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diff --git a/44113-0.txt b/44113-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..db699b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/44113-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7464 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44113 *** + +[Illustration: "HE SPUN ROUND WITH A SCREAM AND FELL UPON HIS BACK." + +(_See page 11._)] + + + + + + THE STRAND MAGAZINE. + + Vol. xxvii. JANUARY, 1904. No. 157. + + + + +THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. + +By A. CONAN DOYLE. + +Copyright, 1904, by A. Conan Doyle in the United States of America. + + +_IV.--The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist._ + +From the years 1894 to 1901 inclusive Mr. Sherlock Holmes was a very +busy man. It is safe to say that there was no public case of any +difficulty in which he was not consulted during those eight years, and +there were hundreds of private cases, some of them of the most +intricate, and extraordinary character, in which he played a prominent +part. Many startling successes and a few unavoidable failures were the +outcome of this long period of continuous work. As I have preserved very +full notes of all these cases, and was myself personally engaged in many +of them, it may be imagined that it is no easy task to know which I +should select to lay before the public. I shall, however, preserve my +former rule, and give the preference to those cases which derive their +interest not so much from the brutality of the crime as from the +ingenuity and dramatic quality of the solution. For this reason I will +now lay before the reader the facts connected with Miss Violet Smith, +the solitary cyclist of Charlington, and the curious sequel of our +investigation, which culminated in unexpected tragedy. It is true that +the circumstances did not admit of any striking illustration of those +powers for which my friend was famous, but there were some points about +the case which made it stand out in those long records of crime from +which I gather the material for these little narratives. + +On referring to my note-book for the year 1895 I find that it was upon +Saturday, the 23rd of April, that we first heard of Miss Violet Smith. +Her visit was, I remember, extremely unwelcome to Holmes, for he was +immersed at the moment in a very abstruse and complicated problem +concerning the peculiar persecution to which John Vincent Harden, the +well-known tobacco millionaire, had been subjected. My friend, who loved +above all things precision and concentration of thought, resented +anything which distracted his attention from the matter in hand. And yet +without a harshness which was foreign to his nature it was impossible to +refuse to listen to the story of the young and beautiful woman, tall, +graceful, and queenly, who presented herself at Baker Street late in the +evening and implored his assistance and advice. It was vain to urge that +his time was already fully occupied, for the young lady had come with +the determination to tell her story, and it was evident that nothing +short of force could get her out of the room until she had done so. With +a resigned air and a somewhat weary smile, Holmes begged the beautiful +intruder to take a seat and to inform us what it was that was troubling +her. + +"At least it cannot be your health," said he, as his keen eyes darted +over her; "so ardent a bicyclist must be full of energy." + +She glanced down in surprise at her own feet, and I observed the slight +roughening of the side of the sole caused by the friction of the edge of +the pedal. + +"Yes, I bicycle a good deal, Mr. Holmes, and that has something to do +with my visit to you to-day." + +My friend took the lady's ungloved hand and examined it with as close an +attention and as little sentiment as a scientist would show to a +specimen. + +"You will excuse me, I am sure. It is my business," said he, as he +dropped it. "I nearly fell into the error of supposing that you were +typewriting. Of course, it is obvious that it is music. You observe the +spatulate finger-end, Watson, which is common to both professions? There +is a spirituality about the face, however"--he gently turned it towards +the light--"which the typewriter does not generate. This lady is a +musician." + +[Illustration: "MY FRIEND TOOK THE LADY'S UNGLOVED HAND AND EXAMINED +IT."] + +"Yes, Mr. Holmes, I teach music." + +"In the country, I presume, from your complexion." + +"Yes, sir; near Farnham, on the borders of Surrey." + +"A beautiful neighbourhood and full of the most interesting +associations. You remember, Watson, that it was near there that we took +Archie Stamford, the forger. Now, Miss Violet, what has happened to you +near Farnham, on the borders of Surrey?" + +The young lady, with great clearness and composure, made the following +curious statement:-- + +"My father is dead, Mr. Holmes. He was James Smith, who conducted the +orchestra at the old Imperial Theatre. My mother and I were left without +a relation in the world except one uncle, Ralph Smith, who went to +Africa twenty-five years ago, and we have never had a word from him +since. When father died we were left very poor, but one day we were told +that there was an advertisement in the _Times_ inquiring for our +whereabouts. You can imagine how excited we were, for we thought that +someone had left us a fortune. We went at once to the lawyer whose name +was given in the paper. There we met two gentlemen, Mr. Carruthers and +Mr. Woodley, who were home on a visit from South Africa. They said that +my uncle was a friend of theirs, that he died some months before in +great poverty in Johannesburg, and that he had asked them with his last +breath to hunt up his relations and see that they were in no want. It +seemed strange to us that Uncle Ralph, who took no notice of us when he +was alive, should be so careful to look after us when he was dead; but +Mr. Carruthers explained that the reason was that my uncle had just +heard of the death of his brother, and so felt responsible for our +fate." + +"Excuse me," said Holmes; "when was this interview?" + +"Last December, four months ago." + +"Pray proceed." + +"Mr. Woodley seemed to me to be a most odious person. He was for ever +making eyes at me--a coarse, puffy-faced, red-moustached young man, with +his hair plastered down on each side of his forehead. I thought that he +was perfectly hateful--and I was sure that Cyril would not wish me to +know such a person." + +"Oh, Cyril is his name!" said Holmes, smiling. + +The young lady blushed and laughed. + +"Yes, Mr. Holmes; Cyril Morton, an electrical engineer, and we hope to +be married at the end of the summer. Dear me, how _did_ I get talking +about him? What I wished to say was that Mr. Woodley was perfectly +odious, but that Mr. Carruthers, who was a much older man, was more +agreeable. He was a dark, sallow, clean-shaven, silent person; but he +had polite manners and a pleasant smile. He inquired how we were left, +and on finding that we were very poor he suggested that I should come +and teach music to his only daughter, aged ten. I said that I did not +like to leave my mother, on which he suggested that I should go home to +her every week-end, and he offered me a hundred a year, which was +certainly splendid pay. So it ended by my accepting, and I went down to +Chiltern Grange, about six miles from Farnham. Mr. Carruthers was a +widower, but he had engaged a lady-housekeeper, a very respectable, +elderly person, called Mrs. Dixon, to look after his establishment. The +child was a dear, and everything promised well. Mr. Carruthers was very +kind and very musical, and we had most pleasant evenings together. Every +week-end I went home to my mother in town. + +"The first flaw in my happiness was the arrival of the red-moustached +Mr. Woodley. He came for a visit of a week, and oh, it seemed three +months to me! He was a dreadful person, a bully to everyone else, but to +me something infinitely worse. He made odious love to me, boasted of his +wealth, said that if I married him I would have the finest diamonds in +London, and finally, when I would have nothing to do with him, he seized +me in his arms one day after dinner--he was hideously strong--and he +swore that he would not let me go until I had kissed him. Mr. Carruthers +came in and tore him off from me, on which he turned upon his own host, +knocking him down and cutting his face open. That was the end of his +visit, as you can imagine. Mr. Carruthers apologized to me next day, and +assured me that I should never be exposed to such an insult again. I +have not seen Mr. Woodley since. + +"And now, Mr. Holmes, I come at last to the special thing which has +caused me to ask your advice to-day. You must know that every Saturday +forenoon I ride on my bicycle to Farnham Station in order to get the +12.22 to town. The road from Chiltern Grange is a lonely one, and at one +spot it is particularly so, for it lies for over a mile between +Charlington Heath upon one side and the woods which lie round +Charlington Hall upon the other. You could not find a more lonely tract +of road anywhere, and it is quite rare to meet so much as a cart, or a +peasant, until you reach the high road near Crooksbury Hill. Two weeks +ago I was passing this place when I chanced to look back over my +shoulder, and about two hundred yards behind me I saw a man, also on a +bicycle. He seemed to be a middle-aged man, with a short, dark beard. I +looked back before I reached Farnham, but the man was gone, so I thought +no more about it. But you can imagine how surprised I was, Mr. Holmes, +when on my return on the Monday I saw the same man on the same stretch +of road. My astonishment was increased when the incident occurred again, +exactly as before, on the following Saturday and Monday. He always kept +his distance and did not molest me in any way, but still it certainly +was very odd. I mentioned it to Mr. Carruthers, who seemed interested in +what I said, and told me that he had ordered a horse and trap, so that +in future I should not pass over these lonely roads without some +companion. + +"The horse and trap were to have come this week, but for some reason +they were not delivered and again I had to cycle to the station. That +was this morning. You can think that I looked out when I came to +Charlington Heath, and there, sure enough, was the man, exactly as he +had been the two weeks before. He always kept so far from me that I +could not clearly see his face, but it was certainly someone whom I did +not know. He was dressed in a dark suit with a cloth cap. The only thing +about his face that I could clearly see was his dark beard. To-day I was +not alarmed, but I was filled with curiosity, and I determined to find +out who he was and what he wanted. I slowed down my machine, but he +slowed down his. Then I stopped altogether, but he stopped also. Then I +laid a trap for him. There is a sharp turning of the road, and I +pedalled very quickly round this, and then I stopped and waited. I +expected him to shoot round and pass me before he could stop. But he +never appeared. Then I went back and looked round the corner. I could +see a mile of road, but he was not on it. To make it the more +extraordinary, there was no side road at this point down which he could +have gone." + +Holmes chuckled and rubbed his hands. "This case certainly presents some +features of its own," said he. "How much time elapsed between your +turning the corner and your discovery that the road was clear?" + +"Two or three minutes." + +"Then he could not have retreated down the road, and you say that there +are no side roads?" + +[Illustration: "I SLOWED DOWN MY MACHINE."] + +"None." + +"Then he certainly took a footpath on one side or the other." + +"It could not have been on the side of the heath or I should have seen +him." + +"So by the process of exclusion we arrive at the fact that he made his +way towards Charlington Hall, which, as I understand, is situated in its +own grounds on one side of the road. Anything else?" + +"Nothing, Mr. Holmes, save that I was so perplexed that I felt I should +not be happy until I had seen you and had your advice." + +Holmes sat in silence for some little time. + +"Where is the gentleman to whom you are engaged?" he asked, at last. + +"He is in the Midland Electrical Company, at Coventry." + +"He would not pay you a surprise visit?" + +"Oh, Mr. Holmes! As if I should not know him!" + +"Have you had any other admirers?" + +"Several before I knew Cyril." + +"And since?" + +"There was this dreadful man, Woodley, if you can call him an admirer." + +"No one else?" + +Our fair client seemed a little confused. + +"Who was he?" asked Holmes. + +"Oh, it may be a mere fancy of mine; but it has seemed to me sometimes +that my employer, Mr. Carruthers, takes a great deal of interest in me. +We are thrown rather together. I play his accompaniments in the evening. +He has never said anything. He is a perfect gentleman. But a girl always +knows." + +"Ha!" Holmes looked grave. "What does he do for a living?" + +"He is a rich man." + +"No carriages or horses?" + +"Well, at least he is fairly well-to-do. But he goes into the City two +or three times a week. He is deeply interested in South African gold +shares." + +"You will let me know any fresh development, Miss Smith. I am very busy +just now, but I will find time to make some inquiries into your case. In +the meantime take no step without letting me know. Good-bye, and I trust +that we shall have nothing but good news from you." + +"It is part of the settled order of Nature that such a girl should have +followers," said Holmes, as he pulled at his meditative pipe, "but for +choice not on bicycles in lonely country roads. Some secretive lover, +beyond all doubt. But there are curious and suggestive details about the +case, Watson." + +"That he should appear only at that point?" + +"Exactly. Our first effort must be to find who are the tenants of +Charlington Hall. Then, again, how about the connection between +Carruthers and Woodley, since they appear to be men of such a different +type? How came they _both_ to be so keen upon looking up Ralph Smith's +relations? One more point. What sort of a _ménage_ is it which pays +double the market price for a governess, but does not keep a horse +although six miles from the station? Odd, Watson--very odd!" + +"You will go down?" + +"No, my dear fellow, _you_ will go down. This may be some trifling +intrigue, and I cannot break my other important research for the sake of +it. On Monday you will arrive early at Farnham; you will conceal +yourself near Charlington Heath; you will observe these facts for +yourself, and act as your own judgment advises. Then, having inquired as +to the occupants of the Hall, you will come back to me and report. And +now, Watson, not another word of the matter until we have a few solid +stepping-stones on which we may hope to get across to our solution." + +We had ascertained from the lady that she went down upon the Monday by +the train which leaves Waterloo at 9.50, so I started early and caught +the 9.13. At Farnham Station I had no difficulty in being directed to +Charlington Heath. It was impossible to mistake the scene of the young +lady's adventure, for the road runs between the open heath on one side +and an old yew hedge upon the other, surrounding a park which is studded +with magnificent trees. There was a main gateway of lichen-studded +stone, each side pillar surmounted by mouldering heraldic emblems; but +besides this central carriage drive I observed several points where +there were gaps in the hedge and paths leading through them. The house +was invisible from the road, but the surroundings all spoke of gloom and +decay. + +The heath was covered with golden patches of flowering gorse, gleaming +magnificently in the light of the bright spring sunshine. Behind one of +these clumps I took up my position, so as to command both the gateway of +the Hall and a long stretch of the road upon either side. It had been +deserted when I left it, but now I saw a cyclist riding down it from the +opposite direction to that in which I had come. He was clad in a dark +suit, and I saw that he had a black beard. On reaching the end of the +Charlington grounds he sprang from his machine and led it through a gap +in the hedge, disappearing from my view. + +A quarter of an hour passed and then a second cyclist appeared. This +time it was the young lady coming from the station. I saw her look about +her as she came to the Charlington hedge. An instant later the man +emerged from his hiding-place, sprang upon his cycle, and followed her. +In all the broad landscape those were the only moving figures, the +graceful girl sitting very straight upon her machine, and the man behind +her bending low over his handle-bar, with a curiously furtive suggestion +in every movement. She looked back at him and slowed her pace. He slowed +also. She stopped. He at once stopped too, keeping two hundred yards +behind her. Her next movement was as unexpected as it was spirited. She +suddenly whisked her wheels round and dashed straight at him! He was as +quick as she, however, and darted off in desperate flight. Presently she +came back up the road again, her head haughtily in the air, not deigning +to take any further notice of her silent attendant. He had turned also, +and still kept his distance until the curve of the road hid them from my +sight. + +I remained in my hiding-place, and it was well that I did so, for +presently the man reappeared cycling slowly back. He turned in at the +Hall gates and dismounted from his machine. For some few minutes I could +see him standing among the trees. His hands were raised and he seemed to +be settling his necktie. Then he mounted his cycle and rode away from me +down the drive towards the Hall. I ran across the heath and peered +through the trees. Far away I could catch glimpses of the old grey +building with its bristling Tudor chimneys, but the drive ran through a +dense shrubbery, and I saw no more of my man. + +However, it seemed to me that I had done a fairly good morning's work, +and I walked back in high spirits to Farnham. The local house agent +could tell me nothing about Charlington Hall, and referred me to a +well-known firm in Pall Mall. There I halted on my way home, and met +with courtesy from the representative. No, I could not have Charlington +Hall for the summer. I was just too late. It had been let about a month +ago. Mr. Williamson was the name of the tenant. He was a respectable +elderly gentleman. The polite agent was afraid he could say no more, as +the affairs of his clients were not matters which he could discuss. + +Mr. Sherlock Holmes listened with attention to the long report which I +was able to present to him that evening, but it did not elicit that word +of curt praise which I had hoped for and should have valued. On the +contrary, his austere face was even more severe than usual as he +commented upon the things that I had done and the things that I had not. + +"Your hiding-place, my dear Watson, was very faulty. You should have +been behind the hedge; then you would have had a close view of this +interesting person. As it is you were some hundreds of yards away, and +can tell me even less than Miss Smith. She thinks she does not know the +man; I am convinced she does. Why, otherwise, should he be so +desperately anxious that she should not get so near him as to see his +features? You describe him as bending over the handle-bar. Concealment +again, you see. You really have done remarkably badly. He returns to the +house and you want to find out who he is. You come to a London +house-agent!" + +"What should I have done?" I cried, with some heat. + +"Gone to the nearest public-house. That is the centre of country gossip. +They would have told you every name, from the master to the +scullery-maid. Williamson! It conveys nothing to my mind. If he is an +elderly man he is not this active cyclist who sprints away from that +athletic young lady's pursuit. What have we gained by your expedition? +The knowledge that the girl's story is true. I never doubted it. That +there is a connection between the cyclist and the Hall. I never doubted +that either. That the Hall is tenanted by Williamson. Who's the better +for that? Well, well, my dear sir, don't look so depressed. We can do +little more until next Saturday, and in the meantime I may make one or +two inquiries myself." + +Next morning we had a note from Miss Smith, recounting shortly and +accurately the very incidents which I had seen, but the pith of the +letter lay in the postscript:-- + +"I am sure that you will respect my confidence, Mr. Holmes, when I tell +you that my place here has become difficult owing to the fact that my +employer has proposed marriage to me. I am convinced that his feelings +are most deep and most honourable. At the same time my promise is, of +course, given. He took my refusal very seriously, but also very gently. +You can understand, however, that the situation is a little strained." + +"Our young friend seems to be getting into deep waters," said Holmes, +thoughtfully, as he finished the letter. "The case certainly presents +more features of interest and more possibility of development than I had +originally thought. I should be none the worse for a quiet, peaceful day +in the country, and I am inclined to run down this afternoon and test +one or two theories which I have formed." + +Holmes's quiet day in the country had a singular termination, for he +arrived at Baker Street late in the evening with a cut lip and a +discoloured lump upon his forehead, besides a general air of dissipation +which would have made his own person the fitting object of a Scotland +Yard investigation. He was immensely tickled by his own adventures, and +laughed heartily as he recounted them. + +"I get so little active exercise that it is always a treat," said he. +"You are aware that I have some proficiency in the good old British +sport of boxing. Occasionally it is of service. To-day, for example, I +should have come to very ignominious grief without it." + +I begged him to tell me what had occurred. + +"I found that country pub which I had already recommended to your +notice, and there I made my discreet inquiries. I was in the bar, and a +garrulous landlord was giving me all that I wanted. Williamson is a +white-bearded man, and he lives alone with a small staff of servants at +the Hall. There is some rumour that he is or has been a clergyman; but +one or two incidents of his short residence at the Hall struck me as +peculiarly unecclesiastical. I have already made some inquiries at a +clerical agency, and they tell me that there _was_ a man of that name in +orders whose career has been a singularly dark one. The landlord further +informed me that there are usually week-end visitors--'a warm lot, +sir'--at the Hall, and especially one gentleman with a red moustache, +Mr. Woodley by name, who was always there. We had got as far as this +when who should walk in but the gentleman himself, who had been drinking +his beer in the tap-room and had heard the whole conversation. Who was +I? What did I want? What did I mean by asking questions? He had a fine +flow of language, and his adjectives were very vigorous. He ended a +string of abuse by a vicious back-hander which I failed to entirely +avoid. The next few minutes were delicious. It was a straight left +against a slogging ruffian. I emerged as you see me. Mr. Woodley went +home in a cart. So ended my country trip, and it must be confessed that, +however enjoyable, my day on the Surrey border has not been much more +profitable than your own." + +The Thursday brought us another letter from our client. + +"You will not be surprised, Mr. Holmes," said she, "to hear that I am +leaving Mr. Carruthers's employment. Even the high pay cannot reconcile +me to the discomforts of my situation. On Saturday I come up to town and +I do not intend to return. Mr. Carruthers has got a trap, and so the +dangers of the lonely road, if there ever were any dangers, are now +over. + +[Illustration: "A STRAIGHT LEFT AGAINST A SLOGGING RUFFIAN."] + +"As to the special cause of my leaving, it is not merely the strained +situation with Mr. Carruthers, but it is the reappearance of that odious +man, Mr. Woodley. He was always hideous, but he looks more awful than +ever now, for he appears to have had an accident and he is much +disfigured. I saw him out of the window, but I am glad to say I did not +meet him. He had a long talk with Mr. Carruthers, who seemed much +excited afterwards. Woodley must be staying in the neighbourhood, for he +did not sleep here, and yet I caught a glimpse of him again this morning +slinking about in the shrubbery. I would sooner have a savage wild +animal loose about the place. I loathe and fear him more than I can say. +How _can_ Mr. Carruthers endure such a creature for a moment? However, +all my troubles will be over on Saturday." + +"So I trust, Watson; so I trust," said Holmes, gravely. "There is some +deep intrigue going on round that little woman, and it is our duty to +see that no one molests her upon that last journey. I think, Watson, +that we must spare time to run down together on Saturday morning, and +make sure that this curious and inconclusive investigation has no +untoward ending." + +I confess that I had not up to now taken a very serious view of the +case, which had seemed to me rather grotesque and bizarre than +dangerous. That a man should lie in wait for and follow a very handsome +woman is no unheard of thing, and if he had so little audacity that he +not only dared not address her, but even fled from her approach, he was +not a very formidable assailant. The ruffian Woodley was a very +different person, but, except on the one occasion, he had not molested +our client, and now he visited the house of Carruthers without intruding +upon her presence. The man on the bicycle was doubtless a member of +those week-end parties at the Hall of which the publican had spoken; but +who he was or what he wanted was as obscure as ever. It was the severity +of Holmes's manner and the fact that he slipped a revolver into his +pocket before leaving our rooms which impressed me with the feeling that +tragedy might prove to lurk behind this curious train of events. + +A rainy night had been followed by a glorious morning, and the +heath-covered country-side with the glowing clumps of flowering gorse +seemed all the more beautiful to eyes which were weary of the duns and +drabs and slate-greys of London. Holmes and I walked along the broad, +sandy road inhaling the fresh morning air, and rejoicing in the music of +the birds and the fresh breath of the spring. From a rise of the road on +the shoulder of Crooksbury Hill we could see the grim Hall bristling out +from amidst the ancient oaks, which, old as they were, were still +younger than the building which they surrounded. Holmes pointed down the +long tract of road which wound, a reddish yellow band, between the brown +of the heath and the budding green of the woods. Far away, a black dot, +we could see a vehicle moving in our direction. Holmes gave an +exclamation of impatience. + +"I had given a margin of half an hour," said he. "If that is her trap +she must be making for the earlier train. I fear, Watson, that she will +be past Charlington before we can possibly meet her." + +From the instant that we passed the rise we could no longer see the +vehicle, but we hastened onwards at such a pace that my sedentary life +began to tell upon me, and I was compelled to fall behind. Holmes, +however, was always in training, for he had inexhaustible stores of +nervous energy upon which to draw. His springy step never slowed until +suddenly, when he was a hundred yards in front of me, he halted, and I +saw him throw up his hand with a gesture of grief and despair. At the +same instant an empty dog-cart, the horse cantering, the reins trailing, +appeared round the curve of the road and rattled swiftly towards us. + +[Illustration: "'TOO LATE, WATSON; TOO LATE!' CRIED HOLMES."] + +"Too late, Watson; too late!" cried Holmes, as I ran panting to his +side. "Fool that I was not to allow for that earlier train! It's +abduction, Watson--abduction! Murder! Heaven knows what! Block the road! +Stop the horse! That's right. Now, jump in, and let us see if I can +repair the consequences of my own blunder." + +We had sprung into the dog-cart, and Holmes, after turning the horse, +gave it a sharp cut with the whip, and we flew back along the road. As +we turned the curve the whole stretch of road between the Hall and the +heath was opened up. I grasped Holmes's arm. + +"That's the man!" I gasped. + +A solitary cyclist was coming towards us. His head was down and his +shoulders rounded as he put every ounce of energy that he possessed on +to the pedals. He was flying like a racer. Suddenly he raised his +bearded face, saw us close to him, and pulled up, springing from his +machine. That coal-black beard was in singular contrast to the pallor of +his face, and his eyes were as bright as if he had a fever. He stared at +us and at the dog-cart. Then a look of amazement came over his face. + +"Halloa! Stop there!" he shouted, holding his bicycle to block our road. +"Where did you get that dog-cart? Pull up, man!" he yelled, drawing a +pistol from his side pocket. "Pull up, I say, or, by George, I'll put a +bullet into your horse." + +Holmes threw the reins into my lap and sprang down from the cart. + +"You're the man we want to see. Where is Miss Violet Smith?" he said, in +his quick, clear way. + +"That's what I am asking you. You're in her dog-cart. You ought to know +where she is." + +"We met the dog-cart on the road. There was no one in it. We drove back +to help the young lady." + +"Good Lord! Good Lord! what shall I do?" cried the stranger, in an +ecstasy of despair. "They've got her, that hellhound Woodley and the +blackguard parson. Come, man, come, if you really are her friend. Stand +by me and we'll save her, if I have to leave my carcass in Charlington +Wood." + +He ran distractedly, his pistol in his hand, towards a gap in the hedge. +Holmes followed him, and I, leaving the horse grazing beside the road, +followed Holmes. + +"This is where they came through," said he, pointing to the marks of +several feet upon the muddy path. "Halloa! Stop a minute! Who's this in +the bush?" + +It was a young fellow about seventeen, dressed like an ostler, with +leather cords and gaiters. He lay upon his back, his knees drawn up, a +terrible cut upon his head. He was insensible, but alive. A glance at +his wound told me that it had not penetrated the bone. + +"That's Peter, the groom," cried the stranger. "He drove her. The beasts +have pulled him off and clubbed him. Let him lie; we can't do him any +good, but we may save her from the worst fate that can befall a woman." + +We ran frantically down the path, which wound among the trees. We had +reached the shrubbery which surrounded the house when Holmes pulled up. + +"They didn't go to the house. Here are their marks on the left--here, +beside the laurel bushes! Ah, I said so!" + +As he spoke a woman's shrill scream--a scream which vibrated with a +frenzy of horror--burst from the thick green clump of bushes in front of +us. It ended suddenly on its highest note with a choke and a gurgle. + +"This way! This way! They are in the bowling alley," cried the stranger, +darting through the bushes. "Ah, the cowardly dogs! Follow me, +gentlemen! Too late! too late! by the living Jingo!" + +We had broken suddenly into a lovely glade of greensward surrounded by +ancient trees. On the farther side of it, under the shadow of a mighty +oak, there stood a singular group of three people. One was a woman, our +client, drooping and faint, a handkerchief round her mouth. Opposite her +stood a brutal, heavy-faced, red-moustached young man, his gaitered legs +parted wide, one arm akimbo, the other waving a riding-crop, his whole +attitude suggestive of triumphant bravado. Between them an elderly, +grey-bearded man, wearing a short surplice over a light tweed suit, had +evidently just completed the wedding service, for he pocketed his +prayer-book as we appeared and slapped the sinister bridegroom upon the +back in jovial congratulation. + +"They're married!" I gasped. + +"Come on!" cried our guide; "come on!" He rushed across the glade, +Holmes and I at his heels. As we approached, the lady staggered against +the trunk of the tree for support. Williamson, the ex-clergyman, bowed +to us with mock politeness, and the bully Woodley advanced with a shout +of brutal and exultant laughter. + +"You can take your beard off, Bob," said he. "I know you right enough. +Well, you and your pals have just come in time for me to be able to +introduce you to Mrs. Woodley." + +Our guide's answer was a singular one. He snatched off the dark beard +which had disguised him and threw it on the ground, disclosing a long, +sallow, clean-shaven face below it. Then he raised his revolver and +covered the young ruffian, who was advancing upon him with his dangerous +riding-crop swinging in his hand. + +"Yes," said our ally, "I _am_ Bob Carruthers, and I'll see this woman +righted if I have to swing for it. I told you what I'd do if you +molested her, and, by the Lord, I'll be as good as my word!" + +"You're too late. She's my wife!" + +"No, she's your widow." + +His revolver cracked, and I saw the blood spurt from the front of +Woodley's waistcoat. He spun round with a scream and fell upon his back, +his hideous red face turning suddenly to a dreadful mottled pallor. The +old man, still clad in his surplice, burst into such a string of foul +oaths as I have never heard, and pulled out a revolver of his own, but +before he could raise it he was looking down the barrel of Holmes's +weapon. + +"Enough of this," said my friend, coldly. "Drop that pistol! Watson, +pick it up! Hold it to his head! Thank you. You, Carruthers, give me +that revolver. We'll have no more violence. Come, hand it over!" + +"Who are you, then?" + +[Illustration: "AS WE APPROACHED, THE LADY STAGGERED AGAINST THE TRUNK +OF THE TREE."] + +"My name is Sherlock Holmes." + +"Good Lord!" + +"You have heard of me, I see. I will represent the official police until +their arrival. Here, you!" he shouted to a frightened groom who had +appeared at the edge of the glade. "Come here. Take this note as hard as +you can ride to Farnham." He scribbled a few words upon a leaf from his +note-book. "Give it to the superintendent at the police-station. Until +he comes I must detain you all under my personal custody." + +The strong, masterful personality of Holmes dominated the tragic scene, +and all were equally puppets in his hands. Williamson and Carruthers +found themselves carrying the wounded Woodley into the house, and I gave +my arm to the frightened girl. The injured man was laid on his bed, and +at Holmes's request I examined him. I carried my report to where he sat +in the old tapestry-hung dining-room with his two prisoners before him. + +"He will live," said I. + +"What!" cried Carruthers, springing out of his chair. "I'll go upstairs +and finish him first. Do you tell me that that girl, that angel, is to +be tied to Roaring Jack Woodley for life?" + +"You need not concern yourself about that," said Holmes. "There are two +very good reasons why she should under no circumstances be his wife. In +the first place, we are very safe in questioning Mr. Williamson's right +to solemnize a marriage." + +"I have been ordained," cried the old rascal. + +"And also unfrocked." + +"Once a clergyman, always a clergyman." + +"I think not. How about the license?" + +"We had a license for the marriage. I have it here in my pocket." + +"Then you got it by a trick. But, in any case a forced marriage is no +marriage, but it is a very serious felony, as you will discover before +you have finished. You'll have time to think the point out during the +next ten years or so, unless I am mistaken. As to you, Carruthers, you +would have done better to keep your pistol in your pocket." + +"I begin to think so, Mr. Holmes; but when I thought of all the +precaution I had taken to shield this girl--for I loved her, Mr. Holmes, +and it is the only time that ever I knew what love was--it fairly drove +me mad to think that she was in the power of the greatest brute and +bully in South Africa, a man whose name is a holy terror from Kimberley +to Johannesburg. Why, Mr. Holmes, you'll hardly believe it, but ever +since that girl has been in my employment I never once let her go past +this house, where I knew these rascals were lurking, without following +her on my bicycle just to see that she came to no harm. I kept my +distance from her, and I wore a beard so that she should not recognise +me, for she is a good and high-spirited girl, and she wouldn't have +stayed in my employment long if she had thought that I was following her +about the country roads." + +"Why didn't you tell her of her danger?" + +"Because then, again, she would have left me, and I couldn't bear to +face that. Even if she couldn't love me it was a great deal to me just +to see her dainty form about the house, and to hear the sound of her +voice." + +"Well," said I, "you call that love, Mr. Carruthers, but I should call +it selfishness." + +"Maybe the two things go together. Anyhow, I couldn't let her go. +Besides, with this crowd about, it was well that she should have someone +near to look after her. Then when the cable came I knew they were bound +to make a move." + +"What cable?" + +Carruthers took a telegram from his pocket. + +"That's it," said he. + +It was short and concise:-- + +"The old man is dead." + +"Hum!" said Holmes. "I think I see how things worked, and I can +understand how this message would, as you say, bring them to a head. But +while we wait you might tell me what you can." + +The old reprobate with the surplice burst into a volley of bad language. + +"By Heaven," said he, "if you squeal on us, Bob Carruthers, I'll serve +you as you served Jack Woodley. You can bleat about the girl to your +heart's content, for that's your own affair, but if you round on your +pals to this plain-clothes copper it will be the worst day's work that +ever you did." + +"Your reverence need not be excited," said Holmes, lighting a cigarette. +"The case is clear enough against you, and all I ask is a few details +for my private curiosity. However, if there's any difficulty in your +telling me I'll do the talking, and then you will see how far you have a +chance of holding back your secrets. In the first place, three of you +came from South Africa on this game--you Williamson, you Carruthers, and +Woodley." + +"Lie number one," said the old man; "I never saw either of them until +two months ago, and I have never been in Africa in my life, so you can +put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mr. Busybody Holmes!" + +"What he says is true," said Carruthers. + +"Well, well, two of you came over. His reverence is our own home-made +article. You had known Ralph Smith in South Africa. You had reason to +believe he would not live long. You found out that his niece would +inherit his fortune. How's that--eh?" + +Carruthers nodded and Williamson swore. + +"She was next-of-kin, no doubt, and you were aware that the old fellow +would make no will." + +"Couldn't read or write," said Carruthers. + +"So you came over, the two of you, and hunted up the girl. The idea was +that one of you was to marry her and the other have a share of the +plunder. For some reason Woodley was chosen as the husband. Why was +that?" + +"We played cards for her on the voyage. He won." + +"I see. You got the young lady into your service, and there Woodley was +to do the courting. She recognised the drunken brute that he was, and +would have nothing to do with him. Meanwhile, your arrangement was +rather upset by the fact that you had yourself fallen in love with the +lady. You could no longer bear the idea of this ruffian owning her." + +"No, by George, I couldn't!" + +"There was a quarrel between you. He left you in a rage, and began to +make his own plans independently of you." + +"It strikes me, Williamson, there isn't very much that we can tell this +gentleman," cried Carruthers, with a bitter laugh. "Yes, we quarrelled, +and he knocked me down. I am level with him on that, anyhow. Then I lost +sight of him. That was when he picked up with this cast padre here. I +found that they had set up house-keeping together at this place on the +line that she had to pass for the station. I kept my eye on her after +that, for I knew there was some devilry in the wind. I saw them from +time to time, for I was anxious to know what they were after. Two days +ago Woodley came up to my house with this cable, which showed that Ralph +Smith was dead. He asked me if I would stand by the bargain. I said I +would not. He asked me if I would marry the girl myself and give him a +share. I said I would willingly do so, but that she would not have me. +He said, 'Let us get her married first, and after a week or two she may +see things a bit different.' I said I would have nothing to do with +violence. So he went off cursing, like the foul-mouthed blackguard that +he was, and swearing that he would have her yet. She was leaving me this +week-end, and I had got a trap to take her to the station, but I was so +uneasy in my mind that I followed her on my bicycle. She had got a +start, however, and before I could catch her the mischief was done. The +first thing I knew about it was when I saw you two gentlemen driving +back in her dog-cart." + +[Illustration: "HOLMES TOSSED THE END OF HIS CIGARETTE INTO THE GRATE."] + +Holmes rose and tossed the end of his cigarette into the grate. "I have +been very obtuse, Watson," said he. "When in your report you said that +you had seen the cyclist as you thought arrange his necktie in the +shrubbery, that alone should have told me all. However, we may +congratulate ourselves upon a curious and in some respects a unique +case. I perceive three of the county constabulary in the drive, and I am +glad to see that the little ostler is able to keep pace with them; so it +is likely that neither he nor the interesting bridegroom will be +permanently damaged by their morning's adventures. I think, Watson, that +in your medical capacity you might wait upon Miss Smith and tell her +that if she is sufficiently recovered we shall be happy to escort her to +her mother's home. If she is not quite convalescent you will find that a +hint that we were about to telegraph to a young electrician in the +Midlands would probably complete the cure. As to you, Mr. Carruthers, I +think that you have done what you could to make amends for your share in +an evil plot. There is my card, sir, and if my evidence can be of help +to you in your trial it shall be at your disposal." + + * * * * * + +In the whirl of our incessant activity it has often been difficult for +me, as the reader has probably observed, to round off my narratives, and +to give those final details which the curious might expect. Each case +has been the prelude to another, and the crisis once over the actors +have passed for ever out of our busy lives. I find, however, a short +note at the end of my manuscripts dealing with this case, in which I +have put it upon record that Miss Violet Smith did indeed inherit a +large fortune, and that she is now the wife of Cyril Morton, the senior +partner of Morton and Kennedy, the famous Westminster electricians. +Williamson and Woodley were both tried for abduction and assault, the +former getting seven years and the latter ten. Of the fate of Carruthers +I have no record, but I am sure that his assault was not viewed very +gravely by the Court, since Woodley had the reputation of being a most +dangerous ruffian, and I think that a few months were sufficient to +satisfy the demands of justice. + + + + +"_Happy Evenings._" + + +Ordinarily the High Street fairly stewed with juvenile humanity. But +to-night, for a wonder, the High Street, Plimsoll Lane, Byles's Rents, +and all the adjacent squalid courts and avenues were deserted. Something +more than a mild fog was needed to effect such a transformation out of +school hours. Neither was there evidence, ocular or auricular, of any +hand-organ, or a trained bear, or a free fight enlivening the +neighbourhood. How was it possible to account for the peaceful condition +of the streets? Surely the ordinary denizens of the gutter couldn't be +at school? Well, not exactly at school, but at the school-house. A +ragged little urchin of seven volunteered to be our pilot. + +"'Appy evenin'? Yessir, I'm goin' there myself. I'll show you." + +"What's your name, my boy?" + +"Saunders, sir; but they allers calls me 'Magsie,' all along o' my +twin-sister wot uz named Marguerite." + +"And why isn't your little sister with you to-night?" + +"'Cos she got scarlet fever." + +"Scarlet fever? Good gracious, boy!" + +"An' she died--more'n a year ago." + +"Oh, I see." + +"The lidy wot we calls the Countess 's goin' to be at the 'Appy Evenin' +to-night. Look! That's 'er--see--with the 'at an' the little black +fevvers." + +We proved to be just in time. Several ladies and gentlemen had doffed +their furs and overcoats, and stood smiling at one end of a large +school-room, whilst in the middle some two or three hundred meanly-clad, +but clean and happy-looking, children of all ages under twelve or +thirteen trooped along merrily to the notes of a piano in the corner. + +"This is our overture," explained the gentle-eyed lady with the +"fevvers." "We always begin this way and they seem to enjoy it." She +raised her jewelled finger and the music stopped. So did the +promenaders. There was a silence, punctuated by giggles, as the Countess +observed, "And now for our games this evening. What girls for the quiet +room?" + +[Illustration: A PRELIMINARY SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY. + +_From a Photo. by George Newnes, Ltd._] + +Twenty hands went up instantly. + +"What boys?" + +Half-a-dozen--not more--two of whom were cripples. + +"And the noisy room? And the fairy-tale room? And the toy room? And the +painting room? And the dolls' room?" + +Thus were these denizens of the gutter in one of the most notorious +slums of London granted their hearts' wishes for this evening. As they +made a choice, so they were marched off under the wing of a lady or +gentleman to a separate room, and the music struck up again for a Sir +Roger de Coverley. + +[Illustration: THE COUNTESS OF JERSEY--PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. + +_From a Photo. by Gillman, Oxford._] + +"There is no use," explains one of the ladies, "forcing a child to romp +if it doesn't want to romp. Perhaps its tastes are in quite another +direction--indeed, we know that there are thousands of wretched little +mites in London who pine for quiet and seclusion. Then there are kiddies +who are passionately fond of fairy stories. They could listen to them by +the hour--perhaps by the day--yet possibly outside of a Happy Evening +they never hear one that really interests them. Our girls' fairy-teller +here, I may tell you, has a wonderful gift. She really mesmerizes the +children. Would you like to be mesmerized, too?" + +"With all the pleasure in life," we reply, and the handle of the +fairy-tale room is slowly turned. We may mention it for a fact, and as a +tribute to the lady's powers, that the noise of our entrance is +absolutely without effect on this little audience. Oh, what would not a +pulpit orator, a politician, a lecturer--yes, even a great actor--give +to hold his auditors' minds thus in the hollow of his hand? They see +nothing, hear nothing but the speaker. + +[Illustration: + + _From a Photo. by_] + + A FAIRY TALE. + + [_George Newnes, Ltd._ +] + +"'So, so,' cried the Genie, in an angry voice; 'if that is the case then +you must quickly step upon this strip of carpet.' And he laid a piece of +red and yellow carpet on the ground. + +"'What for?' asked the young Prince. You see, he didn't know about the +magic in the carpet--nobody had ever told him. + +"'What for?' replied the Genie. 