Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-02-19
SCOURGE-TINIE.
A Hair-Raising Story of the Love Of Two
Men for One Beautiful Woman.

Janeway passed his hand before his
ewes and once more looked about the
room, which was respectfully appoint
ed, while a shade less glittering and
tawdry than similar lodgings in the
Capital. OF the fashions of these
Southern towns he knew as yet but lit
tie. Paris and London and the Ger
man universities had sufficed for one
whose sole purpose in living was to
reach the highest science of his own
profession; and it was but day and an
hour since he had heard a strange voice
calling, the voice which had summoned
him southwark to the shore of that
blue, vast sea by which ghastly plague
was stalking. A day and an hour
and he was standing now in the cham
Der of awful pestilence, perchance in
the presence of the dying.
He brushed the haze from his sight
and tried to find things real. He
seemed strongly conscious of some few
trifles: the white window-curtain flut-
tering family in the falling breeze, and
the morning sun, which grew hot and
pitiless; the twisted draperies of the
bed; the silence of the stricken outer
world; his own image in the
mirror opposite. He regarded this last
with vague wonder. What pale,
dazed countenance was reflected! How
strangely gaunt that shaven face had
grown; how thin the brown hair at the
temples! How hollow were the sockets
of the eyes! He went again
to look at the man on the bed, who
still tossed painfully and moaned for
water, water, waterr' Pinched face
and purplish, shriveled hands told in
stantly the awful truth.
Janeway had come prepared. No
longer hesitating, he opened his case
and took out the remedies. He bent
and held the spoon to the lips of the
sufferer; then he stood erect and spoke
one quiet word:
Seymour"
The mans eyes opened; he looked
up half deliriously. and gasped as if
Death itself lowered over him:
.'Crist! You here?"
The doctor, still looking at him, an
swered calmly:
"Yes, am here"
What have you come forP To kill
me? To take her from me?"
Where is she?" the doctor asked,
pausing between the words, although
no guiver was perceptible of voice or
feature.
.'She is safe-in Paris-waiting for
me- the other answered in a tone of
misery. Waiting for me, and l dying
here without her. o God! 1t is your
curse upon us. i know-your curse.
Water! Give me drink of water! /
am burning up! Your curse!"
.Hush" Jancway moistened his
lips. You are not the one nor this
the hour to speak of curses. Only one
thing | demand to know-for the rest
be silent-if you have cherished and
been tender with her? Swear to me
the truth, as you may meet your God
this dayr'
The sick man cried out his answer
with despairing agony.
81 swear-I swear that have always
loved her!' He broke again into Bit
ter moaning. The pain! o, my hands
my arms-my feet! The pain!'
Janeway seated himself and chafed
the limbs of his patient constantly,
untiringly, only pausing at intervals to
administer the remedies. There was
in his face a set resolve.
The sufferer breathed more rapidly;
his voice grew huskier.
Il don't see-J thought that you had
come to-take her back"
Take her back. repeated Janeway,
''How can one take back anything one
has never hadf never had her: she