Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-06-12

! young man belonged to a highly distin-
! guished family. l will commun cate with
| his friends ana forward his papers One
! last office can do for him For the sake
of his family, nurse, will take last Pho
! tograph OF him as he lies upon his death
| bed" Lord Harry stood in the doorway.
listening with an aching aud fearful
heart. He dared not enter the chamber.
| Ii was the Chamber of Death. What was
! his own part in calling the DESTROYING An
! gel who is at the beck and summons of
! every man-even the meanest? Call him
! and he comes Order him to strickland
he obeys. But under penalties.
! The doctors prophecy, then, had come
true But t, in what way and by what
| agency? The man was dead What was
| his own share in the mans deaths He
| knew when the Dane was brought into
| the honse that he was brought there to
| die. As the man did not die. but began
to recover fast. he had seen in the DOCTORS
face that the man would have to die. He
| had heard the doctor prophecy out OF his
| medical knowledge that the man wouId
surely die: and then, after the nurse had
| been sent away because her patient re-
! Quired her services no longer, he had seen
the doctor give the medicine which burn
| ed the patients throat What was that
| medicine? Not only had it burned his
throat. but it caused him to fall into deep
| sleep. in which Ills heart ceased to beat
ana his olopJ ce-iSed TO now.
He turned away and walked out of the
| cottage. For an hour he walked along
the road. Then he stopped and walked
| back. Ropes drew him; he could no long
er keep away. He felt as if something
must have happened. Possibly he would
find the doctor arrested and the police
waiting, for himself, to be charged as an
accomplish or a principal.
He found no such thing. The doctor
was in the salon, with letters and Official
forms before him. He looked up cneer-
fully.
"My English friend" he said. 1.-The un-
expected end of this young Irish gentle
man is very melancholy affair I have
ascertained the name of the family solicit
ors and have written TO them. | have also
written to his brother as the head of the
house. | find also, by examination of his
papers. that his life is insured-the amount
is not stated, but l have communicated
the fact of the death. The authorities
they are. very properly, careful in such
malters-have received the necessary no.
tees and forms: tomorrow, all legal forms
having been gone through, we bury the
deceased"
$50 soon?'
$50 soon? In these cases of advanced
pulmonary disease the sooner the better
The French custom of speedy interment
may be defended as more wholesome than
our own. Ga the other hand admit that
1t has its weak points. Cremation is per-
haps the best anI only method of remoy-
Ing the dead which is open to no objec-
tions except one. I mean of course, the
chance that the deceased may have met
with his death by means OF poison. But
such cases are rare, and, in most instances,
| would be detected by the medical men in
| Attendance before or at the time Of DEATH
| think we need not My dear friend,
yon look i'll. Are you upset by such a
simple thing as the death of sick man?
Let me prescribe for you. A glass of
brandy neat. So" he went into the sale
q 7nGngCr and returned with his medicine.
Lake that. Now let us talk" The doc
| tor continued his conversation in a cheer
fully scientific strain, never abiding to
the conspiracy or to the consequences
which might follow. He told hospital
stories bearing on deaths sudden and I'M
expected; some of them he treated in a
Jocular vein. The dead man in the next
room was Il case. He knew of many SINH
lar and equally interesting cases. When
one has arrived at looking upon dead
man as case, there is little fear of the
ordinary human weakness which makes
US trembie in the awful presence of death.
Presently steps were heard outside. The
doctor rose and left the room-but return
! ed in few minutes.
The CroquemOrtS have come" he said.
They are with the nurse engaged upon
their business. It seems revolving to the
outside world. 70 them it is nothing but
the daily routine of work. By the way, [
took photograph of his lordship in the
presence of the nurse. Unfortunately
but look at it,
lit is the face of the dead man"-Lord
Harry turned away. 81 don't want to see
it. | cannot bear to see it. You forgot
l was actually present when"
Not when he died. Come, don't be a
fool. What was going to say was this:
The face is no longer in the least like you
Nobody who ever saw YOU once even
wOn16 "a r hot ic
creature-he has given US an uncOnsciOn-
able quantity of trouble-was little like
you when he first came. was wrong III
supposing that this likeness was perma-
nent. Now he is dead, he is not IN the
least like you. ought to have remem-
bered that the resemblance would fade
away and disappear in death. Come and
look at him"
mo, no."
"Weaknessl Death restores to every
man his individuality. No two men are
like in death, though they might be like
in life. Welt 1t comes to this: We are
going to bury Lord Harry Norland to-
morrow, and we must have photograph
of him as he lay on his deathbed."
"Well?"
"Well, my friend, go upstairs to your
own room, and 1 Will follow with the
camera"
In quarter of an hour he was holding
the glass against his sleeve.
"Admirable!" he said. THE cheek is n
little sunken-that was the effect of the
chalk and the adjustment of the shadows
the eyes closed, the face white, the hands
composed. 1t is admirable! Who says
that we cannot make the sun tell lies?'
He spent an hour or two IN developing
and printing fresh copy from his mega
tive This he mounted and gave to Lord
Harry.
There" he said, 1--WE shall get bet
ter print tomorrow. This is the first
copy"
He had mounted it on frame of card
and had written under it the name
date of his death. The picture seemed in
deed that of dead man. Lord Harry
shuddered.
There" he said. everything else has
been of no use to us-fhe presence of the
sick mantle susp cions of the nurse
his death-even his death-has been of no
use to us! We might have been spared
the memory-the awful memory-of this
death!''
You forgot, my English friend, that a
dead body was necessary for rs. We had
to bury somebody. Why not the man Ok
Dyer"
CHAPTER XLvII-THE WIFE'S RETURN.
OF course Mrs Vimpany was quite
| right. Iris had gone back to her husband.
| She arrived, in fact. at the cottage in the
| evening just before dark-in the falling
day, when some people are more than
! commonly sensitive TO sights and sounds,
| and when the eyes are more apt than at
! other tunes TO be deceived by strange ap-
| pearanceS. Iris walked into the garden,
| finding no one there. She opened the door
| with her own key and let herself in. The
| house struck her as strangely empty and
| vilaDt She onaDed the DIM door.