The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1869-11-19

w ulfj slE NuO OSSAOoS UC " yOiu
her, z
This peculiar announcement 1 did
not understand, although l knew what
he meant when he said She
His aiIment was again pleurisy.
1 did my best, but in vain. Day be-
for yesterday he asked me whether
he was dying.
"'Yes,' 1 replied, for, as l told you,
I loved the man and l could not tell
him an untruth.
"'Then,' he rejoined, when 1 am
dead you will extract the ball, and
you will keep it, won't you?'
81 promised that l would my
friend died, and 1 did as he had re-
quested.
81 searched for the bullet, and
found it in the place that 1 described
to you. But, But hasT5 It's, and, as you
see, it is not bullet in the proper
sense of the word, but sheath, and
it is not lead, but soldered platinum.
The soldering, as you may know,
could be effected only at an extraor-
dinary white heat. How was it done?
and what my stery does this case COM
ceal? Science must inform u.s."
By this time night had set in with
redoublei ! gloom, and the chandeliers
within having been noiselessly light
ed by servant, while we were both
intent upon the narrative, We with
drew from the balcony and assembled
to den upstairs, where, in the low
er tier of a lofty turret of solid ma
sonry, have all the apparatus and
material of thorough chemical lab
oTatory, and above it telescopes and
night-glasses to sweep the starry
heavens-nay, even the foggy atmos-
phere.
The doctor at once went to work,
and quickly succeeded in opening the
little cylindrical sheath Two things
fell out of it-a little pinch Of whit
ish dust, and a battered ring. The
latter was plainly of pure gold. The
electric heat had not reached it di-
rectly, but it had softened.
The ring, the whitish dust, the
mystery. we're there, palpable and Wis
ible before US.
The problem of a life had taken
shape and form.
The doctor placed the dust under
the lens of a microscooe.
"This," said he, sis human ashes"
"Then the riug-2'
"There are letters engraved upon
the ring; Remember ) and below
these an inscription in very fine text:
j. L. February 28tn 1884 But j.
L.-those we're not the dead lsdy's
initials"
journal perhaps is the word
they designate, l exclaimed.
The doctor glanced at me with a
mockiug look Of surprise.
"You are je~eler, are your ne
said
"Perhaps." was my reply, but why
may not these letters mean some reg
lister, some memento? Thers is a
date, and nothing agree better with
thr idea.
At the same moment, nv gaze fel
upon some blank books and docu'
meuts belonging to the deceased
which the doctor had brought will
him, and had mentioned to me Wher
,, he first came that evening. He haC
laid them down upon the open leaf o
my secretary when he began his ex
pertinent with she platinum-case.
picked up one Of the blank book
and rapidly turned over the leaves
1t was journal regularly dated, ant
on the last page was written iu larg
! letters, February 28th, 1854"
81 love you" ran the text. "YOI
have just placed the ring of our be
trothal on my finger. Should 1 di
before you do, take the ring an,
!, wear it on your heart for the remain
|. der Of your life"
/ Lower down, we're these words i
! another hand:
al have obeyed. You died Th
= ring elung tightly to your finger, an
6 l have taken both ring and fuge
f from your beloved corpse. sha
. not keep them on my heart only, br
a in my heart
The distracted man had amputate
= the Joint above which the ring restet
- Then, by whom and how had l
caused it to be enclosed in the plat
y mum sheath? No one probably wi
ever tell. At all events, it was wit
n this strange missile that he had il
= tended to penetrate his heart, al
! chance alone had saved him
r. This is a peculiar story, but trr
n, one, and the aonsis of surgery she
that hazard has, in the lapse of tir
taud the multiplicity of cases, prcdu
as ed some similar escapes, that appe
ne little less than miracles to the ever
sr day reader.
.e-i If you would kuoT the name
th him who thus bore q love-token, |
it orally next his heart for thirte
y years, glance at the medallion on
as broken marble pillar that counts
nd the third from the gateway oD |
ng left hand side as you pass up the Y
to low walk in the--Cemetery. I
Ist, device represents heart, on viii
or is carved lady's finger bearini
be ring, aud the inscription as We hi
uld p eviously given it: a15--
~, Upooamhar 7, Eabru,rv %