The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1893-04-28

k 3Sl!MMNs4 Il re b 8 II
- GS4S1MMNW closed with win
VSA. gEsiFNM dows against the
1Ny&i2EFEM outer air. At
ill., U&yNNEM 1.-THE farther end
KIf SSWI ~ Ethree steps de-
?&NM I scended to a
.itaI, ~ M dark d 0 o r,
Nh ~ TIL rough the
thickness Of q
massive wall, showing that t this
point Unorna's house had at some
foi mer time been joined with another
Building beyond. with which it thus
formed one h%abitation. Unorna
paused, holding the key as though
hesitating whether ene should put 1t
in the Ia, k, and then with an impa-
tient frowr, opened the door and went
in. She assed III ough a small, well
lighted vestibule and entered the rom
beyond.
In one of the lounges, not far from
the window, lay q colossal old man,
wrapped in al ose robe of warm white
stuff. and fast asleep
He was a very old man. so old, in
deed, as to make it hard to guess his
age from his face and his hands, the
only parts visible as he lay at rest.
the vast body and limbs lying notion
less under his garment as beneath a
heavy white pail. lie could not be
less than 100 years old, but how much
older than that he might really be it
was impossible to say.
Unorna came 10 his side. There
was something of wonder and admiral
tion in her wi eyes as she stood there
gazing upon the face which other gen.
erations OF men and women, all long
dead, had looked upon and known.
Unorna had hesitated at the door,
and she hesitated now. 1t was in her
power, and in hers only, to wake the
hoary giant, or at least to modify his
perpetual sleep SO far as to obtain from
him answers to her questions.
She drew back at the thought, as
though fearing to startle him, and
then she smiled at her own
ness. To wake him she must exer-
else her will. Strange faculties were
asleep in that ancient brain. and
strange wisdom was stored there,
gathered from many sources long ago,
and treasured unconsciously by the
memory, to be recalled at her COM
mand.
The man had been a failure in his
day, a scholar, a student, a searcher,
after great secrets, a wanderer in the
labyrinths of higher thought. In his
Tooth year he had leaned for breath
against Unorna's door, and she had
taken him in and cared for him, and
since that time she had preserved his
life. For his history was known in
the ancient city, and it was said that
he had possessed great wisdom in his
day. Unorna knew that this wisdom
could be hers if she could keep alive
the spark of life, and that she had
employed his W learning to that end.
Already she had much experience of
her powers, and knew that if she
once had the mastery of the old mans
free will, he must obey her fatally and
INTERESTINGLY. Then she conceived
the idea of embalming, as it were, the
living being, in q perpetual hypnotic
lethargy, from whence she recalled
him from time to time to an interme-
diate state, in which she caused him
to do mechanically all those things
which she judged necessary to pro-
long life.
Seeing her success from the first
she had begun to fancy that the
present condition of things might be
made to continue indefinitely. Since
death was today no nearer than it had
been seven years ago, there was no
reason why it might not be guarded
against during eve year more, and
If during seven, why not during 10,
20, SO? She had for a helper a
physician of c~onsummate practical skill
"a man whose interest in the result
of the trial was, if anything, more
keen than her own; a friend, above
all, whom she believed she might
trust, and who appeared to trust her.
But in the course of their great ex-
pertinent they had together made
rules by which they had mutually
agreed to be bound. They had plate
determined that the old man must not
be disturbed in his profound rest by
any question tending to cause a state
of mental activity. They hoped, and
believed, that the grand crisis was at
hand, and that if the body did not
lose strength and vitality for a con-
siderable time, both would slowly,
though surely, increase, in onse-
quence Of the means they were using
to insti! new blood into the system.
She hesitated, therefore, well know
ing that her ally would oppose her
intention with all his might, and
dreading his anger, bold as she was,
almost as much as she feared the dan
ger to the cid mans life. On the
other hand, she had a motive which
the physician could not have, and
which, as she was aware, he would
have despised and condemned. Two
very powerful incentives were at
work, two of the very strongest which,
hava innuanpa with mopLfpd Io-.