Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1891-06-04
THE PIECE OF GOLD.

L 49, = - - VII vi M O1l1Vs
When Lucien Hem saw his last hundred
franc note gripped by the bank-keeper's
rake. and rose from the roulette table,
where he had lost the last fragments Of
his little fortune, collected for this SUI
preme struggle, he felt giddy and thought
he was going to fall.
With dizzy head and lettering legs he
went and threw himself down upon the
broad leathern settee surrounding the
play table.
For some minutes he gazed vacantly on
the clandestine gambling house in which
he had squandered the best years of his
youth; recognized the ravaged faces of the
gamblers crudely lit by the three large
shaded lamps; listened to the light jingle
of gold on the cloth covered table; felt
that he was ruined, lost; recollected that
he had at home the pair Of regulation pis-
tolls which his father, Gen. Hem, then a
simple captain, had used so we'll in the
attack of Zaatcha; then overcome by IA
tigue, ne sank into profound sleep.
When he arose, with a clammy mouth,
he saw by the clock that he had slept for
barely half an hour, and felt an imperious
need for breathing the night air. The
clock hands marked a quarter before mid
night While rising and stretching his arms
Lucien remembered that it was Christ
mas Eve, and by an ironic trick of memory,
he saw himself a little child, putting its
! shoes into the chimney before going to
bed.
| At that moment old Dronski-a pillar of
the gaming house, the classic Pole, wear
ing the thread-bare hooded wooden cloak,
ornamented all over with grease stains
approached Lucien and muttered few
words in his grizZled beard: "Lend me a
franc piece, monsieur. It's now two
days since have stirred out of the club,
and for two days the 1T has never turned
up. Laugh at me if you like, but I'll suffer
my hand to be cut off if that number does
not turn up at the stroke OF midnight"
Lucien Hem shrugged his shoulders.
He had not even enough in his pocket to
meet this tax, which the frequenters of
the place called, 1.-THE Poles 100 sous"
He passen into the antechamber. took
his hat and fur coat and descended the
stairs with feverish rapidity.
Since o'clock, when Lucien had shut
himself up in the gaming house, snow had
fallen heavily, and the street-a street in
| the center of Paris, very narrow and built
with high houses on either slde-was COM
pletely white.
In the calm sky, blue-black, the cold
stars glittered.
The ruined gambler shuddered under
his furs, and walked away, his mind still
teaming with thoughts of dispair, and
more than ever turning to the remem-
brance OF the box OF pistols which awaited
him in one of his drawers; but after NOV
ing forward few steps, he stopped sud-
denly before heart wringing sight.
Ona stone bench, placed according to
old custom near the monumental door of a
mansion, a little girl of six or seven years
OF age, dressed in a ragged black frock,
was sitting in the snow. She was Sleep
ing, in spite of the cruel cold, in an atti-
tude Of frightful fatigue and exhaustion;
her poor little head and tiny shoulder
pressed as if they had sunk into an angle
of the wall and reposing on the icy stone
One OF her wooden shoes had fallen from her
foot which hung helplessly and lugubrious
ly before her.
| With mechani cal gesture, Lucien put
his hand to his waistcoat rocket, but a
moment afterward he recollected that he
had not been able to find even forgotten
piece of 20 sous, and had been obliged to
leave the club without giving the custom
airy "tip" to the club attendant, yet, moved
by an instructive feeling of pity, he ap-
preached the little girl, and might, per-
| haps, have taken her in his arms and
given her nights lodging, when in the
wooden shoe which had slipped from her
foot he saw something glitter.
He stopped; twas a gold coin.
Some charitable person, doubtless some
l ady, had passed by and seen on this
Christmas night the little wooden shoe
lying in front of the sleeping child, and
recalling the touching legend, had placed
there with a secret hand magnificent
might believe in presents made for the in
FAINT Savior and preserve, in spite of her
misfortune, some confidence and some hope
in the goodness of Providence.
| A gold piece! 1t was several days of
riches for the beggar, and Lucien was
on the point of waking her to tell her this
when he heard near his ear, as in hallu-
| cination, a voice-the voice of the Pole,
with its coarse drawing accent, almost
Whispering: "It's now two days since l
stirred out of the club, and for two days
the IT has never turned up; I'll suffer my
hand to be cut off if that number does not
turn up on the stroke of midnight"
Then this young man of three-and-twen-
ty descended from race of honest men,
who bore q proud military name, and
who had never swerved from the path of
honor conceived a frightfuI idea; he was
seized with mad hysterical, monstrous
desire. After glancing on all sides, to
make sure that he was alone in the de-
serted street, he bent his knee, and care