Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-16
THE BRAHMIN'S GIFT.

with IL which Il was impossible altogether
to eliminate Foriinstance, If had chanced
to stay away from my earthly tabernacle for
too long time, 1 might on my return, have
found it as dead in reality as 1t was to all
| seeming; the pulses of life, which beat
with but faint insistence while spirit ana
body were discovered, might have come to
standstill. leaving me without a home, and,
being unsanctifed by death, under COM
| pulslon to wander, it might be for long ages,
in No-Man's Land, where twilight ever
reigns. there to consort with other shades,
| as forlorn and hopeless as myself
In was on the third evening after the
| doctors had given me up that an irresistible
longing came over me to exercise once more,
and for the last time, this mysterious gift.
was utterly sick of lying on my pallet
with nothing to do but commune with my
own thoughts, which, of truth, were of the
most somber hue. 1 felt that I should like
to look on Ida once more. though it were in
spirit only, before death should have sealed
my eyes forever. 81 feel very drowsv,
nurse, !" said to one of the two watchers
who stayed BY me day and night;
81 think that, perhaps, I can sleep
| little. Please be careful that I'm not
disturbed till 1 awake of my own accord" !"
Ten minutes later had slipped out of my
earthly husk, more easily than snake
sheds its skin, and was standing, disem-
bodied shade, on the threshold of my own
house. 1t was frosty evening and the
stars glinted like points Of cold flame. Two
seconds later slight exercise OF will-power
set me down in the drawing-room at Fern
| side.
Ida, as usual, had three or four young
| men futtering around her. Never had her
eyes looked more unclouded, never had
her laugh rung out more musically and
joyously, never had / seen her more apt at
persi1age and repartee. Poor fool that
had been, to dream that she would waste
more than a passing thought on such
disagreeable subject as a dying mani The
cold, still surface Of a lake, over which the
shadow of cloudlet has passed, without
lingering, is not more unruft1ed than she
was.
, turned away, and scarcely had formu-
lated the wish, before 1 found myself in my
uncle's librarv-so called. The old man
was seated at his writing table with an open
bag OF money before him, With trembling
fingers, he was counting the sovereigns into
little piles, of 20 each, and arranging them in
front of him. His puckered face would
have made fine study for picture Of
mingled greed and cunning. 1t was the in
dex of his soul. No need to linger there
A wish-aDd was gone.
was next at Mlllinghan, large manu-
featuring center in the north OF Engla fully
200 miles from Dereminster, where lived an
old chum, whom thought should like
to take peep at for the last
time. Ny friend Dennis lay prone on the
hearth-rug of his sitting room. sleeping the
stertorous sleep of one who had INDUCED,
not wisely, but too we'll. Was that the
hideous Lethe in which his bright intellect
-
away with shudder of mingled pity and
repulsion.
AS 1 stood on the steps of nv friends
lodgings, debating as to whittier should 60
next, became aware of another disembodied
shade, like myself, who issued from house
few doors up the street, and, without
becoming aware of my propinquity,
second later was gone. My curl
osity was excited. Who and what
was nv fellow visitant to No Mans Land?
which, 1 may here remark, had found to
be by no means SO devoid of visitors as, in
my ignorance. had at first deemed it to be-
Quite number of people besides myself,
haillng from various points of the compass,
were in possession of the same secret which
the Brahmin had impaired to me, and
availed themselves, in q greater or lesser
degree, of its dangerous privileges. But.
indeed, it could matter nothing to me who
or what the stranger had just seen might
be, seeing that, in an hour at most, must
be back at home, and creep into my husk,
there to await the inevitable end, which a
few short hours would now bring to pass.
Still, having little time to spare, I might
as well crafty my curiosity for the last
time. Next instant was standing in the
room which the stranger had so recently
quilted. 1t was the unpretentious domicile
r l. 1.Al L..
student; indeed, I may say at once
was promising young surgeon,
who had lately taken his degree, and was
temporarily attached to the MiIlingham
town hospital. The door was locked, and
on a sofa lay stretched his body in the state
of coma ESQ to speak) in which he had
left it to await his return.
1t was the body of one of the handsomest
young men it had ever been my fortune to
set eyes on. As stood gazing at it could
not help rejecting what different lot mine
might have been had 1 but possessed one
tithe.of this young fellows good looks. Fol-
lowing on that thought came another, or
rather a suggestion, one of those subtle
whispers-whether emanating from within
or without who shall say?-which nine times
out of ten are the first tentative suggestions
to wrong doing. "Why not grasp the chance
which fate has put in your way" ran the
whisper, "and take possession of this body
while its owner is away? To go back to
your own body simply means that you will
be dead aud buried in a week from now."
And then series of dazzling possibilities
flashed across my mental retina, chief and
foremost among which 1 discerned firstly,
that by so doing should secure for myself
a fresh lease of life, and secondly, that
henceforth, instead of posturing before the
world as one of the ugliest of nv kind, 1
should gladden. its eyes with a face and
form which might, without exagperation,
be likened to those of a modern Antinous
Was it in the power of mortal to resist such
temptation? 1t was certainly not in my power
to do so. With such chance held out to
me, hesitation would have been the acme of
folly.
Five minutes later, the recumbent body
on the sofa opened its eyes, yawned, sat up,
shook and stretched itself, then rose, and,
crossing the room, stared at itself in the
chimney glass. 1t was the body of Percival
Daubeny re-animated by the shade of Hor-
ace Sparkinson. Admirable coniunctionl
AS stared at my exceedingly handsome
self, felt an intoxication of spirit, mental
exhIlaration, such had never experienced
before. Involuntarily likened myself to
another Faust after the transformation
scene. L had been incarnated anew, and
the world was all before me where to choose.
But it would be as we'll to get away before
Daubeny returned to claim his property-I
might have said his lost property. Not that
1 had anything to dread from his return, or
that he could interfere with me in any way,
still-then an unpleasant thought forced it.
self upon me. In ceasing to be Horace
Sparkinson, had cut off all nv sources Of
income, without being able to appropriate