The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-06-18
..ThaEe "a 20 IsoEe MO, ana

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The sound was heard again. 81
II He gazed at the ceiling Cd ese was no
sign of damp. He turned his eyes TO
the body, and Something suddenly caused
him o violent start. The murderer was
bleeding. i,s 4
The sculptor, spite OF his command
over himself, turned. pale. At that mo-
ment che head OF Starke moved--clearly
moved. It raised itself convulsively for
q single moment; its eyes rolled, and it
gave vent to subdued moan Of intense
agony. Mr.. Fiddyes fell fainting on the
floor as DR.. Carnen entered. It needed
but glance to tell the doctor what had
happened, even had not Peter Just then
given vent to another low cry. The sur
ing the door, he bore chair to the wall
which supported the body Of the male
factor. He drew from his pocket case
OF glittering instruments, and with one
of these, so small and delicate that it
scarcely seemed larger thun needle, he
rapidly, but dextrously aud firmly,
touched Peter just at the back of the
neck. There was no wound lurger than
the head Of n small pin, and yet the head
fell instantly as though tho heart had
been pierced. The doctor had divided
the spinal cord, and Peter Starke was
dead. +,-
A few minutes suificed to recall tho
sculptor to his senses. He ut first gazed
wildly upon the still suspended boy, SO
painfully recalled to life by the rough
vene-section of the hangman and the
subsequent friction of Amounting his
body to prevent the adhesion of the
plaster. $50
"You need not fear now,"' said DR..
Carnwell; II assure yon he is dead"
But he ,Oas alive, surely!"
"Only for moment, and even that
scarcely to be called life-mere muscular
contraction, my dear sir, mere muscular
contraction"
The sculptor resumed his labor. The
body was girt at various circumference
with fine twine, to be afterwards with
drawn through thick coating of plaster,
so as to separate the various pioes of the
mould, which was at last completed; and
after this DR.. Carnell skillfully fayed
the body, to enable second mould to be
taken of the entire figure, showing every
muscle of the outer layer.
The two moulds were thus taken. It
is difficult to conceive more ghastly ap-
pearances than they presented. For
sculptor's work they were utterly USE
less; for no artist except the most daring
of realists would have ventnred to indi-
cate the horrors which they presented.
Fiddyes refused to receive them.
DIR. Carnell, hard and cruel as he was,
for kindness sake, in his profession, was
O gentle, genial father of family of
daughters. He received the casts, and
at once consigned them to garrett, to
which he forbade access. His Youngest
daughter, one unfortunate day, during
her fathers absence, was impelled by
feminine neutrality-suspicious. little in
creased by the prohibition-to enter the
mysterious chamber.
Whether she imagined in the pallid
figure upon the cross celestial rebuke
for her disobedience, or whether she was
overcome by the mere mortal horror OF
one or both of those dreadful casts, can
now never be known. But this is true,
she became q mapiac
The writer of this has more than once
seen (as, no doubt, have many others, J
the plaster effigies of Peter Stark, after
their removal from DR.. Carnell's to q
famous studio near the Regents Park.
1t was there that he heard whispered the
strange story of their origin. Sculptor
and surgeon are now both. long since
dead. and it is no longer necessary to
keep THE SECRET OF THE TWO pLAsTEF
CASTS.