The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1893-04-21


have resolved to put him TO the
death of the spider"
Truly" commented the dwarf,
changing his hands to the other knee.
ITO the death of the spider
with your. help will bring the
spider to life, make the man sick,
and"
Hold, hold!'' Grissikin interrupt
ed, coolly. You cannot make the
youth sick; you can only kill him
after sickness is upon him. I appre-
bend there. is hope for you. l will
see. Wait
He vanished, and Hargon, bewil-
dered, probably. by the being he had
called into sight, though he himself
was not less hideous and his heart
nos less hardened by evil, sat calmly
waiting. Ten minutes passed. Sud
denly the dwarf appeared on the table
in the same posture from which he
had vanished
''l've seen the youth-a noble
youth, virtue and goodness wrought
into his countenance. A brave, good
heart, he hath, and you would stop
its beat. So be it. He is now court
ing the maid who will become his
wife when winter melts-a beauteOus,
graceful maid, as good and pure and
sweet as-as neither you nor I will
ever be, Hargon. Ha, ha! You would
break the maids heart by killing her
youth. So be it. We will make the
| spider. | see about the youths eyes
traces of coming disease. He will
sicken with fever ere the new years
a month gone. We must have the
| spider ready. You will kill him, will
you; and break the maid s hearth"
Torture him; the maid is naught
to me" growled the gobelin. Death
! to them both. But look you here,
imp. Why doth the record say ]
must make two spiders?''
He reached for the book to find the
words, and the dwarf replied with
solemn insOlence:
There must be two, Hargon, be-
cause-there must be two.
s.You have not answered my ques-
| tion,' y growled Hargon.
s.No, have not, have ~" tainted
Grissikin. But of that anon. Now to
work. 1t requires All grown spiders
and nineteen young, with ninety-nine
cockroaches for each death spider.
These may be caught. The task will
not be hard. They are to your hand
here. These must be pounded into a
pulp. Out of this pulp you must
fashion two spiders like that" reach
ing out his pointed toe and tapping
the book. They must then be dried,
and at the proper time my master
will give them life. Ho! no! then,
to the glorious task!''
We cannot describe the creation of
the Death Spider; the dizziness OF
the imp in capturing the insects;
Hargon's disgust at the loathsome
task, or Grissikin's jesting impudence
! in keeping his bloodthirstiness to
the working pitch. Nor can we stop
to tell how, when the spiders were at
| last fashioned, the dwarf simply
| struck the wall "a sharp blow, and the
glowing mouth of a furnace opened,
into which the insects were thrust to
dry; nor how, in time. they came
forth, terrible, grewsome objects,
lacking only the venomous life for
which Hargon had called them into
being.
Neither can we detail Grissikin's
numerous visits of espial upon the
doomed youth during the period OF
preparation. nor the gloating reports
he brought back of Fithington's
beauty: how it would be dimmed and
his radiant prospects of happy and
prosperous life cut short; nor the
leering delight with which he told
how he had heard the maids sweet
confessions of her happiness and her
precious hopes Of the JOY of their
coming marriage; nor how he finally
| brought back word to the triumphant
Hargon that the young man had been
stricken with dangerous fever.
! The tale must leap all these to a
bitter January night, when furious
wind roared over the great city and
whirled snow-fakes down into the
streets. seeming in wilfulness to drive
them in densest clouds into Seven
Dials, as if to render more bewilder-
| ing and awful it's surrounding neigh
borhood. In his filthy apartment
Hargon sat at his table, with the obi
Gus insects before him, their black,
+, polished backs fitfully rejecting the
! rays of the futtering candle-a pic
ture of a grizzly, murderous human
| fiend.
| A neighboring clock struck eight,
and instantly Grissikin appeared in
his favorite place and posture upon
the table, leering at Hargon and
wriggling his taper foot forward as ii
to prod the ogre. Then, picking up
one of the spiders and squirting at
| it, he said:
.sThe night is here. We must call
my master to make these beautiful
creatures crawl and one of them spin
its deaths web. Fithington lies ill
and his maid will be heart-broke ere
the dawn. Say you sop
Yes" Hargon assentea, deep in
his heartless chest.
''Ho. then, master, send life to our
! SPIDERS cried the imp, in thin,
piping voice, in which now rang sub
| tie impudence toward the demon be-
fore him, and placing the spider upon
| the table beside the other.
Instantly there came a pulsating OF
| the thick red O3ant arr Of tho room q