'Why, because----' and he told him then +and there. And he put on his hat and stepped upon the carpet, and like a +flash----" + +We stole out at this juncture, leaving the children open-mouthed and +open-eyed, oblivious of our presence and retreat, and ascending a flight +of steps found ourselves ushered into a totally different scene. The +uproar was terrific, which was not surprising considering that a hundred +and fifty boys were yelling at the top of their lungs. + +"Punch 'im, 'Magsie'; 'it 'im on the nob!" + +[Illustration: + + _From a Photo. by_] + + "'IT 'IM ON THE NOB, MAGSIE." + + [_George Newnes, Ltd._ +] + +And "Magsie," suiting the action to the word, actually landed his +opponent one on the "nob." It was a boxing match--presided over by a +peer's son. Physically the combatants were most unequally matched, one +lad being nearly thirteen and the other--my original cicerone of the +evening--only seven. But they equalize these matters at the Happy +Evenings, and "Pokey" was on his knees, while Billy was the possessor of +much pugilistic science. With each fairly-planted blow the yelling was +terrific, but nobody objected; they encouraged it, if anything. What's +the good of being happy if you can't yell? And so the hundred and fifty +yelled. They have a proper contempt for girls. Girls only giggle and +scream. + +[Illustration: + + _From a Photo. by_] + + THE GREAT CONTEST: THORPE'S MEWS _v._ BYLES'S RENTS. + + [_George Newnes, Ltd._ +] + +But the chief event of the evening among the juvenile male section was +the tug-of-war--the denizens of Thorpe's Mews _versus_ Byles's Rents, a +truly Homeric contest, as it would have appeared to Liliput. +Powerfully-built tatterdemalions boasting fully three feet of stature +were matched against a lesser number of giants of four feet six. The +rope swayed now this side--now that--of the chalked line. Was ever so +much sinew built up of stale bread-crusts and fried fish before? But the +Byles's Rents men--pale, perspiring, and panting--ultimately pulled +their rivals across the line and on to their knees pell-mell, and the +ceiling threatened to splinter and send down pounds of plaster upon the +heads of the spectators at shouts over this triumph. It was thrice +repeated, and then, lo! a few steps and the scene had changed and we +were in the dolls' room. + +[Illustration: + + _From a Photo. by_] + + "PLEASE, LADY, MAY I 'AVE THE FAIRY DOLL NEXT TIME?" + + [_George Newnes, Ltd._ +] + +Every year in November there is a brave show of dolls dressed for the +Happy Evenings children at Bath House, Piccadilly, and some of these +dolls were here now, tended, oh, so gently, almost worshipped, as they +are taken out of their cupboard resting-places and dressed and +undressed. + +[Illustration: + + _From a Photo. by_] + + A PEEP INTO THE NOISY ROOM. + + [_George Newnes, Ltd._ +] + +"Please, lady, may I 'ave the fairy doll next time?" pleaded a +golden-haired little child, with an earnest, wistful look. + +"Yes, if your hands are the cleanest. The little girl with the very +cleanest hands shall dress the fairy doll." + +There is a buzz of pleased anticipation, and then a small voice is +heard:-- + +"Oh, Kitie Jimes, will your mother lend my mother your kike o' smellin' +soap next Tuesday evenin', an' you can 'ave our fryin'-pan?" + +[Illustration: + + _From a Photo. by_] + + THE SACK RACE. + + [_George Newnes, Ltd._ +] + +In the girls' noisy room they were playing "London Bridge" and +"Kiss-in-the-Ring," but it was tame work in comparison with the +uproarious diversions of the stern sex below. When the boys' boxing +contest was over they had a sack race, but a small group of youngsters +were observed making for the door. + +"W'ere you goin', 'Arry?" asked a friend. + +"Me? Oh. I'm goin' with Johnson." + +"W'ere's Johnson goin'?" + +"Darnstairs. Johnson's father's a 'ouse-painter, and 'e knows something, +Johnson does. We promised to go an' see Millie White paint in the +paintin' room. You orter see 'er dror a 'orse. I promised to 'old her +cup an' Johnson's 'oldin' her paints. P'r'aps, if you come, she'll let +you 'ave a brush to 'old." + +[Illustration: A GROUP OF ADMIRERS. + +_From a Photo. by George Newnes, Ltd._] + +This is gallantry and this is appreciation of art. Five minutes later, +after seeing the champion of Byles's Rents again victorious in the sack +race, we descend to the painting room to find Miss Millie White (ætat +eight), the celebrated animal painter, daughter of Larry White; the +well-known Shoreditch navvy, surrounded by her admirers. In another part +of the same room we come upon quite an animated group of talented +colourists. Some of the designs done by these children of the slums are +most creditable, and at least their faces are radiant with happiness, +which is the chief thing after all. The articles produced in the +toy-making room are vastly ingenious. Out of the most unpromising +materials--such as reels of cotton and match-boxes, fortified by +cardboard and coloured paper--the most delectable toys are produced. + +[Illustration: THE PAINTING ROOM. + +_From a Photo. by George Newnes, Ltd._] + +[Illustration: ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS MADE BY THE CHILDREN. + +_From a Photo. by George Newnes, Ltd._] + +[Illustration: + + _From a Photo. by_] + + ARTICLES MADE BY THE CHILDREN. + + [_George Newnes, Ltd._ +] + +As the famous chef, Brillat-Savarin, could create an exquisite soup out +of a kid glove and a pint of boiling water, so these tiny artisans +manage to manufacture butchers' shops, chests of drawers, tables, sofas, +Christmas crackers, and luxuriant flowers out of the meanest +ingredients. One of the favourite diversions of the smaller children is +cutting out and colouring fashion-plates, decapitating the heads and +fitting on instead portraits of their favourite "great ladies" of the +Happy Evenings Association which they have found in the newspapers. +These are afterwards stiffened with cardboard and made to stand up in a +group, which at a distance gives a very good idea of a swell reception +amongst the "hupper suckles"--if it did not more nearly suggest a +wax-work gathering at Madame Tussaud's. Two of these figures we +photographed for THE STRAND--Lady Northcote and Lady Margaret Rice--both +indefatigable workers of the Children's Happy Evenings Association. + +[Illustration: LADY NORTHCOTE. + +_As constructed by the children._] + +And what--the reader may ask at this stage--what is the Happy Evenings +Association? Well, it is a body of kind-hearted ladies and +gentlemen--numbering some of the highest and noblest names that you will +find in "Burke" or "Debrett"--who take a pleasure in going down amongst +the slums of London and teaching the slum waifs how to play. For the +London guttersnipe doesn't know how to play. As a rule, he or she can +maunder about and fight and scream and exchange badinage and throw +stones in the gutter, but of true games the gamin is as ignorant as his +parents are of _entrées_ or Euclid. Before the association was started +in 1891 there was no one to teach them the mysteries of battledore and +shuttlecock, sack races, kiss-in-the-ring, picture-books, dolls, and +doll dressmaking. As their motto expressed it, the association, whose +first efforts began at the Waterloo Road Schools, was "to put a thought +beneath their rags to ennoble the heart's struggle." + +[Illustration: LADY MARGARET RICE. + +_As constructed by the children._] + +[Illustration: THE PRINCESS OF WALES AND HER FAMILY--THE PRINCESS IS THE +PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION. + +_From a Photo. by Wilkinson & Co., Norwich. Published by the London +Stereoscopic Co._] + +The gutters were full--the Board schools after school-hours were empty. +Why not get permission to use these empty Board schools for the little +ones to play in? And so in a modest fashion the first of the Happy +Evenings was carried out by Miss Heather Bigg at Waterloo Road Schools +in January, 1891. The association grew and workers came forward until +now it is one of the most influential, as it is the "smartest," charity +in London. It has for its president that mother of so many little +children--the Princess of Wales; its chief of council is the Countess of +Jersey, and among its helpers are the Marchioness of Zetland, Lady +Ludlow, Lady Cadogan, Lady Iddesleigh, Mrs. Bland-Sutton, etc. Moreover, +the children of the rich are brought to serve the children of the poor, +the example being set by children no less highly placed than the little +Princes and the little Princess at Marlborough House, whose dolls and +toys find their way into the Happy Evenings gatherings. When little +Prince Edward first heard of the Happy Evenings he turned to his Royal +mamma and said:-- + +[Illustration: MRS. BLAND-SUTTON--HON. SECRETARY OF THE ASSOCIATION. + +_From a Photo. by E. W. Evans._] + +"Mayn't I give my helmet and breast-plate? It's such good fun to dress +up as a soldier. I'm sure those little boys would like it." And so a +little gamin was pointed out to us at a Happy Evening, prancing about in +the martial and metallic raiment which had lately enclosed the person of +another boy--the future King of England. + +[Illustration: PRINCE EDWARD'S ARMOUR. + +_From a Photo. by George Newnes, Ltd._] + +Some wag has called these gatherings "Juvenile Parties for +Guttersnipes," and although the secretary naturally resents the terms of +such description, yet perhaps, on the whole, it gives a fair idea to the +average observer of what these gatherings really mean. "We do not, +however, aim at making our Happy Evenings a juvenile party. We try and +make the pastimes of the children approximate closely to those of a +well-ordered nursery or school-room, and the children are encouraged to +vary their amusements on their own initiative, and to choose by +preference those games which involve co-operation." + +[Illustration: EAST-END CHILDREN IN LADY JERSEY'S CHILD-DRAMA "ST. +GEORGE." + +_From a Photo. by W. S. Bradshaw & Sons._] + +Occasionally the elder children get together and arrange +rough-and-ready presentments of historic incidents, such as the Battle +of Cressy, the Execution of Mary Queen of Scots, the Indian Mutiny, +Alfred and the Cakes, the Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, etc. The +_Mayflower_, in this last tableau, was represented by a large newspaper +boat capable of holding the two feet of one child comfortably. The other +Pilgrim Fathers apparently preferred to wade. + +The picture on page 22 shows a party of East London children in Lady +Jersey's play, "St. George of England," and in their brave costumes they +certainly compare very favourably with any equal body of children from +more fashionable regions. + +[Illustration: + + _From a Photo. by_] + + A DAY IN THE COUNTRY. + + [_Lady Margaret Rice._ +] + +But perhaps the greatest event of the whole year for the children of the +Happy Evenings occurs in summer, when each branch president invites them +for a merry day in the country. Somehow or other the girls manage to +rake up cheap cotton frocks for the occasion of various tints and +degrees of wear--and the boys are carefully washed, brushed, and +patched; and then off to one of the stately homes of England, where they +may romp in the grass or in the woods and pick wild flowers to their +hearts' content. You would scarcely recognise these half-fed, +prematurely old London children in the laughing faces and buoyant forms +of this picture taken at Osterley Park. + +[Illustration: A HAPPY EVENING CONCLUDED--SALUTING HIS MAJESTY. + +_From a Photo. by George Newnes, Ltd._] + +One other picture taken has a special interest as showing that lessons +of loyalty are inculcated at the Happy Evenings. It represents the +conclusion of the sports and games; the boys are seen filing before a +portrait of His Majesty and the Union Jack and saluting as they pass, +while the piano plays "God Save the King." + + + + +[Illustration: THE CONVERSION OF AUNT SARAH] + +BY ARCHIBALD MARSHALL. + + +I. + +When young Lord Otterburn vowed before the altar of Grace Church, 114th +Avenue, Chicago, to endow Miss Sadie M. Cutts with all his worldly +goods, that fortunate young lady obtained a husband of attractive +appearance, agreeable manners, and a sweet temper; a coronet, a +beautiful but dilapidated castle in Northumberland, surrounded by an +unproductive estate, and a share in the family attentions of Aunt Sarah. +In exchange for these blessings she brought, as her contribution to the +happiness of the married state, a warm appreciation of her husband's +good qualities, a dowry which, when reckoned in dollars, touched seven +figures, a frank and fearless character, and a total ignorance of the +importance of Aunt Sarah in the domestic well-being of the noble house +of Otterburn. + +She was not left long in ignorance on this point. She had only had time +to refurnish the whole of Castle Gide, to instal electric light, to +rebuild the stables, adapting part of them to the requirements of a stud +of motor-cars, to take the gardens in hand, and to relet most of the +farms, when Aunt Sarah was upon the newly-married couple with a proposal +for a visit. + +"And who is Aunt Sarah, anyway?" inquired Lady Otterburn, when her +husband handed her that lady's letter over the breakfast-table. + +"Aunt Sarah," replied Otterburn, "is the bane of the existence of all +the members of my family who can afford to keep their heads above +water." + +"Sounds kind of cheering," observed her ladyship. "How does she get her +clutch in?" + +"She proposes herself for short visits, and has never been known to +leave any house where the cooking is decent and the beds comfortable +under a month. She is my Uncle Otterburn's widow, and, having been left +exceedingly poor, exercises the right of demanding bed and board from +members of my family in rotation as often as it is convenient to her." + +"If she's poor," said Lady Otterburn, "it won't harm us to give her a +shake-down and a sandwich or two as often as she wants 'em. I apprehend +she'll make herself agreeable in return." + +"That's where you make a mistake," replied Otterburn. "Aunt Sarah has +never been known to make herself agreeable in her life. In fact, she +prides herself upon doing the reverse. She'll tell you before you have +known her two minutes that she always says what she thinks. And she +won't be telling you a lie." + +"Two can play at that game," said Lady Otterburn. "Most times I say what +I think myself." + +"But you only think pleasant things," replied her husband. "My flower of +the prairie!" + +Now, Chicago is not exactly a prairie, but the young Countess of +Otterburn was pretty and graceful enough to deserve the most high-flown +compliments, and appreciated them when they came from her husband. She +therefore graciously accepted his latest flight of imagination, and told +him to write to Aunt Sarah and invite her to come to Castle Gide and +stay as long as she found it convenient. + +Aunt Sarah came a week later with a considerable amount of luggage, but +no maid. The motor-omnibus was sent to the station to meet her, in spite +of her nephew's warnings. + +"She'll arrive as cross as can be," he said. "She hates motors of every +description, and I don't suppose has ever been on one in her life." + +"Then it's time she tried it," said Lady Otterburn. "There isn't a horse +in the place that could draw a buggy fourteen miles to the depôt and +back and bring her here in time for dinner." + +"Well, you'll see," said Otterburn. "She'll tell us what she thinks of +us when she gets here." + +She did. The powerful motor-omnibus drew up before the door of Castle +Gide--at which Lord and Lady Otterburn were standing to receive their +guest--having completed the seven-mile journey from the station in about +five-and-twenty minutes. The driver and the footman beside him wore +expressions of apprehensive discomfort, and the latter jumped down off +his seat to open the door at the back of the vehicle with some alacrity. + +There emerged a tall and formidable-looking old lady, with an aquiline +nose and abundant, well-arranged grey hair. She wore an imposing bonnet +and a dress not of the latest fashion, which rustled richly. There was a +cloud on her magnificent brow, her mouth was firmly closed, and she +showed no signs of agreeable feeling at arriving thus at her journey's +end. + +[Illustration: "'HOW DO YOU DO, AUNT SARAH?' SAID OTTERBURN."] + +"How do you do, Aunt Sarah?" said Otterburn, hastening down the steps to +greet her. "Very pleased to see you again. Hope the old 'bus brought you +along comfortably." + +"No, Edward," replied Aunt Sarah, rigidly, "the old 'bus, as you term +it, did not bring me along comfortably. I had vowed never to trust +myself to one of these detestable new inventions, and I am surprised at +your sending such a contrivance to meet me. This, I suppose, is your +wife. How do you do, my lady? I shall probably be able to tell better +how I like your appearance when I have recovered from the perilous +journey to which I have been subjected. I should like to be shown at +once to my room. I am much too upset by my late experience to think of +joining you downstairs to-night." + +"Why, certainly," said Lady Otterburn. "I'll take you upstairs, and you +shall have your supper just when and how you please--right here and now +if you prefer it. I want that you should make yourself at home in this +house." + +Aunt Sarah transfixed her with a haughty glare. + +"Considering that this house was my home for five-and-thirty years," she +said, "I think I can promise to do that. Thank you, Lady Otterburn. I +will not detain you any longer. This was the third best bachelor's room +in my day; I know my way about it well. No doubt you have other more +important guests for whom the better rooms are reserved. I will wish you +good-night." + +"My!" said the Countess of Otterburn, on the other side of a +firmly-closed door. "She's a peach!" + + +II. + +The most consistently disagreeable people are not without their moments +of relenting, and Aunt Sarah came downstairs about noon of the following +day in a far better humour than she had carried to her room on her +arrival at Castle Gide. In the first place she had discovered that the +erstwhile bachelor rooms had been converted into a perfect little suite, +with the appointments of which even a luxury-loving old lady determined +to find fault with everything could hardly quarrel. During her voluntary +seclusion she had been made as comfortable and waited on as well as if +she were a rich woman in her own house, and the little dinner which had +been served to her in the privacy of her own bijou salon was far +superior to any meal that had ever been served to her before in Castle +Gide, even when she had been mistress of it. Morning tea, therefore, +found Aunt Sarah mollified, a dainty breakfast served to put her almost +into an attitude of peace and goodwill towards mankind, and a glass of +pale sherry and a dry biscuit after her toilet had been made and the +morning papers read sent her downstairs with the definite intention of +being civil to her nephew's wife, whom she had come to Castle Gide +prepared cordially to hate. + +This frame of mind lasted for several hours. Lady Otterburn devoted +herself to the old lady's entertainment, and, to her husband's +unconcealed astonishment, roused more than once a grim chuckle of +amusement, as she rattled her clever Transatlantic tongue across the +luncheon-table. Aunt Sarah pleased! Aunt Sarah laughing! Aunt Sarah +allowing someone else to monopolize the conversation! He had known her +all his life, but such a spectacle had hitherto been denied him. + +"My dear, you're a marvel," he said to his American countess when +luncheon was over and Aunt Sarah had retired to her own apartments, +still in high good-humour. "You bowled me over the first time we met. +That was nothing. But Aunt Sarah! I couldn't have believed it possible. +I wish I had asked all my uncles and aunts and cousins to see it." + +"You don't know enough to run when you're in a hurry," replied Lady +Otterburn. "You'd find her a real beautiful woman if you all took her +the right way." + +"Well, we shall see," said Otterburn. "You've had a grand success so +far, but the experience of years teaches me that seasons of calm in Aunt +Sarah's life are not lasting. Much depends on the afternoon nap." + +Alas! Aunt Sarah's afternoon nap was a troubled one. It may have been +the lobster salad, of which she had eaten too largely; it may have been +the iced hock-cup, of which she had drunk too freely, that disturbed her +slumbers. Whatever it was she came down again what time the tea-table +was spread in the hall with her usual inclination to make herself +disagreeable strongly in the ascendant, and, if possible, augmented by +the reaction from her previous state of amiability. The first audacious +sally made by her hostess, which would have been received with tolerant +amusement at the luncheon-table, only drew a scandalized glare from Aunt +Sarah, and the ominous words: "I must ask you to remember in whose +presence you find yourself, if you please." + +Lady Otterburn may have been surprised at this sudden change of +atmosphere, but she seemed entirely unconcerned, and took no notice of +her husband's surreptitious kick underneath the tea-table, which said as +plain as speech, "I told you so." She talked with gay wit, but gave no +opportunity for a further rebuke. But Aunt Sarah's twisted temper was +not to be softened by the most searching tact, and her next contribution +to the sociability of the occasion was the remark, "This tea is +positively not fit to drink. In my day Withers would not have dared to +keep such stuff in his shop." + +"He don't keep it now," answered her hostess. "I have it bought in China +and shipped overland. It costs four dollars the pound." + +"I have no doubt it is expensive," retorted Aunt Sarah, "although there +is no occasion to poke your money down my throat. It is the way it is +made. No servant can be trusted to make tea. I always have two teapots +and make it myself. I find it is never fit to drink unless I do so." + +"I'd just love to have you make some for yourself," said Lady Otterburn. +"I'll ring the bell for two more teapots. It's too bad you shouldn't +have it as you like it." + +[Illustration: "I'LL RING THE BELL FOR TWO MORE TEAPOTS."] + +Aunt Sarah, who was secretly rather ashamed of having mistaken +caravan-borne tea for that sold by the village grocer, suffered herself +to be softened again, and became almost amiable when her hostess +insisted upon drinking from the fresh brew which was presently made, and +declared that it was a great improvement on the old. + +"I think it _is_ better," admitted Aunt Sarah. "I may say that I have +never yet met anyone who could make tea as I can. You will excuse me for +having commented on yours, but, as Edward knows, I always say what I +think." + +Edward did know it to his cost. But again he was astonished at the sight +of Aunt Sarah charmed back to good-humour when apparently in one of her +most relentless moods, and with further astonishment he reminded himself +that his experience did not afford a precedent for her apologizing for +any word of blame that may have fallen from her lips. But he had no time +to ponder on these things. Developments were proceeding. + +"You find it a good plan always to say what you think?" asked Lady +Otterburn, sweetly. + +"It is the only honest plan," replied Aunt Sarah. "If everybody would do +it instead of telling lies on all occasions, great or small, there would +be a good deal less hypocrisy in the world than there is now." + +"Well, I guess you are right," said Lady Otterburn. "I guess I'll +commence right away and follow your example. And so will Edward. Now, +mind, Edward, don't you dare to say a single word that you don't mean, +and just you tell your Aunt Sarah exactly what you think as long as +she's with us. And so will I. And all the people who are coming this +evening shall be told to do the same." + +"Eh? What?" exclaimed Aunt Sarah. + + +III. + +When Aunt Sarah came down into the great hall at twenty minutes to nine +that evening she found it full of young men and women who had arrived +about an hour before, and whom she had kept waiting ten minutes for +their dinner. She did not apologize for her late appearance. That was +not her custom. She singled out a young man of the company and said, +"How do you do, Henry? I am pleased to see you at Castle Gide again. You +used to come here frequently in happier times." + +"They were not happier times for me, Aunt Sarah," replied the young man, +rather nervously. "My chief recollection of them is that I was generally +sent to bed before dinner for getting into mischief." + +"Ah!" said Aunt Sarah. "That is the way to treat mischievous boys. And +you don't bear malice." + +"I am afraid I do," said the young man. "I was treated most unjustly." + +"By whom, pray?" inquired Aunt Sarah, beginning to bridle. + +"Very occasionally by Uncle Otterburn," said the young man. "Invariably +by you." + +"Upon my word!" exclaimed Aunt Sarah. "That is a pretty way to talk!" + +"He must say what he thinks, you know," said Lady Otterburn. "We are all +going to play at that as long as we are together. Anybody who is +convicted of an insincere speech is to pay half a crown to the hospital +fund. Here is the box. It contains a contribution from Edward, who told +Lady Griselda that she was not at all late when she came down five +minutes ago. Edward, take Aunt Sarah in to dinner. She has kept us +waiting for nearly a quarter of an hour." + +"Have I got into a company of lunatics?" inquired Aunt Sarah, as she +took her nephew's arm. + +[Illustration: "THERE WAS A REGULAR HUBBUB OF CONVERSATION ROUND THE +DINNER-TABLE."] + +No member of the party with the exception of Aunt Sarah had reached +middle-age. Most of the men were contemporaries of Otterburn's, the +years of whose pilgrimage were thirty. Some of them were married and had +their wives with them, but the majority were unattached, and there were +several girls, some English and some American. Otterburn's grouse-moors +were the ostensible excuse for their finding themselves collected at +Castle Gide, but they were so well mixed that they would probably have +succeeded in enjoying themselves even if there had been no shooting to +occupy the days. There was a regular hubbub of conversation round the +dinner-table on this first evening, and loud peals of laughter, rising +above the din and clatter of twenty tongues all moving at once, seemed +to indicate that Lady Otterburn's game was adding to the gaiety of the +occasion. + +"No," said a demure young lady, in answer to a request from her +neighbour. "I will not play accompaniments for you after dinner. It is +quite true, as you say, that I read music extraordinarily well. I have +always politely denied it before, but I know I do. Your singing, +however, is so distasteful to me that I am sorry I cannot oblige you." + +"I have got a good voice," said her neighbour, "and I have studied +under the best masters." + +"You have not profited by your studies," replied the lady; "and your +voice, so far from being good, is very thin and of no quality +whatsoever." + +"I guess," said a fair American, surveying the company, "that we're a +good-looking crowd round this table. And, among all the women, I have a +conviction that I go up for the beauty prize. I have had to hug that +conviction in secret for a very long time, and now it's out." + +Thus and thus was the House of Truth built up stone by stone, and Aunt +Sarah's position was pitiable. Hitherto she had made her mark in +whatever society she found herself by sheer insistence on her right to +be frankly and critically disagreeable. On any ordinary occasion she +would have had the whole tableful of young people prostrate under the +terror of her biting tongue, and not a whit would she have cared for +consequent unpopularity so long as she had made herself acknowledged as +the dominating spirit of the assembly. Now she was met and foiled by the +dexterous use of the very weapons which she had wielded so long and so +unmercifully, and no arrogant speech could she make but its sting was +removed by an equally outspoken reply. + +Thus, to her right-hand neighbour, a young man with smooth black hair +and a preternaturally solemn face: "I don't know who you are, but by +your long upper lip I should judge you to be a Mortimer." + +"My name and appearance are both undoubtedly Mortimer," he replied, +gravely. "My character, I am happy to say, is not." + +"Perhaps you do not know," said Aunt Sarah, "that I am a Mortimer?" + +[Illustration: "'I WILL NOT STAND THIS INSOLENT BEHAVIOUR ANY LONGER,' +SHE SAID."] + +"I am perfectly aware of it," was the answer. "It would cost me half a +crown to congratulate you on the fact." + +"And may I ask what fault you have to find with the family whose name +you have the honour of bearing?" + +"They are insufferably cantankerous and domineering." + +"Not all of them," interrupted Otterburn, anxious above all desire for +unsullied truth to avert the impending storm which was gathering around +him. "You must not take his criticisms as personal, Aunt Sarah." + +"Pass the box this way," said the solemn young man. "Otterburn will +contribute another half-crown." + +Before dinner was half-way through Aunt Sarah was in as black a rage as +had ever darkened even her Olympian brow. By the time the ladies left +the room she had delivered herself of as many insulting speeches as it +usually took her a day to achieve, and her average output was no small +one. But it was all to no purpose. Her most ambitious efforts, instead +of striking a chill of terror to the hearts of her listeners, were +warmly applauded, with an air of the utmost politeness, and from every +quarter she received as good as she gave. It took her some time to +realize that she was affording considerable amusement to her nephew's +guests, but when she did arrive at that state of knowledge she could +hardly command herself sufficiently to leave the room without doing +bodily hurt to someone. + +"I will not stand this insolent behaviour any longer," she said to Lady +Otterburn when the door of the dining-room had been closed behind them. +"How dare you treat me in this way?" + +"Why, bless me, Aunt Sarah," exclaimed Lady Otterburn, in well-feigned +surprise, "you said yourself that if everyone spoke the truth always, as +you pride yourself on doing, it would be a real lovely thing. We are all +speaking the truth under a penalty, and you are speaking it so well that +you haven't been fined once." + +"Psshtschah!" is the nearest possible orthographic rendering of the +exclamation of contempt and disgust that forced itself from Aunt Sarah's +lips. "I have had enough of this insensate folly," she continued. "I +shall go straight to my room, and if I do not receive more respectful +treatment in this house, where I so long reigned as undisputed mistress, +I shall leave it to-morrow. Do you understand me?" + +"I understand you very well," said Lady Otterburn. "And I will ask you +to try and understand me. The respect which you demanded as mistress of +this house is now due to me, and I look to receive it from my guests. If +you discover that it is not within your power to grant it I shall not +press you to prolong your visit." + +Aunt Sarah again gave vent to the exclamation indicated above, and +sailed up the broad staircase to her own apartments with anger and +disgust marked on every line and curve of her figure. + + +IV. + +Aunt Sarah had never been so angry before in her life. She was an +extraordinarily disagreeable old woman--disagreeable in a masterly, +cold-blooded, incisive way, partly because disagreeable speech was a +genuine expression of her nature, partly because she had discovered in +the course of years that she gained more by being disagreeable, which +came easy to her, than by being pleasant, which did not. One of the +weapons of her armoury was the feigning of anger, and few could stand +upright before her wrath. But for this very reason she had seldom been +opposed in such a way as to make her really angry, and now that this had +happened to her she was almost beside herself with rage. + +When she reached the cosy little sitting-room which had been devoted to +her special use, having closed the door with a bang which re-echoed +along the corridors, she found herself surrounded by just that +atmosphere of personal comfort in which her sybaritic old soul +delighted. A cheerful fire burned in the grate. Before it was drawn up +the easiest of easy chairs. At the side of the chair stood a table upon +which was a tray containing those refreshments, solid and liquid, with +which Aunt Sarah loved best to fortify herself for the hours of +darkness, a collection of papers and magazines, and half-a-dozen new +books. The gay chintz curtains were close-drawn, and the electric lights +behind their rosy shades threw just the right amount of light upon this +pleasant interior. + +Aunt Sarah had often before left a company of people in displeasure and +retired to her own apartment with a bang of the door behind her. But +once shut in by herself the expression of her face had usually changed, +and with a grim chuckle at her own astuteness, and the remembrance of +her effective departure, she had settled herself down with a mind wiped +clean of emotion to the enjoyment of her own society. + +But to-night Aunt Sarah took no delight in her own society, nor did her +angry old face change as she closed the door on the cosy warmth of her +room. It is true that she sat down in the easy chair in front of the +fire. Women do not pace the room in their rage as is the custom with +men. All the same, a consuming rage held her. It had in it a tinge of +helplessness, and it shook her wiry old frame like an ague. Aunt Sarah +was beaten, and she had the sense to recognise it. + +By-and-by she began to feel rather alarmed at her state of mind. +Helpless anger is not a soothing emotion, and Aunt Sarah, in spite of +her well-nourished vigour, was an old woman. It was very uncomfortable +to be so angry, and it was still more uncomfortable to realize that her +power of keeping her own personality in the ascendant had been wrested +from her by "a chit of a low-born foreigner," as she expressed it to +herself. + +When her anger had tired her sufficiently the feeling of helplessness +increased, and sorely against her will Aunt Sarah began to pity herself. +She fought against the feeling of self-pity for some time--she was made +of sterner stuff than those who cherish it as a mild luxury--but it +overpowered her at last. She suddenly saw herself old and, for all her +many relations and acquaintances, friendless--worse than friendless, +feared and disliked. She was also, for the time being, homeless. She had +let her little box of a house in London for the winter, and had intended +to stay at Castle Gide for at least a month. If she carried out her +threat of leaving the next morning she had nowhere to go to, and she was +accustomed to run things so close that she actually had not the money to +take her to some place suitable to her exalted station and to keep +herself there for four weeks. + +Then she suddenly realized that in the depths of her queer, twisted +heart she was fond of her nephew; also that her nephew's American bride +had brought her both deference and entertainment as long as she had +treated her with ordinary courtesy. She also discovered that she had a +sentiment for Castle Gide, which had been her own home for thirty-five +years, that was not wholly dependent upon its capabilities of affording +her the degree of luxurious living which she most appreciated. At this +point something happened which had not happened for fully half a +century. Two large tears trickled down Aunt Sarah's face. She knew +herself for a lonely, disagreeable old woman, very, very poor. + +[Illustration: "SHE KNEW HERSELF FOR A LONELY, DISAGREEABLE OLD WOMAN."] + +When Otterburn came out of the dining-room with the rest of the men he +drew his wife a little aside and said to her: "Look here, old lady, I +don't think we can carry this on. I am afraid Aunt Sarah will have a fit +if we bait her much more. Her eyes rolled most unpleasantly at dinner. +Where is she, by-the-bye?" + +"She has gone upstairs looking mighty ugly," replied her ladyship. "She +is going to express her baggage home to-morrow." + +"Oh, she mustn't do that," said Otterburn. "She has always gone on like +that, and her bark is worse than her bite. You go and calm her down, and +we'll stop this game." + +"We've won," said Lady Otterburn. "But I don't feel very spry over the +victory. She is an old lady, and I guess we'll just have to let her play +by herself as long as she camps here. I'll go up to her right now." + +So Lady Otterburn entered Aunt Sarah's room just in time to catch her +drying the two tears aforesaid and a few more that had followed them. A +wave of compunction passed over her, and she felt that she and her +husband and their guests had all behaved with the most unmannerly +brutality. + +"Dear Aunt Sarah," she said, "I hate that you should be all alone up +here while we are enjoying ourselves downstairs. Won't you come down and +hear Mrs. Vanhooten sing? They call her the nightingale of Cincinnati in +the States." + +Now, if Lady Otterburn had followed the impulse that came to her to +kneel by the side of the old woman and mix tears, she would almost +certainly have been repulsed and would have found Aunt Sarah once more +encased in a full suit of prickles; for, however much in a moment of +weakness that redoubtable old lady may have pitied herself, she +certainly would have permitted no one else to pity her. But Lady +Otterburn was a young woman of considerable tact as well as generosity +of feeling, and her method of approach proved to be the best she could +have chosen. + +"Not to-night," replied Aunt Sarah. "I confess to being slightly upset +at what has occurred, and I do not feel equal to mixing with your guests +at present." + +"I guess we must have offended you with our little game," said Lady +Otterburn. "But we didn't mean any harm, and we have left off playing it +now." + +"It has served its purpose," said Aunt Sarah, slowly. "I have been +thinking matters over since I came upstairs. It is not easy for a woman +of my age and character to confess herself in the wrong, but as far as +you are concerned, my dear, I--I--really think that by showing mutual +respect and consideration we may, perhaps, get on very well together." + +The speech had not ended quite in the manner Aunt Sarah had intended +when she began it, but the habits of a lifetime are not changed in a +moment, and its underlying meaning was, at any rate, clear. Aunt Sarah +had come as near as she had ever done in her life to an unreserved +apology for her behaviour. + +Lady Otterburn was prepared to meet her a good deal more than half-way. + +"Of course, you feel seeing me here in your place," she said. "I don't +wonder. But both Edward and I want you to look upon Castle Gide as your +home just the same as before." (This was not strictly true so far as +Edward was concerned, but it must be admitted to have been generous.) +"And I'm new to this country and to a position to which you were born. +There are so many ways in which you could help, Aunt Sarah." + +"My dear," said the old woman, "any help I can give you