The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-01-01

| uilD.
But what has become OF Jsanr 1 inter
rupted.
He stayed in this house up to about a
year ago." responded the old man in his
wheeEy voice. Then creditors began to
come around and bother him. myself had
been unable to collect three mouths rent
from him that was due TO NJ. Bernard. Jean
had been gambling right along to his disad-
vantage for the ebsinthe destroyed bis wits
They say he raised money on bis family
estate to pay Off debts of honor. Being q
gentleman, Jean paid those, no matter how
much he owed the wine seller, the restdw
roteur, and the landlord. Then he fell sick,
and was in bed for month. myself paid
his doctors bill, and took a paint
ing and trunk containing
fancy underwear for security. When he
was able to get up he looked the picture Of
despair. One morning he hobbled down
stairs and came into my quarters. My wits
made him cup OF coffee, which he said
tasted better than anything he had ever
swallowed. 4 am going now he said; and,
| Andoche, II you ever want 20 see me again,
you will find me in the fir forest at Melup,
that once belonged to my father-and after
| ward TO me. You dear old rascal, don't
use absinthe IN any FORM Then he tottered
| out, and he has never been here since. This
Is all, NJ Glenwood, / can tell you;
except that the other day the Figaro
stated that the new gamskeeper of
the old Remand estate has made q
singular discovery While in the deepest
part OF the forest that covers the southern
portion Of the manor, he saw on many of
the trees verses cut in the bark, with only
the initials underneath. r. That is all
know, M. Glenwood. Ny wife just says
my humble luncheon is ready. VIII you
partakeP
Thanking him for his invitation, re-
turned TO my hotel and asked Adele if she
| would not like to make visit on the NOR
row TO the famous old town Of Melun The
question piqued her curiosity; but she did
not ask the wherefore of the trip-only say
ing she should be pleased 10 take it,
At noon on the following day we stood on
| the outskirts of the dark green forest. To
the northward stretched the well kept es-
taIe, with it's trim green houses and horti-
cultural gardens, Of the late ii. Renaud.
| We were on the verge or a dense shadow of
thickly growing frs, pines, and other less
kindred trees. An impulse, as strong as
the passion for absinthe to Jean Remand,
tempted me into those mysterious shades l
led my wife guardedly thence, yet with a
frmness that my Adele at that time could
not account for, but tolerated in wifely
| faith. We had proceeded perhaps 300 yards
when we were suddenly confronted with a
dark, sluggish canal-suggesting the
outlines, If not the character otherwise OF a
feudal moat. Our progress was arrested,
and Adele, surrendering to her latent SUI
perstiuons, for the first time manifested so
far as knew her, suggested. with all signs
or earnestness, a retreat to less ghoulish
environment. was about to yield to her
proposition, when my eyes beheld, darting
from behind Enthusiastically gnarled OAK, a
| figure clad neagerly In the skins of animals
that did not at the time know abounded
in that forest. But his face-wild with the
inroads of dissipation and disease-white as
4 hall oil SaF Nu,l 81.
recognize It'll At the same moment he
recognized US both. shall not attempt to
describe him. His sudden appearance
turned my blood to ice, my heart to stone.
Fortunately, Adele was looking northward
| toward the open country. | stood aghast.
He riveted his sunken eyes full upon
1 me, with never glance at the
woman beside me. Then be smiled
threw up khis bare arms, the motion OF his
| body making his long whitened hair to
| flow in weird fashion over his uncIad shout
| ders, next he uttered the most inhuman
| and unearthly scream that man ever
uttered. and fed behind the great oak
! whose roots rambled along the exterior OF
the ground, Instead Of developing normally
in mother earth; seeming a malicious &C.
topus intent on spreading its tentacles
merely for human destruction. The sound
OF Jean Renaud's shrek nearly tumbled my
wife over with alarm.
| a screen OWL, instantly.
"the station master told me these horrid
birds throng the forest" added, to sooth
her; and very soon she believed the sound
might have proceeded only from the mons
ster suggested.
Having seen Jean Reneud, did not care
20 20 a step farther into that grewsome
wood-not even had there been no black
ditch to impede my onward way. l now
shared Adele's wish 70 get back into the
open country. That madman's face, which
my wife happily had not seen! And yet,
had been able to stretch my hand across
tire old moat and to have said to Jean:
| Come back to Paris ard be a poet. We
shall appreciate you better this time" All,
how could do that's And how could JEAN
| My wife stood there shivering. Jean had
| appeared in the negligee of a mailman her
nit Why should | not extricate Adele
| from this wretohed labyrinth3 With all
sorts of desolate misgivings / tried to guide
Adele out of that hideously suggestive for
est. But oh, how hopelessly we staggered
| through under brush, how often we
| found it necessary to penetrate tangled
briars; how slow indeed was our progress.
| The wonder was how we had ever proceeded
| so far into this sunless world. En- route |
stumbled up against solitary beech tree.
half dead with the desire of getting nv
] Adele out of the jungle, when | spied, cut
| in the trunk, evidently with jack knife. a
| SOuplct WuAcu AhLO tlsu HOulu
! read as follows:
! put my fullest trust
| In things that crawl in dust f.
Fortunately FOR us, the beech tree stood
near the outskirts Of the forest. Soon af-
forwards, Adele and l emerged from that
nocuous gloom into the psarly radiance of
French landscape.
=
Some six years later, after had settled
| down as an architect in Chicago I wrote
TO the mayor of Melun regarding Jean
| Renaud. The mayors answer was brief
and to the point. 1t read thus:
HELUN, April -, is.
| ". Joseph Glentoood.
| NY DEAR SIR--Yours received. Two years
ago the skeleton of human body was found 10
| the hollow trunk of an aged oak tree in the
| forest of Melun, otherwise still called Banker
| Renaud's estate. though 1t now belongs to NJ
| Sorel Only one thing identified the remains
! and that was the picture of Jean Renaud him
| self IN gold-chased locket suspended around
the neck On the opposite side of the locket
| was bit paper folded up into a square On
| IL was written in the chirography of Jean Rem.
aud-vhose name was signed beneath them
| these words. Il am the man who would love
| forever the American girl named Adele Har-
| grift. But a demon fate forbids il. In conse