The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1888-01-06

"Thou scest, K~allikratcs." she said
sBehold. It was l who slew thee. In the
place OF lie 1 gave thee death. / slew thee
because OF the Egyptian Amcnartas, whom
thou dtdst love; for by her arts she held
thy heart, and her I could not eiay as but
now I Slew the woman, for she was too
strong Tor me. In my haste and bitter an
ger u slew thee, and now for nil these DAYS
have l lan1ented thee, and waited for ti,y
coming. And tho hast come, and none
can stand between thee and me, and of n
truth now for death l will give thee life
not life eternal, for that none c,.n rive. but
life and youth that shall endure for t.lous.
6nds upon thousands of years, and with il
p0mp and power aud wealth, s:.IalI th;nrs
that arc good ind beautiful, such as have
hacn tn no man before thee nor shall he r.
any man who comes after. And now enc
thing more and thou shalt rest and make
teady for the day of thy new birth. Thou
seest this body which was thine own For
all these centuries 1t hath been INV comfort
end my companion, but now 1 need It no
more, for 1 have thy living presence, and
1t can but serve to stir yplnemorics of that
which I had fnin forgot. Let it, there
tore, 60 back to the dust from which l kent
h.
"Behold! Ihave prepared against this
happy hour" and going to the other shelf,
or stone ledge, which, she snid, had served
her for a bed, she took from it large Wit
rifted double-haRdled vase, the mouth of
which was tied up with n bladder. This
she loosed, and then, having bent down
ana gently kissed the white forehead OF
Q dead man, she undid the vase, and
sIprinkled tho contents carefully over the
form. taking. I observed, the greatest pre-
cautions against any drop of them touch
ing us or herself, and th%enpourcd out what
remained OF the liquid upon the chest and
mead. instantly a dense vapor arose, and
the cave was filled with choking fumes
chat prevented us from seeing anything
while the deadly acid (for l presume it was
some tremendous preparation of that sort)
dtd Its work. From tho spot where the
body lay came a fierce fixing and cracking
fiund, which. ceased however, before the
hmes had cleared away. AT last they
we're all gone, except a little cloud which
Eli hung over the corpse. In a couple of
minutes more this, too, had vanished, and,
wonderful as 1t may seem, 1t Is u fact that
en the stone bench that had supported the
mortal remains of the ancient Kallifsrates
Ior SO many centuries there was now Moth
Ing to be seen but o few handfuls of smok-
ing white powder. Tho acid Ind utterly
destroyed the body, and even in places
eaten into the stone. Aycsha stopped
down., and taking a landfulof this powder
IN her grasp, threw it into the air, saying
at the same time, ina voice of calm solem-
nifty:
Dust to dust-the past to the past-the
dead to b deadl Kallikrates is dead, and
IS born again!"
The ashes f1oated noiselessly othe rocky
door, and we stood in awcd silence and
watched them fall, too overcome for words.
"Now leave me-" she said, land sleep if
ye may. Unjust watch and think, for to-
morrow night We go hence, and the timcis
long since / trod the path that we must
follow"
Accordingly we bowed and left her.
AS we passed to our own apartment, I
peeped into Jobs sleeping-place to see how
he Jared, for he had gone away just before
our interview with the murdered Ustane,
ehacger festlvtty. He was sleeping sound
II, good honest fellow that he was, and I
rejoieed to think that his nerves, which,
like those Of most uncducated people, were
far from strong, had been spared the clos
eSo SSNAOO VI SAAN0 AttJs Az WE
entered our own chamber, and here ut last
poor Leo, who, ever since he had looked
upon that frozen image Of his living SELF.
had been in q state not fur removed from
s~tupefaction, burst out into u torrent of
grief. Now that he was no longer in the
presence Of the dreaded She. his sense of
the awfulness Of nil that had happened,
and more especially Of the wicked murder
Of Ustane, who was bound to him by ties
SO close, broke upon him like q storm, and,
lashed him into III agony of remorse and
terror which was painful to witness. He
cursed himself-he cursed the hour when
we had first seen tho writing Oh the saerd,
which wa being so mystericusiy verified.
and.bitterly he cursed his own weakness.
AyeSha he dared not curse; who dared
speak evil Of such a woman, whose con.
sciQus1ess tor 9ugbt we knew was watch;
t22Ns sS this veasy moment?
For Nj hours or more Leo aad ] sat
with shaken nerves and frightened eyes,
and talked over the almost miraculous
events through which we were passing. II
seemed like a dream or q fairy tale, instead
of the solemn, sober fact. Who would
have believed that the writing OH the pot.
sherd was not only true, but that we should
live to verify its truth. and that we two
seekers should 1ui her who was sought,
patiently awaiting our coming in the
tomhs Of Kor? Who would have thought
that In the person Of Leo this mysterious
woman should, as she believed, discover
the being whom she awaited from century
to century, and whose former curthly hnb-
ttation she Ind till this very night pre-
1ervedf But SO 1t was. In the face OF all
~,hmd anau a. -co d;nHc,,le kov .,s M oe.