you shall have. +But I think you are quite capable of holding your own anywhere, and--and +of adorning any position." + +So the treaty of peace was concluded, and the Countess and the Dowager +Countess of Otterburn spent a pleasant hour together talking amicably of +many things. + +When Aunt Sarah came downstairs the next morning she found everybody +very anxious to please her. The general attitude of the party was that +of people who had committed a breach of courtesy and were ashamed of +themselves. Probably this attitude drove compunction into Aunt Sarah's +soul more completely than any other could have done. She met advances +with amiability, and exercised her fearless tongue and her undoubtedly +sharp intellect to the general amusement rather than to the general +terrifying of the company. By the time that the house-party broke up she +had discovered, possibly to her amazement, that ascendency could be +maintained as completely and far more pleasantly by force of character +combined with wit and good-humour than by force of character supported +by aggressive arrogance alone. + +And thus, fortified by experience of its efficacy, Aunt Sarah's +conversion was permanent. This is not to say that from a most +objectionable old woman she changed at a bound into an exceedingly +attractive one. The simile of the leopard and the Ethiopian still holds +good. But there was an all-round improvement in her attitude towards the +world at large which, whenever she found herself at Castle Gide, was an +improvement which seemed to approach the miraculous. + +[Illustration: "THE TWO LADIES OTTERBURN WORSHIPPING TOGETHER AT A +CRADLE SHRINE."] + +A year after the events of this story, when the two Ladies Otterburn had +been worshipping together for an hour at a cradle shrine plentifully +bedecked with lace, the younger of them said to her husband:-- + +"Dear Aunt Sarah! She has a real loving heart. I guess it was warped by +her never having a baby of her own." + + + + +_How a Chromo-Lithograph is Printed._ + +BY L. GRAY-GOWER. + + +Many readers have no doubt wondered how the vivid and faithful +reproductions of celebrated pictures, with which the public has latterly +become so familiar, are reproduced. There is a vague idea that it is the +result of some occult colour-process that involves several distinct +printings, but exactly what that process is remains commonly a sealed +book. But there must be many readers who know nothing whatever of +lithographic stones and colour-printing. Let us briefly, then, explain +the principle. + +About a hundred years ago a struggling Bavarian printer, Alois +Senefelder by name, having no paper at hand with which to indite his +washing bill, used for the purpose a flat slab of peculiarly soft stone +which he had in his workshop. The ink he used was a rude and greasy +mixture. The appearance of the writing on the stone suggested to him the +possibility of reproducing the writing. His experiments were crowned +with success, and lithography naturally took its place amongst the great +industrial arts of the world. + +If you enter any great lithographer's workshop to-day, like that of the +Dangerfield Company at St. Albans, you will notice huge slabs of stone, +two or three inches thick, ranging in size from that of a large bedstead +to that of a small book. All these stones may be said to come from one +place--Solenhofen, in the district of Monheim. + +At the Dangerfield Company's works the writer seemed to be passing +through a miniature quarry, or through a tombstone warehouse. The stones +arrive at the works in their rough condition. They are prepared for use +by being ground face to face with sand and water. + +The broad principles of lithography consist, of course, in the strong +adhesion of greasy substances to calcareous stone, the affinity of one +greasy body for another, and the antipathy of such bodies to water. When +water is applied to the surface of the stone it remains only on such +portions as are not covered with grease, so that, if a roller charged +with greasy ink be passed over the stone, the ink will only adhere to +the greasy portions, while the moist parts will resist the ink and +remain clean. In consequence, when a sheet of paper is pressed upon the +stone, it only receives an impression in ink from the greasy line. This +is the whole theory of lithography. + +And now comes in the task of the expert colour-master. There has been +growing up of late years a class of experts in colour for whom the +entire National Gallery is only a collection of tints on canvas more or +less adroitly combined. These men are master-lithographers. For them the +most divine creations of Raphael, Titian, Claude, and Turner are +workmanlike colour-combinations, which it is their business to analyze +and resolve into their separate constituents. To-day the dead walls and +hoardings of the kingdom are covered with wonderful posters and the shop +windows lined with gorgeous lithographs evolved by men whose chromatic +perception is so acute that they can tell you at a glance what the great +Turner himself did not know: how many colours go to the making of one of +Turner's pictures. + +[Illustration: THE ARTISTS' ROOM AT THE DANGERFIELD COMPANY'S WORKS, +SHOWING THE LITHOGRAPHIC STONES. + + _From a Photo. by_] + + [_the Dangerfield Co._ +] + +[Illustration: FIRST STONE--LIGHT YELLOW.] + +[Illustration: THIRD STONE--LIGHTEST BLUE.] + +There are very few artists who can say exactly how their colour-effects +were produced, or precisely what pigments were employed to attain +certain tones. They work away, slowly painting and repainting until the +end desired is reached. + +[Illustration: SECOND STONE--DARK YELLOW.] + +[Illustration: FOURTH STONE--LIGHT FLESH TINT.] + +"We have master-lithographers in our employ," said Mr. Adolphe Tuck to +the writer, "who can tell almost at a glance how many colours and shades +go to the making of any given picture, no matter how complex." + +Take the case of one of the most successful reproductions of one of the +old masters, "The Madonna Ansidei," which hangs in the National Gallery. +The colour-master of whom we have spoken quickly resolved this picture +into eighteen colours, involving the use of eighteen lithographic +stones, each printing a separate tint and being of itself almost a +separate picture, until by repeated printings the whole masterpiece was +gradually built up. This is the example of which we present +illustrations in this article, and is the work of Mr. Adolphe Tuck. + +[Illustration: FIFTH STONE--DARK BROWN.] + +But what an eye for colour! What a gift for the realities and essentials +of tone to be able, without any mixings of paint or other analytic +experiments, to divine straight away just what colours are needed, and +prepare stone after stone with the absolute certainty that the +combination would produce such a result! + +[Illustration: SIXTH STONE--LIGHT BROWN.] + +[Illustration: SEVENTH STONE--LIGHT BLUE.] + +To illustrate the almost marvellous capability of the colour-expert in +analyzing the colours of a picture submitted to him, one may mention +that the late Sir Charles Eastlake, P.R.A., once ventured to assert that +there were sixteen colours or shades visible in a picture by Van Dyck. +The lithographic colour-expert declared there were only eleven. +Accordingly an accurate copy was painted at the National Gallery of the +picture, so accurate that it was difficult to discern a difference +between the copy and the original. This was duly analyzed and placed on +the stones, eleven in number, and the eleventh printing disclosed an +exact facsimile of the copy, and therefore of the original. + +[Illustration: EIGHTH STONE--PINK.] + +[Illustration: NINTH STONE--MEDIUM GREY.] + +Sir Charles Eastlake acknowledged himself beaten, and readily paid +tribute to the wonderful analytic powers of an artist, or, rather, of a +scientist, who could not paint a picture but could tell just what a +picture was made of. + +[Illustration: TENTH STONE--MEDIUM BLUE.] + +In the case of the Ansidei Madonna, the canvas was copied at the +National Gallery under the eye of the Director. The first stage of +reproduction was to transfer upon the stone a sort of yellowish-grey +base or silhouette of the whole picture (No. 1). It will be noticed that +the high lights are upon portions of St. John's and Mary's garments and +the mitre of St. Nicholas. + +The picture on the next stone, which is to overlay the first, gives more +detail. + +Gradually these pictures, each done by a separate artist, under the +eyes of the colour expert or master-lithographer, assume greater +perfection, as colour by colour is added, one from every stone, until in +No. 9 one would fain think, as the artist himself may have thought, that +the picture was finished, or at least approaching completion. But, as a +matter of fact, it is only half completed. It is still lacking many +necessary qualities; the reds and the greens and the greys and the gold +have yet to be added. What a quaint enigma is presented by Nos. 11, 12, +14, and 15! Taken by themselves they seem meaningless, but combined with +their forerunners and successors they are seen to be essential to the +finished picture. + +[Illustration: ELEVENTH STONE--MEDIUM YELLOW.] + +In the very final stages the stones are devoted to greys, which by +overlaying one another impart a roundness and solidity to the design +which it would otherwise lack. It may be mentioned that this +reproduction is, according to Mr. Tuck, the most successful, as it is +the most elaborate, colour-lithograph ever attempted. + +[Illustration: TWELFTH STONE--DARK RED.] + +[Illustration: THIRTEENTH STONE--DARK FLESH TINT.] + +In the case of an ordinary colour-drawing the usual method is to +prepare a keystone--that is to say, an outline of the picture, together +with the black or grey portions. It is then marked off into colours, +each colour requiring, as has been said, a separate stone. Of the +uncoloured outline as many copies are printed as there are to be colours +in the finished picture, and each of these serves as a key or guide in +determining in what position on each stone the separate colour shall be. +Each artist then sets to work on his own part of the picture, which is +very often, as will be seen by our illustrations, a picture by itself. +The master-lithographer knows just how many of these pictures will be +necessary to achieve a facsimile. It may be that one colour will +frequently have to be printed over another in order to produce the +precise effect. + +[Illustration: FOURTEENTH STONE--DARK BLUE.] + +For colour-printing the stone is polished. Naturally the order in which +the colours succeed each other is very important, and must be carefully +considered. But perhaps the great object of the maker of pictures from +stones, after the picture in its various phases has been prepared, is to +see that each colour falls accurately into its proper place on the +paper. Nothing is more common, in a badly done lithograph, than to find +in the face of the human subject, say an attractive young lady, the +flesh colour overlapping the collar or the hat, or even extruding itself +out into space beyond the ear. All this implies bad "registering." The +drawing on each stone must be made to fit in, or register, with the +preceding one, so that, as the paper is passed through the printing +machine, the picture is built up colour on colour, each, however, being +allowed to dry before the next is applied. + +In preparing the stone to take the picture extreme care has to be +exercised, for so great is its affinity for grease that even a +finger-mark will become perpetuated. After a drawing on the stone is +finished it is a precaution to coat it with a solution of gum-arabic and +nitric acid, which fills up the pores of the stone in the unfilled parts +and prevents the drawing from spreading. + +[Illustration: FIFTEENTH STONE--LIGHT RED.] + +[Illustration: SIXTEENTH STONE--DARK GREY.] + +Having described the manner in which the picture on stone is prepared, +we now come to the printing of it. To begin with, there is the +"proving-press," which is employed in preparing the stones for the +machine. The gummy solution is first washed off, but sufficient remains +in the pores of the stones to offer a resisting influence to the ink +when the time for printing comes. At this stage the stone is damped and +a roller charged with printing ink is passed over its surface, every +part of the design being brought in contact with the ink. Accidental +grease spots are removed by scraping, polishing, or the application of +acid, otherwise they would develop and spoil the result. + +[Illustration: SEVENTEENTH STONE--GOLD.] + +[Illustration: EIGHTEENTH STONE--LIGHT GREY.] + +When the stone is thus rectified it is subjected to what is technically +termed etching; that is, a weak solution of gum and nitric acid is +applied, which causes the surface of the bare part of the stones to be +gently eroded, and gives a stronger "tooth" to the design. Although the +ink of the design itself may now be washed away and the picture be +invisible, yet it is there, ready to receive any desired colour which +forms the part of the picture. The stones have to be damped and inked +before each impression is taken, but nevertheless the printing proceeds +with great rapidity, ranging from six hundred to one thousand +impressions per hour. + +[Illustration: THE FINISHED CHROMO-LITHOGRAPH: "THE MADONNA ANSIDEI" +(AFTER RAPHAEL).] + + + + +_Sadi the Fiddler._ + +AN INCIDENT IN THE SIEGE OF STRASBURG. + +BY MAX PEMBERTON. + + +Sadi the fiddler, carrying the little black case under his arm, locked +the door of his garret as carefully as though it had contained the +wealth of the Cæsars. It was the night of Monday, the twenty-first day +of September, in the year 1870. Sadi had not tasted food for twenty +hours, and, though he well understood that there was very little to eat +in the town of Strasburg, he went forth bravely in quest of it. After +all, someone might throw him a bone, even though he were nothing more +than a poor, crazy fiddler. + +"Heaven knows they have music enough here," he said to himself, as he +descended the narrow staircase and came out beneath the eaves of the old +houses. This was the thirty-second night since the hated Prussians had +come swarming down from Wörth and had invested the city like an army of +human locusts. There was scarcely a minute by day or night when the +great guns ceased to thunder, or the shots to play havoc with the +ancient streets of gallant Strasburg. Even as the fiddler walked away +from his own house that night a great shell, thrown from one of the +batteries to the north-west, came singing and sighing above him, and +then fell with a mighty crash upon the roof next to his own. It was an +incendiary shell, Sadi hazarded, and presently a tongue of flame leaping +up from the doomed building told him that he had guessed aright. He knew +that his worldly possessions, such as they were, would soon be engulfed +in that raging furnace of smoke and fire; and he reflected with a sigh, +odd fellow that he was, on a picture which he would have given much to +save. Sadi wondered now that he had not brought the picture with him. +Standing there upon the narrow pavement, while the flames licked about +the window of his attic, he remembered the day when Lucy, the daughter +of Ludenmayer, the artist from Bad Nauheim, had given the portrait to +him and had written the words "In grateful remembrance" upon one corner +of it. "We shall never return to Strasburg--never meet again, dear +friend," she had said. He knew that it was true, admitted that she could +be nothing to him--and yet his eyes were dim when he turned from the +burning house and set off to wander aimlessly through the terrible +streets. + +He had never been a rich man, but the outbreak of the war between France +and Prussia robbed him in a day of his employment and left him a beggar. +Nero had fiddled while Rome was burning, but no one in Strasburg desired +to emulate that incomparable artist; and while there had been days when +Sadi might have earned a good dinner by playing the Marseillaise to +patriotic hosts, his pride forbade him and his violin was silent. The +same sense of the dignity of his art kept him from the public +distribution of food ordered by the Mayor and the brave General Uhrich. +He, Sadi Descourcelles, had the blood of kings in his veins. A +philosophic observer might have remarked that it ran thin and sluggish +upon that twenty-first day of September, for he, Sadi, was famishing, +ravenous, desperate with the gnawing hunger as of youth and strenuous +life. He felt that he could commit any crime for bread. He searched the +very gutters with his eyes for any scrap of food that fortune might have +cast there. Such lighted windows as showed to him the tables spread for +dinner or supper moved him to frenzies of desire. Why should some eat +when others were starving? And the Prussians killed all +indiscriminately, he said, rich or poor, old and young, mothers and +children. What folly resisted the right of Bismarck and the Red Prince? +Sadi prayed that the city might fall and bread be given to him; but with +the next breath he was cursing the blue-coats and hoping in his heart +that Strasburg might never surrender. For he was a patriot in spite of +his poverty. + +It was a warm night of September, with a starry sky to be seen here and +there between the clouds of sulphurous smoke which floated above the +ramparts. Few walked abroad, for there was danger in the streets, and +scarcely any cessation of the flying shells which the Prussians hurled +upon the doomed city. Sadi was accustomed to the awful sounds and sights +which accompanied the siege, and they were powerless any longer to +affright him. Even the dead in the gutters--the children who had not +made the war but paid the price of it with their young blood--found him +callous and without sympathy. As these had died, so he would die and be +at rest. He envied them as they lay there--the flare of the burning +houses showed him the white faces and they seemed to sleep. Sadi +believed that when next he slept it would be as these--eternally and +without pain. + +He was indifferent to the danger; nevertheless some little measure of +prudence remained to him, and he walked in the centre of the street to +avoid the flying fragments and the falling timbers. Doleful cries from +stricken houses fell upon deaf ears so far as Sadi the fiddler was +concerned. The warnings of a friendly soldier, who told him that he was +drawing perilously near the zone of fire, he received with a curt word +of thanks. Had the man given him a crust he would have kissed him on +both cheeks; but the fellow was hungry himself, and the two parted +surlily--the one to a beer-shop, the other toward the ramparts. + +[Illustration: "THE TWO PARTED SURLILY."] + +"You can play them a tune, old fellow," the soldier said. + +Sadi answered, "Why so, friend, since the houses dance already?" + +Yes; the houses danced indeed, and the mad music of the guns waxed more +terrible as Sadi approached the ramparts and could see the cannon for +himself. It was just like a display of fireworks in the gardens of the +Tuileries, he said. From minute to minute the dark background of the sky +would be cleaved by a line of fire, which marked the path of an +incendiary shell as it soared above the quivering city and fell in a +shower of flame upon house, or church, or citadel. The hither ground was +a mighty waste of rubble, a desert of rubbish, where a few weeks ago +houses had stood up proudly, and churches had invited worshippers, and +children had found their homes. And all this misery, this untold and +savage destruction, was the work of the hated Prussians over yonder, +where the night was red and the darkness behind it shielded the +assassins. Sadi, in the presence of those who were doing something for +France, asked himself what he had done. The answer was, "Nothing." He +reflected upon it a little bitterly and turned away toward the west, +walking from the ramparts of that unhappy quarter of the city which the +Prussians had destroyed ten days ago and now forgotten. + +The path was desolate--none trod it but Sadi the fiddler, and he +stumbled often as he went. So completely had the Prussians demolished +the quarter that the very contour of the streets was lost and a dismal +plain presented itself--an open field of rubbish, broken here and there +by great abysses which once had been the cellars of the houses. Sadi did +not know why he walked in such a place or what hope of bread it could +give him; but when he stumbled upon an open cellar he reflected that, +after all, the house had been quitted in haste, and that some provision +might have been left in its larders. The bare possibility appealing to +his ravenous hunger sent him climbing down into the cellar like a +schoolboy upon a forbidden venture. Impatiently, and with a strength he +did not know that he possessed, he delved among the rubble, thrust at +the great beams, and wormed his way toward the vault. None would +interfere with him, he argued; there was no law, military or civil, +which forbade a man to share a bone with the dogs. Sadi was like a miser +seeking for his gold; and when at length he stood upright in that which +undoubtedly had been the larder of a house, he felt all the joy of an +explorer who has discovered an unknown city. Unhappily, such a transport +endured for the briefest of moments. Sadi was just telling himself that +he was a very lucky fellow when a great hand, thrust out of the +darkness, clutched at his throat, and the rays of a lantern shining full +in his face blinded him to any other sights. + +"Well, my body-snatcher," cried a voice in guttural French, "and what +may you be doing here?" + +A German spoke; there was no doubt of it at all. Moreover, he was a huge +fellow, probably a Prussian from the North; and although he wore the +uniform of a French regiment of chasseurs, it was ridiculously small for +him and showed its deficiencies when his cloak fell aside. Quick-witted +and mentally alert, Sadi guessed the fellow's business there at the +first hazard. He could be no one else than one of the many Prussian +spies who then found their way in and out of Strasburg so readily. This +desert waste of the city would harbour him surely--perchance he waited +an opportunity to recross the lines, and was hiding meanwhile in this +labyrinth like a fox that has gone to earth. All this passed through +Sadi's mind in a moment, but it was accompanied by a cold shiver as +though icy water were running down his back. For he perceived at once +that the Prussian carried a revolver in his right hand and that the +finger itched upon the trigger. A word, a step, might cost him his life. +Sadi stood rigid as a statue, while the sweat gathered in heavy drops +upon his brow. + +"Come, no nonsense!" the Prussian repeated, menacingly. "You had better +be honest with me. What is your business here? I will give you the half +of a minute to tell me." + +Sadi breathed heavily, but he spoke apparently without emotion. + +"I have had nothing to eat for twenty hours," he said; "naturally I came +here for food." + +The Prussian interrupted him with a brutal laugh. + +"Then you certainly live on vermin, my bag of bones," he retorted, with +a jeer. "Come, your time is nearly up, and my fingers are impatient. You +will really be very foolish if you are not candid with me." + +He raised the pistol slowly, and deliberately touched Sadi's forehead +with the cold barrel. The lantern's light showed a hard face and small +eyes set above puffy cheeks. He wore a moustache in the French fashion +and an uncouth imperial, which added to his grotesque appearance. Sadi +knew that such a man would think it no greater crime to shoot a +Frenchman than to drown a dog. Heroically as he had philosophized about +death ten minutes ago, the nearer presence of it was very dreadful to +him. He could imagine the sting of the bullet as it crashed through his +forehead, the sudden giddiness, the voice which said, "Never again shall +you speak, or breathe, or look up to the sun." A desperate desire of +life came to him. He trembled violently, pressed his hand to his heart, +but could not utter a single word. The Prussian watched him without +compassion. He began to count ironically, "One, two, three," he said; "I +will count ten, _canaille_," and he started off from the beginning +again. He was at the number "five" when a second voice in the cellar +caused him to turn sharply upon his heel and then to salute in the rigid +German fashion. + +"Ah, Herr Lieutenant, here is a job for you," he exclaimed, as though +glad to be quit of the responsibility. "I found this rat in the hole +here. Look at him for yourself and see what kind of a rogue he is." + +The new-comer was quite a youth, a fair, freckled German lad, in little +more than his twentieth year. He, too, wore a French uniform, but it was +that of the artillery, and Sadi observed that it was a better fit than +the loose clothes of the rough customer who had just been threatening +him. Such trifling facts occupied the fiddler's mind to the exclusion of +all else. He believed that he was about to die, and yet could count the +buttons on the lieutenant's tunic, guess at the State he came from, and +hazard the colour of his eyes. The lad was a Bavarian, he said, a merry, +laughing youngster. Impossible to believe that he would sanction a +brutal murder. Sadi breathed quickly--he appealed to the lad's sympathy +in an earnest, manly voice. + +[Illustration: "HE RAISED THE PISTOL SLOWLY."] + +"Herr Lieutenant, it is nothing of the kind," he protested; "I am a poor +wretch of a fiddler, whose garret your people have just burned." + +It was not a wise thing to have said, and the young soldier's +interruption told Sadi as much. + +"My people, sir!" he cried, sharply, and with feigned astonishment. +"What people do you mean, then?" + +"It is as I say," interrupted the trooper; "he is a spy who has tracked +us to our hole, Herr Lieutenant. Better make an end of him while there +is time." + +"But not with a pistol, trooper," retorted the boy, with a little laugh. +"At least, let us sup first." + +Sadi breathed again, while the two Prussians discussed the pros and cons +in a low voice. "If these men would but quarrel!" was his idea. They, +however, had no intention of doing anything of the kind, for presently +they ceased to wrangle, and the young soldier exclaimed, with some +severity:-- + +"You say that you are a fiddler. What proofs of that can you give us?" + +"My fiddle," answered Sadi, almost joyously; "you will find it on the +stones upstairs, sir." + +The answer surprised the men very much. + +"Go and look for it, trooper," said the officer, quietly; "there is +plenty of time before daylight to settle this fellow's affair. Besides, +the captain is fond of a little music." + +The trooper clambered up out of the cellar at the word of command, while +the lieutenant calmly lighted a cigar and surveyed Sadi with an ironical +glance. + +"Poor business, yours, just now, is it not?" he asked. + +"So poor that I am starving," said Sadi, with dignified simplicity. + +"Ah! And you look for your supper on the dust-heaps. Just like a +fiddler." + +"I have walked to the ramparts and back every evening for three years," +rejoined Sadi, whose self-possession remained to him. "The habit clings +to me; besides, what is the harm?" he asked. + +"The captain will teach you that; don't let me deceive you at all; he +will certainly shoot you, old fellow. For myself, I am sensitive; it is +my weakness to prefer live bodies to dead ones. I could not--no, I could +not harm a fly, my Stradivarius. That is why you are now allowed to say +your prayers." + +His own humour amused him, and presently he continued:-- + +"But perhaps you do not want to say your prayers, my Amati. Other people +generally do that when Frenchmen are fiddling. Here is your violin, I +see. Let us play it together." + +The trooper returned while he spoke, carrying the frayed black leather +case which stood for all that life could give to Sadi Descourcelles. +When the lieutenant seized upon it with rough hands it was as though +someone had struck Sadi a blow. + +"Gently, for Heaven's sake, sir," he cried. "Do you know that my fiddle +is worth five thousand francs?" + +"To us possibly a good deal more," retorted the lieutenant, +uncompassionately. "The captain shall read your music, my little +Paganini. This way, if you please, and mind your precious neck if you +prefer pistols." + +It was the lieutenant's evident idea that the violin-case contained the +private papers of a common spy, who had fallen by some lucky chance into +the hands of the very men he would have betrayed to the French. Proud at +the capture, and confident of applause from his superior officers, he +now pushed Sadi across the cellar in which they stood to a door upon the +far side of it, whence a flight of steps led downward to a second +cellar, more spacious and less encumbered. Here candles burned upon a +rude table, a fire flickered upon a tiled hearth, and burly figures +moved about a copper, whence a fragrant smell diffused itself. Sadi +perceived at once that he had been conducted into a very nest of +Prussians. He had no doubt whatever that these were the men who had been +carrying news of Strasburg to the Red Prince since the siege began; +their startled exclamations when the door opened, the quick exchange of +sign and counter-sign, left no other conclusion possible. And he +understood what he had to hope from them--he, who knew their secret and +could, by a word, bring a rabble there which would tear them limb from +limb. + +The trooper thrust Sadi forward toward the fire, while coarse, stubbly +faces peered into his own, and more than one hand reached out for a +candle to examine him more closely. To the hurried questions: "Whom have +you here; what cattle is this?" the lieutenant answered, simply: "I must +see the captain; please to wake him." In a tense interval, during which +someone entered a lunette of the cellar and touched a sleeping figure +upon the shoulder, the ruffian by the copper asked Sadi if he were +hungry, and, being answered "Yes," he took a ladleful of the boiling +soup and poured it over the prisoner's fingers. Sadi cried out sharply; +but before the act could be repeated a burly man strode out of the +alcove and gave the fellow a box on the ear which sounded like a +pistol-shot. + +"What do you mean by that, sergeant?" the new-comer asked. + +"A spy from the ramparts. I was keeping him warm, Herr Captain," was the +answer. + +"But this is no spy; this is Sadi the fiddler." + +Sadi turned with a cry of joy. + +"Ludenmayer! You, my friend!" he exclaimed. + +"Sadi! Old Sadi the fiddler! Impossible!" + +"Indeed, it is possible. Old Sadi, as you say, and so hungry that he +could eat the bones off your dishes." + +"Then he shall sup with us. A hungry man makes friends with strange +company, and we are that, as you guess, Maître Sadi. Come, sergeant, +fill our friend a bowl of soup. Let him spy out that to begin with. Eh, +Sadi, you will not refuse a bowl of soup even from the Prussians? Then +let us see you fall to. We can talk of old friends afterwards." + +There were some murmurs at this from the men about the table, but the +sergeant obeyed the order sullenly, and a bowl of the hot soup was set +before the astonished Sadi almost before he had realized that a lucky +accident had saved his life--for the moment, at any rate. Ludenmayer, +honestly glad to see an old acquaintance, even under such circumstances, +began to assure the rest that they had nothing to fear from Sadi; but at +this the fiddler put down his spoon and flatly contradicted his friend. + +"Not so," he said, blandly; "if it were in my power I would hang the lot +of you!" + +They laughed at him now--laughed at him for a foolish crank, airing his +absurd patriotism even at the pistol's mouth. While some of them said +that he would soon have Prussians enough for his neighbours in +Strasburg, others promised the city twenty, thirty, forty hours of her +freedom. + +"And we shall have you for our guest, friend Sadi," Ludenmayer said, +affably. "We like you so much that we cannot part with you. No, we must +certainly keep you until the Red Prince comes in; after that we will +send you to Munich to fiddle at the opera. Eh, my boy, there's a +career--to scrape this new Wagner stuff and hear the madmen say that you +are a genius. Will you come to Munich and see little Lucy again? I know +that you will, Sadi." + +Sadi sighed, but did not answer his friend. If the name of Lucy were a +sweet remembrance to him, this promise of Strasburg's surrender and of +the humiliation it must put upon France cut him to the quick. These men +about him, jesting in the face of death, defiant of all risks--how much, +perchance, they had done in the terrible weeks of the siege to bring +about this inevitable cataclysm and the ruin and death which attended +it! Their reward would be promotion and applause from those who had +contrived France's misfortunes. None would punish them, none bring them +to account, Sadi reflected bitterly; and, reflecting, he asked himself +of a sudden if he were not the appointed agent--he, the humble fiddler, +sent there by the chances of the night to discover and, it might be, to +betray them. + +[Illustration: "IF IT WERE IN MY POWER I WOULD HANG THE LOT OF YOU."] + +The idea came to him quite unexpectedly while the Prussians were at +their supper. In another he would have scoffed at it, but Sadi had long +been fretting upon his own uselessness and the poor part he had played +at the time of his country's need; and now it came to him as in a flash +that this was the appointed hour. That he would lose his own life in the +endeavour to give these men up to France he was quite convinced; but +this contemplation of sacrifice pleased him, and there was but one +regret--that he could do nothing which would not wound the father of her +he had so greatly loved. Yes, if he could call Frenchmen to this +hiding-place they would spare none, and Ludenmayer would perish with the +others. Sadi said that many a daughter mourned a father in Strasburg +that day--why should little Lucy be spared? And yet he could not bring +himself to harm his old friend. Did he not owe his life to him? + +It was a strange scene--the big cellar lighted by guttering candles, the +red fire flickering upon the hearth, and the sombre figures of the burly +Prussians lolling over their dishes or their pipes. From time to time +one or other would quit the place stealthily, returning anon with news +from the ramparts or the streets. The young lieutenant disappeared +altogether toward midnight, and Sadi knew that he had re-crossed the +lines while his friends were pledging him in giant bumpers of champagne. +As the hours went on the hilarity became reckless and, as it seemed to +Sadi, even dangerous. Ludenmayer called for silence more than once, but +the men, warmed with the wine, obeyed him reluctantly, and were soon +talking and laughing again. It was at the height of such an outburst +that Sadi touched his friend upon the shoulder and bethought him of the +very first lie he had told in all his life. + +"Did you say good-bye to the Herr Lieutenant?" he asked, in a low voice; +and then continued, "I hope so, for you will never see him again, friend +Ludenmayer." + +The captain, who had been squatting upon a heap of straw by Sadi's side, +laughed a little incredulously, but his nervousness was evident when he +asked:-- + +"And why should we not see him again, Sadi?" + +"Because they know where he will recross to-night." + +"They know! Who knows, then?" + +[Illustration: "I CAME HERE TO WARN YOU."] + +"Levoire and the staff. It is rumoured that you are hiding in the ruins. +I came here to warn you--you alone, mind, not the others." + +He raised a finger as much as to say, "This is the compact between us." +The Prussians round about were playing cards and dominoes, and +quarrelling over their games. Ludenmayer, fallen serious in a moment, +seemed to be turning over Sadi's words in his mind. Presently he said:-- + +"Levoire was a friend of yours, I think?" + +"I had the honour to be instructor to his wife." + +"Then she was your informant?" + +He had put the idea into Sadi's head, and the fiddler seized upon it +with avidity. + +"We need not go into that. If you doubt her information, prove it for +yourself. Your friends here are scarcely capable." + +"That is true, the cattle. They think that their work is over. I must +certainly go, Sadi--and take you with me." + +"Not so, Ludenmayer; I must have nothing to do with it. Besides, I am +very comfortable here." + +"For the time being, yes. But if anything should happen to me, they +would assuredly hang you, friend Sadi." + +"I will take my chances, Ludenmayer. Remember, it is you alone that I +wish to serve. They will at least respect your orders." + +"Give them your word to be silent, and they will let you go away at +once. There is nothing easier, Sadi." + +"For a Prussian, perhaps--for me, no. We have been comrades--let that +suffice, Ludenmayer. A wise man would go at once." + +The eyes of the two met, and the Prussian seemed to read something of +this odd fellow's purpose in his dilated pupils and the stern, set +expression of his mouth. It came to Ludenmayer that he and the +gregarious dozen of spies with him were already in a trap from which +haste alone would save them. This simple old fiddler knew much more than +he would tell. Ludenmayer, trained to selfishness by his occupation, +cared nothing for that which happened to the others if he could save his +own skin. He was grateful to Sadi, and he wrung his hand. + +"Well," he said, in a louder voice, for all to hear, "I must certainly +be off, but I shall not be away long. Do not spare the bottle, Sadi. And +mind you treat him well," he added, turning to the company, "for he is +my guest." + +The men stood to the salute mechanically, and the sentry in the passage +whispering that the road was clear, Ludenmayer left the cellar with a +last word in Sadi's ear. + +"Take care of yourself," he said; "they are in an ugly mood." + +Sadi nodded his head confidently, but his heart beat quicker when the +door was shut, and he looked a little eagerly into the faces of the crew +as though he would learn their purpose now that the captain was gone. It +could not be very long, he argued, before Ludenmayer discovered the +trick which had been played upon him and returned to charge him with it. +As to the Prussians about him, some were already steeped with wine, and +they lay sprawling like animals in the straw; others, and the cook was +among the number of these, eyed their captain's guest suspiciously and +discussed him in low voices. Sadi knew that his life hung upon a thread; +but when a great ruffian drew a revolver and loaded it deliberately the +fiddler was not afraid. "They will not shoot me," he said to himself; +"they would be afraid of the noise." What he feared was the rope and the +hook in the beam above, but he did not confess it by his looks; and +turning from them with a laugh he buried his head in the straw and +pretended to sleep. Soon the others imitated him, and the heavy +breathing of tired men echoed through the cellar. + +Sadi lay for a long while without any other idea than that of his own +danger and the fate which awaited him if Ludenmayer did not come back. +He had caught up the precious fiddle which the captain returned to him, +and he hugged it to him as the one possession left to him in the world. +Silent as the place was, the broken roof admitted sounds of the later +night, the blare of bugles, and the booming of the shells. Sadi wondered +what those distant troops would say if a man should go to them and cry, +"The cellars by the old church of St. Gervais are full of Prussian +spies; you will find them sleeping there." Could he but send that +message, at least one of the wrongs of those bitter days would be +avenged. And yet how impotent he was! The desert waste of land above +would be without one living soul at such an hour; and he knew that any +attempt to quit the cellar would bring instant death upon him. Sadi, +convinced of the hopelessness of his idea, lay very still and counted +the dreary hours. For a time he slept; and when he awoke it was the +sentry's voice which aroused him. The man had come down to warn his +comrades. A regiment of the line marched out to the assistance of the +gunners at Lunette 53--you could hear their heavy tramping as they +crossed the old road, now lumbered over with stones and the rubble of +the tumbled houses. There would be many, very many of them, the ear +said. Sadi alone amongst those who listened to the footsteps did not +tremble or turn pale. He was unloosing his fiddle in its case. None saw +him or thought of him in that tragic moment. "For France!" he said, and +he believed it was the last word he would ever utter. + +The alarm cried softly in the cellar found stupid ears and men but +half-awakened from a drunken sleep. Some of the Prussians sat up with +hush words upon their lips; others simply lay and listened--a regiment +was marching past certainly, but what of that? They had but to lie close +and to douse the lights (which they were quick to do) and their safety +was assured. This they believed when sudden music, loud and distinct, +sent them leaping to their feet and crying for their swords. Someone +played the "Wacht am Rhein" at their very elbows--a voice roared "Shoot +the fiddler down"--another voice cried out for a light. It was the +supreme moment in the life of Sadi the fiddler. Never had he played so +wildly or with such delight of his notes. And the darkness, he said, +might yet save him. Dodging here, ducking there, he plunged into the +passage and went on headlong toward the light. But he never ceased to +play the "Wacht am Rhein" when he could stand a moment to breathe, and +the bullets singing by him, the sword-thrusts aimed at him, did but make +him play the louder. + +[Illustration: "HE NEVER CEASED TO PLAY THE 'WACHT AM RHEIN.'"] + +Sadi gained the ruins above with a great gash upon his cheek and his +precious fiddle cleaved in half by a cut from a Prussian sword. Up in +the open his eyes beheld a glad sight. A regiment of infantry stood at +the halt not twenty paces from him. Its officers were moving about as +though in quest of some mystery, and when they perceived him they +advanced a little curiously and bade the fiddler halt. He answered them +in words which were almost incoherent. "The ruins are full of +Prussians," he said, and pointed downwards to the cellars he had left. +No other word was spoken or needed. Savagely, silently, as beasts of +prey that have found quarry, the soldiers fixed their bayonets and began +to go down. And Sadi stood entranced, listening to the cries of men in +their death agony, to their prayers for mercy; and he said, "This wrong +at least is avenged." + +And so he turned from the scene, with his poor broken fiddle, and the +long day of loneliness before him. + +"I shall not play in Munich; I shall never see little Lucy again," he +said. But he knew that he had done his duty, and his step was firmer +when he set out again for the terrible streets of a city about to open +its gates to the enemy. + + + + +_Prince Henry's Beast Book._ + + +The many thousands who have laughed over the inimitable Artemus Ward's +essays in natural history, such as "The elephant has four legs--one on +each corner; he eats hay and cakes," might little suspect the analogy +which exists between these humorous trifles and the serious works of the +zoological pundits of the seventeenth century. If anything, far greater +is the humour to be extracted from the older writers; especially when we +recollect that their books and treatises on animal creation were +regarded with infinite respect--veneration even--by young and old, wise +and unwise, noble and plebeian, who diligently consulted them. + +Unhappily, most of these productions are in Latin, and even Artemus Ward +in Latin would probably lose the fine savour of merriment by which his +good things are distinguished unless the translator relied upon puns, as +they do in the Westminster plays. But the pictures in Aldrovandus, in +Albertus Magnus, in Johannes Jonstonus, and in Conrad Gesner +speak--shall we not rather say, shriek?