The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1885-09-17
FOUR LIVES IN ONE.
ALVEY II. Adee in The Argonaut.l

ALVEY H. Adee in The Argonaut.1
Il suppose may as well &c now" he said.
when can / get my old s3lf there back
againl'
"On Thursday night, il Il wo., WELL"
said the old man. "Till then, good day"
Ronald Wyde's first impuI y, as he sham
bled into the open air. tc go home; but
lie thought of the confusion / is sadly mixed
identity would cause in Frsu Spritzkrap-
fen's quiet household. and calae To n dead
stop to consider the matter Then he de-
cided to quit the town for TIE interminable
four days-.to go to Dresden, or anywhere.
His next step was to SLOUGH Ito the nearest
beer cellar, and call for beer, pen and paper.
While waiting for the o he surveyed his
own reflection in the dingy elas' that hung
above the table he sat by-a glass that gave
his face a wavy look, if seen through
heated air. He felt an amused pride in his
altered appearance, much . masquerader
might be plea ed with u clever dis
guise, and caught himself wondering
whether he were likely {, be recog-
nizel in it. Apparently satisfied of
his safety from detection, he turned to
the table and wrote beer-scente1 note to
Frau Spritzkrapfen, explaining his sudden
absence by some discreet fiction. He got
along we'll enough until he reached the end,
when, instead of his own flowing sign
manual, he tipSily scrawlesl the unfamiliar
name of Hans Kraut Tearing the sheet
angrily across, he wrote another, AMI signed
his name with an effort He was about to
eek a messenger to carry his note, when it
occurred to him To leave it himself which
he did; and had thereby the keen satisfac
ton of hearing pretty Lottchen confess,
with blush on her fair German check, that
they would all miss Herr Wyde very much,
because they all loved him. Turning away
with sigh that was very like hiccough,
he trudgeI to the railway station aud took
ticket to Dresden, going third class as
best befitting his clothes and appearance.
He felt ashamed enough OF himself as the
train rumblel over the rolling land between
Freibers an the capital and gave him time
to think cOnnecteily over what hal hap
pened and what he now was. His fellow
passengers cast him siie-long looks, and
gave him wide birth. Even the quaint,
flat-arched windows of one pane each, that
winked out of the red tiled roof like sleepy
eyes, seemed to leer drunkenly at him as
they scuddeI by.
Ronald Wyde's account of those days in
Dresden was vague and misty. He crept
along the busting strcee, OF that somber,
gray city, that seemed to look more natural
by cloud-light than in the full sunshine
feeling continually within him struggle
tures now so strangely blended. Each
day he kept up the contest man
fully, passing by the countless beer cellars
and drinking booths with assumption of
frmnes' and resolution that oozsd slowly
away toward nightfalI. when the animal
body of the late Hans Kraut would contrive
to get the better of the animating principle
of Ronald Wyde; the efined nature would
yield to the toper's brute craving, with an
awful sense of its deep degradation in
succumbng, and, before midnight, Hans
gloriously drunk to Ronald's intense
grief
Time passed somehow. He had memories
of sunny lounges on the Bruhl'sche terrace,
looking the turbid flow of the eddied
Elbe, and watching the little steamboats
that buZz,d up and down the city's TANKS,
settling now and then, like CAD flies, to
drain it of few drops of its human life.
Well-knOwn friends. whose hands he had
graspe1 not week before, passed. him I'M
heedngly; all save one, who eyed him for a
moment, said poor devili' in an uniertone,
and dropped silber-gr into his manned
hand.
He felt glad Of even this lame sympathy
in his lowness; but most of all he priced tho
moistened glance of pity that flashed upon
him from tho great dark eyes of n lovely
girl who had passed him now and then as LID
slouched along. Once, u being degraded and
Scuryy as his own outward self; turnel tC
him, called him "Dutzbruder." asked him
how he left them all i'll Berlin, stared al
Ronall's blank look of non-recognition. and
passed on with a mutterei curse on his own
stupidity in mistaking stranger. III broad
daylight for his crouy, Kraut.
Another memory was of the strange IasSi-
tudo that seemed to almost paralyze him
after even moderate exertion, and caused
him to drop exhausted on a bench on the
terrace when he had shufiled over less than
half its length. More than once the sus
picion crept upon him that only
portion of his vitality now r.
manned to him, and that its greater part
lay mysteriously cooled i'm Herr Lebens-
funke's life-magnet And this in turn
broadened into a doubling distrust of the
Herr himself-a dread lost the old man
might in some way appropriate his stock OF
life to his own use, and renew his fast
expiring lease for n score or two OF wears ia
come. At last this dread grew so painfully
definite that he hurried back to Freiberg a
day before his appointed time. and once
more found his two-foll self wandering
through its devious streets.
1t was long after dark and thin rain
slanted on the slippery stones, he again
made his way through tho deserted and
sleepy PATHS of the town to the old philos-
opher'S house. He wet, chilled, weary
and sick enough at heart as he leaned
against the old stone doorway and waited
for an answer to his knock The plash of
the heavier rain-drops from the tiled caves
the only sound he heard for many min
ute:, until at last, patterin- feet nearel
him on the inside. and u child's voice aske
who there. t. his friendly respon~e
the door was opened half-wide, and Nogo
lein's pretty face peerai through.
Was Herr l.ebenSfuuze at home! No; ht
had said thai he wa mt at home; but then
she thought ho was III the long room where
mamma went to sleep. Could he be seen. No
she thought not; he was very tired, and, il
her Vogelein's-opinion, he was going
to s.eep too Just a mamma dill And the
Nvizsnel little face. with its eldritch eyes
ana tangled hair. was Withdrawn, and the
door began to close. Ronald forced himself
inside and graSp4,i the chills arm.
.U- I'm