The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-06-12
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no longer, and the awful thing was near.
! He was an old and broken man, aged years
! before his time, poor aud friendless, with
| no hand to guard him from the rubs of the
world, or 10 help a wretched and despairing
soul to cling to an enfeebled body.
be wondered why he was not denounced
10 justice, and as the days rolled by, leav-
ing him still at freedom, his terror mounted
to hysteria. So soon as he could possibly
gather strength enough TO move about the
world alone, he resolved on flight He had
, an abjeCt terror of the house he lived in,
and bad never once dared to re-enter the
chamber in which his phantom had suddenly
resolved itself into seeming flesh and blood.
A day or two before his illness payment
of some few hundred pounds had been paid
to him in Bank Of England notes This
was very rare occurrence, for in his estab-
lishment, where thousand and hundreds Of
thousands were gambled for, the game was
played by the medium Of paper counters.
Checks, promissory notes, bills Of exchange,
securities of all sorts were plentiful; but in
that very temple of mammon a bank note
was a rarity, and a coined passed in the
way of business thing unknown. He had
thrust this haphazard sum into his breast
pocket, and had decided to pay IL into the
bank together with checks and securities Of
far greater value, but had forgotten his in
tention for the day, and had carried the
IuOLSl LOulc Will ~ was OuL Ia
small affair, and he had thought but little of
it. but now he recalled it TO memory with
an extravaganza joy. Granted that his
strength came back to him, he had the
means of flight. He could at least put the
sea between him and his fears of arrest.
IL was significant of him, and natural in
him, that no thought of the girl whom he
had reared to regard him as her father, ems
tered his mind. She was forgotten as COM
pletely as il she had never existed. He had
accepted the charge in one of the few
touches Of right he had ever experienced in
his lifetime, and had continued it half
freakishly and half to vent spite on a man
whose manner displeassd him. 1t is proba-
BILE that she would have profited immensely
il he had died before ruin fell upon him.
for he had 70 ambition to leave name be-
hind him such as has urged the founders Of
great charitable enterprises, and he had
neither friends nor relatives among whom
10 divide his wealth. She would have been
his natural heritrix although only by the
preparation of a harmless fraud which had
become habitual to him.
He remembered to have thrust the bank
notes into a cash box which he had placed
in an old-fashioned armoire in his bedroom.
So far as he had reason to believe, it had
been under lock and key ever since, and
when once the double idea had occurred to
him that the necessity for fight was urgent
and that he had or ought to have the means
of flight at hand, he was on fire with fear
and Impotence until he could decide that
the precious paper had not been tempered
with. The master of millions when he last
entered the house sought now for this mere
handful of money with a desperate eager
ness. He was on the lawn when the mem
DRY OF his treasure occurred to him. He
summoned his one remaining manseTvant
and bade him assist him in mounting the
stairs.
"Faster, you snail" he snarled, as the
man paused upon the midway landing to
give him breathing time. He dismissed
him fercely at the bedroom door, and hav-
ing secured the door with fingers that
scarcely obeyed his will, he hobbled on his
two sticks to the armoire, and to his intense
relief found that the cash box had not been
tempered with. It came into his
mind that once before in his ca
reer, he had made use of a sum
of money, set carelessly aside in safety
without the merest glimmer Of knowledge
in bis own mind as to the service 1t would
render him, and for time he uxulted.
81 shall'be away ne said to himself, as
he sat in an arm chair fumbllng with the
notes and gloating over them. They think
am helpless here. They fancy that can't
get away. They are making inquiries to
confirm suspicion, and are taking their time
about it. l am stronger than they fancy. 1
have more wit than they think for. / shall
battle them, yet"
II he had not had such grounded reason
to fear pursuit, his dread of it would have
amounted to mania. 1t was in the air, he
sweated at its menace in the night time, his
days were full Of it, and every football in
the quiet house, every arrival of the doctor,
every innocent messenger who bore pro-
visions to the kitchen quarters brought that
threat nearer and made him tremble at it.
His attendants had been honest, and the
loose coin he had carried in his pockets at
the moment of seizure was still in his pos
session. 1t amounted to some &c or 81 in
gold aud silver. The only personal vanity
to which he had ever surrendered himself
lay in the possession of jewelry, and he
had rings and scarf pins, watch chains and
jeweled pendants enough to have satisfied
the desires OF half dozen average dandies.
| So as soon as his poor modicum of strength
returned to him, he emptied all these from
the various cases in which they rested and
made little glittering heap of them upon
his dressing table.
81 shall have something TO live on" he
muttered; something to live on. shan'l
starve for one while anyhow"
He sat down at the table to arrange the
| scarf pins in rows, pinning them into d
handkerchief, preparatory to packing them
away, but his fingers were clumsy and
| LT6ululOu5, anu s66Ul6u T6luCLhnb 10 ODey Ills
will. He succeeded at last, however, and
having rolled up all the wealthy gee-gaws
| he thrust them into the foot of a sock and
| locked them into the cash box, which in it;
| turn he secured in the armoire. From thai
| hour he set himself resolutely to do what
| ever seemed likely to increase his strength
| He followed the ordinances Of the doctor
with slavish fidelity, exercised himself
| persistently but without overtaxing, anC
bent the whole remnant of his will to tn,
| one end he had in view. In his own dread
full way, he had given proof years ago o.
an iron tenacity of resolve. He was en-
feebled in every respect, and brain and body
had alike suffered. His purpose was not o
the old indomitable force, but he still made
1t serve Within two months from the
hour Of his daughters departure from tbs
honse, he felt that he might dare to face tn
world. He could far less dare to wait anC
face the danger which slept so quietly.
He had had his bed conveyed to one O
the ground floor rooms, and had caused tn
apartment to be furnished in all respects a
a bedchamber. The difficulty of mounting
the stairs gave an absolutely valid excus
for this vancouver, but he was in grea
anxiety lest his real purpose sh )uld be dis
covered. The night was cold and raw, anC
when he looked out upon it from his win
DOW thin gauZe of cloud, with an opales
cent aqueous light within it, was hurrying
wind-driveD, across the face of the halr-ob
scured crescent OF the moon. The bar
poles of the trees whipped the air an,
clanked against each other in the Novembe
blast. 1t was after 10 o'clock. The hous