Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-11-02
JIM NO. | AND JIM NO. 2.

alt is true, NJ Roger, if ever you should
do anything evil to Jim l should hate you,
and I'd never forgive you, never, neverI'
And Mile. Armande Plagnolles nonchalantly
threw herself back in her chair and passed
her taper finger with caressing gentleness
across the lustrous and downy skin of Mas
ter Jim
The cat-a superb cat, jet black from head
to tail, so black that in certain lights his fur
gave out metallic re1ections-purred louder
and louder, stretched out his paws, OF a
pearlish white, and blinked at Roger in a
way that seemed to say: "Try it, my friend;
try 1t; you'll get the worst of it certain"
Not at all alarmed by the threat and the
wicked look in Jirn's eyes, NJ. Roger de
Gramont responded hypocritically:
evil to Jim? Neverl What made you
think iti" And he, too, advanced his hand to
stroke the cat, perfdiously hoping, Of course,
to touch instead the fingers of its beautiful
mistress.
And she was pretty, truly, adorably pretty,
this Mile. Arp1ande de Plagnolles; denli-
blonde with red-brown hair, curling and
twisting into the most enchanting waves;
rather tall, neither fat nor lean, and with
eyes of astonishing depth and color.
Roger de Gramont, on his side, was good
looking, accomplished, well built, broad
shouldered, with limbs supple and vigorous
Roger advanced his hand, as I've told you,
and Jim received it, not with the dignity you
would expect from the throne he occupied,
but with mastery stroke OF his claw that
opened the flesh to the bone and made the
blood fly.
"The miserable beastm cried the young
man indignantly, for once unable to repress
the truth
The property of the De Granont family
was considerably larger than the chateau, or
villa, rather, Of the PIagnolles estate, and
stood in vast park rolling and wooded, and
with an extended view of the Seine. Roger
was wrong In laughing at Armande on ac-
counc of her passion for Jim, for he himself
was bringing up with jealous care, in a dis
tant corner of this same park, inclosed with
high trellises, colony Of pheasants of every
country, form and tint 1t was q mania with
him and which he had taken to his heart
with all q collectors ardent passion, and
verltable delight it was to him to conceal
himself behind a thicket Of juniper trees in
that well hedged corner and watch the move
mentS of his beautiful lady Hamersts with
their variegated ruffS, or his Veneres with
their brilliant colors. And there is nothing
TO laugh at, assure you, in this little craze
of my hero, Roger, for ], as well as every one
else, knew that the rest Of his manias were
not a whit less respectable than this.
The morning following his visit to Plag-
nolles and Jim, as he was preparing to make
his usual call on his pheasants, the keeper
stood before him, cap in hand
Monsieur Roger" be said, "they got
another one last night; l found the feathers
along the palingI"
''Whatm cried Roger angrily, another of
my pheasauts last night See here, La Bran
che, this won't do! Whom do you suspect
nowf'
The keeper shook his head. Nobody, sir,
but Pichou," said be; sit couldn't be any one
else. Pichou's the worst and the most sue
cessful poacher in tho country"
But three of then-thres of them in four
days.' continued De Graniont.
Thanks to Pichou, sir" persisted the
guard; "Pichou's got 'em certain, sir; he
always has"
The evening Of the same day peace was de-
clared between the two lovers. Roger re-
turned in an excellent humor, only to find
himself the next morning in violent rage
they had gotten fourth pheasant; moro
than that, two of his handsome cocks were
wounded in the wing and left behind them az
they walked trail of blood.
Happen again7 Not much, if he could help
1t; and though it was as dark as Egypt, as it
had been for four nights past, Roger installed
himself in ambush with his gun charged with
the heaviest balls.
The wait was long; two hours rolled them
selves into three, then three into four, and
the young man was beginning to consign to
the devil all the pheasants as well as all the
poachers in the world, when a singular noise,
a soft metallic clicking, set him trembling.
Something" he said to himself, "some-
thing light as q sylph is climbing the trelliS"
and, as well as he could for the darkness, he
aimed and fred, and was answered by cat
erwauling, fierce. prolonged, lugubrious, sue
ceeded by the rattle of death
'GoOdG' he muttered; sit wasa't Pichou
at al, but q thievish cat He's done for. at
any rateI" and he continued to waitl not
long, however, for summer nights are short
and1ieeting, and already blush haze upon
tie horizon announced the dawn. 4 few
minutes later clear light penetrated the
leaves and there in the middle of q thicket
Of rose trees Roger perceived the body of his
victim. 1t was big, it was blacll-very black;
his heart beat quickly; he foresaw, he di-
vined, the catastrophe. lie approached
hastily. No more doubt about it; it was
jim, the adored Jim, the cherished pet"
shot in the middle of the head-cold and life
less.
well Inurmured Roger. contemplating
him ruefully, "a beautiful mess I've made of
It'll" and 10 run to the tool house, seize and re-
turn with a spade was the work of an in
stant; five minutes more and Jim repOSed ct
peace beneath the earth forever.
When II. dc GramonC made his usual even .
ing cal Ut PlaglolleS the house was in COM
motion, everybody from cook to chamber
maid, valet and stable boy valnIy seeking
Jim; and the parents wero wild with fright, f.
for Armande herself was dissolved in hyster- .
ical tesrs
"Ahl" she cried at sight of Roger, happy
TO hold in her hand at last one whom she
could make into o fellow sufferer; lit is you,
is it, You, who will be delighted to hear Of
it-you, who have never been able 10 endure
himI" And Immediately there was new
quarrel on the carpet, in which, as Roger .
was decidedly epres and guiitly unhappy, .
he got the worst OF it. Armande worried
him ferociouSly, going to the length of declar- /
ing that TIL Jim-always Jim-wss found she .
did not even care to see hiul-that is, unless he .
would promise to hunt for JIM in which case
she would promise to recompense him.
After morning visit, more unfortunate
still than the evening one Roger told himself
that something must be done; the situation
was simply uncomfortable He ran to the sta
ton, boarded = train, arrived at Paris, and
an hour later, OF the shop of " NJ, a