamed for help. A great commotion ensued, but it was some
+time before the flight of the body was connected with a murder on the
+parapet. Nevertheless, the police were active, and presently a dozen of
+them were upon the broad trail which the murderer had left in his
+flight down the hill.
+
+In a short time the Malay found himself in the lumber-piles of the
+northern water-front. Thence, after gathering himself together, he
+walked leisurely westward in the rear of the wire-works, and traversed
+a little sand-beach where mothers and nurses had children out for an
+airing. The desperate spirit of perversity which possessed the man (and
+which Rabaya afterwards explained by the possession of the amulet),
+made reckless by a belief that the charm which he carried would
+preserve him from all menaces, led him to steal a small hand-satchel
+that lay on the beach near a well-dressed woman. He walked away with
+it, and then opened it and was rejoiced to find that it contained some
+money and fine jewelry. At this juncture one of the children, who had
+observed the Malay's theft, called the woman's attention to him. She
+started in pursuit, raising a loud outcry, which emptied the adjacent
+drinking-saloons of a pursuing crowd.
+
+The Malay leaped forward with ample ability to outstrip all his
+pursuers, but just as he arrived in front of a large swimming
+establishment a bullet from a policeman's pistol brought him to his
+knees. The crowd quickly pressed around him. The criminal staggered to
+his feet, made a fierce dash at a man who stood in his way, and sank a
+good knife into his body. Then he bounded away, fled swiftly past a
+narrow beach where swimming-clubs have their houses, and disappeared in
+the ruins of a large old building that lay at the foot of a sandy bluff
+on the water's edge. He was trailed a short distance within the ruins
+by a thin stream of blood which he left, and there he was lost. It was
+supposed that he had escaped to the old woollen-mill on Black Point.
+
+As in all other cases where a mob pursues a fleeing criminal, the
+search was wild and disorderly, so that if the Malay had left any trail
+beyond the ruins it would have been obliterated by trampling feet. Only
+one policeman was in the crowd, but others, summoned by telephone, were
+rapidly approaching from all directions. Unintelligent and
+contradictory rumors bewildered the police for a time, but they formed
+a long picket line covering an arc which stretched from North Beach to
+the new gas-works far beyond Black Point.
+
+It was about this time that Captain Freeman cast off and started out to
+sea.
+
+The summit of Black Point is crowned with the tall eucalyptus-trees
+which the Flying Devil had seen from Telegraph Hill. A high fence,
+which encloses the general's house, extends along the bluff of Black
+Point, near the edge. A sentry paced in front of the gate to the
+grounds, keeping out all who had not provided themselves with a pass.
+The sentry had seen the crowd gathering towards the east, and in the
+distance he noticed the brass buttons of the police glistening in the
+western sunlight. He wondered what could be afoot.
+
+While he was thus engaged he observed a small, dark, wiry man emerging
+upon the bluff from the direction of the woollen-mill at its eastern
+base. The stranger made straight for the gate.
+
+"You can't go in there," said the soldier, "unless you have a pass."
+
+"Da w'at?" asked the stranger.
+
+"A pass," repeated the sentry; and then, seeing that the man was a
+foreigner and imperfectly acquainted with English, he made signs to
+explain his remark, still carrying his bayonet-tipped rifle at
+shoulder-arms. The stranger, whose sharp gleam of eye gave the soldier
+an odd sensation, nodded and smiled.
+
+"Oh!" said he; "I have."
+
+He thrust his hand into his side-pocket, advancing meanwhile, and
+sending a swift glance about. In the next moment the soldier found
+himself sinking to the ground with an open jugular.
+
+The Malay slipped within the grounds and disappeared in the shrubbery.
+It was nearly an hour afterwards that the soldier's body was
+discovered, and, the crowd of police and citizens arriving, it became
+known to the garrison that the desperate criminal was immediately at
+hand. The bugle sounded and the soldiers came tumbling out of barracks.
+Then began a search of every corner of the post.
+
+It is likely that a feeling of relief came to many a stout heart when
+it was announced that the man had escaped by water, and was now being
+swiftly carried down the channel towards the Golden Gate by the ebb
+tide. He was clearly seen in a small boat, keeping such a course as was
+possible by means of a rude board in place of oars. His escape had
+occurred thus: Upon entering the grounds he ran along the eastern
+fence, behind the shrubbery, to a transverse fence separating the
+garden from the rear premises. He leaped the fence, and then found
+himself face to face with a large and formidable mastiff. He killed the
+brute in a strange and bold manner--by choking. There was evidence of a
+long and fearful struggle between man and brute. The apparent reason
+for the man's failure to use the knife was the first necessity of
+choking the dog into silence and the subsequent need of employing both
+hands to maintain that advantage.
