The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-08-18

Tor his capture. The opening was long
passed, the wavering fortune of the middle
game had waned with the long hours to an
end game. The memorable moment which
must decide my fate was close upon me.
Suddenly seemed to be gifted with ex-
traordinary powers of calculation. shut
my eyes and saw mentally the position
change through every possible variation
like the moving pattern of Kaleidoscope.
l could have announced mate. knew,
to the exclusion of any doubt, that must
win. | made my move, and then, concen-
trating every particle of the hatred and
loathing with which the diabolical priest
had inspired me into one flashing look of
defiance. tried to hurl from me the cursed
influence of his malignant spirit and to
crush it into subsection to mine His face
changed with hideous contortion of de
feated evil purpose, and then the whole
devil in him rose to one supreme effort in
answer to mine.
HE passed his hand lightly across his
eyes, and leaning over his chief scored his
forehead with a malevolent frown. The
glare of his glittering eyes seemed to pierce
to the brain of the head they nearly
touched. The new spell began to work on
the chief An uneasy, puzzled look came
into his face, and this time it was with an
uncertain, vacillating movement that he
raised his hand to play.
Again l looked at the priest. His ex-
preston was more bitterly hooking and
more exultingly fiendish than ever as he
directed my glance by movement of his
own to the hand which lowered over the
board. His treacherous design was trans
mitted in flash to my mind by some I'M
explained interaction of our brains An il
legal move with the black knight, in de
fiance of the rules of the game, was to
snatch the nearly won victory from my
grasp. | saw the fatal square on which the
piece would be placed, and 1 felt that if it
reached it was lost. There were no spec
tators to whom l could appeal against the
glazing illegality, unconscious, no doubt,
on the part of the hypnotized chief, and
should never be able to convince him after
ward of having won unfairly. l must pre-
vent the move.
1.-THE struggle entered on the final phase.
1 had shaken off the priests mesmeric in
fuence over my own will. Now / must
wrest the chiefs will from the same thral-
dom by the exertion of a counter influ-
ence. 1t was the critical moment, the cul-
minating point of conflict which must at
last be decisive. The chiefs hand raised
the black knight slowly from the board,
and as it began more slowly still to descend
l exerted all my power of will in one burst
of straining endeavor to compel another
move than the false one the priest intended.
Every nerve in my body seemed strung
to cracking. The wonderful sensation of
my individuality, of the intangible essence
which constitutes self, wrestling grimly
for life with the demon possessed priest,
became intensified until my brain reeled
The chiefs hand came slowly, slowly down,
wavered, as though uncertain on which
square to place the piece. One final effort
of will exhausted my faculties of brain and
volition.
1.-THE ordeal was over. Light had tri-
umphed over darkness as day had risen
on night. | knew the priests influence
had been overcome, his spell cast off, with
out the evidence of the chessboard. saw
him fall backward ON the ground, every
muscle of his body twisted in horrible con-
tortion, as though some invisible power of
the air were wreaking its vengeance on his
CHASTITY spasm shaken form. The grew
some sight ended quickly, the violence of
the seizure was resistless, the muscles re-
Taxed, the limbs stretched out, and he lay
corpse.
"How parted from my strange enter
tanners / can't tell you. ! only know that
the chief honorably fulfilled his pledge, and
that as l galloped away with guide for
the English camp over the fair, green
earth, the woods and fields dancing to the
breeze in the sunlight, the bright clouds
carrying my thoughts to the depths of the
blue expanse they sailed in, experienced
new sensation of keen, ecstatic enjoyment
of life for its own sake. All nature seemed
to have fuller, better meaning to me than
ever before, to be the physical expression
of boundless power and happiness moving
with all inclusive purpose toward some
eternal end, and myself was filled with a
thrilling vitality in the consciousness of
being part of the joyous whole"
The colonel made long pause, and then,
with reluctant sigh, as he dismissed the
wide expanse of glorious landscape which
lay stretched out before his minds eye to
return to the commonplace of his imme-
date surroundings, he picked up the paper
weight from the board and replacing it on
the writing table concluded:
Later in the day and after my return to
the English camp found this little fellow
in pocket of my coat. Whether l had
put it there myself or how it got there
don't know, and to what extent the Incl
dents of the night were colored by my own
excited imagination is a chess problem
must leave to your own solution. Ray
mund Allen in Strand Magazine.