--for themselves; and we were +recently fortunate in coming across a large volume in which the best in +all these books is gathered together, with English letterpress, for the +benefit of a young English prince who lived and died early in the +seventeenth century. It was in 1607 that Edward Topsell published his +version of "Four-footed Beastes." Gesner's _chef d'oeuvre_ and those +of the other writers named had been on the bookshelves for many years. + +The volume in question belonged to the eldest son and heir of James I., +and has his coat of arms on the cover. Next, it enjoys the distinction +of having some of the plates coloured by the Royal hand, its owner being +then in his thirteenth year. But, best of all, its pictures and +letterpress describe for us beyond the possibility of error, and in the +clearest and most perspicuous way, the wonderful quadrupeds which +flourished on the face of the earth in Prince Henry's boyhood. + +Beside this curious volume how tame are even the most interesting of +modern natural history books! Let us begin with the king of beasts. + +"Lyons bones have no marrow in them and are so hard that they will +strike fire. Their neck is made of one stiffe bone, without any +vertebras. They have five claws on the hinder feet and the balls of +their eyes are black. Lyons eat but once in two days and drink in like +manner. Formerly in England a Lyon could tell noble blood from base." + +Can it be that this virtue was confined merely to the lions caged in the +Heralds' College? Our Beast Booke goes on to inform us that in certain +districts lions were killed, not with spears or cannon-balls, but "with +the _powder of decayed fish_." From whence may we not have a faint +glimmering of the reason why Jamrach's was originally situated so much +nearer to Billingsgate Market than to Piccadilly? + +[Illustration: "THERE IS A VARIETY OF LYON WITH HUMAN FACES."] + +"There is a variety of Lyon with human faces. As for the rest, the taile +of a Lyon is very long, which they shake oftentimes, and by beating +their sides therewith they provoke themselves to fight. The nether part +of this taile is full of hairs and gristles, and some are of opinion +that there is therein a little sting wherewithall the Lyon pricketh +itselfe." + +"The Lamia is a wild Beast, having several parts outwardly resembling +an Oxe and inwardly a mule. The Lamia has a woman's face and very +beautifull, also very large and comely shapes such as cannot be imitated +by the art of any painter, having a very excellent colour in their +fore-parts without wings, and no other voice but hissing like Dragons; +but they are the swiftest of foot of all earthly beasts, so as none can +escape them by running." + +[Illustration: "THE LAMIA HAS A WOMAN'S FACE AND VERY BEAUTIFULL."] + +The chief prey of the Lamia was, it appears, members of the human +species, preferably males. By its passing beauty (or, to judge by the +pictorial illustration, one would say rather by its amazing novelty) it +would entice men, and when they had "come neare, devoure and kill them." +In fact, these lamias were so inordinately fond of their favourite +refreshment that in one district "a certain crooked place in Libia neare +the Sea-shore full of sand was like to a sandy Sea and all the neighbor +places thereunto are deserts." A painful and humiliating lack of men has +often been noticed at our modern seaside resorts. + +"The hinder parts of this beast," concludes our author, "are like unto a +goate, his fore-legs like a Beares and his body scaled all over like a +Dragon." + +Next is a contemporary picture of a Tiger. + +[Illustration: A TIGER.] + +And now we come to the Wolf. His custom in those halcyon days of natural +history was, as now, to go in troops. But we read: "Their necks are +pressed together, so that they cannot stir it, to look about, but they +must move their whole bodies. They fall upon their prey, devouring hair, +bones and all. When they are to fight in great herds they fill their +bellies with earth." But this is as nothing. "When they are to pass over +Rivers, they joyn tails; loaded with that weight they are not easily +thrown down and the floods can hardly carry them away, being joined +together. The breath of a Wolf is so fiery, that it will melt and +consume the hardest bone in his stomack." + +We have all of us heard of the Harpy. Below is a likeness of one that +speaks for itself. + +[Illustration: A HARPY.] + +Lizards are always interesting. "There was a lizzard 8 cubits long +brought to Rome from Ætheopia by the command of a Cardinal of Lisbon and +the mouth of it was so wide that a child might be put into it.... Put +alive into a new earthen vessel and boyle'd with 3 Sextaryes of Wine and +one Cyathus, it is excellent food for one sick of the Pthisick, if he +drink of it in the morning fasting." + +We must not suppose that this operation would kill the lizard; the +difficulty would be how to procure a vessel to stew so large a lizard. +Lizard-pots are made much smaller nowadays. We dare say that the worthy +Mrs. Beeton, in her most ingenious moments, never dreamt of one above +four, or at most six, cubits deep. + +Writers of our own time who have never gone in for a course of logic +rarely condescend to complete perspicuity. They take things too often +for granted. This is not old Topsell's way. "The Arabian sheep have a +very broad tail," he says, "and the fatter it is the thicker it will +be." We learn, too, what we should never have suspected had the author +not plainly stated it, that some tails "have been seen above 150lbs. in +weight." Albertus Magnus saw "a Ram that had 4 great Horns growing on +his head and two long ones on his legges, that were like to Goat's +Horns." + +Here are some other gems from our Beast Booke:-- + +"Subus is an amphibion, with two Horns: he follows shoals of fish +swimming in the Sea, Lobsters, Pagri, and Oculatae, are fishes that love +him; but he cares for none of their love, but makes them all his prey. + +[Illustration: THE SPHINX OR SPHINGA.] + +"The Sphinx or Sphinga is of the kinde of Apes, having his body rough +like Apes, having the upper part like a woman and their visage much like +them. The voice very like a man's, but not articular, sounding as if one +did speak hastily or with sorrow. Their haire browne or swarthy colour. +They are bred in India and Ethyopia. The true Sphinx is of a fierce +though a tameable nature and if a man do first of all perceive or +discerne of these natural _Sphinges_, before the beast discerne or +perceive the man, he shall be safe; but if the beast first descrie the +man, then is it mortal to the man. + +[Illustration: THE MANTICHORA.] + +"The Mantichora is bred among the Indians, having a treble row of teeth +beneathe and above, whose greatnesse, roughnesse and feete are like a +Lyons, his face and ears like unto a mans, his eyes grey and collour +red, his taile like the taile of a scorpion of the earth, armed with a +sting, casting forth sharp pointed quills, his voice like the voice of a +small trumpet or pipe, being in course as swift as a Hart." + +Then follows further description of the Mantichora. This singular +combination of lion, man, scorpion, and porcupine was implicitly +believed in by all the natural history writers up to Goldsmith's day, +and we are not sure that that pleasing but gullible scribe did not, +privately at least, accord its existence full credence. + +Leigh Hunt, in his Autobiography, describes the extraordinary effect +which a sight of this beast had upon him when he encountered it in an +old folio during his childhood. The Mantichora, he says, "unspeakably +shocked me. It had the head of a man, grinning with rows of teeth, and +the body of a wild beast, brandishing a tail armed with stings. It was +sometimes called by the ancients Martichora. But I did not know that. I +took the word to be a horrible compound of man and tiger. The beast +figures in Pliny and the old travellers. Appolonius takes a fearful joy +in describing him. 'Mantichora,' says old Morell--'bestia horrenda'--'a +brute fit to give one the horrors.' The possibility of such creatures +being pursued never occurred to me. Alexander, I thought, might have +been encountered while crossing the Granicus, and elephants might be +driven into the sea, but how could anyone face a beast with a man's +head?" Leigh Hunt goes on to describe how the Mantichora impressed his +whole childhood. Doubtless the sensations of the eighteenth-century +child were the same felt by the early seventeenth century Prince Henry. +The Mantichora was the _bête noire_ of the Royal nursery, we may depend +upon it. + +Scarcely less dreadful was the Collogruis, whose picture is given on the +next page. + +How many of us have heard of the Colus? + +"There is," we read, "among the Scithians and Sarmatians a foure-footed +wild beast called Colus, being in quantitie and stature betwixt a Ramnie +and a Hart and dusky white coloured, but the young ones yellow." The +real peculiarity of the Colus, which makes every true lover of +quadrupeds regret its extinction, is described as follows: "Her manner +is to drinke by the holes in her nostrils, whereby she snuffeth up +aboundance of water and carrieth it in her head, so that she will live +in dry pastures remote from all moisture and great season, quenching her +thirst by that cisterne in her head." Imagination conjures up a huge +drove of Colii, blissfully encamped in the midst of the Sahara, +astonishing the passing Bedouins by their sagacity and the amazing +cisterns in their craniums. There was no use trying to capture them, so +fleet and nimble were they, unless, indeed, the hunter had taken the +precaution to arm himself with a flute or a timbrel. In that case he had +only to strike up a few airs and it was all up with the poor Colus. He +would fall down with weakness, and a simple blow with a staff sufficed +to dispatch him. He made excellent eating; flavoured, we suppose, by the +contents of the cranial cistern afore described. + +[Illustration: THE COLLOGRUIS.] + +"The Camelopard or Giraffe is a beaste full of spots. He hath two little +hornes growing on his head the colour of iron, his eies rolling and +growing, his mouth but small like a hart's; his tongue is neare three +foot long. The pace of this beast differeth from all other in the world, +for he doth not move his right and left foote one after another, but +both together, and so likewise the other, whereby his whole body is +removed at every step or straine." + +We must perforce skip the descriptions of the three kinds of Apes--Ape +Satyre, the Ape Norwegian, and the Ape Pan. Then there are such +creatures as the Axis, the Alborach, the Cacus, the Allocamell, and the +Tragelaphus. + +And how shall we tell of the Dictyes, the Crucigeran, the Gulon, and the +Gorgon? Then there are dissertations on those fearful quadrupeds the +Orynx and the Tarbarine. + +[Illustration: THE POEPHAGUS.] + +But the Poephagus ought to detain the modern student a moment, as it +must often have engrossed Prince Henry by the hour. + +"This great beaste whose everie hair is two cubitts in length & yet +finer than a man's, is one of the fearfullest creatures in the World: +for if he perceive him to be but looked at by anybody he taketh to his +heels as fast as he can goe." + +The cause of his fright is his tail, which is much sought after by the +natives to bind up their hair. When the hunted Poephagus can "no longer +avoyde the hunter then doth he turne himselfe, hiding his taile, & +looketh upon the face of the hunter with some confidence, gathering his +wits together, as if to face out that he had no tayle, & that the +residue of his body were not worth looking after." + +Sly Poephagus! But his stratagem is in vain. For "they take off the +skinne and the taile," perhaps not even killing him, and so leaving the +luckless Poephagus to go roaming about the country skinless and +tailless--a piteous sight. But stay. "Volateranus relateth this +otherwise, that the beast biteth off his own taile and so delivereth +himself from the hunter, knowing that he is not desired for any other +cause." Can we not conjure up the scene for ourselves? + +"Hunter: So sorry to trouble you, but your taile or your life! + +"Poephagus: No trouble at all, I assure you. Allow me (_bites off his +taile_). Pray accept it with my compliments (_hunter bows and +retires_)." + +"The Neades were certain beastes whose voice was so terrible that they +shook the earth therewith," but the Strepficeros, though endowed with a +more resonant title, was a very simple, inoffensive quadruped after all. + +"The Cepus was a four-footed beast having a face like a Lyon & some part +of the body like a panther, being as big as a wild goat or Roe-buck, or +as one of the dogs of _Erithrea_ & a long taile, the which such of them +as having tasted flesh will eat from their own bodies." + +"The Calitrich had a long beard and a large taile." You perceive the +early naturalists set great store by an animal's caudal appendage. It +gave them scope for their descriptive powers. + +And now let us learn something about the Cynocephale. "The Cynocephales +are a kind of Apes, whose heads are like Dogges & their other part like +a mans. Some there are which are able to write & naturally to discerne +letters which kind the Priests bring into their Temples, & at their +first entrance, the Priest bringeth him a writing Table, a pencil & Inke +that so by seeing him write he may make by all whether he be of the +right kind & the beast quickly sheweth his skill. The Nomades, people of +Ethiopia & the nations of Mentimori live upon the milk of Cynocephals, +keeping great heards of them, & killing all the males." + +[Illustration: A CYNOCEPHALE.] + +"The Elk is a four-footed beast commonly found in Scandinavia. His upper +lip hangs out so long that he cannot eat but going backwards. He is +subject to the falling sicknesse, the remedy he hath is to lift up the +right claw of the hinder foot & put it to his left ear. It holds the +same virtue if you cut it off." + +Of the ram we are told that "for six winter months he sleeps on his +right side; but after the vernal equinoctiall he rests on his right. +Ælianus hath discovered this, but the butchers deny it." + +[Illustration: CAMELS.] + +"The Camel hath a manifold belly, either because he hath a great body: +or, because he eats Thorny & Woody substances, God hath provided for the +concoction. Puddle water is sweet to him, nor will he drink river water, +till he hath troubled it with his foot. He lives a hundred years, +unlesse the Ayre agree not with him. When they are on a journey they do +not whip them forward: but they sing to them, whereby they run so fast +that men can hardly follow them." + +Modern zoologists must regret the extinction of the sixteenth-century +She-goat, which, according to Prince Henry's natural history, "see as +well by night as day, wherefore if those that are blind in the night eat +a _Goats_ liver they are granted sight. They breathe out of their eares +and nostrils." + +Farther along, the national animal of the greatest of British dominions +beyond the seas is thus described:-- + +"The _Beaver_ is a most strong creature to bite, he will never let go +his teeth that meet, before he makes the bones crack. His hinder feet +are like a Gooses and his fore-feet like an Apes. His fat tail is +covered with a scaly skin, & he uses for a rudder when he pursues fish. +He comes forth of his holes in the night: & biting off boughs of Trees +about the Rivers, he makes his houses with an upper loft. When they are +cut asunder they are very delightsome to see; for one lies on his back & +hath the boughs between his legges & others draw him by the tail to +their cottage. + +"A Baboon is a Creature with a head like a dog, but in shape like a man; +he will fish cunningly, for he will dive all day, & bring forth +abundance of fish." + +Here is a picture of a Hippopotamus or Sea-Horse devouring a crocodile +tail first. + +[Illustration: A HIPPOPOTAMUS DEVOURING A CROCODILE.] + +"The Elephant is a stranger with us, but that the Indians & other places +have them in common. The King of the Palibroti had 90,000 of them. Many +strange things are spoken of them. It is certain that of old time they +carried Castles of armed men into the Field. In his heart, says +Aldrovandus, he hath a wonderful big bone. Aristotle maintains that he +hath three Stomacks. It is most certain (continues the careful +chronicler) that in the Kingdom of Malabar they talk together, & speak +with man's voice. There was, saith Ocafta, in Cochin an Elephant, who +carried things to the Haven & laboured in the sea-faring matters: when +he was weary the Governor of the place did force him to draw a galley +from the Haven which he had begun to draw, into the sea: the Elephant +refused it the Governor gave him good words, & at the last entreated him +to do it for the King of Portugal, thereupon (it is hardly credible) the +elephant was moored, & repeated these two words clearly, _Hoo, Hoo_, +which in the language of Malabar is, _I will, I will_, & he presently +drew the ship into the Sea.... They learn things so eagerly that Pliny +says that an Elephant that was something dull, & was often beat for not +learning well, was found acting his part by moon-light, & some say that +_Elephants_ will learn to write & read. One of them learned to describe +the Greek letters, & did write in the same tongue these words, _I myself +writ this_." + +"But," concludes the zoologist, conscious of having clinched the matter +by this last proof, "_I will say no more_." + +"The Ichneumon is a creature in Egypt with a long tail like a Serpents. +He is an enemy to the Crocodile; for when he observes him sleeping he +rolles himself in clay, & goes into his mouth, & so into his belly & +eats his liver, & then leaps forth again." + +[Illustration: THE ICHNEUMON.] + +Loaded with all his zoological learning we can understand how Prince +Henry became a very bright little boy, far in advance of his years. We +can also dimly perceive why he died so young. + +It is not given to every youth--nor to every prince--to devour such +marvels and live in peace and content at home or at Court, surrounded by +the conventions of everyday English life. But had he survived this +accumulation of wisdom, the realm would surely have boasted under King +Henry IX. a "Zoo" compared with which our present establishment, +excellent as it is, would have been paltry indeed. But it is too late to +repine. The mantichora, the lamia, the gryphon, and the poephagus are +presumably extinct, while as for our lions, bears, giraffes, and the +rest of the "foure-footed beastes," these appear to have miserably +abandoned all those curious traits which rendered them glorious in +little Prince Henry's days, and which, we trust, will long reflect +lustre on their past. + + + + +DIALSTONE LANE + +_BY W. W. JACOBS_. + +Copyright, 1904, by W. W. Jacobs, in the United States of America. + +[Illustration] + + +CHAPTER I. + +Mr. Edward Tredgold sat in the private office of Tredgold and Son, land +and estate agents, gazing through the prim wire blinds at the peaceful +High Street of Binchester. Tredgold senior, who believed in work for the +young, had left early. Tredgold junior, glad at an opportunity of +sharing his father's views, had passed most of the work on to a clerk +who had arrived in the world exactly three weeks after himself. + +"Binchester gets duller and duller," said Mr. Tredgold to himself, +wearily. "Two skittish octogenarians, one gloomy baby, one gloomier +nursemaid, and three dogs in the last five minutes. If it wasn't for the +dogs----Halloa!" + +He put down his pen and, rising, looked over the top of the blind at a +girl who was glancing from side to side of the road as though in search +of an address. + +"A visitor," continued Mr. Tredgold, critically. "Girls like that only +visit Binchester, and then take the first train back, never to return." + +The girl turned at that moment and, encountering the forehead and eyes, +gazed at them until they sank slowly behind the protection of the blind. + +"She's coming here," said Mr. Tredgold, watching through the wire. +"Wants to see our time-table, I expect." + +He sat down at the table again, and taking up his pen took some papers +from a pigeon-hole and eyed them with severe thoughtfulness. + +"A lady to see you, sir," said a clerk, opening the door. + +Mr. Tredgold rose and placed a chair. + +"I have called for the key of the cottage in Dialstone Lane," said the +girl, still standing. "My uncle, Captain Bowers, has not arrived yet, +and I am told that you are the landlord." + +Mr. Tredgold bowed. "The next train is due at six," he observed, with a +glance at the time-table hanging on the wall; "I expect he'll come by +that. He was here on Monday seeing the last of the furniture in. Are you +Miss Drewitt?" + +"Yes," said the girl. "If you'll kindly give me the key, I can go in and +wait for him." + +Mr. Tredgold took it from a drawer. "If you will allow me, I will go +down with you," he said, slowly; "the lock is rather awkward for anybody +who doesn't understand it." + +The girl murmured something about not troubling him. + +"It's no trouble," said Mr. Tredgold, taking up his hat. "It is our duty +to do all we can for the comfort of our tenants. That lock--" + +He held the door open and followed her into the street, pointing out +various objects of interest as they went along. + +"I'm afraid you'll find Binchester very quiet," he remarked. + +"I like quiet," said his companion. + +Mr. Tredgold glanced at her shrewdly, and, pausing only at the Jubilee +horse-trough to point out beauties which might easily escape any but a +trained observation, walked on in silence until they reached their +destination. + +Except in the matter of window-blinds, Dialstone Lane had not changed +for generations, and Mr. Tredgold noted with pleasure the interest of +his companion as she gazed at the crumbling roofs, the red-brick +doorsteps, and the tiny lattice windows of the cottages. At the last +house, a cottage larger than the rest, one side of which bordered the +old churchyard, Mr. Tredgold paused and, inserting his key in the lock, +turned it with thoughtless ease. + +"The lock seems all right; I need not have bothered you," said Miss +Drewitt, regarding him gravely. + +"Ah, it seems easy," said Mr. Tredgold, shaking his head, "but it wants +knack." + +The girl closed the door smartly, and, turning the key, opened it again +without any difficulty. To satisfy herself--on more points than one--she +repeated the performance. + +"You've _got_ the knack," said Mr. Tredgold, meeting her gaze with great +calmness. "It's extraordinary what a lot of character there is in locks; +they let some people open them without any trouble, while others may +fumble at them till they're tired." + +The girl pushed the door open and stood just inside the room. + +"Thank you," she said, and gave him a little bow of dismissal. + +A vein of obstinacy in Mr. Tredgold's disposition, which its owner +mistook for firmness, asserted itself. It was plain that the girl had +estimated his services at their true value and was quite willing to +apprise him of the fact. He tried the lock again, and with more +bitterness than the occasion seemed to warrant said that somebody had +been oiling it. + +"I promised Captain Bowers to come in this afternoon and see that a few +odd things had been done," he added. "May I come in now?" + +The girl withdrew into the room, and, seating herself in a large +arm-chair by the fireplace, watched his inspection of door-knobs and +window-fastenings with an air of grave amusement, which he found +somewhat trying. + +"Captain Bowers had the walls panelled and these lockers made to make +the room look as much like a ship's cabin as possible," he said, pausing +in his labours. "He was quite pleased to find the staircase opening out +of the room--he calls it the companion-ladder. And he calls the kitchen +the pantry, which led to a lot of confusion with the workmen. Did he +tell you of the crow's-nest in the garden?" + +"No," said the girl. + +"It's a fine piece of work," said Mr. Tredgold. + +He opened the door leading into the kitchen and stepped out into the +garden. Miss Drewitt, after a moment's hesitation, followed, and after +one delighted glance at the trim old garden gazed curiously at a mast +with a barrel fixed near the top, which stood at the end. + +"There's a fine view from up there," said Mr. Tredgold. "With the +captain's glass one can see the sea distinctly. I spent nearly all last +Friday afternoon up there, keeping an eye on things. Do you like the +garden? Do you think these old creepers ought to be torn down from the +house?" + +"Certainly not," said Miss Drewitt, with emphasis. + +"Just what I said," remarked Mr. Tredgold. "Captain Bowers wanted to +have them pulled down, but I dissuaded him. I advised him to consult you +first." + +"I don't suppose he really intended to," said the girl. + +"He did," said the other, grimly; "said they were untidy. How do you +like the way the house is furnished?" + +The girl gazed at him for a few moments before replying. "I like it very +much," she said, coldly. + +"That's right," said Mr. Tredgold, with an air of relief. "You see, I +advised the captain what to buy. I went with him to Tollminster and +helped him choose. Your room gave me the most anxiety, I think." + +"_My_ room?" said the girl, starting. + +"It's a dream in the best shades of pink and green," said Mr. Tredgold, +modestly. "Pink on the walls, and carpets and hangings green; three or +four bits of old furniture--the captain objected, but I stood firm; and +for pictures I had two or three little things out of an art journal +framed." + +"Is furnishing part of your business?" inquired the girl, eyeing him in +bewilderment. + +"Business?" said the other. "Oh, no. I did it for amusement. I chose and +the captain paid. It was a delightful experience. The sordid question of +price was waived; for once expense was nothing to me. I wish you'd just +step up to your room and see how you like it. It's the one over the +kitchen." + +[Illustration: "PRUDENCE."] + +Miss Drewitt hesitated, and then curiosity, combined with a cheerful +idea of probably being able to disapprove of the lauded decorations, +took her indoors and upstairs. In a few minutes she came down again. + +"I suppose it's all right," she said, ungraciously, "but I don't +understand why you should have selected it." + +"I had to," said Mr. Tredgold, confidentially. "I happened to go to +Tollminster the same day as the captain and went into a shop with him. +If you could only see the things he wanted to buy, you would +understand." + +The girl was silent. + +"The paper the captain selected for your room," continued Mr. Tredgold, +severely, "was decorated with branches of an unknown flowering shrub, on +the top twig of which a humming-bird sat eating a dragon-fly. A rough +calculation showed me that every time you opened your eyes in the +morning you would see fifty-seven humming-birds--all made in the same +pattern--eating fifty-seven ditto dragon-flies. The captain said it was +cheerful." + +"I have no doubt that my uncle's selection would have satisfied me," +said Miss Drewitt, coldly. + +"The curtains he fancied were red, with small yellow tigers crouching +all over them," pursued Mr. Tredgold. "The captain seemed fond of +animals." + +"I think that you were rather--venturesome," said the girl. "Suppose +that I had not liked the things you selected?" + +Mr. Tredgold deliberated. "I felt sure that you would like them," he +said, at last. "It was a hard struggle not to keep some of the things +for myself. I've had my eye on those two Chippendale chairs for years. +They belonged to an old woman in Mint Street, but she always refused to +part with them. I shouldn't have got them, only one of them let her down +the other day." + +"Let her down?" repeated Miss Drewitt, sharply. "Do you mean one of the +chairs in my bedroom?" + +Mr. Tredgold nodded. "Gave her rather a nasty fall," he said. "I struck +while the iron was hot, and went and made her an offer while she was +still laid up from the effects of it. It's the one standing against the +wall; the other's all right, with proper care." + +Miss Drewitt, after a somewhat long interval, thanked him. + +"You must have been very useful to my uncle," she said, slowly. "I feel +sure that he would never have bought chairs like those of his own +accord." + +"He has been at sea all his life," said Mr. Tredgold, in extenuation. +"You haven't seen him for a long time, have you?" + +"Ten years," was the reply. + +"He is delightful company," said Mr. Tredgold. "His life has been one +long series of adventures in every quarter of the globe. His stock of +yarns is like the widow's cruse. And here he comes," he added, as a +dilapidated fly drew up at the house and an elderly man, with a red, +weather-beaten face, partly hidden in a cloud of grey beard, stepped out +and stood in the doorway, regarding the girl with something almost akin +to embarrassment. + +"It's not--not Prudence?" he said, at length, holding out his hand and +staring at her. + +"Yes, uncle," said the girl. + +They shook hands, and Captain Bowers, reaching up for a cage containing +a parrot, which had been noisily entreating the cabman for a kiss all +the way from the station, handed that flustered person his fare and +entered the house again. + +"Glad to see you, my lad," he said, shaking hands with Mr. Tredgold and +glancing covertly at his niece. "I hope you haven't been waiting long," +he added, turning to the latter. + +"No," said Miss Drewitt, regarding him with a puzzled air. + +"I missed the train," said the captain. "We must try and manage better +next time. I--I hope you'll be comfortable." + +"Thank you," said the girl. + +"You--you are very like your poor mother," said the captain. + +"I hope so," said Prudence. + +She stole up to the captain and, after a moment's hesitation, kissed his +cheek. The next moment she was caught up and crushed in the arms of a +powerful and affectionate bear. + +"Blest if I hardly knew how to take you at first," said the captain, his +red face shining with gratification. "Little girls are one thing, but +when they grow up into"--he held her away and looked at her +proudly--"into handsome and dignified-looking young women, a man doesn't +quite know where he is." + +He took her in his arms again and, kissing her forehead, winked +delightedly in the direction of Mr. Tredgold, who was affecting to look +out of the window. + +"My man'll be in soon," he said, releasing the girl, "and then we'll see +about some tea. He met me at the station and I sent him straight off for +things to eat." + +"Your man?" said Miss Drewitt. + +"Yes; I thought a man would be easier to manage than a girl," said the +captain, knowingly. "You can be freer with 'em in the matter of +language, and then there's no followers or anything of that kind. I got +him to sign articles ship-shape and proper. Mr. Tredgold recommended +him." + +"No, no," said that gentleman, hastily. + +"I asked you before he signed on with me," said the captain, pointing a +stumpy forefinger at him. "I made a point of it, and you told me that +you had never heard anything against him." + +"I don't call that a recommendation," said Mr. Tredgold. + +"It's good enough in these days," retorted the captain, gloomily. "A man +that has got a character like that is hard to find." + +"He might be artful and keep his faults to himself," suggested Tredgold. + +"So long as he does that, it's all right," said Captain Bowers. "I can't +find fault if there's no faults to find fault with. The best steward I +ever had, I found out afterwards, had escaped from gaol. He never wanted +to go ashore, and when the ship was in port almost lived in his pantry." + +"I never heard of Tasker having been in gaol," said Mr. Tredgold. +"Anyhow, I'm certain that he never broke out of one; he's far too +stupid." + +As he paid this tribute the young man referred to entered laden with +parcels, and, gazing awkwardly at the company, passed through the room +on tip-toe and began to busy himself in the pantry. Mr. Tredgold, +refusing the captain's invitation to stay for a cup of tea, took his +departure. + +"Very nice youngster that," said the captain, looking after him. "A +little bit light-hearted in his ways, perhaps, but none the worse for +that." + +He sat down and looked round at his possessions. "The first real home +I've had for nearly fifty years," he said, with great content. "I hope +you'll be as happy here as I intend to be. It sha'n't be my fault if +you're not." + +Mr. Tredgold walked home deep in thought, and by the time he had arrived +there had come to the conclusion that if Miss Drewitt favoured her +mother, that lady must have been singularly unlike Captain Bowers in +features. + + +CHAPTER II. + +In less than a week Captain Bowers had settled down comfortably in his +new command. A set of rules and regulations by which Mr. Joseph Tasker +was to order his life was framed and hung in the pantry. He studied it +with care, and, anxious that there should be no possible chance of a +misunderstanding, questioned the spelling in three instances. The +captain's explanation that he had spelt those words in the American +style was an untruthful reflection upon a great and friendly nation. + +Dialstone Lane was at first disposed to look askance at Mr. Tasker. +Old-fashioned matrons clustered round to watch him cleaning the +doorstep, and, surprised at its whiteness, withdrew discomfited. Rumour +had it that he liked work, and scandal said that he had wept because he +was not allowed to do the washing. + +[Illustration: "OLD-FASHIONED MATRONS CLUSTERED ROUND TO WATCH HIM +CLEANING THE DOORSTEP."] + +The captain attributed this satisfactory condition of affairs to the +rules and regulations, though a slight indiscretion on the part of Mr. +Tasker, necessitating the unframing of the document to add to the +latter, caused him a little annoyance. + +The first intimation he had of it was a loud knocking at the front door +as he sat dozing one afternoon in his easy-chair. In response to his +startled cry of "Come in!" the door opened and a small man, in a state +of considerable agitation, burst into the room and confronted him. + +"My name is Chalk," he said, breathlessly. + +"A friend of Mr. Tredgold's?" said the captain. "I've heard of you, +sir." + +The visitor paid no heed. + +"My wife wishes to know whether she has got to dress in the dark every +afternoon for the rest of her life," he said, in fierce but trembling +tones. + +"Got to dress in the dark?" repeated the astonished captain. + +"With the blind down," explained the other. + +Captain Bowers looked him up and down. He saw a man of about fifty +nervously fingering the little bits of fluffy red whisker which grew at +the sides of his face, and trying to still the agitation of his +tremulous mouth. + +"How would you like it yourself?" demanded the visitor, whose manner was +gradually becoming milder and milder. "How would _you_ like a telescope +a yard long pointing----" + +He broke off abruptly as the captain, with a smothered oath, dashed out +of his chair into the garden and stood shaking his fist at the +crow's-nest at the bottom. + +"Joseph!" he bawled. + +"Yes, sir," said Mr. Tasker, removing the telescope described by Mr. +Chalk from his eye, and leaning over. + +"What are you doing with that spy-glass?" demanded his master, beckoning +to the visitor, who had drawn near. "How dare you stare in at people's +windows?" + +"I wasn't, sir," replied Mr. Tasker, in an injured voice. "I wouldn't +think o' such a thing--I couldn't, not if I tried." + +"You'd got it pointed straight at my bedroom window," cried Mr. Chalk, +as he accompanied the captain down the garden. "And it ain't the first +time." + +"I wasn't, sir," said the steward, addressing his master. "I was +watching the martins under the eaves." + +"You'd got it pointed at my window," persisted the visitor. + +"That's where the nests are," said Mr. Tasker, "but I wasn't looking in +at the window. Besides, I noticed you always pulled the blind down when +you saw me looking, so I thought it didn't matter." + +"We can't do anything without being followed about by that telescope," +said Mr. Chalk, turning to the captain. "My wife had our house built +where it is on purpose, so that we shouldn't be overlooked. We didn't +bargain for a thing like that sprouting up in a back-garden." + +"I'm very sorry," said the captain. "I wish you'd told me of it before. +If I catch you up there again," he cried, shaking his fist at Mr. +Tasker, "you'll remember it. Come down!" + +Mr. Tasker, placing the glass under his arm, came slowly and reluctantly +down the ratlines. + +"I wasn't looking in at the window, Mr. Chalk," he said, earnestly. "I +was watching the birds. O' course, I couldn't help seeing in a bit, but +I always shifted the spy-glass at once if there was anything that I +thought I oughtn't----" + +"That'll do," broke in the captain, hastily. "Go in and get the tea +ready. If I so much as see you looking at that glass again we part, my +lad, mind that." + +"I don't suppose he meant any harm," said the mollified Mr. Chalk, after +the crestfallen Joseph had gone into the house. "I hope I haven't been +and said too much, but my wife insisted on me coming round and speaking +about it." + +"You did quite right," said the captain, "and I thank you for coming. I +told him he might go up there occasionally, but I particularly warned +him against giving any annoyance to the neighbours." + +"I suppose," said Mr. Chalk, gazing at the erection with interest--"I +suppose there's a good view from up there? It's like having a ship in +the garden, and it seems to remind you of the North Pole, and whales, +and Northern Lights." + +Five minutes later Mr. Tasker, peering through the pantry window, was +surprised to see Mr. Chalk ascending with infinite caution to the +crow's-nest. His high hat was jammed firmly over his brows and the +telescope was gripped tightly under his right arm. The journey was +evidently regarded as one of extreme peril by the climber; but he held +on gallantly and, arrived at the top, turned a tremulous telescope on to +the horizon. + +Mr. Tasker took a deep breath and resumed his labours. He set the table, +and when the water boiled made the tea, and went down the garden to +announce the fact. Mr. Chalk was still up aloft, and even at that height +the pallor of his face was clearly discernible. It was evident to the +couple below that the terrors of the descent were too much for him, but +that he was too proud to say so. + +"Nice view up there," called the captain. + +"B--b--beautiful," cried Mr. Chalk, with an attempt at enthusiasm. + +The captain paced up and down impatiently; his tea was getting cold, but +the forlorn figure aloft made no sign. The captain waited a little +longer, and then, laying hold of the shrouds, slowly mounted until his +head was above the platform. + +"Shall I take the glass for you?" he inquired. + +Mr. Chalk, clutching the edge of the cask, leaned over and handed it +down. + +"My--my foot's gone to sleep," he stammered. + +"Ho! Well, you must be careful how you get down," said the captain, +climbing on to the platform. "Now, gently." + +He put the telescope back into the cask, and, beckoning Mr. Tasker to +ascend, took Mr. Chalk in a firm grasp and lowered him until he was able +to reach Mr. Tasker's face with his foot. After that the descent was +easy, and Mr. Chalk, reaching ground once more, spent two or three +minutes in slapping and rubbing, and other remedies prescribed for +sleepy feet. + +"There's few gentlemen that would have come down at all with their foot +asleep," remarked Mr. Tasker, pocketing a shilling, when the captain's +back was turned. + +Mr. Chalk, still pale and shaking somewhat, smiled feebly and followed +the captain into the house. The latter offered a cup of tea, which the +visitor, after a faint protest, accepted, and taking a seat at the table +gazed in undisguised admiration at the nautical appearance of the room. + +"I could fancy myself aboard ship," he declared. + +"Are you fond of the sea?" inquired the captain. + +"I love it," said Mr. Chalk, fervently. "It was always my idea from a +boy to go to sea, but somehow I didn't. I went into my father's business +instead, but I never liked it. Some people are fond of a stay-at-home +life, but I always had a hankering after adventures." + +[Illustration: "HE TOOK MR. CHALK IN A FIRM GRASP AND LOWERED HIM."] + +The captain shook his head. "Ha!" he said, impressively. + +"You've had a few in your time," said Mr. Chalk, looking at him, +grudgingly; "Edward Tredgold was telling me so." + +"Man and boy, I was at sea forty-nine years," remarked the captain. +"Naturally things happened in that time; it would have been odd if they +hadn't. It's all in a lifetime." + +"Some lifetimes," said Mr. Chalk, gloomily. "I'm fifty-one next year, +and the only thing I ever had happen to me was seeing a man stop a +runaway horse and cart." + +He shook his head solemnly over his monotonous career and, gazing at a +war-club from Samoa which hung over the fireplace, put a few leading +questions to the captain concerning the manner in which it came into his +possession. When Prudence came in half an hour later he was still +sitting there, listening with rapt attention to his host's tales of +distant seas. + +It was the first of many visits. Sometimes he brought Mr. Tredgold and +sometimes Mr. Tredgold brought him. The terrors of the crow's-nest +vanished before his persevering attacks, and perched there with the +captain's glass he swept the landscape with the air of an explorer +surveying a strange and hostile country. + +It was a fitting prelude to the captain's tales afterwards, and Mr. +Chalk, with the stem of his long pipe withdrawn from his open mouth, +would sit enthralled as his host narrated picturesque incidents of +hairbreadth escapes, or, drawing his chair to the table, made rough maps +for his listener's clearer understanding. Sometimes the captain took him +to palm-studded islands in the Southern Seas; sometimes to the ancient +worlds of China and Japan. He became an expert in nautical terms. He +walked in knots, and even ordered a new carpet in fathoms--after the +shop-keeper had demonstrated, by means of his little boy's arithmetic +book, the difference between that measurement and a furlong. + +"I'll have a voyage before I'm much older," he remarked one afternoon, +as he sat in the captain's sitting-room. "Since I retired from business +time hangs very heavy sometimes. I've got a fancy for a small yacht, but +I suppose I couldn't go a long voyage in a small one?" + +"Smaller the better," said Edward Tredgold, who was sitting by the +window watching Miss Drewitt sewing. + +Mr. Chalk took his pipe from his mouth and eyed him inquiringly. + +"Less to lose," explained Mr. Tredgold, with a scarcely perceptible +glance at the captain. "Look at the dangers you'd be dragging your craft +into, Chalk; there would be no satisfying you with a quiet cruise in the +Mediterranean." + +"I shouldn't run into unnecessary danger," said