+
+After disposing of the dog the Flying Devil, wounded though he was,
+performed a feat worthy of his _sobriquet_; he leaped the rear fence.
+At the foot of the bluff he found a boat chained to a post sunk into
+the sand. There was no way to release the boat except by digging up the
+post. This the Malay did with his hands for tools, and then threw the
+post into the boat, and pushed off with a board that he found on the
+beach. Then he swung out into the tide, and it was some minutes
+afterwards that he was discovered from the fort; and then he was so far
+away, and there was so much doubt of his identity, that the gunners
+hesitated for a time to fire upon him. Then two dramatic things
+occurred.
+
+Meeting the drifting boat was a heavy bank of fog which was rolling in
+through the Golden Gate. The murderer was heading straight for it,
+paddling vigorously with the tide. If once the fog should enfold him he
+would be lost in the Pacific or killed on the rocks almost beyond a
+peradventure, and yet he was heading for such a fate with all the
+strength that he possessed. This was what first convinced his pursuers
+that he was the man whom they sought--none other would have pursued so
+desperate a course. At the same time a marine glass brought conviction,
+and the order was given to open fire.
+
+A six-pound brass cannon roared, and splinters flew from the boat; but
+its occupant, with tantalizing bravado, rose and waved his hand
+defiantly. The six-pounder then sent out a percussion shell, and just
+as the frail boat was entering the fog it was blown into a thousand
+fragments. Some of the observers swore positively that they saw the
+Malay floundering in the water a moment after the boat was destroyed
+and before he was engulfed by the fog, but this was deemed incredible.
+In a short time the order of the post had been restored and the police
+had taken themselves away.
+
+The other dramatic occurrence must remain largely a matter of surmise,
+but only because the evidence is so strange.
+
+The great steel gun employed at the fort to announce the setting of the
+sun thrust its black muzzle into the fog. Had it been fired with shot
+or shell its missile would have struck the hills on the opposite side
+of the channel. But the gun was never so loaded; blank cartridges were
+sufficient for its function. The bore of the piece was of so generous a
+diameter that a child or small man might have crept into it had such a
+feat ever been thought of or dared.
+
+There are three circumstances indicating that the fleeing man escaped
+alive from the wreck of his boat, and that he made a safe landing in
+the fog on the treacherous rocks at the foot of the bluff crowned by
+the guns. The first of these was suggested by the gunner who fired the
+piece that day, two or three hours after the destruction of the fleeing
+man's boat; and even that would have received no attention under
+ordinary circumstances, and, in fact, did receive none at all until
+long afterwards, when Rabaya reported that he had been visited by
+Freeman, who told him of the two other strange circumstances. The
+gunner related that when he fired the cannon that day he discovered
+that it recoiled in a most unaccountable manner, as though it had been
+loaded with something in addition to a blank cartridge. But he had
+loaded the gun himself, and was positive that he had placed no shot in
+the barrel. At that time he was utterly unable to account for the
+recoil.
+
+The second strange occurrence came to my knowledge through Rabaya.
+Freeman told him that as he was towing out to sea that afternoon he
+encountered a heavy fog immediately after turning from the bay into the
+channel. The tow-boat had to proceed very slowly. When his vessel had
+arrived at a point opposite Black Point he heard the sunset gun, and
+immediately afterwards strange particles began to fall upon the
+barkentine, which was exactly in the vertical plane of the gun's range.
+He had sailed many waters and had seen many kinds of showers, but this
+was different from all others. Fragments of a sticky substance fell all
+over the deck, and clung to the sails and spars where they touched
+them. They seemed to be finely shredded flesh, mixed with particles of
+shattered bone, with a strip of cloth here and there; and the particles
+that looked like flesh were of a blackish red and smelled of powder.
+The visitation gave the skipper and his crew a "creepy" sensation, and
+awed them somewhat--in short, they were depressed by the strange
+circumstance to such an extent that Captain Freeman had to employ stern
+measures to keep down a mutiny, so fearful were the men of going to sea
+under that terrible omen.
+
+The third circumstance is equally singular. As Freeman was pacing the
+deck and talking reassuringly to his crew his foot struck a small,
+grimy, metallic object lying on the deck. He picked it up and
+discovered that it, too, bore the odor of burned powder. When he had
+cleaned it he was amazed to discover that it was the amulet which he
+had bought that very day from Rabaya. He could not believe it was the
+same until he had made a search and found that it had been stolen from
+his pocket.
+
+It needs only to be added that the Flying Devil was never seen
+afterwards.
+
+                    *      *      *      *      *
+
+Electrotyped and Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company,
+Philadelphia, U. S. A.
+
+
+
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+End of Project Gutenberg's The Ape, the Idiot & Other People, by W. C. Morrow
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