The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1871-11-24
EMONT SANDUSKY COUNTY, OHIO; FRIDAY NOVEMBER 3D. 1871

) " w SOllC mdEhSbAukg anu Wdo GA
e pectiug him back every minute. Al
q a rule, whenever he went abroad, ht
!, took the house key (of which 1 haG
t a duplicated along with him; so that
nobody could get in till he came
{ back, unless l chose to let them. He
! was very punctual on the whole; but
this time ten --fiften--twenty minutes
passed, and there was no sign of him.
l began to fear thar he might have
t taken a glass too much, as he some
times did, and was just thinking
of going to look after him, when,
all at once, 1 heard, far down below,
a noise as if the house door had
been suddenly opened and shut
again, and then a step coming up
stairs right toward my door. I have
a quick ear of my own, and it struck
. me directly that the tread was frmer
and heavier than old Johann's. /
!, guessed at once that there had been
, foul play somewhere, and for a mo-
ment I thought of locking my door
and calling for help through the
window; but, on second thought,
decided that it would be better to
let the intruder (whoeYer he might
bel come right up to me, and see
what he really wanted"
i l looked at the professor with in
voluntary admiration. To hear this
little, delicate, benevolent looking
old gentleman talking so coolly of
deliberately allowing a robber (per-
haps more than one) to march right
into his room at night without stir
ring step to give the alarm, simply
because he thought it "better to see
what he wanted" had really heroic
flavor about it; and I bent eagerly
forward to hear the sequel of the adj
venture.
"The door opened" pursued my
friend, "and in came a tall burly fel-
low, with a black mark on his face
and a pistol in his hand. The mo-
ment he was in he locked the door
behind HIN, put the key in-his pock-
ct, and came forward to the table
where ! was sitting.
"'Now, 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
of the Thirsty Fox. Drugged beers
fine thing to make man sleep
sound, and he won't wake much be-
fore tomorrow morning. In the
meantime, out with your money, or
you are dead man."
He cooked the pistol as he spoke
and leveled it at my forehead.
"You will think, mein Herr, that 1
must have been frightened; but
strange as it may seem, I was not.
Had l 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 own
laboratory, he was on mine. He
came to me in a guise of a new ex-
pertinent, and 1 felt him in my pow
er. Before he had done speaking,
had tried him in my own mind, con
demned him, and sentenced him to
death"
Soft and pleasant as the old mans
voice was, there was a hard metallic
ring in it just then and an ominous
compression of the small delicate
mouth, which showed me for the
first time, what this quiet, good hu-
mored scholar might be capable of
doing. Indeed, the cruelty of pas
sion or revenge is as nothing to that
of science. Parrhasius crucifying
his slave in order to get more vivid
idea of the sufferings which he
painted, Michael Angelo studying
with cool, analytical keeness the
loathsome minutes of the plague
hospital, DR.. LIE Gait keeping horses
and dogs for weeks under his scalpel,
only to inhict upon them more varied
and complicated torture-such ex-
amples are terribly suggestive; and 1
could not help thinking that, had 1
been a robber,I should have been
very 10th to entrust myself to the
tender mercies of my friend, the pro-
fessor, supposing his power of de-
struction to be commensurate with
his will. After a pause, he re-
sumed:
swell, I can't resist you" said 1
to the robber, assuming a look of
terror such as I had not worn since
1 went up to my first examination as
candidate at jena. I'll give you
all 1 have, and when you have taken
it 1 hope you viii be satisfied, and do
me no future injury"
"Oh, I'll be satisfied when l touch
the money, never fear, old boy" an
swered he, with a laugh. Come
out with it, quick"
at is in that bureau, yonder," re-
piled I, throwing the key on the ia
BILE; "help yourself"
81 iced not tell you, mein Herr,
that in the whole bureau there was
not single farthing; but he went
toward it to unlock it, which was all
1 wanted"
"Ah you wanted to get chance of
striking him from behind, 1 sup
poseT said 1, secretly marveling at
the strategic ability of this pacific
man of letters.
"Mein leber Herr returned the
professor, with an air of grand con
tempt, suggestive of Socrates 'set-
ting down Protagoras, science does
not fight with such coarse material
means as those. l have told you
that 1 regarded this man in the light
Of an experiment, and 1 acted ac-
cordingly. 1 you wish to know what
was my real object in sending him
to the bureau, step forward and press
your heel upon that little knot in the
floor"
1 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,
whirring noise, disclosing a black
chasm of unknown depth, from
which arose the hoarse gurgle of
running water.
'Why, you don't mean to say
'faltered l, glancing from the ghast-
| ly abyss below to the benevolent
face of the savant, which looked
milder and more benevolent than
ever
Precisely So" answered the pro
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