Mr. Chalk, seriously. +"I'm a married man, and there's my wife to think of. What would become +of her if anything happened to me?" + +"Why, you've got plenty of money to leave, haven't you?" inquired Mr. +Tredgold. + +[Illustration: "SOMETIMES THE CAPTAIN TOOK HIM TO PALM-STUDDED ISLANDS +IN THE SOUTHERN SEAS."] + +"I was thinking of her losing _me_," replied Mr. Chalk, with a touch of +acerbity. + +"Oh, I didn't think of that," said the other. "Yes, to be sure." + +"Captain Bowers was telling me the other day of a woman who wore widow's +weeds for thirty-five years," said Mr. Chalk, impressively. "And all the +time her husband was married again and got a big family in Australia. +There's nothing in the world so faithful as a woman's heart." + +"Well, if you're lost on a cruise, I shall know where to look for you," +said Mr. Tredgold. "But I don't think the captain ought to put such +ideas into your head." + +Mr. Chalk looked bewildered. Then he scratched his left whisker with the +stem of his churchwarden pipe and looked severely over at Mr. Tredgold. + +"I don't think you ought to talk that way before ladies," he said, +primly. "Of course, I know you're only in joke, but there's some people +can't see jokes as quick as others and they might get a wrong idea of +you." + +"What part did you think of going to for your cruise?" interposed +Captain Bowers. + +"There's nothing settled yet," said Mr. Chalk; "it's just an idea, +that's all. I was talking to your father the other day," he added, +turning to Mr. Tredgold; "just sounding him, so to speak." + +"You take him," said that dutiful son, briskly. "It would do him a world +of good; me, too." + +"He said he couldn't afford either the time or the money," said Mr. +Chalk. "The thing to do would be to combine business with pleasure--to +take a yacht and find a sunken galleon loaded with gold pieces. I've +heard of such things being done." + +"I've heard of it," said the captain, nodding. + +"Bottom of the ocean must be paved with them in places," said Mr. +Tredgold, rising, and following Miss Drewitt, who had gone into the +garden to plant seeds. + +Mr. Chalk refilled his pipe and, accepting a match from the captain, +smoked slowly. His gaze was fixed on the window, but instead of +Dialstone Lane he saw tumbling blue seas and islets far away. + +"That's something you've never come across, I suppose, Captain Bowers?" +he remarked at last. + +"No," said the other. + +Mr. Chalk, with a vain attempt to conceal his disappointment, smoked on +for some time in silence. The blue seas disappeared, and he saw instead +the brass knocker of the house opposite. + +"Nor any other kind of craft with treasure aboard, I suppose?" he +suggested, at last. + +The captain put his hands on his knees and stared at the floor. "No," he +said, slowly, "I can't call to mind any craft; but it's odd that you +should have got on this subject with me." + +Mr. Chalk laid his pipe carefully on the table. "Why?" he inquired. + +"Well," said the captain, with a short laugh, "it _is_ odd, that's all." + +Mr. Chalk fidgeted with the stem of his pipe. "You know of sunken +treasure somewhere?" he said, eagerly. + +The captain smiled and shook his head; the other watched him narrowly. + +"You know of some treasure?" he said, with conviction. + +"Not what you could call sunken," said the captain, driven to bay. + +Mr. Chalk's pale-blue eyes opened to their fullest extent. "Ingots?" he +queried. + +The other shook his head. "It's a secret," he remarked; "we won't talk +about it." + +"Yes, of course, naturally, I don't expect you to tell me where it is," +said Mr. Chalk, "but I thought it might be interesting to hear about, +that's all." + +"It's buried," said the captain, after a long pause. "I don't know that +there's any harm in telling you that; buried in a small island in the +South Pacific." + +"Have you seen it?" inquired Mr. Chalk. + +"I buried it," rejoined the other. + +Mr. Chalk sank back in his chair and regarded him with awestruck +attention; Captain Bowers, slowly ramming home a charge of tobacco with +his thumb, smiled quietly. + +"Buried it," he repeated, musingly, "with the blade of an oar for a +spade. It was a long job, but it's six foot down and the dead man it +belonged to atop of it." + +The pipe fell from the listener's fingers and smashed unheeded on the +floor. + +"You ought to make a book of it," he said at last. + +The captain shook his head. "I haven't got the gift of story-telling," +he said, simply. "Besides, you can understand I don't want it noised +about. People might bother me." + +He leaned back in his chair and bunched his beard in his hand; the +other, watching him closely, saw that his thoughts were busy with some +scene in his stirring past. + +"Not a friend of yours, I hope?" said Mr. Chalk, at last. + +"Who?" inquired the captain, starting from his reverie. + +"The dead man atop of the treasure," replied the other. + +"No," said the captain, briefly. + +"Is it worth much?" asked Mr. Chalk. + +"Roughly speaking, about half a million," responded the captain, calmly. + +Mr. Chalk rose and walked up and down the room. His eyes were bright and +his face pinker than usual. + +"Why don't you get it?" he demanded, at last, pausing in front of his +host. + +"Why, it ain't mine," said the captain, staring. "D'ye think I'm a +thief?" + +Mr. Chalk stared in his turn. "But who does it belong to, then?" he +inquired. + +"I don't know," replied the captain. "All I know is, it isn't mine, and +that's enough for me. Whether it was rightly come by I don't know. There +it is, and there it'll stay till the crack of doom." + +"Don't you know any of his relations or friends?" persisted the other. + +"I know nothing of him except his name," said the captain, "and I doubt +if even that was his right one. Don Silvio he called himself--a +Spaniard. It's over ten years ago since it happened. My ship had been +bought by a firm in Sydney, and while I was waiting out there I went for +a little run on a schooner among the islands. This Don Silvio was aboard +of her as a passenger. She went to pieces in a gale, and we were the +only two saved. The others were washed overboard, but we got ashore in +the boat, and I thought from the trouble he was taking over his bag that +the danger had turned his brain." + +"Ah!" said the keenly-interested Mr. Chalk. + +"He was a sick man aboard ship," continued the captain, "and I soon saw +that he hadn't saved his life for long. He saw it, too, and before he +died he made me promise that the bag should be buried with him and never +disturbed. After I'd promised, he opened the bag and showed me what was +in it. It was full of precious stones--diamonds, rubies, and the like; +some of them as large as birds' eggs. I can see him now, propped up +against the boat and playing with them in the sunlight. They blazed like +stars. Half a million he put them at, or more." + +"What good could they be to him when he was dead?" inquired the +listener. + +Captain Bowers shook his head. "That was his business, not mine," he +replied. "It was nothing to do with me. When he died I dug a grave for +him, as I told you, with a bit of a broken oar, and laid him and the bag +together. A month afterwards I was taken off by a passing schooner and +landed safe at Sydney." + +Mr. Chalk stooped, and mechanically picking up the pieces of his pipe +placed them on the table. + +[Illustration: "'HOW COULD YOU HAVE FOUND THEM AGAIN?' INQUIRED MR. +CHALK, WITH THE AIR OF ONE PROPOUNDING A POSER."] + +"Suppose that you had heard afterwards that the things had been stolen?" +he remarked. + +"If I had, then I should have given information, I think," said the +other. "It all depends." + +"Ah! but how could you have found them again?" inquired Mr. Chalk, with +the air of one propounding a poser. + +"With my map," said the captain slowly. "Before I left I made a map of +the island and got its position from the schooner that picked me up; but +I never heard a word from that day to this." + +"Could you find them now?" said Mr. Chalk. + +"Why not?" said the captain, with a short laugh. "The island hasn't run +away." + +He rose as he spoke and, tossing the fragments of his visitor's pipe +into the fireplace, invited him to take a turn in the garden. Mr. Chalk, +after a feeble attempt to discuss the matter further, reluctantly +obeyed. + + (_To be continued._) + + + + +_Illustrated Interviews._ + +LXXX.--M. CURIE, THE DISCOVERER OF RADIUM. + +BY CLEVELAND MOFFETT. + + +Very well do I remember my first impression of M. Curie. It was in the +Rue Cuvier, at the Sorbonne Laboratories in Paris, where he was +lecturing that day in the big amphitheatre, while I waited in an +adjoining room among the air-pumps and electrical apparatus. Suddenly a +door opened and there came a burst of applause, a long clapping of +hands, and at the same moment a tall, pale man, slightly bent, walked +slowly across the room. + +On this occasion I simply made an appointment to see M. Curie the next +morning at the École de Physique; but I profited by the opportunity to +ask his assistant, M. Danne, some preliminary questions about radium. +Was it true, _could_ it be true, that this strange substance gives forth +heat and light ceaselessly and is really an inexhaustible source of +energy? Of course, I had read all this, but I wanted to hear it from the +mouth of one who knew. + +[Illustration: M. AND MME. CURIE USING THEIR APPARATUS FOR MEASURING THE +INTENSITY OF RADIUM. + + _From a Photo._ +] + +"It is quite true," said M. Danne, "that pure radium gives out light and +heat without any waste or diminution that can be detected by our most +delicate instruments. That is all we can say." + +"Is the light that it gives a bright light?" + +"Reasonably bright. M. Curie will show you." + +"Can he explain it? Can anyone explain it?" + +"There are various theories, but they really explain very little." + +M. Danne went on to indicate other properties of radium that are +scarcely less startling than these. Besides heat and light this strange +metal gives out constantly three kinds of invisible rays that move with +the velocity of light, or thereabouts, and, that have separate and +well-marked attributes. These rays may be helpful or harmful, they may +destroy life or stimulate it. They are capable not only of shortening +life or prolonging it, but of modifying existing forms of life--that is, +of actually creating new species. Finally, by destroying bacteria, they +may be used to cure disease, notably the dread lupus, recently conquered +by Finsen's lamps, and now apparently conquered again by a simpler +means. + +I listened in amazement; it was not one discovery, but a dozen, that we +were contemplating. + +"And--all this is M. Curie's discovery?" + +"Radium is his discovery; that is, his and Mme. Curie's. You cannot give +one more credit than the other. They did it together." + +He told me a little about Mme. Curie, who, it appears, was a Polish +student in the Latin Quarter, very poor, but possessed of rare talents. +They say that her marriage with M. Curie was just such a union, as +_must_ have produced some fine result. Without his scientific learning +and vivid imagination it is doubtful if radium would ever have been +dreamed of, and without her determination and patience against detail it +is likely the dream would never have been realized. + +The next day I found M. Curie in one of the rambling sheds of the École +de Physique bending over a small porcelain dish, where a colourless +liquid was simmering, perhaps half a teacupful, and he was watching it +with concern, always fearful of some accident. He had lost nearly a +decigramme (1·5 grains troy) of radium, he said, only a few weeks before +in a curious way. He had placed some radium salts in a small tube, and +this inside another tube, in which he created a vacuum. Then he began to +heat both tubes over an electric furnace, when, suddenly, at about 2,000 +degrees F., there came an explosion which shattered the tubes and +scattered their precious contents. There was absolutely no explanation +of this explosion; it was one of the tricks that radium is apt to play +on you. Here his face lightened with quite a boyish smile. + +M. Curie proceeded to explain what he was doing with the little dish; he +was refining some radium dissolved in it--that is, freeing it from +contaminating barium by repeated crystallization, this being the last +and most delicate part of the process of obtaining the pure metal. + +"We have our radium works outside Paris," he said, "where the crude ore +goes through its early stages of separation and where the radium is +brought to an intensity of 2,000, as we express it. After that the +process requires such care and involves so much risk of waste that we +keep the precious stuff in our own hands and treat it ourselves, my wife +and I, as I am doing now, to bring it to the higher intensities, 50,000, +200,000, 500,000, and, finally, 1,500,000. What you see here is about +100,000. It will take many more crystallizations to bring it to the +maximum." + +"That is, to the state of pure radium?" + +"To the state of pure chloride of radium. You know the metal exists only +as a chloride or bromide. It has never yet been isolated, although it +easily might be." + +"Why has it never been isolated?" + +"Because it would not be stable; it would immediately be oxidized by the +air and destroyed, as happens with sodium, whereas it remains permanent +as a bromide or chloride and suffers no change." + +"Does radium change in appearance as it increases in intensity?" I +asked. + +"No; it keeps the form of small white crystals, which may be crushed +into a white powder, and which look like ordinary salt. See, here are +some." + +He took from the table drawer a small glass tube, not much larger than a +thick match. It was sealed at both ends and partly covered with a fold +of lead. Inside the tube I could see a white powder. + +"Why is the tube wrapped with lead?" I inquired. + +"For the protection of those who handle it. Lead stops the harmful rays, +that would otherwise make trouble." + +"Trouble?" + +"Yes; you see the radium in this tube is very active; it has an +intensity of 1,500,000, and if I were to lay it against your hand or any +part of your body, so"--he touched my hand with the bare tube--"and if I +were to leave it there for a few minutes, you would certainly hear from +it later." + +"But I feel nothing." + +"Of course not; neither did I feel anything when I touched some radium +here," and pulling up his sleeve he showed me a forearm scarred and +reddened from fresh-healed sores. "But you see what it did, and it was +much less intense than this specimen." + +He then mentioned an experience of his friend, Professor Becquerel, +discoverer of the "Becquerel rays" of uranium, and in a way the +parent-discoverer of radium, since the latter discovery grew out of the +former. It seems that Professor Becquerel, in journeying to London, +carried in his waistcoat pocket a small tube of radium to be used in a +lecture there. Nothing happened at the time, but about a fortnight later +the professor observed that the skin under his pocket was beginning to +redden and fall away, and finally a deep and painful sore formed there +and remained for weeks before healing. A peculiar feature of these +radium sores is that they do not appear for some considerable time after +exposure to the rays. + +"Then radium is an element of destruction?" I remarked. + +"Undoubtedly it has a power of destruction, but that power may be +tempered or controlled, for instance, by this covering of lead. M. +Danysz, at the Pasteur Institute, will give you the pathological facts +better than I can." + +This brought us back to physical facts, and I asked M. Curie if the +radium before us was at that moment giving out heat and light, for I +could perceive neither. + +"Of course it is," he replied. "I will take you into a dark room +presently and let you see the light for yourself. As for the heat, a +thermometer would show that this tube of radium is 2·7 degrees F. warmer +than the surrounding air." + +"Is it always that much warmer?" + +"Always--so far as we know. I may put it more simply by saying that a +given quantity of radium will melt its own weight of ice every hour." + +"For ever?" + +He smiled. "So far as we know--for ever. Or, again, that a given +quantity of radium throws out as much heat in eighty hours as an equal +weight of coal would throw out if burned to complete combustion in one +hour." + +"Suppose you had a considerable quantity of radium," I suggested, "say +twenty pounds, or a hundred pounds?" + +"The law would be the same, whatever the quantity. If we had fifty kilos +(110 pounds) of radium"--he gave a little wondering cluck at the +thought--"I say _if_ we had fifty kilos of radium it would give out as +much heat _continuously_ as a stove would give out that burned ten kilos +(twenty-two pounds) of coal every twenty-four hours, and was filled up +fresh every day." + +"And the radium would _never_ cease to give out this heat and would +_never_ be consumed?" + +"Never is a hard word, but one of our professors has calculated that a +given quantity of radium, after throwing out heat as I have stated for a +thousand million years, would have lost only one-millionth part of its +bulk. Others think the loss might be greater, say an ounce to a ton in +ten thousand years, but in any case it is so infinitesimally small that +we have no means of measuring it, and for practical purposes it does not +exist." + +[Illustration: M. AND MME. CURIE FINISHING THE PREPARATION OF SOME +RADIUM.] + +After this M. Curie took me into a darkened room, where I _saw_ quite +plainly the light from the radium tube, a clear glow sufficient to read +by if the tube were held near a printed page. And, of course, this was a +very small quantity of radium, about six centigrammes (nine-tenths of a +grain troy). + +"We estimate," said he, "that a decigramme of radium will illuminate a +square décimètre (fifteen square inches) of surface sufficient for +reading." + +"And a kilogramme (2·2 pounds) of radium?" + +"A kilogramme of radium would illuminate a room thirty feet square with +a mild radiance; and the light would be much brighter if screens of +sulphide of zinc were placed near the radium, for these are thrown by +the metal into a brilliant phosphorescence." + +"Then radium may be the light of the future?" + +M. Curie shook his head. "I am afraid that we should pay rather dearly +for such a light. There is first the money cost to be considered, and +then the likelihood that the people illuminated by radium would be also +stricken with paralysis, blindness, and various nervous disorders. +Possibly protective screens might be devised against these dangers, but +it is too soon to think of that. For a long time to come the radium +light will be only a laboratory wonder." + +After we had been in the darkness for some time M. Curie wrapped the +radium tube in thick paper and put it in my hand. + +"Now," said he, "shut your eyes and press this against your right +eyelid." + +I did as he bade me, and straightway had the sensation of a strange +diffused light outside my eye. M. Curie assured me, however, that the +light was not outside but _inside_ the eye, the radium rays having the +property of making the liquids of the eyeball self-luminous, a sort of +internal phosphorescence being produced. He warned me that it would be +dangerous to leave the radium against the eyelid very long, as a serious +disturbance to the eyesight, or even blindness, might result. + +Another experiment consisted in placing the radium against the bone at +the side of the forehead, and even in this position, with the eyes +closed, a light was perceptible, although fainter. Here the radium rays +had acted upon the eyeball through the bones of the head. + +"It is possible," said M. Curie, "that this property of radium may be +utilized in certain diseases of the eye. Dr. Emile Javal, one of our +distinguished physicians, who is blind himself, has given this matter +particular attention, and he thinks that radium may offer a precious +means of diagnosis in cases of cataract, by showing whether the retina +is or is not intact, and whether an operation will succeed. If a person +blind from cataract can see the radium light as you have just seen it, +then the eyesight of that person may be restored by removing the +cataract. Otherwise it cannot be restored." + +As we returned to the laboratory I remarked that the quantity of radium +in the various tubes I had seen was very small. + +"Of course it is small," he sighed; "there is very little radium in the +world. I mean very little that has been taken from the earth and +purified." + +"How much is there?" + +He thought a moment. "We have about one gramme (one-third of an ounce) +in France, Germany may have one gramme, America has less than one +gramme, and the rest of the world may perhaps have half a gramme. Four +grammes in all would be an outside estimate; you could heap it all in a +tablespoon." + +I suggested to M. Curie the possibility that some philanthropist might +be inspired on reading his words to help the new cause. And I remarked +that great things could doubtless be accomplished with some substantial +quantity of radium, say a pound or two. + +He gave me an amused look and asked if I had any idea what a pound or +two of radium, say a kilogramme (two and one-fifth pounds), would cost. + +"Why, no," said I, "no exact idea; but----" + +"A kilogramme of radium would cost"--he figured rapidly on a sheet of +paper--"with the very cheapest methods that we have of purifying the +crude material it would cost about ten million francs (£400,000). Under +existing conditions radium is worth about three thousand times its +weight in pure gold." + +"And yet there may be tons of it in the earth?" + +M. Curie was not so sure of this. "It is doubtful," said he, "if there +is very much radium in the earth, and what there is is so thinly +scattered in the surrounding ore--mere traces of radium for tons of +worthless rock--that the cost of extracting it is almost prohibitive. +You will realize this when you visit our works at Ivry." + +These works I visited the next day, and found myself outside the walls +of Paris, near the old Ivry Cemetery, where some unpretentious sheds +serve for this important business of radium extraction. One of the head +men met me and explained, step by step, how they obtain this strange and +elusive metal. First he showed me a lumpy reddish powder, sacks of it, +brought from Bohemia by the ton, and constituting the raw material from +which the radium is extracted. This powder is the refuse from uranium +mines at Jachimsthal; that is, what remains of the original uranite ore, +_pitchblende_, after the uranium has been removed. For years this refuse +was regarded as worthless, and was left to accumulate in heaps, tons of +it, quite at the disposal of whoever chose to cart it away. Now that it +is known to contain the rarest, and most precious substance in the +world, it goes without saying that the owners have begun to put a price +on it. + +My informant referred with proper pride to the difficulties that had +confronted them when they started these radium works in 1901. It was a +new problem in practical chemistry to bring together infinitesimal +traces of a metal lost in tons of _débris_. It was like searching for +specks of dust hidden in a sand heap, or for drops of perfume scattered +in a river. Still, they went at it with good heart, for the end +justified the effort. If it took a ton of uranite dust to yield as much +radium as would half fill a doll's thimble, then the thing to do was to +have many tons of this dust sent on from Bohemia, and patiently to +accumulate, after months of handling, various pinches of radium, a few +centigrammes, then a few decigrammes, and finally some day--who could +tell?--they might get as much as a gramme. This was a distant prospect, +to be sure, yet with infinite pains and all the resources of chemistry +it might be attained. Well, now they had attained it, and at this time, +he said, some eight tons of uranite detritus had passed through the +caldrons and great glass jars and muddy barrels of the Ivry +establishment, had been boiled and filtered and decanted and +crystallized, with much fuming of acids and the steady glow of furnaces; +and out of it all, for the twenty-four months' effort, there had come +just about a gramme of practically pure chloride of radium--enough white +powder to fill a salt-spoon. + +When next I saw M. Curie he had just returned from London, where he had +lectured before the Royal Institution. His hands were much peeled, and +very sore from too much contact with radium, and for several days he had +been unable to dress himself; but he took it good-naturedly, and +proceeded to describe some of the experiments he had made before British +scientists. + +[Illustration: M. CURIE EXPLAINING THE WONDERS OF RADIUM AT THE +SORBONNE. THIS EXPERIMENT WITH THE RADIUM LIGHT IS DESCRIBED IN THE +ARTICLE.] + +In order to demonstrate that radium throws off heat continually he took +two glass vessels, one containing a thermometer and a tube of radium, +the other containing a thermometer and no radium. Both vessels were +closed with cotton, and it was presently seen that the thermometer in +the vessel containing the radium registered constantly 5·4 degrees F. +higher than the thermometer which was not so influenced. + +The most striking experiment presented by M. Curie in his London +lecture was one devised by him to prove the existence of radium +emanations, a kind of gaseous product (quite different from the rays) +which this extraordinary metal seems to throw off constantly as it +throws off heat and light. These emanations may be regarded as an +invisible vapour of radium, like water vapour, only infinitely more +subtle, which settles upon all objects that it approaches and confers +upon them, for a time at least, the mysterious properties of radium +itself. Thus the yellow powder sulphide of zinc bursts into a brilliant +glow under the stimulus of radium emanations, and to make it clear that +this effect is due to the emanations and not to the rays M. Curie +constructed an apparatus in which a glass tube, R, containing a solution +of radium is connected with two glass bulbs, A and B, containing +sulphide of zinc. + +The experiment is begun by exhausting the air from the two bulbs A and +B, by means of air-pump connections through the tube E. The air is not +exhausted, however, from the tube R, over which the stop-cock F is +closed, and within which the emanations have been allowed to accumulate. +The room is now darkened, and it is seen that so long as the stop-cock F +remains closed there is no glow in the bulbs A and B, but as soon as the +stop-cock F is opened both bulbs shine brilliantly, so that the light is +plainly visible at a distance of several hundred yards. Now, obviously, +if this effect were due to the radium rays, it would be produced whether +the stop-cock F were open or closed, since the radium rays pass freely +through glass and need not follow the tube S in order to reach the bulbs +A and B. It is therefore clear that the sudden light in the bulbs is due +to the passage of _something_ out of the tube R, and through the tube S, +that _something_ being kept back by the glass of the bulb R until the +stop-cock F is opened. So we conclude that the emanations of radium +_cannot_ pass through glass, and are a manifestation quite distinct from +the rays of radium, which _can_ pass through but do not influence the +sulphide of zinc. + +[Illustration] + +This point having been established, M. Curie proceeded to the most +sensational part of his demonstration, by closing the stop-cock F and +then placing the lower bulb B, still radiant, in a vessel G containing +liquid air, the result being that the light in the bulb B gradually grew +stronger while the light in the bulb A diminished, until, presently, +_all_ the light seemed concentrated in B and gone from A, the conclusion +being that the intense cold of liquid air had produced some change in +the emanations, had possibly reduced them from a gas to a liquid, thus +withdrawing them from A to B and checking the one glow while increasing +the other. + +In talking with Sir William Crookes, M. Curie was interested to learn +that the English scientist had just devised a curious little instrument +which he has named the spinthariscope, and which allows one to actually +_see_ the emanations from radium and to realize as never before the +extraordinary atomic disintegration that is going on ceaselessly in this +strange metal. The spinthariscope is a small microscope that allows one +to look at a tiny fragment of radium, about one-twentieth of a +milligramme, supported on a little wire over a screen spread with +sulphide of zinc. + +The experiment must be made in a darkened room after the eye has +gradually acquired its greatest sensitiveness to light. To the eye thus +sensitive and looking intently through the lenses the screen appears +like a heaven of flashing meteors, among which stars shine forth +suddenly and die away. Near the central radium speck the fire shower is +most brilliant, while towards the rim of the circle it grows fainter. +And this goes on continuously as the metal throws off its emanations; +these myriad bursting blazing stars _are_ the emanations--at least, we +may assume it--and become visible as the scattered radium dust or radium +vapour impinges speck by speck upon the screen, which, for each tiny +fragment, flashes back a responsive phosphorescence. M. Curie spoke of +this vision, that was really contained within the area of a two-cent +piece, as one of the most beautiful and impressive he had ever +witnessed; it was as if he had been allowed to assist at the birth of a +universe or at the death of a molecule. + +Dwelling upon the extreme attenuation of these radium emanations, M. +Curie mentioned a recent experiment, in which he had used a platinum box +pierced by two holes so extremely small that the box would retain a +vacuum, yet not small enough to resist the passage of radium emanations. + +In view of the extreme rarity and costliness of radium, it is evident +that its emanations may be put to many important uses in and out of the +laboratory, since they bestow upon indifferent objects--a plate, a piece +of iron, an old shoe, anything--the very properties of radium itself. +Thus a scientist or a doctor unable to procure the metal radium +may easily experiment with a bit of wood or glass rendered +radio-active--that is, charged by radium emanations, and capable of +replacing the original metal as long as the charge keeps its potency. +This period has been determined by the Curies after observations +extending over weeks and months, and applied to all sorts of substances, +copper, aluminium, lead, rubber, wax, celluloid, paraffin, no fewer than +fifty in all, the resulting conclusions being formulated in a precise +law as follows:-- + + (1) All substances may be rendered radio-active through the + influence of radium emanations. + + (2) Substances thus influenced retain their induced radio-activity + very much longer when guarded in a small enclosure through which + the emanations cannot pass (say a sealed glass tube) than when not + so guarded. In the former case their radio-activity diminishes + one-half every four days. In the latter case it diminishes + one-half every twenty-eight minutes. + +I must pass rapidly over various other wonders of radium that M. Curie +laid before me. New matter is accumulating every week as the outcome of +new investigations. Even in the chemistry of radium, which is +practically an unexplored field, owing to the scarcity and costliness of +the metal, there are various facts to be noted, as these: that radium +changes the colour of phosphorus from yellow to red; that radium rays +increase the production of ozone in certain cases; that a small quantity +of radium dissolved in water throws off hydrogen constantly by causing a +disintegration of the water, the oxygen released being absorbed in some +unknown molecular combination. Also that a solution of radium gives a +violet or brownish tint to a glass vessel containing it, this tint being +permanent, unless the glass be heated red hot. Here, by the way, is an +application of importance in the arts, for radium may thus be used to +modify the colours of glass and crystals, possibly of gems. It is +furthermore established that radium offers a ready means of +distinguishing real from imitation diamonds, since it causes the real +stones to burst into a brilliant phosphorescence when brought near them +in a darkened room, while it has scarcely any such effect upon false +stones. M. Curie made this experiment recently at a reception in Lille, +to the great delight of the guests. + +Coming now to what may be the most important properties of radium--that +is, those which influence animal life--we may follow M. Curie's advice +and visit the Pasteur Institute, where for some months now a remarkable +series of radium tests has been in progress. + +M. Danysz is convinced that all animals, probably all forms of life, +would succumb to the destructive force of radium if employed in +sufficient quantities. + +"I have no doubt," said he, "that a kilogramme of radium would be +sufficient to destroy the population of Paris, granting that they came +within its influence. Men and women would be killed just as easily as +mice. They would feel nothing during their exposure to the radium, nor +realize that they were in any danger. And weeks would pass after their +exposure before anything would happen. Then gradually the skin would +begin to peel off and their bodies would become one great sore. Then +they would become blind. Then they would die from paralysis and +congestion of the spinal cord." + +Despite this rather gloomy prospect, certain experiments at the Pasteur +Institute may encourage us to believe that, for all its menace of +destruction, radium is destined to bring substantial benefits to +suffering humankind. The substance of these favourable experiments is +that, while animal life may undoubtedly suffer great harm from radium +when used in excess or wrongly used (the same is true of strychnine), it +may also derive immense good from radium when used within proper bounds, +these to be set when we have gained a fuller knowledge of the subject. +Meantime it is worthy of note that some of M. Danysz's animals, when +exposed to the radium for a short time, or to radium of lower intensity, +or to radium at a greater distance, have not perished, but have seemed +to thrive under the treatment. + +But the most startling experiment performed thus far at the Pasteur +Institute is one undertaken by M. Danysz, February 3rd, 1903, when he +placed three or four dozen little worms that live in flour, the larvæ +_Ephestia kuehniella_, in a glass flask, where they were exposed for a +few hours to the rays of radium. He placed a like number of larvæ in a +control flask where there was no radium, and he left enough flour in +each flask for the larvæ to live upon. After several weeks it was found +that most of the larvæ in the radium flask had been killed, but that a +few of them had escaped the destructive action of the rays by crawling +away to distant corners of the flask, where they were still living. But +_they were living_ _as larvæ, not as moths_, whereas in the natural +course they should have become moths long before, as was seen by the +control flask, where the larvæ had all changed into moths, and these had +hatched their eggs into other larvæ, and these had produced other moths. +All of which made it clear that the radium rays had arrested the +development of these little worms. + +[Illustration: M. CURIE TESTING DIAMONDS AT A RECEPTION AT LILLE.] + +More weeks passed and still three or four of the larvæ lived, and four +full months after the original exposure I saw a larva alive and +wriggling while its contemporary larvæ in the other jar had long since +passed away as aged moths, leaving generations of moths' eggs and larvæ +to witness this miracle, for here was a larva, venerable among his kind, +a patriarch _Ephestia kuehniella_, that had actually lived through +_three times the span of life accorded to his fellows_, and that still +showed no sign of changing into a moth. It was very much as if a young +man of twenty-one should keep the appearance of twenty-one for two +hundred and fifty years! + +Not less remarkable than these are some recent experiments made by M. +Bohn at the biological laboratories of the Sorbonne, his conclusions +being that radium may so far modify various lower forms of life as to +actually produce "monsters," abnormal deviations from the original type +of the species. Thus tadpole monsters have been formed from tadpoles +exposed four days after birth to radium rays. Some of these monsters +lived for twenty-three days, and would doubtless have lived longer had +they been exposed to the rays for a shorter time. No changes occur in +the tadpoles treated except at the transition points of growth, as on +the eighth day, when the breathing tentacles are covered by gills in the +normal tadpole, but are not so covered in the monsters formed after +radium treatment. These monsters take on a new form, with an increasing +atrophy of the tail and a curious wrinkling of the tissues at the back +of the head; in fact, they may be said to develop a new breathing +apparatus, quite different from that of ordinary tadpoles. + +M. Bohn has obtained similar results with eggs of the toad and eggs of +the sea-urchin, monsters resulting in both cases and continuing to live +for a number of days or weeks after exposure to the radium. Furthermore, +he has been able to accomplish with radium what Professor Loeb did with +saline solutions--that is, to cause the growth of unfecundated eggs of +the sea-urchin, and to advance these through several stages of their +development. In other words, he has used radium _to create life_ where +there would have been no life but for this strange stimulation. + +M. Bohn assured me of his conviction that we may in the future be able +to produce new species of insects, moths, butterflies, perhaps birds and +fishes, by simply treating the eggs with radium rays, the result being +that interesting changes will be effected in the colouring and +adornment. He also believes that, with greater quantities of radium at +our disposal and a fuller understanding of its properties, it may be +possible to produce new species among larger creatures, mice, rabbits, +guinea-pigs, etc. It is merely a question of degree, for if new types +can be produced in one species why may they not be produced in another? + +It remains to mention certain important services that radium may render +in the cure of bodily ills, notably of lupus and other skin diseases. +Here is a great new field full of promise, yet one that must be +considered with guarded affirmation, lest false hopes be aroused. It is +too soon as yet to say more than this, that distinguished doctors speak +with confidence of excellent results that may be looked for from the +radium treatment. Dr. Danlos, for instance, has used the radium rays on +lupus patients at the St. Louis Hospital in Paris for over a year, and +in several cases has accomplished apparent cures. The radium used is +enclosed between two small discs of copper and aluminium, the whole +being about the size of a silver dollar. The aluminium disc, which is +very thin, is pressed against the affected part and left there for +fifteen minutes; that is all there is in the treatment, except +cleansing, bandaging, etc. Day after day, for weeks or months, this +contact with the disc is continued, and after a period of irritation the +sores heal, leaving healthy white scars. Some patients thus treated have +gone for months without a relapse, but it is too soon to declare the +cures absolute. They _look like_ absolute cures, that is all Dr. Danlos +will say, and if time proves that they _are_ absolute cures, then radium +will do for lupus patients all that Finsen's lamps do, and will do it +more quickly, more simply, and with no cumbersome and costly apparatus. +It may be objected that radium also is costly, but the answer is that +radium will probably become cheaper as the supply increases and as the +processes of extracting it are perfected. Furthermore, the effects of +radium may be obtained, as already stated, by the use of indifferent +bodies rendered radio-active, so that lupus patients may be treated with +a piece of wood or a piece of glass possessed for the moment of the +virtues of radium. And certain kinds of cancer may be similarly treated; +indeed, a London physician has already reported a case of cancer cured +by radium. + +These are possibilities, _not_ certainties, and there are others. It +appears that radium has a bactericidal action in certain cases, and it +would therefore seem reasonable that air rendered radio-active may +benefit sufferers from lung troubles if breathed into the lungs, or that +water rendered radio-active may benefit sufferers from stomach troubles +if taken into the stomach. It goes without saying that in all these +cases the use of radium must be attended with extreme precautions, so +that harmful effects may be avoided. + +Just as I was leaving Paris I learned of an interesting and significant +new fact about radium, one that greatly impressed M. Curie--namely, that +the air from deep borings in the earth is found to be radio-active, and +that the waters from mineral springs are radio-active. This would seem +to indicate the presence of radium in the earth in considerable +quantities, and that would mean more abundant and cheaper radium in the +not distant future. One of the things to be hoped for now is the +discovery of a single simple reaction by which radium may be easily +separated from the dross that contains it, and any day the chemists may +put their hands on such a reaction. + +And then--well, it is best to avoid sweeping statements, but there is +certainly reason to believe that we are entering upon a domain of new, +strange knowledge and drawing near to some of Nature's most hallowed +secrets. + + + + +_Trousers in Sculpture._ + +BY RONALD GRAHAM. + + +"Who will deliver us from the modern trouser?" once publicly asked a +Royal Academician. It has been a question repeatedly propounded since +the beginning of the last century, when this much-mooted garment came +into fashionable vogue. + +Trousers have at length passed permanently into Art. They have been +depicted in glowing pigments and embodied in enduring bronze and marble. +They have become classical. They have exacted the patience of the +greatest painters and most talented sculptors for a full century in +portraying them, as well as taxed the ingenuity of the noblest tailors +in constructing them. + +The time has arrived, we opine, for trousers to be considered as public +and not merely as private embellishments. We shall leave other hands to +write the history of the two long cylindrical bags which are at once the +pride of the swell mobsman and, as we shall show, the dire despair of +the sculptor, who can no longer emulate the example of Phidias, and +represent his patrons in the superlatively light clothing of the annexed +illustration--a corner in a well-known sculptor's studio. + +Assuming that the modern trouser is a necessity--and we believe it is +regarded as such, at least primarily--the point arises, how is the +modern trouser to be made picturesque in Art? + +The tailor's notion of the ideal in trousers and that entertained by the +sculptor are separated by a wide gulf, which very few of the latter +fraternity show any disposition to bridge. + +It will never be known how many exponents of the sartorial art, who have +in their time fitted masterpieces to the limbs of Lord Derby, Lord +Palmerston, Lord Beaconsfield, Sir Robert Peel, and other statesmen, +have sighed to see their art transmitted at the sculptor's hands to +posterity mutilated by folds, deformed by creases, gifted with +impossible falls over the boot, and endowed with plies at the knee which +not ten years of incessant wear could be supposed to produce. + +[Illustration: ANCIENT VERSUS MODERN. THE LATE GEORGE PALMER AND +PERSEUS. + + _From a_] + + [_Photo._ +] + +"Trousers," remarked Mr. Thomas Brock, R.A., "cannot be made +artistic--at any rate in statuary. The painter is better equipped to +grapple with the task than the sculptor. He has light, colour, and shade +at his command, and may so subordinate these elements as to render the +objectionable features of our modern costume less obtrusive. At no time +have we been so little attractive from a picturesque standpoint as +to-day. It is, therefore, eminently the desire of the sculptor to employ +modern street costume as little as possible. It was formerly the custom +in a full-length statue to drape the figure in a Roman toga or long +cloak, which lent an heroic effect to the most prosaic theme. Costume of +the last century was decidedly picturesque--as you may observe in this +model of the Robert Raikes statue erected on the Thames +Embankment--where knee-breeches, stockings, and shoe-buckles replace +trousers." An example of Mr. Brock's treatment of the modern trouser may +be seen in his Colin Campbell herewith reproduced. + +[Illustration: SIR COLIN CAMPBELL, BY T. BROCK, R.A. + +_From a Photo._] + +To illustrate the attitude taken by the sculptor generally it may be +observed that as yet, notwithstanding the many recent additions of +full-length statues in the northern nave, only a single pair of +sculptured trousers have found their way into Westminster Abbey. But, as +will be seen from a perusal of the views held by Hamo Thornycroft, R.A., +this condition of affairs will not be enduring. + +"It is quite impossible," said Mr. Thornycroft, "to go back to the old +style, as did the sculptors of less than a century ago, and clothe our +heroes in antique draperies. One must follow the costume of the period. +I have a hope that what appears conventional now will possess an +interest and even a picturesqueness to our posterity. I have modelled +Lord Granville in evening dress, which displays the trousers +conspicuously, and my recent statue of Steurt Bayley is likewise +apparelled in modern costume. Nevertheless, I do not believe any +sculptor should slavishly adhere to the canons of form laid down by the +tailor. The tailor is, of course, merely carrying out the whims of his +fashionable patron, who is not always the most intellectual being +extant. Although I am told that some statesmen like Mr. Chamberlain are +scrupulous as to the perfect fit of their trousers, yet I should no more +dream, if called upon to-morrow to make a statue of one of these eminent +gentlemen, of modelling an upright pair of creaseless cylinders than I +should paint in the shade of the cloth. No, I could never bring myself +to model a pair of trousers such as are daily seen in Piccadilly. I have +an ideal and I propose to carry it out. The folds, the creases, and the +plies instil life into the work. An artist has a duty to perform in +ennobling his work--even though that duty be no more than constructing +trousers of marble. It does not lie in perpetuating the fleeting follies +of fashion." + +[Illustration: JOHN BRIGHT, BY HAMO THORNYCROFT, R.A. + +_From a Photo._] + +Mr. Thornycroft has succeeded very well with the trousers of his John +Bright statue. As trousers, and as characteristic trousers, we defy the +most captious hypercritic to urge anything against them. They are +precisely the sort of leg-covering the late eminent statesman ought to +have worn, nor do we doubt that, had he been actuated by that due regard +for sartorial proprieties which the artist seeks at the hands, or rather +at the legs, of eminent persons, he would have worn them. But an +intimate friend of Mr. Bright's, who has, at our request, minutely +surveyed the bronze statue at Rochdale, readily pronounces his opinion +that the trousers are not by any means his fellow-townsman's. "The +material is too thin," he writes. "John Bright's trousers were of extra +heavy West of England cloth. They bagged a lot at the knees, but fitted +rather tightly at the calves. The boots are certainly not his," he adds; +and then, as if to justify this oracular style of speech, "I know +because there was no carpet on the floor of the room where Mr. Bright +and myself habitually met; so I studied his lower extremities while he +spoke to me instead." + +[Illustration: THE GAMBETTA STATUE, PARIS. + +_From a Photo._] + +In the course of a conversation with the French sculptor, M. Jean +Carries, that artist once defined to the writer the whole position of +the French school of to-day. + +"Its aim is life--animation--drama. To leave anything dormant is to +leave the stone as you found it, and to acknowledge the futility of your +genius. All the characteristics of life might be imparted to even a +modern street costume. + +"Only a tailor or a person deficient in culture would criticise the +trousers of the Gambetta statue. Such a person would say, 'But I have +never seen them in the Boulevards or in the Palais Bourbon.' Of course +he has not; and what then? Did Raphael ever see an angel, or Michael +Angelo a faun? No. A pair of widely-cut trousers with a single crease or +fold might answer very well for a tailor's dummy; but it would not do at +all for a chiselled human figure, which must express potential life." + +"Idealism? Sense of the picturesque? Fiddlesticks!" declared Mr. George +Wade, an exceptionally talented English sculptor, pausing in his work of +modelling a full-length statue of a recently-deceased statesman. "Unless +art in portraiture possess a rigid fidelity it is not, in my humble +judgment, worth the cost of the stone or bronze necessary to evolve it. +Idealism!