San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-12-14


in the lock- and then with an impa-
tient frown, opened the door and went
in. She passed through a small, we'll
lighted vestibule and entered the room
beyond.
In one of the lounges, not far from
the window, lay colossal old man,
wrapped in loose robe of warm white
stuff, and fast asleep.
He was very old man, so old, in
deed, as to make it hard to guess his
age from his face and his hands, the
only parts visible as he lay at rest,
the vast body and limbs lying motion
less under his garment as beneath a
heavy white pail. He could not be
less than 100 years old, but how much
older than that he might really be it
was impossible to say
UnOrna came 10 his side. There
was something of wonder and admira-
ton in her own eyes as she stood there
gazing upon the face which other gen.
erations of men and women, all long
dead, had looked upon and known.
Unorna had hesitated at the door,
and she hesitated now. 1t was in her
power, and in hers only, TO wake the
hoary giant, or at least to modify his
perpetual sleep so far as to obtain from
him answers to her questions.
She drew back at the thought, as
though fearing to startle him, and
then she smiled at her own nervous
ness. To wake HIM shesmust exer-
else her will. Strange faculties were
asleep in that ancient brain, and
strange wisdom was stored there,
gathered from many sources long ago,
and treasured unconsciously by the
memory, to be recalled at her COM
mand.
The man had been failure in his
day, a scholar, student, searcher
after great secrets, a wanderer in the
labyrinths of higher thought. In his
Tooth year he had leaned for breath
against UnOrna's door, and she had
taken him in and cared for him, and
since that time she had preserved his
life. For his history was known in
the ancient city, and it was said that
he had possessed great wisdom in his
day. Unorna knew that this wisdom
could be hers if she could keep alive
the spark Of life, and that she had
employed his own learning to that end.
Already she had much experience of
her powers, and knew that if she
once had the mastery of the old mans
free will he must obey her fatally and
INCREASINGLY. Then she conceived
the idea of embalming, as it were. the
living being, in perpetual hypnotic
lethargy, from whence she recalled
him from time to time to an interme-
date state, in which she caused him
to do mechanically all those things
which she judged necessary to pro-
long life.
Seeing her success from the first
she had begun to fancy that the
present condition of things might be
made to continue indefinitely. Since
death was today no nearer than it had
been seven years ago, there was no
reason why it might not be guarded
against during seven years more, and
if during seven, why not during 10,
20, 80? She had for a helper a
physician Of consummate practical skill
"a man whose interest in the result
OF the trial was, if anything, more
keen than her own; friend, above
all, whom she believed she might
trust, and who appeared to trust her.
But in the course of their great ex-
pertinent they had together made
rules by which they had mutually
agreed to be bound. They had OF late
determined that the old man must not
be disturbed in his profound rest by
any question tending to cause state
Of mental activity. They hoped, and
believed, that the grand crisis was at
hand, and that if the body did not
lose strength and vitality for a con-
siderable time, both would slowly,
though surely, increase, in conse-
quence of the means they were using
to instil new blood into the system.
She hesitateG, therefore, well know
ing that her ally would oppose her
intention with all his might, and
dreading his anger, bold as she was,
almost as much as she feared the dan
ger to the old mans life. On the
other hand she had a motive which
the physician could not have, and
which, as she was aware, he would
have despised and condemned. Two
very powerful incentives were at
work, two of the very strongest which
have influence with mankind, love
and Il superstitious belief in an espe-
cial destiny of happiness, at the pres
ent moment on the very verge of real !
ization.
She believed profoundly in herself,