Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1888-11-09
NO.45.

| the mouses eyes for more than few Sec
onds without their seeming to dinte and
| glitter with harder light, until his mind
lelt paralyzed in the grasp Of some wicked
and incomprehensibc power Every time
he subjected himself to the trial it was
more difficult to shake of the mysterious
influence, until he avoided the mouse's eyes
resoutely, and when the consciousness
that they were fixed upon him forced him
him for an instant to turn and meet them,
he fairly screamed with dread He might
have banished the creature by violence,
but he had an inexplicable repugnance to
thus acknowledging his fear Of it, and
proving by recourse to such brutal means
the reality Of its weird hold upon him.
Added to this were his physical suffer
ings from the daily decrease in his allow.
ance Of food, 50 that he now actually ex-
perienced the pangs of hunger Three
days more passed The shelf now descend
ed but once in twenty four hours and even
then brought him, in the shape Of crust
Of bread and a sip Of water. barely enough
to sustain life There was now a constant
struggle between Luigi aud the mouse as to
which should secure this pttancc 1t was
true that the greater strength of the man
enabled him 10 keep the mouse off when it
approached him too closely at his meals.
'ul nleuElli he iehTnetls was not tne OnlN
thing i'll question. The want Of food rem
dered him sleepless, and once, unsatisfed
with his mockery Of a meal, he watched
for twenty four hours, without rest. for
the return of the shelf. When the tiny
portal burst assunder he leuped forward and
stretched his hand into the opening, only
to find the mouse there before him After
a brief struggle, Luigi, although weak
from his privations succeeded in rescuing
the precious morsels from the animal,
though at the cost of some severe bites.
The two glared savagely at each other while
the man devoured the bread The mouse
jumped down just in time to escape the
rapid ascent Of the shelf. and contrary to
its usual custom, retreated from the cell
Luigi with his hunger still unappeased,
watched uneasily for the return of his little
prosecutor, but it did not come back, and
there suddenly fell upon the unhappy man
dull drowsness which he could not shake
off. He rose and paced his dungeon, but
finally stumbled and fell from sheer nabili-
ty to lift his feet. He would have been un-
able to resist for a moment his desire to
sleep, had it not been for the dread of his
enemy. Suppose the shelf should descend
during his sumbers But even this fear
was insufficient to stimulate his tagging
powers the forces of life slowly Withdrew
to the remote recesses of his brain, and he
sank into a sleep that was almost swoon,
All day his face blanched with suffering
and hunger, CLEANED white and motionless
in the faint light of the cell all night his
breathing, so weak it scarcely stirred the
heavy air, trembled through the black 81
lence
Suddenly he woke with start He had
been reused by some sharp noise Revert
ing to his last waking thought he spraug
to the shaft, only to see the mouse sitting
on the empty shelf beside an overturned
water jug and an empty platter The
creature seemed staring at him with a grin
of malice. With wild eyes and a cry of
despair the unhappy man flung himself up
on the mouse, and cutched it in both hands,
concentrating in that grasp all the strength
of which his madness was capable.
That night the msurrection of Fiesco
threw open the dungeons Of the ducal pal
ace and set the prisoners free, but too late
to save Luigi. The friends who rescued
him knew that he had been faithful through
trials and for the rest of his short life he
was tenderly guarded But an incurable
maniac, he moaned perpetually under the
spell of some strange power. and occasion
ally broke into fearful paroxysms of terror,
in which he would endeavor to throttle his
attendants, under the hallucination that
his mysterious enemy had once more come
to life in em.-Huper's Weekiy