Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1893-08-26
THE GOLDEN COIN.

Lucien de Hem had seen his last
bank note of 100 francs seized by the
bankers rake and had risen from the
roulette table where he had just lost
the last Of his little fortune.
His head whirling, his legs I'm.
steady he went and threw himself
down on the wide leather seat which
ran all around the gambling table.
For some minutes he looked vaguely
round the secret gambling hell, list.
ened to the ring of the gold on the
cloth, remembered that he was
ruined, lost; recollected that in a
chest OF drawers al home he had the
regimentaI pistols which his father,
General de Hem, at that time a SIM
pie Captain, had so well used in the
attack Of Zaatcha; then overwhelmed
by fatigue he fell into a profound
sleep.
On awakening he found his mouth
clammy and sticky. A glance at the
clock told him that he had slept
scarcely half an hour, and he had felt
an imperious need of the night air.
Rising, Lucien remembered that it
was Christmas eve, and by an iron
1caE play Of memory he suddenly saw
himself as he was when a little child,
putting his shoes in the chimney be-
fore going to bed
lust then old Dronski-a constant
frequenter of the gambling hell,
typical Pole, wearing a threadbare
hooded cloak approached Lucien,
mumbling few words in his dirty
little gray beard.
Lend me 5-franc piece. sir. Dur
ing two days / havn't budged from
the club and during the two days the
IL hasn't won once. You can laugh
at me if you like, but I'll give my
hand to be cut off if presently, when
the clock strikes II, that number
doesn't win"
Lucien de Hem shrugged his Shout
ders; he had not in his pocket even
enough to pay his tax which the
habitues Of the place called ''the
Poles francs" He passed into the
ante-room, put on his hat and fur
coat and went down the staircase
with the agility common to people in
a fever Of excitement.
The ruined gambler shivered under
his furs and began to walk. He
mrSed more than ever on the box of
pistols which awaited him in his chest
or drawers; but, after having walked
a few steps, he stopped abruptly be-
fore heart-rending spectacle.
On stone bench, placed according
to custom, near the magnificent door
of mansion, a little girl Of or I
years, scantily covered with a tat
tered black dress, was seated in the
snow She had fallen asleep there,
Notwithstanding the cruel cold, in a
dreadful posture of fatigue and dis
enlargement. One of the child's
shoes had fallen from her foot, which
hung down before her in a painful
position.
Urged by an instructive pity, he
approached the little girl, and was,
perhaps, about to carry her away in
his arms and give her shelter for the
night when, in the old shoe which
had tumbled on to the snow, he saw
something brilliant.
He leaned down. 1t was a golden
louis.
Some charitable person, a woman,
no doubt had passed by, had seen,
this Christmas night, the shoe before
the sleeping child, and remembering
the touching legend, had placed there,
with a discreet hand, this magnif1-
cent aims, so that the abandoned
child might still believe in the gifts
made by the infant Jesus and might
retain, spite Of her misfortune, some
confidence and some hope in the JUS
tice of Providence
Lucian was on the point Of arous-
ing her SO that she might learn of
her good fortune, when he heard near
his ear, as in an hallucination, the
voice of the Pole mumbling softly,
with his thick drawing accent, the
words:
During two days Haven't budged
from the club and during two days
the "17" hasn't won once. I'll give
my hand to be cut off if, presently,
when the clock strikes twelve that
number doesn't win"
Then this young man of %, who
descended from race of honest men,
who bore superb military name and
who had never failed in honor, con-
ceived frightful idea; he was seized
by mad, hysterical, monstrous de-
sire. With glance he assured him.
self that he was quite alone in the
deserted street, and bending his knee,
cautiously advancing his Quivering
hand, he stole the golden louis from
the fallen shoe! Then running with
all his might he returned to the
gambling house, scrambled up the
staircase in a few strides; pushed
open with a blow Of his hand the
padded door Of the accursed saloon;
entered it precisely at the moment
when the clock struck the first stroke
0f mid NIGHT plonod tho rfnoo aF .~<,aI3