Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1893-04-09

him not, and who laughed mockingly at
the terror Of the others when they saw her
thrust her pretty and smiling face into the
red hole of those monstrous and cavernous
! jaws.
Upon the evening speak of-the fatal
one, mean, that had given Pedrotti his
honor of celebrity by depriving him of his
bfe-he had returned very late from trip
to neighboring cafe, where he had drunk
more than was good for him and been
leased into an exceedingly bad humor.
Despite his protestations and his angry
Assurances that the handsome Bengalese
was only a child and really his adopted
| daughter, the friends whom he had met
there had taken 1t into their heads to vex
and twit him about her and positively re
| fused TO believe word Of his statements
concerning her.
you lie, Pedrotti, they cried derisiveiy;
you lie, and you know it. She is not a
child; she is woman grown. You are a
sly dog, but we've are not the fools you
choose to think us"
Naturally Pedrotti, under these gibing
tongues, had drunk more than was good
for him and left in Il rage. All, WE'LL the
truth must be told-a rage nj himself as
much as at the jeers and the words of his
comrades Worse than all, their words
were true, in part at east-Niwah-Soukha
was a child no longer, and he had been a
fool to fail to see it.
He returned, | repeat in "A very bad hu-
NOR, and in order to reach his own private
apartments built at the back of the public
arena, and also Of the one that contained
the animals pedrotti remained always in
sound and calling of them, he was forced
to cross them both-in fact, to make the
round of the entire menagerie.
The hour was very late, close upon morn
ing; keepers and beasts alike were wrapped
in slumber, and the gas, lowered for the
night gave out but the dimmest twilight
Yet suddenly Pedrotti stopped as If chained
to the fioor-he had come upon a spectacle
! strange enough at that time and place.
1t was Niwah-Soukha in the tigers cage;
Niwah-Soukha as deep in slumber as the
rest of his people and with her head Graded
upon the back Of the sleeping beast-a pic
! ture of exquisite trust and peace-two chill
| dren, as it were, at rest together.
Pedrotti looked again; in truth, they had
been right those Others Niwah-Soukha
had become truly a beautiful woman, whose
the abandonment of the pose still showed a
symmetry and roundness of outline as per
feet as that of a goddess.
How long he stood there lost in contem-
! plation Of that charming picture no one
can ever know It was the creaking of the
cage door behind him that reused the pair
the tiger first, who walked with start.
| and then the girl, confused and blinded by
] lingering sleep and perhaps alittle ashamed
to be caught in this sentimental visiting OF
| her foster brother
Pedrotti, however, continued to advance.
| Wine and love and the sight Of her strange,
half savage beauty had made him reck-
less mailman. lie did not even hear the
| growls Of the tiger standing in its sombef
corner, its back raised as when angered or
| ready 20 spring, its jaws open, its sharp
teeth grinning hideously, its eyes red and
menacing and glazing at the intruder.
/ No, PedrOtt gave itnO heed; he saw, like 2
man in somnambulism, only the object in
| his mind, only the outline Of that girlsh
form step by step recoiling before him
fearing less the fangs Of the wild beast than
! contact with the human beast who called
| himself its master
When at last his hand touched her, whe1
at last she stood with back TO the bars and
could go no fas her, Niwah-Soukha uttered
a shrill, strangled cry, followed instantly
by a furious roar, a leaping body, fall and
a crunching, gurgling noise-she heard nc
more.
The keepers Weakened and ran, of course
but they came too late; Pedrotti was dead
his breast bathed in blood, the vertebrB Of
his neck broken, the flesh and carotid man
gled.
4
Today Niwah-Soukha a. a tanner of wild
beasts is great success, a tall superb fig
ure in all the glory Of her bronze colorinp
and glowing with light and life under the
hot, ardent kisses Of the Indian sun.
But it is not prudent to pay her court
Her foster brother is always there and her
ears always NJ deaf toward love as q wall OF
stone. Translated From the French Of Or
| vac by f. c. Waggener For the New York