--that is the cry of the sculptor who is deficient--who is +dependent rather upon the resources of a departed school than of +himself. Why should a sculptor seek to be otherwise than faithful, even +to the buttons on the waistcoat of his subject? To cite an instance, +some time ago Sir Charles Tupper, viewing my first model for the +MacDonald statue, observed: 'I see you have buttoned only a single +button of Sir John's coat. I never remember seeing my friend's coat not +entirely buttoned. It was one of his characteristics.' When my visitor +left I destroyed the old and commenced a new model. + +[Illustration: SIR JOHN MACDONALD, BY G. E. WADE. + +_From a Photo._] + +"If it is characteristic of the subject in hand to wear disreputable +trousers--very good. I should so model them. If, on the contrary, they +were worn faultlessly smooth, it would contribute nothing to my +conception of the wearer's identity to invest them with bulges and +creases which, if not absolutely and physically impossible, would only +be so in Pongee silk and not in the heavy fabric usually employed in +trousering. I am not aware that public personages clothe their limbs in +Pongee silk. Were this the case it would be so much the better for us. +In practice I do not believe in that picturesque ruggedness about the +knees which seems so attractive to the average sculptor. I am told that +Sir Edward Burne-Jones spent many hours in the course of a single day in +the study and device of new complex folds and sinuosities in the most +delicate textile stuffs, and that it seems not altogether irrational to +believe is the employment of many English and French sculptors when they +set about making a pair of trousers. + +[Illustration: A STABLEMAN, BY G. E. WADE. + +_From a Photo._] + +"If you cannot be original," comments Mr. Wade, "be bizarre. Palm off +meretricious effect for truth. Why not be content with the individuality +which reveals itself in the limb's attitude as well as in its drapery? +Mr. Smith did not stand as the Duke of Connaught does--Paderewski's +posture is not that of Lord Roberts. No; you cannot create character by +kneading your clay into all sorts of weird concavities and convexities. +It is not true to life." + +[Illustration: THE HON. DAVID CARMICHAEL, BY J. ADAMS-ACTON. + + _From a_] + + [_Photo._ +] + +We do not deny character to perfect garments. They may each and all +breathe a distinct individuality, and so far the requirements of Art are +met. Compare those already mentioned with the rest--compare Colin +Campbell's or Mr. Clarkson's legs with Mr. Palmer's of biscuit fame--and +the contrast tells it's own tale. But to enforce our point, in spite even +of the eloquent utterances of Mr. Wade, we, who were privileged to have +seen Sir John MacDonald in the flesh, assert positively that we never +saw that flesh draped in such trousers. The fact is, certain men never +wore such trousers. With one or two exceptions the trousers presented in +the course of this article--examples collated with no little care--are +artistic trousers, trousers of Art, and never intended to be trousers of +Reality, because the trousers of Reality either express too much or too +little, or express something entirely in dissonance with the sculptor's +idea of the character he is modelling. Nature, it has been observed, +does not lend itself readily to the canons of Art. As it was long ago +settled that carved statesmen must wear breeches of ultra length, when +it appears that in life they are foolishly addicted to garments of +unseemly brevity, it is only proper that this sad circumstance should be +blotted out in the studio, and a veil, composed of a yard or two of +extra trousering, be drawn over this painful deficiency in their several +characters. Had they been stablemen they might have fared differently, +although we can have little to object to in the nether garments of Mr. +Adams-Acton's Hon. David Carmichael in the accompanying photograph. + +[Illustration: LORD ROSEBERY'S TROUSERS, BY DAVID WEEKES. + +_From a Photo._] + +[Illustration: JOHN BURNS'S TROUSERS, BY DAVID WEEKES. + +_From a Photo._] + +On the other hand, there have been sculptors who strive hard for +sartorial realism. The trousers no more than the limbs of all our great +men are faultless. At a glance we may appreciate shades of difference in +the interesting studies by Mr. David Weekes of the trousers of Lord +Rosebery and of Mr. John Burns. The former are the garments to the life, +such as have long been familiar to the fortunate occupiers of the front +rows at Liberal political meetings--redolent of the lonely furrow and on +intimate terms with the historic spade--while as for the tumid and +strenuous breeches of the member for Battersea, corduroy or otherwise, +they are chiselled to the last crease of realism. But such is the +perversity of Art that such interesting studies would in the finished +statue be exchanged for far less convincing garments. The legs of the +Palmerston and Peel statues in Parliament Square are clothed in what we +might term a suave trouser--or, more properly speaking, pantaloons--of +incredible length and irreproachable girth; whereas those whose eyes +have rested upon these great statesmen's garments in the flesh will +recall something eminently different. For example, if we do not too +greatly err in our conception, Lord Palmerston, in his later years, was +somewhat addicted to a style of trouser not often seen in sculpture. +Happily, in the studio of Mr. Wade, we have been able to light upon an +example of just the sort of trouser we mean, and in order more to +accurately impress its proportions upon the reader we give an example of +it. It is not the trouser of a statesman, however, but of a stableman, a +personage in a lower station in life (page 77). + +[Illustration: W. E. GLADSTONE, BY E. ONSLOW FORD, R.A. + +_From a Photo._] + +A reference might here be made to the trousers of Mr. Gladstone, +executed in bronze by the late Onslow Ford, R.A. The artist in this +piece displayed extraordinary qualities of merit, but as realists we +must take issue with him on the question of the length of Gladstone's +trousers. Albeit if Mr. Gladstone, in posing for this really admirable +work, undertook, with an eye to the effects the consequence would have +with posterity, to assume for the nonce an unusual and unprecedented +pair of trousers, then, of course, Mr. Ford merits a complete +exoneration. He, like posterity will be, was deceived. But we take it +upon ourselves, while admiring their aggressiveness and individuality, +to assert that such trousers would be much more befitting Mr. Balfour, +whose "tailor's length," we are given to understand, is thirty-six +inches, rather than the venerable Liberal statesman, whose nether +adornments never exceeded twenty-eight. + +[Illustration: W. S. COOKSON, BY T. BROCK, R.A. + +_From a Photo._] + +Indeed, we shall not be at a loss if we seek for examples of the trouser +which is manufactured exclusively in the studio of the sculptor. Mr. +Brock is certainly a great sinner in this regard (we have only to turn +to his statues of the late Mr. Cookson and Collin Campbell), and Mr. +Adams-Acton has shown in his statue of the late Professor Powell that +he, too, does not always follow the fashion of the street. We think we +can safely lay down the proposition once for all that no trousers can +possess simultaneously both properties--length and bagginess. We have +every confidence in the tailor as well as the greatest admiration for +his art, and we do not wish to be considered as speaking lightly or at +random when we say that long deliberation and consultation with the +highest authorities have shown us that these two qualities are +irreconcilable. We must, therefore, in all fairness condemn several +pairs of chiselled trousers which seem to us to violate this law, as +even the elegant continuations with which, thanks to Mr. Simonds, the +late Hon. F. Tollemache stands for ever endowed, the inexpressibles of +the late Mr. Palmer, and even Mr. Pinker's genteel specimens upon the +legs of the late Professor Fawcett. + +[Illustration: THE HON. FREDERICK TOLLEMACHE, BY GEORGE SIMONDS. + + _From a_] + + [_Photo._ +] + +[Illustration: JOHN POWELL, BY J. ADAMS-ACTON. + +_From a Photo._] + +After all we have said, it is to Nottingham that we must attribute the +unique distinction of possessing the worst pair of sculptured trousers +in the kingdom. They adorn the legs of the late local worthy, Sir Robert +Juckes-Clifton; and, as the reader will see from the accompanying +photograph, embody not inadequately the talented sculptor's dream. That +they embody anything but a dream it is out of our power to believe, as +we are reliably informed that it is not in the nature of our most +flexible English tweeds to assume such grotesque folds, unless there are +goods in the Midlands, for which the lamented Sir Robert Juckes-Clifton +expressed a weakness, which surpass ordinary material in this respect. +After all, they are not so bad as Gambetta's trousers in the statue +opposite the Louvre in Paris, already alluded to and reproduced on page +76. The sculptor's aim was apparently to breech his subject +æsthetically, and he has spared no pains to bring about this result. As +a matter of truth, M. Alphonse Daudet has borne printed witness to the +fact that Gambetta's trousers were invariably too short--not too +long--and revealed some inches of white sock. But could a sculptor be +expected to take cognizance of this? + +[Illustration: SIR ROBERT JUCKES-CLIFTON--"THE WORST PAIR OF SCULPTURED +TROUSERS IN THE KINGDOM." + + _From a_] + + [_Photo._ +] + +All our readers probably are familiar with the magic name of +Poole--tailor by appointment to a score of Royalties. Poole is to men's +attire what Worth is to women's. It would be strange if the artists of +Savile Row did not have a good-natured grievance against their +fellow-artists of the adjacent Burlington House. + +"I shouldn't be surprised," stated the head of the firm, not without +diffidence--for it is one of the traditional principles of Poole since +Beau Brummel's time to evince a becoming reticence toward the public +aspect of his craft, "if the uninitiated person who contemplates our +public statues is forced to conclude that to wear shocking bad trousers +is one of the first essentials to political distinction. Why, many of +the statues which I have seen in London and the provinces are a standing +reproach to us. I dare say, on the other hand, the sculptor who +reconstructs our creations is convinced that he is improving upon us, +but I think there can be but one mind between the sculptor and ourselves +as to how a pair of trousers should hang in real life. And if real life, +why not in sculpture? + +"I may also observe that the classical fall of the sculptured trouser +over the boot is absolutely the contrivance of the artist, and is +impossible from the tailor's standpoint. Again, although many gentlemen +in real life follow the fashion so far as to wear trousers which just +touch the upper portion of the boot, the trouser of sculpture is always +of superlative length, in spite of the multifarious folds and creases +which one would think, according to common physical laws, would tend to +diminish that length." + +"An artist," writes Mr. E. F. Benson, in one of his novels, +"Limitations," "must represent men and women as he sees them, and he +doesn't see them nowadays either in the Greek style or the Dresden +style.... To look at a well-made man going out shooting gives one a +sense of satisfaction. What I want to do is to make statues like them, +which will give you the same satisfaction.... I want to make trousers +beautiful, and women's evening dress beautiful, and shirt-sleeves +beautiful. I don't mean that I shall ever make them beautiful in the +same way as the robes of the goddesses in the Parthenon pediments are +beautiful, but I shall make them admirable somehow." + +And that is the great problem for the sculptors of the twentieth +century. + + + + +The Coils of Fate. + +BY L. J. BEESTON. + +[Illustration] + + +I. + +"If you ever kill a man, my friends--ah! but you may--take care to +dispossess the mind of haunting fancies. Murder is a wrong against +society, certainly. So is borrowing a sovereign which you do not intend +to return. Both may be forgotten." + +Vassilitch spoke across the dinner-table. His unconventional philosophy +was meant for every ear there, though he addressed himself to his +host--George Etheridge, of Hollowfield Court. + +Gabrielle Rupinsky, the speaker's countrywoman, who was seated at his +right side, turned her head to flash into his face one look from her +calm eyes. + +A silence followed the remark; not an uncomfortable period, but rather +one of that satisfaction which we feel when a good talker ventures out +from the ruts of conversation and trite opinion. Then Tweed, a +round-faced, optimistic schoolboy of a man, said, cheerfully:-- + +"How comforting! Let us go and exterminate our enemies before they get +wind of so pleasing an assurance and exterminate us. Alas, though, we +have not altogether done with Leviticus yet; still the hangman takes +care of our consciences." + +In the first place they had been speaking about echoes. Several of the +company had heard wonderful echoes in different parts of the world. +George Etheridge had told of an echo in Bavaria which had startled +him--as it startles all to whom it speaks. He said: "You row out to the +middle of the lake. There is an immense rugged cliff on one hand, and on +the other a dense wood of pines. You fire a pistol. The sound rolls from +between precipice and forest, tossed from one to the other, gathering in +intensity and power, until it breaks like a clap of thunder overhead. +The effect is certainly terrifying. Shall I tell you of what it made me +think? Of one of those imprudent acts, one of those small sins that we +commit in an unconsidered moment, which is the trifling cause of growing +and overwhelming effects that end in cataclysm." + +The conversation having been given this serious turn, first one and then +another of Etheridge's guests recalled stories of sins that had worked +in lives as worms through a ship's planks. Tweed mocked. He was rarely +grave, but his easy heart was valued by all who knew him. He said, "You +will all give yourselves a nightmare at bedtime. Come, let us have a +murder yarn to wind up with." + +And so Vassilitch, who was no stranger to the fatalism of the Slav, and +who on that account had listened with considerable interest to the +dialogue, had suddenly roused himself to utter his views expressed +above. + +"I will repeat my advice," said he. "If you ever kill a man do not think +about it afterwards. Ah! the fantasies that we invent to torment +ourselves with!" + +Gabrielle was compelled to look at the speaker once more. As the guests +of Etheridge they had seen much of one another during the past three +days. She liked to have him by her side because he was her countryman; +also, to her eyes, he appeared to be the strongest man in the company. +And he? Whenever Mademoiselle Rupinsky came in late he was silent to +taciturnity; and when she took her place he thawed. + +"You are not--you cannot be--in earnest?" said Gabrielle. + +"Never more so, mademoiselle." + +"It is your profession that has killed your sentiment," explained +Etheridge. + +"As you will." + +Clearly they were all waiting for him to continue. He perceived that he +was the centre of observation, of interest--Ivan Féodor Vassilitch, +sometime captain of a Cossack regiment that had made a reputation for +hardihood and valour unique even amongst those northern soldiers whose +nerves have the iron coldness of their ice-plains. He raised his glass, +emptied it, and went on:-- + +"I tell you, my friends, that if circumstance compels you to such an act +as I have spoken of, then any future terrors must be entirely the +product of a superstitious imagination. No spirit will haunt you save +that which you yourself conjure by bending the mind continually to that +idea. No worm of remorse will tear your peace unless you believe liars +who tell you it exists." + +[Illustration: "'YOU ARE NOT--YOU CANNOT BE--IN EARNEST?' SAID +GABRIELLE."] + +That was all. None cared to argue the point. He was so quietly certain +of his philosophy; so terribly sure. + +An hour later Vassilitch was addressed by Gabrielle. "I should like five +minutes' talk with you," she said. + +He expressed both readiness and pleasure, and he spoke the truth. They +passed out into the garden, after he had insisted that she should cover +her shoulders with a wrap, for the dews of late autumn were condensing +and falling imperceptibly on the still trees and flowers. + +"Will you sit down?" + +"I should prefer to walk slowly." He saw her bosom rise and fall in +agitation, and he wondered what was coming. + +"Monsieur, I have a story to tell you. Of all the men I know, you can +best appreciate it. It may be that you will care to help me--ah! do not +be too ready; my request, if I prefer it, is altogether an unusual one, +and such as only you might understand, and I. These Englishmen have cold +hearts; passion with them is slow to catch fire and easy to be +extinguished." + +"You speak of love, mademoiselle?" said Vassilitch, uneasily. + +"No." + +"Then it must be revenge. I am all attention." + +"You have heard of that society that call themselves 'The Scourge'? Of +their political opinions I know nothing. Three years ago the police +broke into a Moscow cellar and captured fifteen of this confraternity. +Of the ultimate fate of those fifteen I also know nothing, but the end +that came to one has been told me. He, at any rate, was a man, and a +true Russian." + +Gabrielle caught her breath with a gasp, paused a moment, then +continued:-- + +"He was deprived of civil rights, his property confiscated, and he +himself sent into exile. He escaped from a convict station in the +Trans-Baikal. He gained the woods, but it was winter, and you know what +that means." + +"Ah!" muttered Vassilitch, twisting his black moustache and watching the +pale face of his beautiful companion. + +"I have not seen those dreary forests, but I have heard and read of +them; how packs of hungry wolves seek food and cannot find it; and how +the _varnaks_--those wretches who have committed real crimes--infest the +lonely pathways at evening to rob and murder. They say that the police +kill them as dogs." + +"Pardon, mademoiselle; you must not credit these wild tales." + +"But I do believe them. Listen. This poor exile, after he had wandered +for days in that dead land, was discovered by a band of Cossacks riding +along a forest path. He was seized. Their officer cried out that he was +a _varnak_, a _bradyaga_, and ordered that he should be shot. You start; +perhaps this story has reached your ears?" + +"No, no," said the other, quickly. "Pray go on." + +"The exile protested that he was an escaped political prisoner. He was +not believed. The officer again repeated his order. A soldier was about +to obey, but the other threw the man from his horse. Instantly a dozen +carbines were levelled, but the officer, convulsed with passion, cried +out, 'You will tie this scoundrel to a tree, eight feet above the +ground, and leave him to the wolves.' Ah! why do you recoil from me? Do +you not believe this story? I tell you that it is absolutely true in +every detail." + +Gabrielle was trembling with emotion. + +"It is quite cold out here; you will catch your death. Let us go +indoors," said Vassilitch, harshly. + +She continued unheedingly. "The command of that monster was obeyed by +his men. The victim was lashed to the trunk of a pine tree, high above +the ground. The Cossacks rode away, laughing, and left him there until +the wolves should come to surround the tree, to bite it through with +their sharp teeth, and then--and then----" + +A gleam of lightning passed over the sky, and the rumble of thunder +followed. + +"Do you recollect the talk at the table?" said Gabrielle; "about echoes? +This act is one of those that return to break in thunder upon the +perpetrator." + +The ex-captain of Cossacks shrugged his shoulders. "What is your +request?" he demanded. + +Gabrielle stopped in the garden path and faced him. A faint light from +the windows of the mansion fell upon her form with its perfect lines, +its loveliness. She was conscious of her beauty then, and she knew that +he was conscious of it. + +"Find the man who did this thing." + +He was silent. + +"You think me revengeful? I acknowledge it. Right or wrong, for three +years I have prayed for this." + +"Mademoiselle, I must ask you two questions: The name of your +informant?" + +"I am pledged not to give it. He was a trooper in the band who obeyed +the orders of their officer." + +"That is unfortunate, for I should much like to know his name. Let that +pass. Question number two: What was this prisoner to you that his fate +should awake these feelings of deep sorrow and revenge?" + +For an instant Gabrielle hesitated, while his eyes appeared to be +reading her inmost thoughts. Then she said, "He was a brother." + +"Ah!" + +Vassilitch was clearly relieved by the answer. He said, "This will, of +course, necessitate a journey to Russia. Well, I will find this man." + +"And you will challenge him?" + +"I will challenge him." + +"And you will kill him?" + +"If by that time you still wish it--yes, I will kill him." + +They looked into one another's eyes, adding no further word. A heavy +clap of thunder broke and rolled overhead. + +"You had better go in now," said Vassilitch. + +He left her at the doors of the French windows, while he lighted a cigar +and went again into the garden. Suddenly he turned. He perceived that +she was yet standing, gazing after him. He could see her in the aureole +of light, though she could not see him in the outer gloom. + +"How beautiful she is!" muttered Vassilitch. + +He flung down his cigar, put his foot upon it, and ground it into the +earth. + + +II. + +"Expensive? Rather. You cannot get diggings in Regent Street for a +song." Tweed rose, threw up the window, sat down again, and added, +"Especially over a jeweller's shop. They are so careful. There is +nothing but a plank, my dear Boris, between us and thousands of pounds' +worth of glittering things." + +"It is very nice here," said Boris Stefanovitch, looking across to the +Quadrant with wistful, melancholy eyes. + +"'Twill serve. They are not bad for bachelors' quarters. My only fear is +that one day I may get my head into the matrimonial noose. Do not laugh; +it is too serious. There are many who feel in the same way. We are +determined not to marry. We build a hedge, and dig a trench, and raise a +tower; but--but----" Tweed shrugged his shoulders. "Halloa, it is +beginning to snow," he added, abruptly. "Do you feel cold? I will close +the window." + +"Pray do not. I had an idea that it never snowed in England. This wind +is most refreshing." + +"I am glad you think so," said Tweed, pushing back his chair as a rush +of raw air swept into the apartment. "No doubt a cutting blast like this +is a summer breeze to you after your----" He pulled himself up suddenly. +That was a subject that he never cared to be the first to open. + +There was the rattle of descending iron shutters. They were closing the +shop on the ground floor. The white flakes were driving by in dizzying +confusion. Almost every cab had an occupant. A hushed roar told of the +traffic at Piccadilly Circus. + +Stefanovitch said, quietly, "Well, I shall return to Russia." + +"You will do nothing of the sort," was the equally quiet reply. + +"There is a difference in our cases. You wish to live without love; and +I--to me love is life. This silence is not to be endured. Why no +response to my letters? I shall wait one more month, and then I shall go +to Moscow." + +"You dare not! Haven't you seen enough of Russian prisons?" + +"More than three years since I set eyes on her," muttered the other; and +his face, which bore the marks of much suffering, became all at once +haggard with perplexity. + +"Three years is a long time and a hard test," argued Tweed. + +The other caught his meaning. He smiled as he said, simply, "My friend, +you do not know this woman." + +"But I know the Trans-Baikal, and the frozen horror of your northern +swamps. And I have seen a gang of exiles, in their long, earth-coloured +coats, women and men, chained together, living statues of despair, +tramping, tramping, and the soldiers with their bayonets fixed----" + +"Don't!" said Stefanovitch. But the other went on unheedingly. + +"And I have seen your northern forests in winter, shrouded in snow, with +an Arctic wind rattling down the pine needles, bending the cedars, and +the fir trees making a sound that gives you the shivers. And I have seen +the wolves there. They appear to rise out of the ground. Once they +chased me for three leagues. We were in a tarantass, and were nearly +caught, by Jove! What brutes! Every tooth looked like a dagger. And +frequently a poor wretch will escape from a convict station and try to +hide himself in these forests----" + +[Illustration: "HE PERCEIVED THAT SHE WAS YET STANDING, GAZING AFTER +HIM."] + +"Will you stop?" cried Stefanovitch, covering his eyes. + +"----will endeavour to conceal himself in one of these forests; but +either he starves to death or the wolves get him, or perhaps a party of +soldiers, say Cossacks, come upon him and take him for a _varnak_. And I +have known one instance in which the man, having resisted authority, was +lashed to a tree to wait for the wolves. He succeeded in releasing +himself, it is true; and ultimately he escaped from the country, +but----" + +"Enough, enough!" implored Stefanovitch, as if appalled by some memory +that had seared heart and brain. + +"----but next time he will not meet with such fortune." Tweed rose and +smashed down the window. + +"Why do you recall these things to me?" said the other, huskily. + +"Why will you make a fool of yourself?" was the heated retort. "I tell +you that you shall not go back to Moscow if I can prevent it. There's +not a woman on this earth who is worth running so great a risk for. If +she will not answer your letters, you must forget her, that is all." + +"You suggest an impossibility." + +"And you suggest a madness. What are you gazing at? Do you recognise +anybody?" + +The other was looking across the roadway to where a tall, broad figure, +in a massive fur-trimmed coat, was leisurely pacing the thronged +pavement. Tweed repeated his question. + +"I--I don't know," replied Stefanovitch, indecisively. "The face of that +tall fellow--I thought it was familiar--the light is so bad--and a cab +came between----" + +"What, that fellow in the coat? How strange! I seem to know him, too. +Even his back is familiar. Let me think. Where on earth did I +meet--ah!--no, it's slipped me again. Yet I'm sure--almost sure--that +I--got it, by thunder! The man's Vassilitch--Ivan Féodor Vassilitch, a +countryman of yours; not a bad sort, but cold and hard--hard as +sheet-iron. You have met him, perhaps?" + +"The name is not familiar to me." + +"I met him at Etheridge's place in Cumberland. It was four months back." +Tweed spoke cheerily, feeling glad that the subject was changed. "There +were some nice people down there," he continued. "I should like you to +know Etheridge. Ah, yes--there was also a countrywoman of yours staying +at the place. She and Vassilitch were rather thick, we thought. A +singularly beautiful creature. Her name was Gabrielle Rupinsky. +She----What on earth is the matter?" + +"Gabrielle Rupinsky!" echoed Stefanovitch, springing so suddenly to his +feet that his chair went flying. + +"The same. Do----" + +"The daughter of old Otto Rupinsky, General of Hussars?" The speaker was +trembling with excitement. + +"That is she," said the other, astonished. + +Stefanovitch caught at his collar as if emotion were choking him. "Do +you know what you are saying?" he cried. "Fool that I was not to have +mentioned her name! This is the woman who is all--all the beauty of the +world to me. Gabrielle in England! Now it is clear why my letters were +not answered. Heaven bless you for this news. Her address--quick!" + +Tweed, overjoyed and immensely relieved, was wringing the other's hands +in his delight. "I'm afraid I can't give it you straight away," said he. +"You see, she isn't in Cumberland now. But I will write at once to +Etheridge, and you should have it within forty-eight hours. 'Pon my +word, old fellow, this is great news. Are you going?" + +"If you do not mind. A thousand thanks. I hope it is not a dream; it +seems too good to be true," he added, with pathos. "What! I shall see +Gabrielle within forty-eight hours? Shall hold her in my arms? Pardon +me; these things may not appeal to you. But if you had waited and +suffered----" + +"I know, I know," said Tweed, sympathetically. They had descended the +stairway and were at the open door. "Look here," he added, in parting, +"we have supper together at my club to-morrow night; that engagement +holds good, of course?" + +"As you will; most certainly." + +Stefanovitch pressed his friend's hand and was gone. At that moment +Tweed perceived the tall form of Ivan Vassilitch repassing. He murmured, +"I should like to renew my acquaintance with this man; he fascinated me, +rather. I'll go out and meet him." And he bounded upstairs for his coat +and hat. + + +III. + +An electric bell hummed through the cottage. + +Gabrielle put down her book in surprise. She had scarcely expected a +visitor at that late hour. Yet it was not really late, but in this +sleepy Hertfordshire village nine o'clock was considered an unusual time +for anyone to be out. + +She drew back the blind. A black night pressed against the window. The +country-side, unillumined by moon or stars, was just a wall of darkness, +as if reclaimed by "chaos and old night." + +A servant entered with a card. Gabrielle glanced at the slip of +pasteboard, and the observant maid noticed that a sudden rush of colour +swept into her mistress's face. + +"I will see him," said Gabrielle. + +There entered Ivan Féodor Vassilitch. The lines of his face relaxed at +sight of her, and a smile almost of sweetness raised his black +moustache. "Why do you not light your English country roads?" he +demanded, laughing. "I had only the light of your window to guide me for +a mile." + +"Pardon; they are not my roads," she answered, in the same bright +spirit of banter. "I am not yet naturalized. Where have you been?" + +[Illustration: "THERE ENTERED IVAN FÉODOR VASSILITCH."] + +"To Russia." He spoke the truth. + +"Ah!" Instantly she became serious. "And you returned----?" + +"Yesterday." + +"Will you sit down, monsieur?" She spoke with a palpable effort. Some +emotion had robbed her of breath. + +"Shall we go straight to our subject?" asked Vassilitch, perfectly +controlled, as he always was. + +"For what else are you here?" + +"My first thought was that I should see you; my second was that I had a +more definite errand." + +He bore her sudden coldness so steadily that she was compelled to +relent. "Well," she said, "I am very pleased to see you, monsieur." + +"You are exceedingly kind. On the day following the evening on which I +received your instructions I set about the business, and I was not long +in finding the man who worked you and yours so great a wrong." + +"Not long? Impossible that he was in England?" + +"On the contrary, mademoiselle, he was in this country. Do not ask me +how I discovered him. As an ex-officer of Cossacks you will understand +that my inquiries were respected. The task was not difficult; in fact, +it was ridiculously easy." + +"Why do you laugh like that? You found this monster; what then?" + +"He went to Russia. I went also." + +"And you challenged him there?" cried Gabrielle, and the womanly +softness fled from her eyes. + +"I did not." + +"Monsieur! monsieur!" + +"Listen. He returned to England; and I, too, followed." + +"What! You permitted him to escape? You lost this chance?" + +"Mademoiselle, there is one thing which both of us overlooked--or, +rather, of which we were in ignorance." + +"That you were afraid?" said Gabrielle, rising to her feet, with a world +of scorn and anger in her beautiful face. + +Vassilitch regarded her with steadiness; he took the word as he would +have taken a pistol ball, and again she relented. "Forgive me," she +said. "I was hasty; I wronged you." + +"Mademoiselle, the Queen can do no wrong." He took the hand she gave +him, made as if he would have raised it to his lips, then released it +with infinite gentleness. "The one important point that we overlooked," +he continued, "is that this man--I wonder if you can guess?" + +"No, no. Go on." + +"----is that this man loves you, mademoiselle." + +"Loves--me?" + +"So I discovered. You are his guiding star. To you his life points; +round you it revolves. Parted from you by an infinite distance, he is +yet bound to you by the strongest of laws, and can no more escape your +sway than the earth the pole-star to which it looks, about which it +rolls. And knowing this, I could not kill him--just yet." + +"Why, what folly is this that you are talking?" exclaimed Gabrielle, a +trifle awed in spite of herself. "You are not serious, monsieur? You +cannot be." + +Vassilitch did not answer. + +"His name? Tell me his name," was the impatient command. + +"I will tell you, but not now." + +"You are very mysterious," said Gabrielle, watching him closely. "You +must be aware that you are keeping me in suspense." + +Vassilitch rose. "It is merely a fancy of mine," said he. "I ask you to +believe that I have spoken the simple truth. I am still prepared to +carry out your instructions; but I should like you to consider the +assurance that I have given you. In a short time I hope to see you +again. Perhaps--anyhow, you know that I am your servant; you have but to +command me. I will wish you good-night, mademoiselle." + +Gabrielle extended her hand. She was troubled by the bitterness of his +smile. Certainly this man was mysterious to-night. "Where are you +staying?" she asked, suddenly, willing to prolong the conversation. + +"At the L---- Hotel." + +"You will dine with me one night? This place is quiet, but it has its +charm." + +"Nothing would delight me more." + +"To-morrow?" + +"You are very good, but I have an engagement. Do you recollect the +Englishman--I have his card here--George Tweed? That is it. He was in +Cumberland when----" + +"I remember him perfectly." + +"Well, we met this evening in London. He extracted from me a promise to +take supper with him to-morrow night. He wants me to meet a great friend +of his, and a countryman of ours, whose conversation he vowed would +interest me." + +"Indeed? Did he mention the name?" + +"Yes. It was--it was--no, it has slipped my memory. It scarcely +matters." + +A servant came at a touch of the bell. The visitor descended the stairs +and left the cottage. Impelled by a sudden impulse Gabrielle ran to the +window and pulled up the blind. He would see her standing there. What of +that? The crunch of his heavy footfall sounded upon the gravel, and his +voice came clearly--"Good-night!" She replied and felt glad. + +Gabrielle drew down the blind again and retreated into the well-lighted +room. She paused by the table and put to herself, aloud, a direct +question: "Why did I tell him that--that he was my brother?" And she +replied, in as direct a fashion: "I imagined that he--cared for me a +little. If he had known the truth should I have been able so to command +him? I cannot think so." + +The recollection of the time when she had met Ivan Vassilitch brought to +her certain details of the occasion; and suddenly she remembered that +conversation in which famous echoes that appear to gather sound and +reverberate had been likened to actions that will not leave a life. She +had compared that cruel wrong which had destroyed her peace with one of +these deeds that come back to break in thunder. She recalled the +reminiscence with a sense of uneasiness. + + +IV. + +There were half-a-dozen men in the coffee-room at the club. + +"What I like about this place," said Tweed, across the table, to +Stefanovitch, "is that they feed you well. The big restaurants have +spoilt most clubs in that respect. If ever----" he stopped, and took his +arms off the table as a uniformed waiter approached with a bottle of +champagne. The man held the dusty neck with a serviette, drew the cork, +and filled two glasses. Stefanovitch, lost in thought, did not observe +the act. When he looked down he flushed slightly as he said, "Thank you, +I do not care to drink before eating." + +The other was visibly annoyed as he glanced at the clock. "Our man is +behind time," said he. "A bad thing in a soldier. By the way, I wonder +if you do know him? I should say that he is a man of iron--one of those +fellows whom you couldn't drive nails into, to quote a picturesque +expression, and the last man on earth of whom I should care to make an +enemy." + +"You said that, when you were all together in Cumberland," answered the +other, speaking with apparent effort, "this Ivan Vassilitch, whom I am +to meet to-night, appeared rather fond of Gabrielle. Of course----" + +Tweed laughed outright. "Don't worry," said he. "Mademoiselle Rupinsky +was to him as to most of us--a beautiful statue. Her cold reserve is now +fully explained; she believes that you are either dead or yet an exile. +You will make her a happy woman to-morrow, Boris. Ah! an idea. +Vassilitch may be wiser than I. He may have her address, in which case +you will not have to wait for this letter from Etheridge. And that is a +point which will soon be settled, for here comes our man." + +The tall figure of Ivan