The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1885-02-06

no wrohg turning on the road, nor
did he lose hts way. No, he il Ger.
tainly at Val Kaffiou, and, not M
Luktrop. Yet how comes it his eye
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, ss al
the Six-Four.
Is it q snare or a delusion? By the
weak glimmer of the lamp. he vaguely
recognizes his own room-there the yell
low sofa; there, on tho 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. Yonder is his arm chair with
its leather tassels, his table with its
convoluted logs, and upon it, by the
| Pickering lamp, his own Codex, open al
page 1877.
"What ails me? "murmurs the doctor
What ails thee? Why thou art palsied
with fright. Thy eyeballs start from
their sockets. The body contracts and
dwindles in size. An icy sweat chilla
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 baldaqmn-a bed as long as Il
is broad, and the closed curtains with
their lHrge inwrought flowers. Can this
indeed be the bed of poor cracknel-
maker? Trembling, the doctor draws
near, pulls the curtains aside, and peers
within.
There, outstretched on his diving bed.
lies the sick man, with his head outside
the countefpane and motionless, 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 kartitf, the crack
hel-maker, who is the dying 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. 1t is
cerebral apoplexy, with sudden accu.
mulatlcn of serosity in the cavities Of
the brain, and partial paralysis of the
body on the side opposite that where
the lesioh exists. Ay, it was for him
that assistance wAs besought, that one
hundred and twenty feetzers were paid
He who, in the hardness Of lis heart,
had refused to attend the poor crack
ne. 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
deal in him, but the beatings of his heart
were nearly gone, like the breath of his
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
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 lie found
that the pulsations of his OWL 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 in his 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 coffin, and conveyed, in
great pomp, to the cemetry OF Luktrop,
after the manner of the many he had
already sent there.
As for old Hurzof, I am told the
faithful beast may still be seen, with
his lantern relighteL, securing tho
heath and bowling for his lost master.
If this be true or not, 1 can not say.
Yet SO many strange things do occur in
this Volsinian country, especially round
about Luktrop, that see no reason to
doubt the statement. At any rate, let
me nsk of you once more not to look for
this town of Lpktrop on the map. The
best geographers are still uncertain as
to its exact position in latitude-and
even longitude. from the
Christmas number of the Paris Figaro