Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1885-02-06
JULES VERkE'S LATEST FANTASY.
The EItdnight Visit OF DR.. Trifu1sas.

The EItdni2ht Visit OF DR.. Txifulsas.
The rising gale whistles. The rain
comes down in torrents. Low sway the
trees under the blast that sweeps the
Volsinian shore, and dashes its fury
against the slopes of the mountains Of
Crimma. The rock bound coast is rent
and riven by the tempestuous pillows
that surge and foam along the vast Me-
galocrida Sea.
In the depth of the bay nestles the
little seaport town of Luktrop. It
boasts few hundred houses with green
ish miradors sheltering them from the
winds Of the main, and four or five steep
streets that look more like the beds of
q mountain torrent than public thor
oughfares. Not far off smokes the Van
glor, an active volcano, which by day
blenches forth thick volumes of sulphur
Gus vapor, and bv night fitful floods of
fame. The crater, seen fully one hun
dred and fifty kertses out at sea, answers
TIE purpose of beacon and guides home
to Luktrop the coasters--felzanes, YER
iches, or balanzes-that pillow the
troubled waters of the Megalocrida.
On the other side Of the town are
heaped up ruins of the Crimmerian era
while the suburb, of Moorish aspect,
like casbah or Algerian fortress, with
its white walls, round roofs, and ter
races calcined by the sun, seems huge
pile of square stones thrown together
ut p-hazard. The whole mass looks
like cluster of dice, the dots of which
have been worn away with age.
Among other peculiar structures may
be seen an odd looking building called
the Six-Four from the number of its
windows, SIX in front and four behind.
A steep}e rises above the town, the
square steeple of Saint Philfilene,
with its bells visible through the open
stone-work, and when these are swung
as they are at timeO by the violence Of
the storm, it is accounted a bad sign,
and the good people Of the place are
filled with fear at the omer. Such is
Luktop, with few stray houses on the
heath beyond, scattered amid the broom
and furze, as in Brittany. Luktrop,
however, is not in Brittany, Is it in
France? -I can not say. In Europe?--
/ do not know,
At any rate it were useless to look for
the place on the map.
Tap, tap! A discreet rap is heard at
the narrow door of the Six -Four, on the
left-hand corner of Messagliere Street.
A comfortable house this, if such a word
is known at Luktrop, and one of the
thriftiest CT the place, if to earn on az
average few thousand fretzers a year
be sign of thrift.
A ferocious yelp, something between
a bark and howl, as from wolf, has
answered Che rap, whereupon a win
dow above the door of the Six-Four is
thrown open, and an angry voice balls
out:
"To the devil with all intruders!"
4 young girl, shivering in the rain,
with sorry cape thrown over her
shoulders, inquiries if DR.. Trifulgas is
Of home.
"He is or isn't-all depends"
II come for my father, who is dying"
"And where is lie dying?"
"By the Val-Karniou, four kertses
from here"
"And what's his name?"
"Vort Kartif.
"Vort Kartif-the cracknel-maker 2"
eyes; and if DR.. Trifulgas would
only"--
doctor Trifulgas isn't at home!"
And the window is brutally closed in
the girls face, while the wind and the
rain outside mix their voices in deafen
ing din.
A hard man he, DR.. Trifulgas, with
but little feeling for fellow-crea
ture, and one who attends patient on
~ if we'll paid in advance for his servi-
ces. His old dog, Aurzof-a cross be-
tween bull and spaniel-would have
more heart than he. The door Of the
Slx-Four remains invariably closed to
the poor, and open only to the rich.
He has, moreover, his scale of prices:
typhoid fever, SO much; brain fever,
so much so much for q pericarditis,
and for as many more diseases as doc
tors choose to invent by the dozen.
And Wort Kartif, the cracknel maker,
is a poor man, with penniless brood.
Why, then, should Doctor Trifulgas
bedevil himself, and On such a night?
1.-THE rousing me from my Sleep" snuff
fled he, as he went to his bed again, is
alone worth ten fretzers!" Twenty
minutes had scarce gone by than the
iron knocker again woke the echoes of
the Six-Four. Grumbling, the doctor
got out of bed, and from the window
growled:
"Who is there?" ,.....
II am Wort Kartif's wife"
1.-THE cracknel-maker from Val Kar-
niou?" a<E@. 5.5 E. p. ."s'
Eyes; and if you don't come he'll
die" ~
"Well, then, you'll be widow?"'
Here are twenty fretZers - u
@What! twenty fretzers to go to Wal
Karniou -four kertses hencew ~.
For God s sake, comet" r. ~
''Go to the devil" And, with an
oath, the window was again slammed.
.'Twenty fretzers! !" muttered he; what
IN idea! Run the risk of catching cold
or alumbago for such a sum, when one