Vassilitch appeared at the door of the spacious +coffee-room. His hat and coat had been taken from him. He at once +perceived Tweed, and dismissed with a nod the servant who had conducted +him thither. Tweed gripped his hand with almost boyish fervour. + +"So pleased to see you," said he. "Come along, I will introduce you to a +fellow-countryman who----Halloa! you know one anoth----" He broke off on +the unfinished word. + +Stefanovitch had risen to his feet. He faced Vassilitch. Into his eyes a +wild expression leaped, a look of haunting fear, of cowering terror. +Tweed, with astonishment, observed that piteous gaze, and thought +instinctively of a half-tamed animal that turns upon its master. +Stefanovitch recoiled a step, one hand grasping a chair-back, the other +clutching the table-cloth, and with all the strength of his spirit he +strove to beat down the straight look of this man who, by an hour of +horror, had well-nigh broken that spirit. + +Vassilitch was the first to break the silence. He said, unflinchingly, +"Monsieur Stefanovitch appears to recognise me. He has a good memory for +faces. Yes; we have met before." + +At the words, or the callous tone in which they were spoken, a sudden +frenzy of passion convulsed Stefanovitch. Uttering a stifled cry of +"Scoundrel!" he snatched up his untasted glass of wine and flung the +contents in the face of Vassilitch. + +[Illustration: "HE SNATCHED UP HIS UNTASTED GLASS OF WINE AND FLUNG THE +CONTENTS IN THE FACE OF VASSILITCH."] + +"Are you mad?" exclaimed Tweed, grasping the outstretched arm. + +A waiter who had observed the action took a step forward, then +hesitated, ready for developments. + +The ex-officer of Cossacks wiped the liquid from his face and coat. He +was very pale. He turned to Tweed. + +"I compliment you on the manners of your friends," said he; "they are +delightful. I have the honour to wish you good evening." He bowed +slightly, twice--the second time to Stefanovitch, who had sunk into a +chair; then he quitted the room. + + +V. + +The fatalistic idea that he was being carried onward in spite of himself +would occur insistently; he felt that he was no longer master of +circumstance. + +It was hardly to be wondered at, since it was largely a matter of +nerves. Vassilitch had returned to his hotel after the scene at the +club, and spent half the night writing a letter to Gabrielle; slept +badly, breakfasted on four cups of black coffee, spent the best part of +the day in pacing the narrow dimensions of his sitting-room, and was +now--as the afternoon waned--as undecided as ever. + +He told himself that the only clear part of the business was that he +could not do without her--no, nor would he; that he was guiltless of the +crime that had awakened her abhorrence and fierce desire for justice. +For her brother had escaped death, it appeared, and had come back. But +that brother would denounce him, would have to be reckoned with. It was +certainly awkward. The difference in their names did not puzzle him. +Doubtless the name of Stefanovitch had been assumed from political +reasons of prudence. + +But, then, he told himself, brother and sister must have met in England, +perhaps weeks, even months past. In that case Gabrielle must have +learned the truth, and so might very well be playing with him. This +thought was terrible. Yet when he called to mind the obvious surprise +and discomfiture of Stefanovitch he felt relieved. Then another +suspicion arose: what if that meeting had been a prearranged thing? It +was a little unusual that the Englishman, George Tweed, should accost +him--a mere acquaintance--in Regent Street, and invite him to supper. +Yes, it really did appear as if he were the dupe of Gabrielle and +Stefanovitch, that they were indeed amusing themselves at his expense. +If not, how strange that she should have said to him, of all men on +earth, "Kill the man who killed my brother." + +This frightful suspicion was not to be endured. He combated it, since it +was for his life. He strove to remember one soft look that she might +have given him. He had imagined at times that she trusted a little in +him. + +A firm resolve to act came at last to him. He tore into small pieces the +letter that he had written. He would see Gabrielle--would end this +torment. + +He examined a time-table and started to leave the hotel. Half-way down +the stairs he paused, returned quickly, and slipped into his pocket a +Derringer pistol, which he took, without exactly knowing why, from a +drawer. A minute later he was bowling towards King's Cross Station. + +On the platform he saw Stefanovitch, and guessed rightly that the latter +was bound for the same destination as himself. If Vassilitch had been +sure of this he would have abandoned his intention; as it was he +resolved to go on without losing sight of the other. + +The train sped from the Metropolis, rushing with piercing cries through +the winter-laden country. The short day was passing from fields and sky; +already the tops of the leafless trees mingled with the grey of evening. + +When Ivan Vassilitch alighted at his station he perceived that +Stefanovitch was before him, that he was just quitting the platform, +moving with sharp strides, as if he were in a hurry. Vassilitch had half +a mind to turn back, but, not caring to wait for perhaps a long time +till an up train came in, he almost mechanically followed the other at a +safe distance. + +Stefanovitch stopped once or twice, and appeared to make inquiries as to +his way. This mystified Vassilitch. Was it possible, he asked himself, +that Gabrielle had not met her brother; that the latter had but just set +foot in England? The consideration was comforting. + +Stefanovitch walked on with great strides, not looking behind, or +scarcely to right and left. Gabrielle's cottage was isolated from other +habitations. It was built on an eminence that was sheltered on three +sides by poplar trees, while the gravelled drive that led to the front +of the house was bordered by elms, whose branches met overhead and +formed an avenue. + +Stefanovitch was approaching the head of this avenue when he perceived, +coming toward him, the figure of a woman. His heart almost stopped +beating, then continued with great thumps of excitement. The waning, +pallid twilight obscured the form, but something in the poise of that +figure, in the walk, brought back to him a flood of dear remembrance. +With fingers that shook he lifted the latch of the gate and continued +down the avenue, that was covered with dead leaves of autumn. And then +he saw that it was indeed she. + +He cried out in stifled tones:-- + +"Gabrielle! Gabrielle!" + +She stopped; the quick panting of her breath reached his ears. + +"It is I--Boris! I have come back to you, Gabrielle--come back, after +all these years! My heart! Why do you look at me like that? No word of +welcome, Gabrielle? Ah! you thought that I was dead? My selfishness has +made me too abrupt." Stefanovitch had caught the white hands and was +drawing her towards him. + +"Yes, I--I--thought that you were--dead," answered Gabrielle. The sound +of his voice, its infinite tenderness, the joy that glowed in his eyes, +moved her so that she broke out into sobs--sobs that startled him. + +"My love! my dear love! I have frightened you. Oh, you must not cry like +that. Look at me, Gabrielle! How I have lived for you! Not one hour in +which I have not thought of you. And this, God's mercy, is greater than +His trial." Stefanovitch raised the drooping head and covered her face +with his passionate kisses. "My love! My love!" he said. + +And Gabrielle at that moment seemed to wake from a dream. Here was the +heart that she could rest upon. What other thoughts were those which she +had permitted to linger for awhile? They were fading already, were +passing with her tears. + +[Illustration: "SHE PUT HER ARMS ABOUT HIS NECK."] + +She put her arms about his neck; and so they were silent for a time, +standing motionless beneath the trees. Stefanovitch said at last:-- + +"Who told you that I was dead, little one? Who caused you such pain?" + +"It is so terrible a story. I heard that you escaped--" + +"And so I did." + +"That in the forest you were caught by a regiment of Cossacks, and +that--" + +Stefanovitch interrupted her. "What!" he cried out, "you heard of that? +Yes, it was true; but, Gabrielle, at a moment like this, when my cup is +overflowing, I can forgive even Ivan Vassilitch--" + +Gabrielle sprang from him as if he had struck her. In an instant she saw +the whole truth. The cry she would have uttered died on her parted lips. +She remained mute, bewildered, paralyzed with astonishment. + +"Ah, you know the man," said Stefanovitch. "I had forgotten that. Well, +let him pass, Gabrielle. Come, you are shivering. It is so cold out +here. May I come indoors for an hour?" + + * * * * * + +The ex-captain of Cossacks closed the gate as he left the avenue. He had +heard every word. And he had let them go. Why, he might have pistolled +Stefanovitch as he stood there! + +He remained in the snow-covered road, staring at the darkened fields, +pallid with grief and rage. + +Suddenly he snatched the Derringer from his pocket. The barrel into +which he looked was but a tiny orifice, yet wide and deep as the pit of +death. He lifted his arm. A pressure of the finger, that was all that +was needed-- + +"Bah! for a woman? She is not worth it!" + +Vassilitch fired into the air. The report echoed and re-echoed--a note +of thunder in the quiet night! + + + + +_Eccentricities of Equilibrium._ + +BY LOUIS NIKOLA. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR. + + +As a preliminary to the practical reproduction of the experiments herein +described, it is necessary to invade the kitchen and to carry off the +following articles, viz.: four forks, a plate, a tea-cup, a bottle, some +corks, the cook's basting-ladle and strainer, and a few other odd things +which will be found enumerated from time to time in connection with the +experiments in which they become necessary. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +1.--TO BALANCE A COIN ON THE EDGE OF A BOTTLE. + +The first experiment is a very simple one. Partly fill the bottle with +water; then take one of the corks, make a slit in one end in the +direction of its length, into which insert a coin. Next stick two forks +into the cork, on opposite sides and near the other end, at angles of +about 30deg. With the forks so placed, as balance-weights, it is an easy +matter to balance the coin upon one edge of the mouth of the bottle, as +in Fig. 1. With a steady hand it is also possible to execute the +effective termination shown in the lower portion of the same +illustration--_i.e._, to slope the bottle gradually so as to pour out a +glass of the contents, retaining the while the coin in equilibrium upon +the neck of the bottle. + + +2.--A COIN BALANCED ON A NEEDLE. + +[Illustration] + +By a slight variation of the previous arrangements the coin may be +balanced edgeways upon a needle-point and made to rapidly revolve +thereupon. Fig. 2 shows the experiment in operation. + + +3.--THE BALANCED PIN. + +To balance a pin upon a needle would seem rather a formidable +undertaking; but by an application of the same principle no considerable +difficulty is encountered. Stick the pin into another cork in position +corresponding to that of the coin in the first experiment, into which +also fix two forks as in the previous examples. With a little care it is +then quite practicable to rest the head of the pin upon the point of the +needle, where it will remain balanced as in Fig. 3. + +[Illustration] + + +4.--A PIN OR NEEDLE BALANCED HORIZONTALLY. + +[Illustration] + +By another variation of the conditions it is possible to balance the pin +upon the needle-point in a horizontal position and to make it revolve +thereon in that situation. The only alteration necessary to the +preparations already made is to substitute for the two forks two +ordinary pocket-knives. By bending the handles of the knives at an angle +to the blade, the pin may be sustained in a horizontal position. Or, by +the substitution of a long needle for the pin, the forks may be retained +as balance-weights, as in the previous example and as shown in the +present illustration. The pin may be rested upon the needle-point as in +the figure, and by a gentle touch of the finger may be set revolving. In +time, by reason of the relative differences in hardness of the two +metals, the commencement of a tiny hole will be drilled by the sharp +steel point of the needle in the softer brass of the pin, and if the +motion be continued for a sufficient length of time a hole will +ultimately be an accomplished fact. + + +5.--THE SPINNING PLATE. + +[Illustration] + +A further application of similar principles, and a plate may be balanced +and spun upon the needle-point. The corked bottle with the needle in +position remains as before. Two other corks are taken and split into two +by a vertical cut. Into one end of each half-cork, upon the flat side, +are stuck the prongs of a fork, and thus the four forks are hung at +equal distances around the edge of the plate. Then, with a little care, +the plate will be held in perfect equilibrium, as in Fig. 5. + + +6.--THE BALANCED EGG. + +[Illustration] + +Next cut a slight concavity in one end of one of the corks, so as to +adapt it as exactly as possible to one end of an egg. Then insert two +forks, as before, into the sides of the cork, letting the hollowed-out +end be the lower. Then rest the cork with the forks as counter-weights +upon the end of the egg to which the concavity has been adapted. So +aided, the egg may be balanced upon the mouth of the bottle, as in Fig. +6. + + +7.--THE WALKING CORK. + +[Illustration] + +In this case a cork with two balance-weights attached, in the shape of +forks as previously employed, is provided in addition with a pair of +legs, formed by the insertion of a couple of stout pins or small +round-headed nails into the bottom of the cork, as in Fig. 7. The figure +is placed upon an inclined narrow slip of wood at the highest point of +the incline and set gently oscillating, so that the weight is thrown +alternately on one side and then on the other, which will cause the +figure to make the descent of the incline in a series of jerks. + + +8.--THE BALANCED PENCIL. + +[Illustration] + +As shown in the illustration, this experiment is performed with a lead +pencil and a razor. The razor is partly opened and the end of the blade +fixed into the wood of the pencil about an inch or two above the point, +in the position and at about the angles shown in the illustration, Fig. +8, when the pencil may be readily balanced upon its point on the +extremity of a stout needle thrust horizontally into the bottle cork, as +shown. + + +9.--THE BALANCED LADLE. + +[Illustration] + +A development of the last experiment may be made with a basting ladle +and a razor or folding pocket-knife. Open the knife to an angle of a +little over 45deg., and engage the hook of the ladle with the outside +angle at the junction of handle and blade, as in Fig. 9, which permits +of the whole being placed in self-supporting position upon the edge of +the table, as shown. The junction of knife and ladle may be made firm, +if necessary, by a slice of cork wedged in beneath the hook of the ladle +handle. + + +10.--THE BALANCED PAIL OF WATER. + +[Illustration] + +Fig. 10 looks a little startling! There is, however, no risk if the +experiment is properly conducted. The requirements are: a kitchen table, +a pail of water, a stout, flat stick three or four feet long on which to +hang the pail, and another and slighter piece of stick. The larger stick +is first laid upon the table with about one-third of its length +projecting over the edge. The pail--empty--is next hung upon the +projecting end of the stick. The smaller stick is then placed with one +end against the inside angle of the bottom of the pail at the point +nearest the table, and the other end cut away at such a length as will +permit it to wedge tightly against the under side of the main stick, at +which point a notch may be cut in the latter to prevent slipping. The +whole bears a structural resemblance to the balanced ladle of Fig. 9. +The pail may then be partly filled with water, when it should remain +balanced as in Fig. 10. + + +11.--THE BALANCED PENCILS. + +This is an elaboration of the experiment described in paragraph 4. A +pencil is first thrust through the centre of a cork and two forks into +the sides of the cork. This will permit of the pencil being balanced +horizontally, as in Fig. 11. A second pencil is balanced by the +insertion of two pen-holders in positions relatively similar to those +which the forks bear to the balanced object in Experiments 1, 2, and 3, +and so arranged it may be balanced upon the unsupported end of the first +pencil. The whole structure may be made to revolve upon the needle. + +[Illustration] + + +12.--THE LADLE AND WINE-GLASS. + +[Illustration] + +Making use again of the basting-ladle, a cork is first fixed into the +hook of the handle, and into this is thrust the point of a knife or the +prongs of a fork, the latter being at an angle of about 45deg. or so to +the former. A glass is filled with water, and by placing the fork or +knife-handle upon the edge of the glass the ladle will balance as in +Fig. 12. + + +13.--THE BALANCED BOTTLE. + +[Illustration] + +By still another application of the basting-ladle, or a walking-stick or +umbrella, a bottle may be balanced upon a slack cord. All that is +necessary is to insert the hook of the ladle-handle or the handle of the +stick into the neck of the bottle and support upon the cord, as shown. + + +14.--THE REVOLVING COIN. + +[Illustration] + +Bend up a piece of stiff wire, such as a hairpin, into the shape shown +in the lower right-hand corner of Fig. 14, with a hook at one end and a +clip at the other, the latter adjusted to grip a coin tightly. By +hanging a fairly heavy finger-ring upon the hook as a counter-weight, +the whole may be balanced with the penny upon the point of a needle, and +made to revolve on it. + + +15.--THE REVOLVING PLATE. + +[Illustration] + +A similar experiment may be performed on a larger scale by bending up a +longer and proportionately stouter piece of wire, and substituting for +the coin a small plate and for the ring a bunch of keys--Fig. 15--or a +larger plate and a tea-cup. In the latter case the weight of the tea-cup +may be built up to counter-balance the plate by dropping a number of +coins one by one into the cup until the required weight is obtained. + + +16.--THE BALANCED WINE-GLASSES. + +This experiment is not a case of pure balancing, but depends principally +upon the nice adjustment of the two pieces of stick by means of which +the position of the two glasses is maintained. A couple of slender +pen-holders may be used, and must be trimmed down at the ends until the +right length is obtained. The position of the sticks and the manner in +which the glasses are supported can best be gathered by a study of the +illustration below. + +[Illustration] + + +17.--BALANCING CUPS. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +Simple methods of balancing a milk-jug and tea-cup respectively are +shown in Figs. 17, A and B. In the first illustration the cork is placed +inside the handle of the vessel, in which position it should fit with +moderate firmness, so as not to slip, and then two knives are thrust in, +one from each side of the handle, between the cork and the cup itself, +when the cup may be balanced upon any fixed point. In the second a cork +is fixed into the handle, as before, and into the cork the prongs of a +fork are fastened, holding the fork in such a position as to bring the +centre of gravity below the point of suspension. The cup may then be +balanced as before. + + +18.--THE BALANCED PLATE. + +[Illustration] + +This is a rather more elaborate experiment and one of the most effective +of the whole series. The requirements are: a plate, the basting-ladle +used in previous experiments, and, in addition, a "skimmer." The handle +of the ladle is hooked over the edge of the plate and made secure by a +wedge cut from a bottle cork. The opposite edge of the plate is then +rested upon the edge of a bottle in the position shown in Fig. 18, and +the handle of the skimmer is finally hooked into the bowl of the ladle, +making the structure shown. + + +19.--THE BALANCED TUMBLERS. + +[Illustration] + +Here is a little after-dinner experiment requiring some delicacy of +manipulation. The end in view is to balance three tumblers one upon the +edge of the other as in Fig. 19. With two tumblers the experiment is +comparatively easy: with the third it becomes a genuine test of skill. + + +20.--THE BALANCED SHOVEL AND TONGS. + +A delicate test of balancing may be attempted with the shovel and tongs. +The position of the two implements is shown in the illustration Fig. 20. +The extremity of one arm of the tongs is rested against the inside of +the shovel, and the other extremity is placed in the angle formed by the +junction of the shovel with the handle. By delicate poising the two may +be induced to remain in equilibrium in the position illustrated. A +formation which permits of the tongs being engaged with the shovel after +the manner shown is an important factor. + +[Illustration] + + +21.--A TOWER OF GLASS. + +[Illustration] + +An effective combination is shown in Fig. 21. A carafe, partly filled +with water to give stability, forms the basis of the structure. Upon +this a trio of wine-glasses, lying horizontally, are arranged, and so +held while the bottle, half filled with water, is placed in position +above them. A little careful adjustment will secure an accurate +reproduction of the experiment as illustrated. + + +22.--ANOTHER ARRANGEMENT. + +[Illustration] + +A similar structure, formed with seven glasses and a carafe, is shown in +Fig. 22, which is self-explanatory. + + +23.--THE REVOLVING COIN. + +[Illustration] + +A simple experiment for impromptu performance at the table can be made +with a couple of pins and a coin. The accomplishment consists of picking +up the coin by two opposite edges between the points of the two pins, as +in Fig. 23, in which position it may, with steady hands, safely be held. +By blowing smartly upon one edge of the coin it may be made to rapidly +revolve between two points. The feat has the appearance of an exhibition +of considerable skill, but, as a trial will show, it is in no way +difficult of execution. The selection of a milled-edged coin will +facilitate the matter. + + +24.--AN EXTEMPORIZED TRIPOD. + +[Illustration] + +With three forks, a serviette ring, and a plate, one may improvise a +stand for a soup tureen or water carafe. The forks are merely passed +through the ring and spread into the form of a tripod, the handles +resting upon the table. A plate placed upon the prongs of the forks locks +the whole and provides the necessary rest for the article to be +supported. The fruit dish in the illustration happens to be of just the +right size to rest in the support formed by the extremities of the +forks, the plate being in this case unnecessary. + + +25.--KEYS TO EMINENCE. + +[Illustration] + +In our last example we have a succession of keys built up by +interlocking the wards and bows one within the other, upon the summit of +which may, by special care, be balanced a bottle or similar object. +Where the bottle is added to the pile, it takes the place of the +uppermost key shown in our illustration, and rests upon one taking a +more gentle incline, as in the case of the one immediately below. This +rather ambitious structure forms a fitting climax to our series, and may +be left to the ingenuity of the reader, whose accumulated experience +should by this time be good equipment for the negotiation of the +difficulties to be surmounted. + + + + +_Miss Cairn's Cough-Drops._ + +BY WINIFRED GRAHAM. + + +I. + +Little Hal Court knew nothing of towns; he had been brought up in the +solitude and beauty of Northern Ireland. The country had given to this +small boy something of its own peculiar charm, a wildness wedded +mysteriously to peace. He could be so still and thoughtful, or so full +of life and movement, he might have borrowed his child's personality +from the waves of the great blue sea. + +Nature made a bold nurse--a teacher who whispered to Hal of things +intense, of stories wonderful, bringing him the funds of her vast +wisdom, the fairy tales of a country-side teeming with romance. + +"I live with my grandmother," he told his new governess, "because I have +a different kind of mamma to other boys. She isn't the ordinary sort +that stays at home; she--she's a celebrity!" He paused before alighting +upon the correct word, bringing it out with so grave an air that Miss +Ainsworth could hardly repress a smile. + +[Illustration: "I HAVE A DIFFERENT KIND OF MAMMA TO OTHER BOYS."] + +"Yes," he continued, hugging his knee and gazing through the window at +the turbid waves of the Lough, a lovely inland sea, sending its green +waters brimming to the verge of Castle Stewart's old garden. "She sings, +you know! She sings--well, just like an angel, people say; but the +angels don't have to travel about and leave their little boys at home. +Mother makes heaps of money when she sings a song. They send for her +right across the world, and she travels like a Princess; the people +crowd to see her get into the train. It's always that way if you can +sing. Don't you wish you had a voice like an angel, Miss Ainsworth?" + +"Yes, indeed." + +A sudden, almost painful, longing rang in the reply, as the dazzling +picture of a world-famed artiste was conjured up by the simple +description of a child. + +"I expect," added Miss Ainsworth, "you miss your mother?" + +"Why, of course. I wear this picture of her round my neck, and I love +her so much I don't mind when other boys call it girlish; one doesn't +mind being girlish for her!" + +A throb as of martyrdom crept into the child's voice--an almost +passionate hunger for the mother-love denied him. + +"She said," he continued, "she would be back for the New Year. She can't +get here in time for Christmas, because the boat from Australia won't +bring her fast enough, but she promised to come for certain on New +Year's Eve. I am to write to her in London. I always begin my letters +now, 'Don't forget about the New Year,' because she has so much to +remember. Then she answers back, 'Dear little boy, I'm safe for the New +Year,' or something of that kind. The winter seems very long here, and +one rather wants a mother. In the summer I don't mind her being away so +much." + +His wistful eyes saw in fancy the smiling summer-time, which sped on +lightning wings. For him the warm days spelt gladness, giving beautiful +little bays for playgrounds and creeks with wooded shores, while winter +presented unlighted rocks and shoals lashed by one of the strongest +tides in the kingdom. He had grown to love and reverence the castles of +old Kings which faced each other across the tide, and to know intimately +those wonderful islands which dotted the sea. But to Miss Ainsworth, +freshly arrived from a busy city, Castle Stewart in mid-winter held +something of terror with its watery wastes, guarding the little village +of Slaneyford. + +She liked hearing her small charge talk of his mother: it brought a +human note into all the dreariness and desolation of this storm-swept +country. Since her arrival she had been forced to associate Slaneyford +with a driving whirlwind of ceaseless rain. + +"We sha'n't mind the weather when mother comes," said Hal, cheerfully. +"Everything is different then; she's so jolly, you know. She will bring +me lots of toys in her box, but I don't want them when I've got her to +play with, and her cheek is so much softer to kiss than grandmamma's." + +Miss Ainsworth noticed that the thought of his mother's coming +predominated Hal's mind. Everything reminded him of some past action or +saying of hers--what she liked or disliked. When he became silent and +dreamy, his watchful companion knew well that the child-soul wandered to +a mother's knee, through the bright mazes of imagination. + +[Illustration: "A SURPRISE FOR THE FAIR LADY OF SONG."] + +In restless moments his energies ever centred in arranging some surprise +for the fair lady of song--shells he had collected for her in the summer +were to be hidden under her pillow, and long dried ribbons of white +seaweed found their way to the guest-chamber prepared for Mrs. Court. + +Miss Ainsworth herself caught his feverish excitement--the coming of the +famous singer held the charm of novelty. + +As yet she had met none of the celebrated people of the world, but +founded her social creed upon the daily lives of the middle classes. + +Even little Hal, with the strain of his mother's genius running in his +blood, came as a revelation of something peculiar and mystifying. + +"I sha'n't notice Christmas at all," he told Miss Ainsworth, as the +festive season drew near; "I shall just wait for mother and the New Year +and open all my presents then. She will like to be the first to see +them." So the Yuletide drifted by uneventfully, save for a thrill of +expectation heralding the arrival of a beloved traveller--that +child-like counting of days and hours in which the oldest may share, +when the heart pines and the spirit yearns for the touch of an absent +hand. + +The days were drawing near to New Year's Eve when Mrs. Court wrote +announcing her safe arrival in London. Hal's grandmother read the letter +aloud, and Miss Ainsworth watched the rapt expression on his face with a +strange intuition of coming sorrow, a fear lest disappointment, +black-winged and ugly, should mar the seraphic beauty of the child's +features. The little mouth, slightly inclined by Nature to droop, smiled +softly as the older woman read, and a flush crept over the boy's cheek, +while his whole attitude denoted breathless excitement. So keen was the +tension that, as the letter closed, Miss Ainsworth felt she could hardly +bear the concluding words:-- + +"It is just possible, tell Hal, that, after all, I may not get to +Slaneyford for the New Year. Your account of the weather is not +encouraging, and, dearly as I long to be with you, I am bound to be +cautious and not run any risks. I have a slight cold in my throat, and +the thought of the floods round Castle Stewart holds terrors, with their +suggestion of dampness. My doctor advises me to give up all thought of +visiting Ireland while these stormy days of deluge last. Ask my sweet +boy to write to me." + +Grandmamma laid the letter down with quite a matter-of-fact air, +remarking, "Cristina was very wise!" + +Miss Ainsworth took a sidelong glance at Hal. He had not moved, but his +lip trembled and he stared very hard at the floor. + +"I shall be writing to-day," said grandmamma, "so you had better put in +a line, Hal, and she will get it in London to-morrow morning." + +Hal nodded. His voice sounded odd and strangled as he replied:-- + +"Please, I would rather send my letter quite alone in an envelope by +itself." + +"Very well." + +The boy walked slowly to the door. The pathetic droop of his shoulders +spoke more eloquently than words, telling of a spirit crushed by hope +deferred, of a little heart breaking under a childish tunic of blue +serge. + +"The day after to-morrow will be New Year's Eve," he thought; "and +she--she is afraid of the weather, because of her voice!" + +Perhaps he had always been unconsciously jealous of that wonderful gift +which took her away from him, though to the child's pure nature all +hurtful emotions came as aliens, tarrying but for a moment on forbidden +ground. + +He crept to the far corner of the school-room, and, hiding the tiresome +tears that made writing difficult, scribbled hastily in his new +drawing-book. + +"She shall have the first sheet as a letter," he said, tearing it out, +and re-reading the words, clearly written in a bold, childish hand. +"Perhaps she will come after all, when she gets this." + +Miss Ainsworth saw with relief Hal looked happier as the post-boy +trudged with a bag of correspondence down the soaking drive. + +The following morning there was a certain watchfulness about Hal. He +could settle down to nothing, and appeared to be constantly listening; +every bell sent him running to the hall door. + +At last his energy met with reward, for he was the first to bring in a +telegram addressed to his grandmother. He waited by her knee with +glistening eyes, his pulses throbbing painfully as she read the flimsy +paper: "Shall be with you to-morrow; crossing to-night.--Cristina." + +It seemed to the boy that his heart stopped beating and would never go +on again as he heard the wonderful intelligence. He struggled for breath +as he gasped out the good news to Miss Ainsworth, who had just appeared +to take him for a walk. + +"She will be here for New Year's Eve! She rests in Dublin, you know, and +gets to us late in the afternoon," he cried, his face like a sunbeam. +"She changed her mind when she got our letters; I expect she saw we +wanted her very, very badly." + +The hours flew quickly with so much gladness in store, and Hal was quite +ready to go to bed early, that to-morrow might come the +sooner--to-morrow, the day of days, long waited for, through weary +months of watching. Miss Ainsworth came to the boy's bedside fearing he +would never sleep--with his brain in such a whirl of feverish +expectation. + +She found him open-eyed and flushed. Immediately he began speaking of +his mother. + +"To-morrow night she will come in, shading the candle with her hand," he +said. "She will wear a lovely dress she calls a tea-gown, all soft and +lacey, and she doesn't mind how much I crumple it." He smiled at the +thought and hugged his pillows. + +"I wonder why she suddenly changed her mind?" murmured Miss Ainsworth. +Hal sat bolt upright, his eyes very alert. + +"It was all through my letter," he answered, triumphantly. + +[Illustration: "'IT WAS ALL THROUGH MY LETTER,' HE ANSWERED."] + +"What did you say?" Miss Ainsworth felt very curious as she put the +question; she had never before dealt with a child of uncommon character. + +"I begged her to come," he replied, his tone vibrating with the energy +of a youthful passion. "I said I would like her to lose her voice on the +way and never find it again; then she would stay with me always, like +other mothers, who live at home with their children. I put: 'Never mind +about the old voice, dearest; it's always a bother, taking you away,' +and lots of things like that, just to show her how much I cared. Oh! and +I dropped some tears on the letter, so it all went crinkly." + +An expression of intense longing lit his face as he paused, clutching +Miss Ainsworth's sleeve. "Do you think she will lose her voice on the +journey?" he gasped, hopefully. "It would be lovely if she did!" + +Miss Ainsworth listened horrified; righteous indignation surged within +her well-meaning breast as she pictured the mother, torn by natural +affection, driven to risk her glorious gift of song for the whim of an +exacting child. + +"Oh!" cried Miss Ainsworth, shaking him off angrily, "I had no idea you +were such a wicked little boy. I thought you really loved your mother, +and now I see you don't at all; you are thoroughly selfish and horrid. +Your letter must have hurt her very deeply. Of course, she values her +voice above everything. God gave it to her as a wonderful inheritance, a +divine talent, and you--you _hope_ she will lose it, never to find it +again! I don't want to talk to you any more, but if ill befalls your +mother it will be a judgment on you! Naturally she ought not to travel +against the advice of her doctor, but she is sacrificing her health for +the sake of granting an unkind and inconsiderate request!" + +With these scathing words of rebuke Miss Ainsworth snatched up the +candle and strode from the room, shutting the door firmly behind her +without saying "good-night." + +Hal remained very still. All in a moment the room had become peopled +with dark fancies and ugly forms. Dread stole like a human presence to +the disconsolate little soul. Hal shivered and, shrinking down, hid his +head in the sheets. The lecture, with its awful truths, returned like a +heavy blow, causing physical pain to the sensitive temperament of the +highly-strung boy. He had meant no harm by the ignorant words, whose +child-like pathos touched the deepest chord in the heart of the famous +singer. Not for the world would she have had one syllable of Hal's +letter altered by the tutoring hand of a shocked Miss Ainsworth, while +tears and smiles together answered the appeal of that quaint, unstudied +expression of the boy's mind. + +But Hal knew nothing of this as the darkness gathered round him. He +heard only the condemning phrases: "You are thoroughly selfish and +horrid! I thought you really loved your mother! If ill befalls her it +will be a judgment upon you!" He set his lips and pressed his knuckles +firmly to his eyes. What was this dreadful thing he had done--all +unconsciously--to the mother for whom he would willingly have given his +life? She was on the sea now, against her doctor's advice, and the wind +was beating on his window-pane and moaning round the house. He felt he +could hardly bear the thought, and the sound of the pitiless rain +tortured him. + +Of course, Miss Ainsworth was right; he had been inconsiderate and +unkind. If mother lost her voice God would be very angry, because Miss +Ainsworth said it was a "divine talent." Whatever happened, the precious +voice must be preserved, even if it took the one he loved away from him +to the end of the chapter. As he mused a sudden thought came, bringing +with it one bright ray of hope through the terrifying gloom. + +Away across the mile-wide tideway, in the small town of Ferryport, a +certain Miss Cairn, an old, wrinkled spinster, kept a wondrous +sweet-shop, renowned for its good wares. When last Hal paid her a visit +one calm autumn day she had shown him a large glass jar of cough-drops, +bidding him remember when the winter came that for loss of voice, or +sore throat, she knew no equal in all the wide world. Miss Cairn +confided to him she had once assisted in a chemist's shop, and knew the +dark secrets of medicine. These drops were her own manufacture, and held +the magic of deep knowledge acquired in the past. + +Her words came back now with a force and power which made the great +flood surging between him and the desired goal as nothing compared with +the thought of saving mother's voice! The very difficulties in the way +made the staunch little heart resolve to let no human power stay him +from the task ahead. + +What matter that the ferry could not traverse the foaming waters? Old +Micky (known as Mad Micky, for risking his life in the wildest weather) +crossed every morning in his worn boat with the regularity of a postman! + +The inhabitants on either side were glad enough to make use of his +fearless enterprise, for to be cut off from communication often proved +highly inconvenient. So they paid him to carry their wares, and traded +with each other, while they shrugged their shoulders at the danger +entailed. + +"Poor craythur!" they would say; "shure, and he's bound to go under some +day, but there's none at home to mourn him, and he's set his mind on a +watery grave!" + +To Hal that night Mad Micky appeared as the one bright spot on the dark +horizon of his childish sorrow. + +If only he had Miss Cairn's cough-drops safely at Castle Stewart when +Mrs. Court arrived, all anxiety could be at an end. The lost voice must +needs return under the influence of such wonderful round, coloured +lozenges, with purple or pink stripes for choice. He fancied mother +would like the pink stripes best, because they were prettier. + +Lulled by the glad notion of repairing his sinful past, little Hal let +his heavy, tear-stained eyes close, and dreamt of a beauteous lady in a +tea-gown, of Mad Micky, and sweets in a huge glass jar away across the +tide. + + +II. + +When Hal, after many difficulties, escaped the watchful eyes of Miss +Ainsworth, and running through torrents of rain hid himself under a +drenched tarpaulin at the bottom of Micky's boat, the supreme moment of +his life had been reached. + +He suspected that on such a morning of storm even Mad Micky might +possibly refuse to pilot human cargo across the rough water, for New +Year's Eve outvied the previous days of tempest. + +The boat, moored at the Castle Stewart end of Slaneyford Lough, lay in +sight of the roaring sea, whose billows broke upon innumerable creeks +made alive by the hurrying presence of foam-crested waves. + +Hal had collected all the money he possessed in his small +pockets--silver for Miss Cairn, and three big pennies for Mad Micky when +the moment should arrive to reveal his hidden presence. + +No wonder the boy's heart beat furiously, for of all his life's +adventures this appeared the most thrilling and terrifying. + +It was one thing to play at shipwrecked mariners and to storm castles +in which no ogres dwelt--it proved a different matter to lie calmly +concealed while Micky, who "had set his mind on a watery grave," let his +frail barque tear across the Lough under a single head-sail. + +The boy knew enough of the treacherous current and the strength of the +tide to realize fully the perils of his passage. + +Peeping from under his covering he could see the reckless face of his +unconscious guide, fully aware that no man valuing his safety would sail +as Mad Micky sailed that morning. + +[Illustration: "HE COULD SEE THE RECKLESS FACE OF HIS UNCONSCIOUS +GUIDE."] + +The child's sensitive nature would have been tortured by fears but for +the encouraging influence of a great unselfish love. + +"It's for mother's sake!" he said, hiding his eyes from the swift, deep +body of water, whipped into fury by the wind as it viciously lashed the +sail. + +"It's for mother's sake!" he repeated, when the personal discomfort of +his position warned him there can be few places wetter or more cheerless +than a small boat unprotected from the elements when the rain descends +in really gross solidity. