New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1890-07-30
a mistake in counting; the lamp was
quickly lighted, and his work began

Lime neVeTpaS slower IMAM Wflen
one counts the minutes. 1t seemed
to Hartman sometimes as if it stood
still, Or as if the minutes grew mali
ciously to hours, the hours to days.
If he only could spend few hours
in sleep! The thoughtled him to try
opium, and now many a day and al
most every night was passed in arti-
fetal slumber. A moment OF relief
came, when he aWoke and realized
that so and so many hours had
passed.
The continual excitement could
not fail to undermine even such a
powerful constitution as Hartman
possessed. With every day that
brought him nearer to the longed
for goal, he grew feebler and paler.
1t seemed to him as if his limbs were
lead, as if his head were too heavy
to bear He dragged himself heav-
lily from the sofa to the chair, from
the chair to the sofa. When pain in
the back seized him he called ply
stefan. --~ 49,. .--.-- =.
"You are going to have a severe
Sickness" was his decision.
''Of what kind? Be perfectly frank.
am alone in the world, and must
make my arrangements"
"Well the symptoms look like
typhus.''
Hartman's face became even paler
than before; his eyes started with the
expression of horror upon the speak
er.
"a slow fever, in which one does
not lose consciousness; is it not so,
doctor? Certainly so?''
eff my fears are likely to berealized
] would wish the contrary. The
fever begins violently, you are deliri-
Gus at the crisis, and the worst is
over, when you recover conscious
ness.'
To be delirious! Hartman shud-
dered. To be delirious, not to be
master of his thoughts and words,
to betray his secret motives, in spite
of himself to reveal that with which
his mind had necessarily occupied it.
self-no, for heavens sake, anything
but that!-'I want no Sister Of
Mercy, no attendant; look after me
at intervals of several hours" he
said turning to the physician.
He smiled at the notion.
Hartman determined not to fall
sick; he struggled terribly, and
fought with all the strength he had
left against the approaching foe.
There he lay shaken by the fever,
but still conscious.
'That's the nurse, that's the chair,
now | a stretching out my hand,
know exactly what l am doing" he
repeated ten times every hour.
"And if it turns out otherwise,
would they give any weight to fever
ish dreams? Nurses, who have to
hear SO many things, will not notice
it at all. II have not committed the
theft; | know nothing of it. That
will keep repeating to myself contin-
ually; perhaps that will influence the
delirinm. They say the mind runs
usually on things that are the farthest
removed from the normal thinking,
but my thought are still perfectly
clear"
Then a veil fell over hereality. In
stead Of the Sister of Mercy, the at
torney, in his black gown and cap
stepped into the room, took a chair
and sat down before the bed.
Through the sharp glasses the still
sharper looks were necessarily di-
rected upon him. Like glowing steel,
they bored themselves into his brain
You will be delirious my boy"
said the attorney and nodded his
head.
II shall not" thought the sick
youth and chung to his Yed.
Day after day the tormentor sat
there, staring at him, and listened.
Then more and more of his colleagues
came, also Judges in their robes,
and all seated themselves in long
rows before his bed Breathless they
listened; one gentleman, old and
hard OF hearing, always kept his hand
at his ear. 'Now he will be delirious,"
they whispered at times. There was
a deatening ringing in Hartman's
ears.
He felt a terrible rage against the
black assembly. ...-
He had a mind to put out his
tongue at them and to call: "Wait,
it you will, you fools, you will not
hear one syllable from me; shall re-
main mute as the grave" But he
controlled himself and remained
quietly lying. ,.s
The faces, in close array, drew near
er and nearer to him. Now the near
est were already sitting on the edge
ofthe bed, and now even on his body.
They put heavy ice cold law books
ON his head, heaping them up to a
crushing burden. One kept striking
! him with an invisible hammer on his
forehead and crying out madly:
Won't you rave now, won't your
1t became insupportable. He
struck out and shrieked SO that the
landlord camehurrying up the stairs
and looked through the chink of the
door, and the attendant drew back