Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1892-10-20
u LIVING.
sayings.
dreary night in the wintor of

gagged himself from chance renconter
with a post and felt his way along by
tapping with his stout stick at the house
walls, proceeding by which he had al
ready damaged the legs of three of his
suffering fellow creatures and poked a
large hole in the kitchen window of the
home of the fourth.
"And no." he continued, talking to
himself for the.sdGe of company, "for
home and supper aud fire. All, and
for a patient or two, perhaps. Who
knows?"
At this cheering prospect his spirits
rose and be banged nightly at the wall
with his stick in consequence, until at
length coming to small street on his
right, he turned smartly down, and,
having made sure of his own door,
knocked briskly at it.
"Who's there?" cried a shrill, female
voice in response.
ats 1, Bet" said her master. "Open
the door, my good girl"
"Not if L knows it," was the cheering
reply. "You takes yourself off, young
man, whoever you are. There's two
bulldogs and three men with loaded
guns standing by me, to say moth
ing
.'Open the doorl" the surgeon said
sharply. I'm back already because my
patients dead. "Come, open at once"
There was creaking and shooting of
bolts as he finished speaking, and the
door being cautiously opened, disclosed
an angular woman of some 35 years,
whose nervous face cleared directly as
she saw her master.
''I'm asking your pardon for keeping
you SO long, sir" said she, "but one
never knows who's who, and, Judging
by the noises and runnings, there's been
rare doings round the corner tonight.
Her master, smiling at her devotion,
drew his chair to the fire and, having
carefully filled long clay pipe, fell to
smoking with an air Of great enjoyment
and content.
He had been sitting thus for some
time nursing his woes and slipping glass
of hot cognac which he had prepared,
when he was disturbed by loud impe
rative knocking at the front door, where
at he snatched up one of the gutterlng
candles and marched down the narrow
stairs to open it.
The feeble light of the candle, when
he had done so, showed him tall,
strongly built man of middle age, whose
naturally fine proportions were increased
by the fog, which clung to them and ex-
aggerated them.
"Are you tn surgeon?" asked the new
conner abrubuy.
"At your SERVICE" was the reply.
"Come in"
The stranger obeyed, and waiting
until the surgeon had secured the door,
followed him upstairs.
Examine mel" said he, taking off his
laced coat and standing pale and erect
before him.
"Well?" inquired the stranger, when
he had finished.
"Sound as bell and hard as oak"
"Not likely to die suddenly" sug
gested his visitor.
mo; 1 should think that that would
be the last thing to happen to you,' re-
piled the puzzled surgeon. "Why, what
is the matter with you? Do you fell ill?"
"No; feel hale and strong, capable
of enjoying life with the best. I've
never had an illness in my life. But for
all that 1 shall die at midnight"
"Of COURSE" said the surgeon, some
what provoked at all this mystery, "if
yon are going to kill yourself you can
speak with more authority as to the
time than anybody else"
81 have no intention of committing
suicide. Nevertheless. at midnight my
time expires. I'm past all help" said
the other, sadly, moving toward the
door; then pausing, as the surgeon took
up one of the candles to light him down,
he said, in resolute tones: GAS you shall
judge if you care to hear"
"By all MEANS" said Mostyn, heartily,
as replacing the candle, he poked the
fire and drew up chair for his visitor.
Twenty years ago." said the latter,
accepting the proffered seat and leaning
toward the surgeon, 'my circumstances
were very different from what they are
now. Young and strong, l had at the
death of my parents rejected the bread
of dependence offered me by relatives,
and, full of hope, had come to London
to make my fortune.
at proved to be harder work than l
had anticipated, and in very short
while 1 was reduced to the verge of star
walton. One dreadful night, of which
this is the Goth anniversary, L was half
crazed with poverty and despair. For
two days l had not tasted food, nor did
l see the slightest prospect of obtaining
any.
LAS crouched shivering in the gar
ret which served me for a lodging 1 think
L must have gone mad"
"Well?" said the surgeon, who had
been listening with much interest.
"Have you ever heard of compacts
with the Evil One?" demanded the
stranger.
81 have heard of such things" replied
the surgeon, on whose spirits the occa-
sion and the visitor were beginning to
tell.
II made one," said the other, hoarsely
"Since then everything has prospered
with me. l married the woman l loved
We have large family. 1 have kept
my secret to myself. Tonight at II my
time expires"
Mostyn rose, and taking great care
not to extinguish the flames, snuffed the
candles.
"As supposed my death would be
strictly natural one," continued the
stranger, 81 thought L would consult a
surgeon in order to see whether my
heart was sound, or whether l was to
die, as l have said, in perfectly natu-
raj manner, owing to its disease. A
watchman whom L met directed me to
your door,"
Half an hour passed and a neighbor-
ing church clock slowly doomed the
hour of IL. One hour more. The sur
geon, glancing at his companion, to see