The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-02-04
wrote in large letters the following

IVer up my soul 70 satan provided he oestow on me ten years riches.
 FERNANp pE RoouEFEUrL.
 "The window ehancei to be open at that moment. There came a sudden gust of air. The wind snapped up the sheet of paper, swept it through the window and carried 1t to the devil Il mean to his address"
 ''How did you come to the knowl- edge of all these things, sir?"
 Allow me to finish my story, if you please. From the following morning your life was a perfect run of good luck. Fortune flew to you. In rummaging one day under an old piece of furniture you discovered large roll of money, without know ing how it came there-l0,0o0 francs in coin. Having gone to Baden Baden, you risked the entire sum three suc- cessive times on the wheel of fortune and won each time. With this capital you then engaged in railroad specu- lation. Before week had passed you found yourself rich man."
 "All that is very true, sir, but"
 "Just wait awhile! Let me finish. I need hardly tell you that your sud- den acquisition of wealth was the re- suit of your letter to the mysterious and powerful being whom you iT- voked in your hour of distress"
 "Well, sir, what about it?"
 "Just this, M. de Roquefeuil In forty-eight hours hence your tenth year will have expired"
 "Well, and what then?"
 "In forty eight hours you will be- long to me. am the devil"
 One would naturally imagine that Fernand and his six friends would only burst into a fit of laughter at this strange declaration from this un- expected visitor. To-day we may be sure he would be told to carry his his transparent joke elsewhere. But this happened some time ago, when his Satanic majesty figured promi- nently ill romantic literature. In the first place the fantastic writings of that day had great number of read CTS on account of the stories of Theo- dore Hoffman, then largely scattered throughout France. Again, Frederic Soulin, still living, had made his sable majesty quite fashionable by the re- cent publication of the "Memoirs of the Devil"
 Nevertheless, Fernand and his com rades laughed in chorus, one of them remarking
 "Mons. Satan. as this is the first time we have had the pleasure of your dis tinguished presence, you will do us the honor of accepting glass of cham pagne?"
 "My ordinary beverage is human tears," replied the king of terrors, "but l suppose l may make one excep- tion. Pour out the winew
 He emptied his glass with apparent zest, bowed gracefully and retired, saying, as he withdrew, to Fernand ::
 "Monsieur Roqueteuil, I expect to have the honor of calling on you to- morrow"
 With that not very encouraging remark he withdrew.
 So soon as he had gone the young men laughed heartily, but the supper came to an end, and at about three o'clock in the morning ali retired to their homes.
 At noon the following day, just as Fernand was about to rise, servant entered his room and handed him three letters and card. This last was duplicate of the card of the evening before.
 "Ah, indeed! The devils card ?" muttered Fernand. "It seems Satan does not intend to give me much re- spite."
 As for the three letters, they were anything but pleasant reading.
 The first announced that the banker, Isaac H., with whom Fernand had deposited the greater part of his for tune, was suddenly rnined by fall in stocks, and, having secured all the money he could, had fled to America on Havre packet.
 The second letter-anonymous, of course-informed him that Mime. de Lucay, the charming young widow whom he was to marry in a day or two, had given him the slip, and was about to wed one of his most intimate friends-one of those six gallants who were seated at the table with him the evening before. Of course, a man of honor should not be annoyed at any thing contained in an anonymous let ter, always written by a coward Dev- ertheless, he found such precise details of things that he knew to be true, and which he thought to be unknown to others, that he could not help give credence to the whole letter.
 The third letter contained a steno- graphic account of a conversation that recently occurred in club, of which Fernand de Roquefeuil was a promi- nent member. It was a sort of run- ming commentary of the principal mem hers of the cluh on the unerifs nd