Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1885-02-06


did he lose his way. No, he is GER
tainly at Val Karniou, and, not al
Luktrop. Yet how comes it his eve
dwells on the same, low, vaulted cor.
ridor, the same winding staircase, and
the same massive wooden railing,
hand-worn like his own? He ascends,
and stops on the landing. A faint
light comes from under the door, as al
the Six-Four.
Is it a snare or a delusion? By the
weak glimmer of the lamp. he vaguely
recognizes his own room-there the yell
low sofa; there, on the right, the old
oaken chest and there, ON the left, the
iron-girt safe, in which he had thought
of placing his one hundred and twenty
fretzers.s Yonder is his arm chair with
its leather tassels, his table with its
convoluted legs, and upon it, by the
Pickering lamp, his own Code1, open at
pe 1871 1877: al. 49,, y, y. IL. ao,+o,
What ais thee? Why thou art palsied
with fright. Thy eyeballs start from
their sockets. The body contracts and
dwindles in size. An icy sweat chills
thy skin, on which nameless horrors
seem to creep,
Quick. or the lamp, for want of oil,
will go out, and the sick man die. Ay,
the bed is there-his own, with it's pill
lows and baldaqu1n-a bed as long as II
is broad and the closed curtains with
their large inwrought flowers. Can this
indeed be the bed of o poor cracknel-
maker? Trembling, the doctor draws
near. pulls the curtains aside, and peers
within.
There, outstretched on his dying bed:
lies the sick man, with his head outside
the counterpane and motion1ess, like
one about to breathe his last. The doc
tor bends forward
All! what ghastly scream is that
which rends the air, and is taken up by
the dog outside with his sinister howl.
ing? It is not Wort Kartiff, the crack.
nel-maker, VINO is the DIVING man, but
he, the doctor, Doctor Trifulgas him.
self!--he who is smitten down with
brain fever-he and no other. Full
we'll he knows the symptoms. It is
cerebral apoplexy, with sudden aeon.
mulatlcn of serosity in the cavities OF
the brain, and partial paralysis of the
body on the side opposite that where
the lesion exists. Ay, it was for him
that assistance was besought, that one
hundred and twenty fretzers were paid
He who, in the hardness of his heart,
had refused to attend the poor crack
nell maker! It is he now that is dying,
Doctor Trifulgas raved like maniac,
The symptoms increased every minute.
Not only were all the functions of relation
dead in him, but the beatings of his heart
were nearly gone, like the breath Of hi.
lungs. Yet he had not lost all concious.
ness OF his desperate strait.
What shall he do? Diminish the mass
of the blood by bleeding? There must
be no hesitation, or Doctor Trifulgas is
a dead man. Phlebotomy was still
practiced in Volsinia, and there, as here,
the doctors rescued from apoplexy all
those who were not to die from its
effects.
Doctor Trifulgas sized his case OF
instruments, took his lancet, and
punctured the vein on his duplicate self.
No blood, however, spurted from the
wounds. He rubbed with all his might
the chest of the dying one, but he found
that the pulsations Of his own heart dim
inished he burnt the others feet with
hot bricks, but felt his own feet growing
cold.
Suddenly his duplicate starts up in
his bed, struggles wildly in the last
throes Of suspended breathing, rattle
is heard inAis throat, and Doctor Trif-
ulgas, with all his science, falls back
dead in his own arms.
The following morning corpse was
found in the house known as the Six
Four---that of Doctor Trifulgas. He
was placed in a coffin, and conveyed, in
great pomp, to the ce,netry Of Luktrop,
after the manner Of the many he lad
already sent there
As for old Hurzoi, am told the
faithful beast may still be seen, with
his lantern relighteI, securing the
heath aud bowling for his lost master.
If this be true or not, I can not say.
Yet so many strange things do occur in
this Volsinian country, especially round
about Lrktrop, that see no reason to
doubt the statement. At any rate, let
me ask Of you once more not to look for
this town of Luktrop on the map. The
best geographers are still uncertain as
to it's exact position in latitude-and
even longitude. Translated from the
Gh,istn,oo puul,o1 IF tho paris Eiroro