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Court felt none the worse for her journey as she drove to Castle +Stewart late that afternoon. + +She was really rather amused at having flung caution to the winds, and +was by no means depressed at landing in a hurricane of squall and dirt +on the dear, familiar Irish shore. + +Her first thought was for Hal as she crossed the threshold of her old +home, and a sudden keen misgiving pierced her like a knife when faces of +frightened distress greeted her on the doorstep. + +"Where is Hal?" + +The words broke sharply; the bright, magnificent eyes flashed a glance +of terror from right to left. + +"We don't know!" The answer came unsteadily from faltering lips. "He +disappeared this morning; he was last seen by one of the gardeners, +running towards the Lough, slipping over the slimy stones and rocks. The +man wondered we allowed him out in the wet to play on the weedy +boulders, but the foolish fellow said nothing till it was too late. When +he heard Hal was missing he spoke, but not till then. The shore has been +searched, but----" + +Mrs. Court stayed to hear no more. The blank, hopeless faces of the +speakers told the rest. + +Miss Ainsworth was weeping hysterically, and grandmamma's features grew +stone-like in their set misery. + +All the new-comer realized was that Hal--her Hal--had met with some +disaster. Only the gravest accident would keep him away at such a +moment. Her mind leapt to the worst fears. Like one possessed she rushed +alone down the long drive, hardly knowing what she did, till her feet +reached the very brink of the flowing tide. + +Surely the cry of her heart must call, even above the storm, to little +Hal, the tender, clinging child, accustomed to think always of her +pleasure during the happy days they spent at home together. + +[Illustration: "RUNNING AT FULL SPEED, CAME A SMALL BREATHLESS FIGURE."] + +As if in answer to her soul's appeal, along the bank of the Lough's +dark, swollen water, running at full speed, came a small breathless +figure, drenched to the skin, holding aloft a tiny paper packet, which +he waved victoriously. + +"Dearest, it was for you!" he cried. "And, oh! I'm so sorry to be late, +but Micky nearly got shipwrecked this time, the wind was so high, and +his mast broke. I was frightened you'd lose your voice, so I went to +Ferryport to buy Miss Cairn's cough-drops. They are splendid, dearest; +try one and see!" + +Already he had ferreted into the bag, and was holding between a salted +thumb and finger a brilliant specimen of Miss Cairn's triumph in +pink-striped lozenges. + +As Mrs. Court heard the eager tidings: "Dearest, it was for you!" a rush +of tears to her eyes and a sudden choking in her throat made Hal +anxious. + +"You--you _have_ caught a cold!" he exclaimed, with conviction, forcing +the sugared cough-drop into her protesting hands. + +"No, darling boy--no," she stammered, mastering her emotion with an +effort; "the New Year gladness choked me for a moment, that's all!" + + + + +_Solutions to the Puzzles in the December Number._ + + +TRACKING THE FUGITIVES. + +The solution of this amusing problem is as follows: The fugitive started +from station No. 1 on foot, carrying the child; at station No. 2 he +mounted a bicycle and, still carrying the child, rode to No. 3; there he +placed the child in a wheelbarrow; as indicated by the marks of the legs +of the wheelbarrow, he stopped before reaching No. 4 and put down the +child, who walked by his side to the station; thence he continued his +journey on a tricycle, which also carried the child; at No. 5 he changed +his tricycle for a monocycle (that is, a single-wheeled cycle, such as +is used by trick-riders), but the child which he was carrying caused him +to lose his balance and he fell; he then took the child in his arms and +carried it to No. 6; thence he started holding the child by the hand, +but farther on he again took it in his arms and so completed the journey +at No. 7. + + +THE QUARRELSOME BROTHERS. + +[Illustration] + +The solution of this problem will be found in the above sketch. Of +course, the problem may be solved by drawing the lines the reverse way. + + +TO RECONSTRUCT THE CLOWN. + +[Illustration] + +The reader will see, by inspection of the accompanying drawings, that +the only way to solve this problem is by making a cut along the dotted +line "A" before making that along the dotted line "B." This is the only +possible method of obtaining four pieces with two cuts of the scissors. +This being done, the method of rejoining the pieces so as to form the +clown, as shown in the smaller diagram, will easily be followed, the +pieces being numbered in order to show more readily where they fall. + + +A STRANGE SIGNATURE. + +[Illustration] + +It will be seen that the signature is that of the celebrated French +General, Marshal Ney. + + +TO MAKE A HEN OUT OF AN APPLE. + +[Illustration] + +The white lines on the diagram given above of the apple will show in +what manner the piece is to be cut out of it, which, being placed in its +proper position, forms the neck and head of the hen. The stem being cut +off and divided into two parts, as shown by the dotted lines, will give +the legs, which, when attached to the body, complete the figure. + + +TO TURN THIS MAN INTO ANOTHER. + +[Illustration] + +This problem is one of the most difficult of our collection. The dotted +lines in the first of the accompanying three illustrations show how the +original sketch has to be divided, while the other two show the manner +in which the pieces require to be put together in order to form the new +figure. + +[Illustration] + + +A CURIOUS MENAGERIE. + +Unlike the preceding one, this problem is quite easy, and no doubt many +hundreds of our readers will have found the correct solution. In order +to obtain this it is only necessary to take the last triangle and paste +upon its three sides the three other triangles, so as to complete the +cat, the dog, and the cock, at the same time producing one large +triangle composed of four small ones. The three summits of these +triangles are then brought together, thus forming a pyramid. The +menagerie, with the swan, the eagle, and the rabbit complete, will then +be found to have been reconstructed. + + +A STRANGE GEOMETRICAL FIGURE. + +[Illustration] + +The following design gives the solution of this curious problem. The +dotted lines show in which way the figure is to be cut, and the numbers +indicate the new position of the pieces. + + +THE FACETIOUS SCHOOLBOY. + +[Illustration] + +Our readers will see by a glance at the accompanying drawing what +features of the original landscape it was necessary to preserve in order +to solve the problem, and which were produced by the schoolboy's pencil +and must accordingly be removed. The drawing represents a light-house +built on the edge of a cliff. + + +ROUND THE CAPSTAN. + +[Illustration] + +This drawing gives the solution of the problem, showing to what bodies +the respective heads and legs should be attached. + + +THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC. + +[Illustration] + +The two signs of the Zodiac which it is necessary to choose, and the +method of placing them among the stars and dots, are here shown. + + +TO COMPLETE THE BIRDS. + +[Illustration] + +Cut the paper into an exact square just containing the birds and fold it +in the well-known manner of making a "paper bird," when the two birds +will appear, one as shown, and the other on the reverse. + + +TO MAKE A FLOWER OUT OF FOUR FREAKS. + +[Illustration] + +The method of making a flower out of the four grotesque heads which were +represented in the diagram is one of the simplest of the series. All +that is required is to cut out the four heads, remove the white part, +and place them one upon the other. The space left empty then forms the +flower, as will be easily understood by inspecting the two designs here +given. Each figure is represented by a dotted line. + + +THE SERPENT AND THE FILE. + +Roll the strip of paper in a spiral, and the pieces of the serpent will +be joined, while the file will disappear. + + +A BLOT OF INK. + +[Illustration] + +Four black discs will be obtained by making six folds the long way of +the design and two across it, as shown in the two accompanying drawings. + + +WHAT ANIMAL IS THIS? + +[Illustration] + +The animal is an elephant, as the reader can see for himself, and the +method of forming him will also be readily apparent without further +explanation. + + +THE CASTLE IN THE FOREST. + +[Illustration] + +The outline shows the track which is to be followed by the traveller in +order to penetrate the forest and reach the castle in the centre. + + +A MOTOR-CAR PROBLEM. + +The following is the series of eighteen movements which are required to +transfer motor-cars from one shed into the other:-- + + 1. Move car No. 5 into the refuge. + + 2. Move No. 2 into the place of No. 5. + + 3. Move No. 3 into the space between the refuge and the lower + shed. + + 4. Move No. 5 into the place of No. 3. + + 5. Move No. 3 into the place of No. 2. + + 6. Move No. 2 into the refuge. + + 7. Move No. 6 into the space between the refuge and the upper + shed. + + 8. Move No. 2 into the place of No. 6. + + 9. Move No. 6 into the refuge. + + 10. Move No. 3 into the lower shed in the place of No. 5. + + 11. Move No. 1 into the space between the refuge and the lower + shed. + + 12. Move No. 6 into the upper shed in the place of No. 1. + + 13. Move No. 1 in the place of No. 2 in the upper shed. + + 14. Move No. 3 into the space between the refuge and the upper + shed. + + 15. Move No. 4 into the refuge. + + 16. Move No. 3 into the place of No. 4 in the lower shed. + + 17. Move No. 1 into the lower shed. + + 18. Move No. 4 into the upper shed. + + +THE RIFLE RANGE. + +The point is shown in the diagram below:-- + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration: THE PHOENIX AND THE CARPET.] + +BY E. NESBIT. + +Copyright, 1904, by George Newnes, Limited. + + +VII.--CATS AND RATS. + +When you hear that the four children found themselves at Waterloo +Station quite un-taken-care-of, and with no one to meet them, it may +make you think that their parents were neither kind nor careful. But if +you think this you will be wrong. The fact is, mother arranged with Aunt +Emma that she was to meet the children at Waterloo when they went back +from their Christmas holiday at Lyndhurst. The train was fixed, but not +the day. Then mother wrote to Aunt Emma, giving her careful instructions +about the day and the hour, and about luggage and cabs and things, and +gave the letter to Robert to post. But the hounds happened to meet near +Rufus's Stone that morning, and, what is more, on the way to the meet +they met Robert, and Robert met them, and instantly forgot all about +posting Aunt Emma's letter, and never thought of it again until he and +the others had wandered three times up and down the platform at +Waterloo--which makes twenty-four trips in all--and had bumped up +against old gentlemen, and stared in the faces of ladies, and been +shoved by people in a hurry, and "by-your-leaved" by porters with +trucks, and were quite sure that Aunt Emma was not there. + +Then suddenly the true truth of what he had forgotten to do came home to +Robert, and he said "Oh, crikey!" and stood still with his mouth open, +and let a porter with a Gladstone bag in each hand and a bundle of +umbrellas under one arm blunder heavily into him, and never so much as +said "Where are you shoving to now?" or "Look out where you're going, +can't you?" The heavier bag smote him at the knee, and he staggered, but +he said nothing. When the others understood what was the matter I think +they told Robert what they thought of him. + +"We must take the train to Croydon," said Anthea, "and find Aunt Emma." + +"Yes," said Cyril, "and precious pleased those Jevonses would be to see +us and our traps." + +Aunt Emma, indeed, was staying with some Jevonses--very prim ladies. +They were middle-aged and wore very smart blouses, and they were fond of +_matinées_ and shopping, and they did not care about children. + +"I know mother would be pleased to see us if we went back," said Jane. + +"Yes, she would; but she'd think it was not right to show she was +pleased, because it's Bob's fault we're not met. Don't I know the sort +of thing?" said Cyril. "Besides, we've no tin, except my tip grandfather +gave me, and I'm not going to blue that because Robert's gone and made +an ass of himself. No; we've enough among us for a growler, but not +enough for tickets to the New Forest. We must just go home. They won't +be so savage when they find we've really got home all right. You know +auntie was only going to take us home in a cab." + +"I believe we ought to go to Croydon," Anthea insisted. + +"Aunt Emma would be out, to a dead cert," said Robert. "Those Jevonses +go to the theatre every afternoon, I believe. Besides, there's the +Phoenix at home, _and_ the carpet. I votes we call a four-wheeled +cabman." + +A four-wheeled cabman was called--his cab was one of the old-fashioned +kind, with straw in the bottom--and he was asked by Anthea to drive them +very carefully to their address. This he did, and the price he asked for +doing so was exactly the value of the gold coin grandpapa had given +Cyril for Christmas. This cast a gloom--but Cyril would never have +stooped to argue about a cab-fare, for fear the cabman should think he +was not accustomed to take cabs whenever he wanted them. For a reason +that was something like this he told the cabman to put the luggage on +the steps, and waited till the wheels of the growler had grittily +retired before he rang the bell. "You see," he said, with his hand on +the handle, "we don't want cook and Eliza asking us before _him_ how it +is we've come home alone--as if we were babies." + +[Illustration: "HE WAS ASKED BY ANTHEA TO DRIVE THEM VERY CAREFULLY."] + +Here he rang the bell; and the moment its answering clang was heard +everyone felt that it would be some time before that bell was answered. +The sound of a bell is quite different, somehow, when there is anyone +inside the house who hears it. I can't tell you why that is--but so it +is. + +"I expect they're changing their dresses," said Jane. + +"Too late," said Anthea; "it must be past five. I expect Eliza's gone to +post a letter and cook's gone to see the time." + +Cyril rang again. And the bell did its best to inform the listening +children that there was really no one human in the house. They rang +again, and listened intently. The hearts of all sank low. It is a +terrible thing to be locked out of your own house on a dark, muggy, +January evening. + +"There is no gas on anywhere," said Jane, in a broken voice. + +"I expect they've left the gas on once too often, and the draught blew +it out, and they're suffocated in their beds. Father always said they +would some day," said Robert, cheerfully. + +"Let's go and fetch a policeman," said Anthea, trembling. + +"And be taken up for trying to be burglars--no, thank you," said Cyril. +"I heard father read out of the paper about a young man who got into his +own mother's house, and they got him made a burglar only the other day." + +"I only hope the gas hasn't hurt the Phoenix," said Anthea. "It +_said_ it wanted to stay in the bathroom cupboard, and I thought it +would be all right because the servants _never_ clean that out. But if +it's gone and got out and been choked by gas--and, besides, directly we +open the door we shall be choked too. I _knew_ we ought to have gone to +Aunt Emma at Croydon. Oh, Squirrel, I wish we had. Let's go _now_." + +"Shut up," said her brother, briefly. "There's someone rattling the +latch inside." + +Everyone listened with all its ears, and everyone stood back as far from +the door as the steps would allow. + +The latch rattled and clicked. Then the flap of the letter-box lifted +itself--everyone saw it by the flickering light of the gas-lamp that +shone through the leafless lime tree by the gate--a golden eye seemed to +wink at them through the letter-box, and a cautious beak whispered: + +"Are you alone?" + +"It's the Phoenix," said everyone, in a voice so joyous and so full of +relief as to be a sort of whispered shout. + +"Hush!" said the voice from the letter-box slit. "Your slaves have gone +a-merry-making. The latch of this portal is too stiff for my delicate +beak. But at the side--the little window above the shelf whereon your +bread lies--it is not fastened." + +"Right O!" said Cyril. + +And Anthea added: "I wish you'd meet us there, dear Phoenix." + +[Illustration: "HE DIVED INTO THE PANTRY HEAD-FIRST."] + +The children crept round to the pantry window. It is at the side of the +house, and there is a green gate labelled "Tradesmen's Entrance," which +is always kept bolted. But if you get one foot on the fence between you +and next door, and one on the handle of the gate, you are over before +you know where you are. This, at least, was the experience of Cyril and +Robert, and even, if the truth must be told, of Anthea and Jane. So in +almost no time all four were in the narrow gravelled passage that runs +between that house and the next. + +Then Robert made a back, and Cyril hoisted himself up and got his +knicker-bockered knee on the concrete window-sill. He dived into the +pantry head-first, as one dives into water, and his legs waved in the +air as he went, just as your legs do when you are first beginning +to learn to dive. The soles of his boots--squarish, muddy +patches--disappeared. + +"Give us a leg-up," said Robert to his sisters. + +"No, you don't," said Jane, firmly. "I'm not going to be left outside +here with just Anthea, and have something creep up behind us out of the +dark. Squirrel can go and open the back door." + +A light had sprung awake in the pantry. Cyril always said the Phoenix +turned the gas on with its beak and lighted it with a waft of its wing, +but he was excited at the time and perhaps he really did it himself with +matches, and then forgot all about it. He let the others in by the back +door. And when it had been bolted again and the luggage had been got off +the doorstep the children went all over the house and lighted every +single gas-jet they could find. For they couldn't help feeling that this +was just the dark, dreary winter's evening when an armed burglar might +easily be expected to appear at any moment. There is nothing like light +when you are afraid of burglars, or of anything else, for that matter. + +And when all the gas-jets were lighted it was quite clear that the +Phoenix had made no mistake, and that Eliza and cook were really out, +and that there was no one in the house except the four children, and the +Phoenix and the carpet, and the black-beetles who lived in the +cupboards on each side of the nursery fireplace. These last were very +pleased that the children had come home again, especially when Anthea +had lighted the nursery fire. But, as usual, the children treated the +loving little black-beetles with coldness and disdain. + +While Anthea was delighting the poor little black-beetles with the +cheerful blaze, Jane had set the table for--I was going to say tea, but +the meal of which I am speaking was not exactly tea. Let us call it a +tea-ish meal. There was tea, certainly, for Anthea's fire blazed and +crackled so kindly that it really seemed to be affectionately inviting +the kettle to come and sit upon its lap. So the kettle was brought and +tea made. But no milk could be found, so everyone had six lumps of sugar +to each cup instead. The things to eat, on the other hand, were nicer +than usual. The boys looked about very carefully, and found in the +pantry some cold tongue, bread, butter, cheese, and part of a cold +pudding--very much nicer than cook ever made when they were at home. And +in the kitchen cupboard were half a Christmassy cake, a pot of +strawberry jam, and about a pound of mixed candied fruit with soft, +crumbly slabs of delicious sugar in each cup of lemon, orange, or +citron. + +It was indeed, as Jane said, "a banquet fit for an Arabian knight." + +The Phoenix perched on Robert's chair, and listened kindly and +politely to all they had to tell it about their visit to Lyndhurst, and +underneath the table, by just stretching a toe down rather far, the +faithful carpet could be felt by all, even by Jane, whose legs were very +short. + +"Your slaves will not return to-night," said the Phoenix. "They sleep +under the roof of the cook's step-mother's aunt, who is, I gather, +hostess to a large party to-night in honour of her husband's cousin's +sister-in-law's mother's ninetieth birthday." + +"I don't think they ought to have gone without leave," said Anthea, +"however many relations they have, but I suppose we ought to wash up." + +"It's not our business about the leave," said Cyril, firmly; "but I +simply won't wash up for them. We got it, and we'll clear it away--and +then we'll go somewhere on the carpet. It's not often we get a chance of +being out all night. We can go right away to the other side of the +Equator, to the tropical climes, and see the sun rise over the great +Pacific Ocean." + +"Right you are," said Robert. "I always did want to see the Southern +Cross and the stars as big as gas-lamps." + +"_Don't_ go," said Anthea, very earnestly, "because I _couldn't_. I'm +_sure_ mother wouldn't like us to leave the house, and I should hate to +be left here alone." + +"I'd stay with you," said Jane, loyally. + +"I know you would," said Anthea, gratefully; "but even with you I'd much +rather not." + +"Well," said Cyril, trying to be kind and amiable, "I don't want you to +do anything you think's wrong, _but_----" + +He was silent. This silence said many things. + +"I don't see----" Robert was beginning, when Anthea interrupted. + +"I'm quite sure. Sometimes you just think a thing's wrong, and sometimes +you _know_. And this is a _know_ time." + +The Phoenix turned kind golden eyes on her and opened a friendly beak +to say:-- + +"When it is, as you say, a 'know time' there is no more to be said. And +your noble brothers would never leave you." + +"Of course not," said Cyril, rather quickly. And Robert said so, too. + +"I myself," the Phoenix went on, "am willing to help in any way +possible. I will myself go--either by carpet or on the wing--and fetch +you anything you can think of to amuse you during the evening. In order +to waste no time I could go while you wash up. Why," it went on, in a +musing voice, "does one wash up teacups and wash down the stairs?" + +"You couldn't wash stairs up, you know," said Anthea, "unless you began +at the bottom and went up feet first as you washed. I wish cook would +try that way for a change." + +"I don't," said Cyril, briefly. "I should hate the look of her +elastic-side boots sticking up." + +"This is mere trifling," said the Phoenix. "Come, decide what I shall +fetch for you. I can get you anything you like." + +But, of course, they couldn't decide. Many things were suggested: a +rocking-horse, jewelled chessmen, an elephant, a bicycle, a motor-car, +books with pictures, musical instruments, and many other things. But a +musical instrument is agreeable only to the player, unless he has +learned to play it really well; books are not sociable, bicycles cannot +be ridden without going out of doors, and the same is true of motor-cars +and elephants. Only two people can play chess at once with one set of +chessmen (and anyway it's very much too much like lessons for a game), +and only one can ride on a rocking-horse. Suddenly in the midst of the +discussion the Phoenix spread its wings and fluttered to the floor, +and from there it spoke. + +[Illustration: "THE CARPET WANTS YOU TO LET IT GO TO ITS OLD HOME."] + +"I gather," it said, "from the carpet that it wants you to let it go to +its old home, where it was born and brought up, and it will return +within the hour laden with a number of the most beautiful and delightful +products of its native land." + +"What _is_ its native land?" + +"I didn't gather. But since you can't agree, and time is passing, and +the tea-things are not washed down--I mean washed up--" + +"I votes we do," said Cyril. "It'll stop all this jaw, any way. And it's +not bad to have surprises. Perhaps it's a Turkey carpet, and it might +bring us Turkish delight." + +"Or a Turkish patrol," said Robert. + +"Or a Turkish bath," said Anthea. + +"Or a Turkish towel," said Jane. + +"Nonsense," Cyril urged; "it said beautiful and delightful, and towels +and baths aren't _that_, however good they may be for you. Let it go. I +suppose it won't give us the slip," he added, pushing back his chair and +standing up. + +"Hush!" said the Phoenix; "how can you? Don't trample on its feelings +just because it's only a carpet." + +"But how can it do it--unless one of us is on it--to do the wishing?" +asked Robert. He spoke with a rising hope that it _might_ be necessary +for one to go--and why not Robert? But the Phoenix quickly threw cold +water on his new-born flame. + +"Why, you just write your wish on a paper and pin it on the carpet." + +So a leaf was torn from Anthea's arithmetic book, and on it Cyril wrote, +in large round-hand, the following:-- + +"We wish you to go to your dear native home, and bring back the most +beautiful and delightful productions of it you can--and not to be gone +long, please. (Signed) + + "CYRIL, ROBERT, ANTHEA, JANE." + +Then the paper was laid on the carpet. + +"Writing down, please," said the Phoenix; "the carpet can't read a +paper whose back is turned to it any more than you can." + +It was pinned fast; and the table and chairs having been moved the +carpet simply and suddenly vanished, rather like a patch of water on a +hearth under a fierce fire. The edges got smaller and smaller, and then +it disappeared from sight. + +"It may take it some time to collect the beautiful and delightful +things," said the Phoenix. "I should wash up--I mean wash down." + +So they did. There was plenty of hot water left in the kettle, and +everyone helped: even the Phoenix, who took up cups by their handles +with its clever claws, and dipped them in the hot water, and then stood +them on the table ready for Anthea to dry them. Everything was nicely +washed up and dried and put in its proper place, and the dish-cloth +washed and hung on the edge of the copper to dry, and the tea-cloth was +hung on the line that goes across the scullery. (If you are a duchess's +child, or a King's, or a person of high social position's child, you +will, perhaps, not know the difference between a dish-cloth and a +tea-cloth, but in that case your nurse has been better instructed than +you, and she will tell you all about it.) And just as eight hands and +one pair of claws were being dried on the roller towel behind the +scullery door there came a strange sound from the other side of the +kitchen wall--the side where the nursery was. It was a very strange +sound indeed--most odd--and unlike any other sounds the children had +ever heard. At least, they had heard sounds as much like it as a toy +engine's whistle is like a steam siren's. + +[Illustration: "EVERYONE HELPED: EVEN THE PHOENIX."] + +"The carpet's come back," said Robert, and the others felt that he was +right. + +"But what has it brought with it?" asked Jane. "It sounds like +Leviathan, that great beast----" + +"It couldn't have been made in India and have brought elephants? Even +baby ones would be rather awful in that room," said Cyril. + +"It's no use sending the carpet to fetch precious things for you if +you're afraid to look at them when they come," said the Phoenix, +sensibly. And Cyril, being the eldest, said "Come on," and turned the +handle. + +The gas had been left full on after tea, and everything in the room +could be plainly seen by the ten eyes at the door. At least, not +everything, for though the carpet was there it was invisible, because it +was completely covered by the hundred and ninety-nine beautiful objects +which it had brought from its birthplace. + +"Cats!" Cyril exclaimed. "I never thought about its being a _Persian_ +carpet." + +Yet it was now plain that this was so, for the beautiful objects which +it had brought back were cats--Persian cats--grey Persian cats, and +there were, as I have said, one hundred and ninety-nine of them, and +they were sitting on the carpet as close as they could get to each +other. But the moment the children entered the room the cats rose and +stretched, and spread and overflowed from the carpet to the floor, and +in an instant the floor was a sea of moving, mewing pussishness, and the +children, with one accord, climbed to the table and gathered up their +legs, and the people next door knocked on the wall; and, indeed, no +wonder, for the mews were Persian and piercing. + +"This is pretty poor sport," said Cyril. "What's the matter with the +bounders?" + +"I imagine that they are hungry," said the Phoenix. "If you were to +feed them----" + +"We haven't anything to feed them with," said Anthea, in despair, and +she stroked the nearest Persian back. "Oh, pussies, do be quiet; we +can't hear ourselves think." She had to shout this entreaty, for the +mews were growing deafening. "And it would take pounds and pounds' worth +of cat's-meat." + +[Illustration: "THE BEAUTIFUL OBJECTS WHICH IT HAD BROUGHT BACK WERE +CATS."] + +"Let's ask the carpet to take them away," said Robert. + +But the girls said "No." + +"They are so soft and pussy," said Jane. + +"And valuable," said Anthea, hastily. "We can sell them for lots and +lots of money." + +"Why not send the carpet to get food for them?" suggested the Phoenix, +and its golden voice became harsh and cracked with the effort it had to +make to be heard above the increasing fierceness of the Persian mews. + +So it was written that the carpet should bring food for one hundred and +ninety-nine Persian cats, and the paper was pinned to the carpet as +before. + +The carpet seemed to gather itself together, and the cats dropped off it +as rain-drops do from your mackintosh when you shake it. And the carpet +disappeared. + +Unless you have had one hundred and ninety-nine well-nourished Persian +cats in one small room, all hungry, and all saying so in unmistakable +mews, you can form but a poor idea of the noise that now deafened the +children and the Phoenix. + +The cats mewed and mewed and mewed, and twisted their Persian forms in +and out and unfolded their Persian tails, and the children and the +Phoenix huddled together by the door. + +The Phoenix, Robert noticed suddenly, was trembling. + +"So many cats," it said, "and they might not know I was the Phoenix. +These accidents happen so quickly. It quite unmans me." + +This was a danger of which the children had not thought. + +"Creep in," cried Robert, opening his jacket. And the Phoenix crept +in--only just in time, for green eyes had glared, pink noses had +sniffed, white whiskers had twitched, and as Robert buttoned his coat he +disappeared to the waist in a wave of eager grey Persian fur. And on the +instant the good carpet slapped itself down on the floor. And it was +covered with rats--three hundred and ninety-eight of them, I +believe--two for each cat. + +"How horrible!" cried Anthea. "Oh, take them away!" + +"Take yourself away," said the Phoenix, "and me." + +"I wish we'd never had a carpet," said Anthea, in tears. + +They hustled and crowded out of the door, and shut it and locked it. +Cyril, with great presence of mind, lit a candle and turned off the gas +at the main. "The rats'll have a better chance in the dark," he said. + +The mewing had ceased. Everyone listened in breathless silence. We all +know that cats eat rats--it is one of the first things we read in our +nice little reading books; but all those cats eating all those rats--it +wouldn't bear thinking of. + +[Illustration: "HE DISAPPEARED TO THE WAIST IN A WAVE OF EAGER GREY +PERSIAN FUR."] + +Suddenly Robert sniffed, in the silence of the dark kitchen where the +only candle was burning all on one side, because of the draught. + +"What a funny scent!" he said. + +And as he spoke a lantern flashed its light through the window of the +kitchen, a face peered in, and a voice said:-- + +"What's all this row about? You let me in." + +It was the voice of the police! + +Robert tip-toed to the window and spoke through the pane that was a +little cracked. + +"What do you mean?" he said. "There's no row. You listen; everything's +as quiet as quiet." + +And indeed it was. + +The strange sweet scent grew stronger, and the Phoenix put out its +beak. + +The policeman hesitated. + +"They're _musk_ rats," said the Phoenix. "I suppose some cats eat +them--but never Persian ones. What a mistake for a well-informed carpet +to make! Oh, what a night we're having!" + +"Do go away," said Robert, nervously, to the policeman. "We're just +going to bed--that's our bedroom candle--there isn't any row. +Everything's as quiet as a mouse." + +A wild chorus of mews drowned his words, and with the mews were mingled +the shrieks of the musk rats. What had happened? Had the cats tasted +them before deciding that they disliked the flavour? + +"I'm a-comin' in," said the policeman. "You've got a cat shut up there." + +"A cat!" said Cyril. "Oh, my only aunt! _A_ cat!" + +"Come in, then," said Robert. "It's your own look-out. I advise you not. +Wait a shake, and I'll undo the side door." + +He undid the side door, and the policeman, very cautiously, came in. + +And there, in the kitchen, by the light of one candle, with the mewing +and the screaming going on like a dozen steam sirens, twenty waiting +motor-cars, and half a hundred squeaking pumps, four agitated voices +shouted to the policeman four mixed or wholly different explanations of +the very mixed events of the evening. + +Did you ever try to explain the simplest thing to a policeman? + + + + +_Curiosities._ + +Copyright, 1904, by George Newnes, Ltd. + +[_We shall be glad to receive Contributions to this section, and to pay +for such as are accepted._] + + +CART-WHEEL WINDOW. + +[Illustration] + +"There is a blacksmith's shop at Llancayo, near Usk, Mon., that +possesses an extraordinary window. The framework of the window consists +of a cart-wheel let into the wall, with panes of glass between the +spokes."--Mr. W. Marsh, 1, Church Street, Monmouth. + + +CURIOUS ADDRESS. + +"I send you a post-card which I received in the ordinary way by post +from my brother, who lives at Sutton Scarsdale, a scattered village near +Chesterfield. You will notice that the card was posted at 7.15 p.m. on +the 5th October, and it was delivered during the evening of the +following day. The address looks a mixture of Greek and German, but on +inspection it will be found that each letter is spelled out in full. The +pencilled words were inserted by the Post Office officials. The Post +Office is often the object of complaints for tardiness in delivery, but +I think great credit is due to it for its cleverness and promptness in +this case."--Mr. John Alderson, 12, Albert Road, Stroud Green, N. + +[Illustration] + + +A DISTORTING MIRROR. + +"While staying in Jersey I visited a point called La Corbière, where I +noticed a mirror in the form of a ball standing out in the open on a +pedestal. Objects reflected in it were so clear that I determined to +photograph it, with the result that rather curious shapes were given to +myself and friend." Mr. C. S. Wilson, 18, Milton Road, Swindon. + +[Illustration] + + +HOME-MADE MOTOR-CAR. + +[Illustration] + +"This original auto was made in the winter of 1886 by Mr. Philbrick and +Mr. J. Elmer Wood in Beverley, Mass. It had double engines, porcupine +boiler, kerosene fuel, and only three wheels--two of which were +thirty-six inches in diameter, and the front, or steering-wheel, +twenty-six inches. It was used on the road with great success, carrying +about three hundred pounds of steam, but wanted some changes, which even +at that early date we could easily see. The machine is still existing at +Beverley, though it is now, of course, somewhat dilapidated after so +many years of wear."--Mr. J. Elmer Wood, Beverley, Mass. + + +AN AUTOMATIC BASEBALL PITCHER. + +[Illustration] + +"This curious-looking machine is a baseball pitcher which is automatic. +It is operated by compressed air, and is so arranged that it will +'pitch' a ball with an upward curve or downward curve just as well as an +expert ball player. The machine consists of a tube about thirty-six +inches long which is just large enough to hold the ball. The tube can be +pointed in any direction, and the rear end is fitted with a contrivance +by which the ball can be curved. When the operator wishes to make a +pitch he merely presses a lever which admits the compressed air into the +tube, and the ball is shot out like the bullet from an air-gun. The +invention is not intended to take the place of a human pitcher, but to +be used in practice games, so that the man at the bat can become expert +in hitting curves and balls pitched at various degrees of speed." Why +should not a similar machine be used in this country as a practice +bowler at cricket?--The above is sent by Mr. D. Allen Willey, Baltimore. + + +A BOGUS DWARF. + +[Illustration] + +"This figure of the dwarf, taken at an evening party in Kimberley, +South Africa, was impersonated by my brother and a friend as follows: My +brother stood upright with his hands on a table (these forming the feet +of the dwarf), on which were placed stockings and small shoes. He had a +little garment made with sleeves, through which his friend, who stood +just behind, put his arms and hands, on which were mittens to make them +look small; these formed the hands of the dwarf. My brother was adorned +with a large sun hat called a 'cappie,' goggles, and a necklace, and the +dwarf was complete--his friend, of course, being concealed by +curtains."--Mr. F. E. Glover, 41, Drayton Park, Highbury, N. + + +INSECT OR WHAT? + +[Illustration] + +"I send you the photograph of an extraordinarily curious insect: I am +not prepared to say whether it is an insect or some kind of organism. I +can only say that it is alive and lives on red lead. The lady in whose +possession it is has had it for upwards of eighteen years, and who knows +how many years of life it had before? It is covered with light brown +hair (which has to be cut occasionally), very like deer's hair, and is +the size of a large marble. The 'curious insect' was given to the lady's +husband by a rich native who gave up all his worldly possessions and +became a fakir. When giving it to the gentleman (who had shown the man +some kindness) he said that it would always bring him good luck."--Mr. +T. G. A. Baness, Hall Bazaar, Amritsur, Punjab. + + +STRANGE ADVENTURE OF A RAILWAY CARRIAGE. + +[Illustration] + +"The discarded railway carriage shown in the photograph has had an +eventful career. After being drawn at the end of freight trains over +thousands of miles of the Erie Railroad tracks it was finally condemned +and sent to the graveyard, where cars of this character meet an +ignominious end--they being chopped up for firewood. But after it had +been sent to what was thought would be its last resting-place, Lieut. +Peary, the well-known Arctic explorer, asked the Erie Railroad officials +if they could loan him a discarded carriage for use on his ship +_Windward_. This carriage was accordingly selected, and it was placed on +the deck of the _Windward_, where it was fitted up as a cabin. The +journeys of this carriage, therefore, instead of being at an end had +really only begun, for it was destined to make the longest trip in its +history. It remained on board the _Windward_ throughout the perilous +trip to the Frozen North, and returned with the ship to New York a +little over a year ago. Lieut. Peary having no further use for it sent +it back to the Erie Railroad, and it is now an object of curiosity at +Shohola Glen, Pike County, Pa., a popular excursion resort on the line +of the Erie Railroad."--Mr. Adolph A. Langer, 116, Danforth Avenue, +Jersey City, N. J. + + +GIGANTIC BEER BARREL + +[Illustration] + +"This enormous barrel was erected in the great Industrial Exhibition +held at Osaka, Japan. It is the property of the 'Yebisu' Beer Company, +and was built for the purpose of advertising that brand of malt liquor. +The height is about fifty feet and the diameter of its base some thirty +feet, while the thickness of its wall exceeds two feet. It is fitted up +as a beer hall within and contains ten round tables, each capable of +accommodating five or six persons. There is also a large counter. It is +one of the most remarkable of the many advertising devices ever carried +out in this enterprising 'Land of the Rising Sun.' The photograph was +taken by Mr. G. M. Arab, of this city."--Mr. W. J. Toms, Kobé, Japan. + + +AMALGAMATED BY LIGHTNING. + +[Illustration] + +"I send you a photograph showing in two positions the curious +amalgamation of coins by a flash of lightning. This incident occurred in +a miner's hut in Swazieland some time in December, 1897, and the +photograph represents money to the value of fourteen shillings and +sixpence, viz., one half sovereign, four single shillings, and a +sixpence. The money was placed on a table in the order given, the +half-sovereign being under the other coins and lying on the face of the +table. The hut was not injured by the lightning, as the fluid entered by +the window and passed over the table (on which the coins were) and out +at the open door. The table (in the centre of the hut and in a line with +the window and door) had a badly scorched line over it. The money, after +the flash, lay in exactly the same position as before; the only +difference was its being fused into one mass instead of six different +coins. At the time of the flash the miner happened to be absent."--Mr. +A. E. Graham Lawrance, Barberton, Transvaal. + + +HOW DID IT GET THERE? + +[Illustration] + +"I was cutting the corner off a gammon of bacon when I discovered I had +sawn through a piece of glass which was lying quite close to and +parallel with the thigh-bone, and had I known of its presence I could +have taken it out whole. It measures, when put together, six and a +quarter inches. How it got into this position is a mystery, as there was +no indication of its progress anywhere and the meat was perfectly +healthy and in no way discoloured. Whether the poor pig swallowed it or +sat on it I leave for your readers to conjecture. Photo, by W. B. +Gardner, Farnborough."--Mr. W. J. Buck, Cove Road, Farnborough, Hants. + + +A STRANGE ILLUSION. + +[Illustration] + +"You will see in this photograph that the right arm of my daughter has +got the hand on the wrong side, the thumb being where the little finger +ought to be. This is accounted for by the photo, being vignetted, the +hand really belonging to another daughter who does not appear in the +picture."--Mr. Dorsay Ansell, Supt. St. George's Garden, Wakefield +Street, W.C. + + +AN INGENIOUS ADVERTISEMENT. + +[Illustration] + +"The advertisement shown in the accompanying photograph--for some drink +prepared by one Jesse Moore--is quite the cleverest I have seen in any +American city. It is situated near the entrance to the Golden Gate Park, +at San Francisco. The shoulders, head, and arms of the man appearing +above the hoarding are cut out of wood and look most realistic, if +somewhat gigantic, against the background of the sky, and the painting +of the face is quite a work of art."--Mr. F. A. E. Dolmage, 243, +Cromwell Road, South Kensington. + + +A NARROW ESCAPE. + +[Illustration] + +"An officer was resting and enjoying a nap after an exceedingly hard +morning's drill. A flash of lightning first struck and doubled up his +scabbard and thence passed to his mirror hanging close by, smashing it +as the enclosed photo shows. I need hardly say this worthy gentleman, +awaking so suddenly from his slumbers, scarcely knew for some time +whether he was in China, South Africa, or good Old England."--Mr. F. E. +Robinson, Sylvester House, Colchester. + + +CEMETERY FOR SOLDIERS' DOGS. + +[Illustration] + +"Here is a photograph of the cemetery for soldiers' dogs at Edinburgh +Castle. Judging from the inscriptions on the stones, each department +seems to have had its favourite. The band pet was Tork; that of the +pioneer section, Pat; the transport pet, Jess; and so on, including the +general pets, such as Little Tom, Tum-Tum, etc."--Mr. E. Mallinson, 12, +Golden Square, Aberdeen, N.B. + + +A DEVOTED DOG. + +[Illustration] + +"The dog shown in the picture is exceedingly fond of his master and will +follow him almost anywhere. The snap-shot reproduced here shows the dog +actually diving off a board in company with his master, whilst a +friend is turning a somersault behind."--Mr. J. de Tymowski, +Stratford-Sub-Castle, Salisbury. + + +NOT SO TALL AS HE LOOKS. + +[Illustration] + +"At first sight my photograph seems to be that of an immensely tall man, +but in reality the legs of the giant belong to somebody else, while the +top half is standing on a barrel."--Mr. H. S. Nicolson, Brough Lodge, +Fetlar, Shetland. + + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | | + | Transcriber's notes: | + | | + | P.77. 'tells it own tale', changed 'it' to 'it's'. | + | P.96. 'prongs of the fork'--changed 'fork' to 'forks'. | + | Fixed various punctuation. | + | | + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Strand Magazine, Volume XXVII, +January 1904, No. 157, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44113 *** |