The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1871-10-12

the ground, and, embracing the SICK
= man with rapture, cried out, Il con-
gratulate you my friend. You have
received a disease unknown for the
last six centuries" :"
: The idea of such consolation admin
. istered to an invalid was too much for
my gravity. In spite of all my efforts
to compose myself, l laughed till /
was fairly exhausted; and Herr Weis-
senhart very good humoredly Joined
in the merriment, though evidently
without the least suspicion of having
given any cause for it.
"Well, mein leibeF Herr" he con-
tinued, "you will doubtless have re-
marked it is a singular law of nature
that whenever q man lives all by
himself, in a particularly old and
shabby-lOOking house, he invariably
acquires the reputation of being i'm
mensely rich. Perhaps by paying so
high for fossils and skeletons gave
some color to the myth in my case {;
but at any rate was soon known in
Heidelberg as the rich Professor Weis-
! senhart,' and my friends began to
warn me that if did not take care /
might some day chance to get robbed.
''NOw at that time / had but one
servant, who had been with me many
years, and was beginning to get old
and feeble. Every one said that he
was not enough to take care of the
house himself, and that I had better
have a younger man to help him
but I didn't like to veX poor old JOh-
ann by seeming to think him past
work, so just let things go on as
| they were. He was a capital servant,
and did his work as well as = man
could do, but he had one falling. Ev-
cry now and then, when the chance
/ offered, he wOuld'-a significant ges-
ture of the Professors hand, as if lift
ing glass to his lips, completed the
sentence.
"H'm !-rather bad fault in a man
upon whom the safety Of house de-
pended" observed I.
$50 I thought, answered the Pro-
fessOr, "and more than once doubted
whether it might not be as well to
take my friends advice after all, and
engage a second sevant. But ] kept
putting it off, and putting it of, till
at last got punished for my hesita-
ton as you shall hear.
One night I had sent John out to do
I
/ him back every minute. As rule,
whenever he went out he took the
house KEY (of which l hada a duplicated
along with him; so that nobody could
get in till he came, unless / chose to
let them. He was very punctual on
| the whole; but this time, ten-hfteen
/ twenty minutes passed, and there
was no sign of him. began to fear
L L 1 - -,
he sometimes did, and was just think
ing of going to look after him, when,
all at once / heard, far down below, a
noise as if the house door had been
suddenly opened and shut again, and
then a step coming up the stairs
right toward my door. / have Il
quick ear of my own, and it struck
me directly that the tread was heavier
and firmer than old JOhann's. /
guessed at once that there had been
| foul play somewhere, and for mo-
meut L thought of locking my door
and calling for help through the WIN
dow; but, on second thought, decid-
ed that it would be better to let the
/ intruder (whOever he might be- come
right up to me, and see what Greatly
wanted.
| Il lOOkGNl dL LLlC lOlCooOA WIN III
voluntary admiration. To hear this
/ little, delicate, benevolent looking
| old gentleman talking so coOlly Of de-
liberately allowing rObber (perhaps
more than One) to march right into
his room at night, without stirring
step to give the alarm, simply because
| ne Thought it better to see what he
wanted"-had a really heroic flavor
about it; and I bent eagerly forward
to hear the sequel of the adventure.
''The door opened" pursued my
! friend, "and in came tall, buTly fell
low, with black mask on his face
and pistol in his hand. The mo-
ment he was in, he locked the door
behind him, put the key in his pocket,
and came forward to the table where
1 was sitting.
'CNow, my old 'un," said he, with
a chuckle, ''we've got the house all
/ to ourselves. Your servant is lying
fast asleep under the club room table
at the Thirsty Fox. Drugged beer IS
fine thing to make man sleep sound
and he won't wake much before to-
morrow morning. In the meantime,
out with your money, oryou're dead
man.
'He cooked the pistol as he spoke,
and IevelIed it at my forehead.
fYou will think, mein Herr, that l
must have been frightened; but
strange as it may seem, L was not.
! Had / met this man in the street, or
out in the open country, he would
| have been on his own ground, but
| here, within the walls of my labor
atory, he was on mine. He came to
me in the Guise Of new experiment,
and l felt him in my power Before
he had done speaking, l had tried
him in my own mind, condemned
him, and sentenced him to death"
Soft and pleasant as the old mans
voice was, there was a hard metallic
ring in it lust then, and an OminOus
| COMPRESSION of the small delicate
mouth, which showed me, for the first
time, what this quiet good humOred
scholar might be capable of doing. In
| truth, the cruelty of passion or re-
venge is as nothing to that of science.
| Parryhasius crucifying his slavesin or
der to gain a more vivid idea of the
| sufferings which he painted, Michael
| Angelo studyiny with cool, analytical
keenness the lOathsOme minutiR of
the plague hOspital-Dr. LIE Gait keep
ing horses and dogs alive for weeks
under his scalpel, only to intlict upon
them more varied and complicated
tortures-such examples are terribly
suggestive; and l could not help
thinking that, had been a robber, L
should have been very 10th to entrust
myself to the tender mercieS of my
| friend the Professor, suppOsing his
power of destruction to be commen-
surate with his will. After pause,
| he resumed
UWeIl, 1 can't resist yOu,n said to
/ the robber, assuming a look of terror
such as had not worn since / went
up for mp examination as candidate
at Jena. "ru give you all have,
and when you haYe taken it, I hope
you'll be satisfied and do me no
further injury"
"tOh, I'll be satisfied when [ touch
the money, never fear, old boy" an
swered he with a laugh. Come, out
with it quick"
"Tfs in that bureau yonder,' re-
piled ], throwing key on the table /;
help YOURSELF
az need not tell you, mein herr,
that in that whole bureau there was
not a single pfenRig; but he went to-
ward il, which was all l wanted
"sAh, you wanted to get a chance
of sticking him from behind, 1 sup
pose? said 1, secretly marvelling at
the stragetic ability Of this pacific
man of letters.
'''Mein leiber Herr the Professor,
with an air of grand contempt, sug-
J gestive Of Socrates setting down
protagoras, Science does not fight
| with such coarse, material means as
/ those. 1 have told you that l regard
/ ed this man in the light of an expert
ment, and / acted accordingly. II
you wish to know what was my real
/ object in sending him TO the bureau,
step forward and press your foot up
on that little knot in the floor
al obeyed, and was not a little
startled when a good square yard of
the flooring Immediately in front of
the bureau gave way with a loud,
whiiring noise, disclosing a black
chasm Of unknown depth, from which
arose the hoarse gurgle Of running
water
WsWhy. Won don't mean to say