St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-10-14

was hard to get out of this room. He
wished now that lie had put the child
out of the way. Suppose he should
waken? He seemed to feel the eyes OF
Mere Berlot-thOse speaking, living
eyes in gray, dead face-those hor-
rible, horrible eyes! Instinctively he
drew near the bed.
Well He had nothing to fear there.
They were dead-the couple Berlot-
dead.
Their skulls cracked open!
And their savings belonged to him
to Pierre Lurier-all, all to him!
He laughed loudly and eXultipgly-
the prudent Pierre Lurier-drunk with
the thoughts of his gold!
But the laugh sounded shrill and
strange TO his own ears in this dim.
quiet room where the dead lay. The
candle was going out. He was without
his clothes and It was growing cold.
What was that sudden noise?
The door closed softly.
A draught of cold air struck him on
his naked back.
He wheeled swiftly round. The sud
den motion eXtinguished the dying light
of the candle-but not before Pierre
Lurier had seen the figure of man
standing in the doorway.
There was perfect silence in the dark
room.
What should he dolly?
Certainly. He must escape somehow
But how, with a man in the doorway?
Ali blow in the dark. He could
remember just where to Strike-aS yet
there had been no mOvement-Of that
he was certain.
Pierre Lurier gathered his strength
and drew himself up so that his body
bent backward.
The bag of money strained at his
throat and lay heavily OH his chest, like
some living thing. Then it was thrown
out again from his body as he rushed
forward fiercely, brandishing the short
handled mattock over his head and
brought it down with crushing, terrific
force against
What?
There was crash of glass and break
ing wood. The treacherous light had
shown him but the outline of his own
reflection in the mirrored panel of the
door, and he had not seen that this fam
cied enemy who closed the door with a
breath of wind stood
Naked!
With canvas bag about his neck!
And a blood-Stained weapon in his
handi
The body of Pierre Lurier pitched
violently forward.
He struggled to regain his balance,
but the sack about his throat dragged
him down. With one supreme effort he
threw back his head to rid himself of
the accursed weight, and sO-with his
naked throat against the glaSs-dashed
through the shattered panel OF the
door.
The child Pierre stirred in his sleep.
There had been a sound from above.
Pere BerlOt must have called him.
He tumbled out of bed and went
sleepily toward the old clock, for the
key of the stairway.
But the door stood wide open.
How strange! He stopped to rub his
eyes and then went on, very slowly, up
the stairs.
On the landing of the broom closet he
fell senseless.
When the officers of justice were
called by the peasants of Nizy-le-Comte
to unravel the mystery and silence of
the Berlot place, they entered the
kitchen by hole which had been made
in the laundry wall.
On the stairs they were met by an
idiot child who laughed and gibbered at
them horribly.
In the broom closet they found the
body of naked man. with his throat
cut, hanging head downward through
the shattered panel of mirror glass
door.
Through the broken panel they saw,
on the great bed at the other end of the
room
Two bodies with their skulls cracked
open!
The officers of justice pointed to the
bloody mattock and the little sacks OF
gold, and said wisely, after much dis
cussion among themselves
''Crime brings its own punishment"
But the good couple Berlot who lay
dead in their bed, or the child Pierre,
who laughed his horrible laughter on
the stairs below, could have added
Virtue does not always meet with
its reward"