San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1893-02-21

| 10 me. linen my fortune altered LOT
time. and recovered some of my money,
but yesterday horrible thing happened.
/ went again to his house and lost all
all; worse than that, alas!
"Seeing me feverish, blind, despairing,
he offered to wager all that he had won
from verything-agaihst my sis
ter, my Leila. You know that under our
laws she is mine to be given away, sold,
J bartered or wagered-as the head of the
| family possess her-and perhaps you
may not know that such debts as these
are legal. Flushed with the aitsi which
| he provides, and daZZled at the chance
10 recover all my possessions, | accepted
the offer. The next moment l regretted
and tried TO recall my hasty words, buS
| it was too late. | had lost! | staggered
forth and roamed about for hours, crazed
self destruction, but what would that
avail me? Then l sought you, my broth
er, who know all things"
Gilbert reflected for a moment. To
him, apart in thought and feeling from
kulcan and his people, the case seemed
| almost trivial. He could not realize that
by the young priests indiscretion he
might lose the very light of his life. He
viewed the transaction in a semiludi-
crous light, and attempted to lay that
part of it aside and consider only Kul-
cans financial condition. but the priest
soon convinced him that his terrible
| wager was a reality-a most serious and
| mOmentous reality-and showed him the
difficulty of an attempt to defeat Chal-
pas desires, in view of the fact that the
entire priesthood and populace would
stand by him in eXacting his just dues.
Kulcan reiterated his statement of the
legality of the wager, and said that
Chalpa had offered him his revenge in
| atfording him an opportunity to recoup
by wagering thousand taos of silver,
well knowing that he could by no posi-
bility obtain that sum. Herein, how
ever, Gilbert saw a vague chance to eS>
cape as he reflected upon Iklapels ac-
count of the fabulous sums of gold and
silver in the underground vaults of the
temple. In his character of a god he
might. without doubt, convert some of
this idle hoard in the endeavOr to save
his darling, and he resolved to do So
But the difficulty was, even after the
money had been obtained, to play the
game to prevent Chalpa's winning again.
Although convinced that the evil eyed
r;iain had grossly cheated Kulcan, he
had no knowledge Of the game and
knew of no means Of detecting his
fraudulent practices.
Underlying all his meditations was
stern resolve to settle the affair, as well
as Chalpa's existence, as a last resort
by the argument of the pistol bullet,
but he determined to try all other chan
nels before awaiting himself of that
source.
Curions}y enough, upon his suggesting
Chalp&'y .Eindling, Kulcan, whose ma
ture ' utterly unsuspicious, himself
showed Low he thought it could be done,
and with Il wild CLEAN in his eyes as
the truth seemed for the first time not
merely to dawn upon him, but to burst
upon his mind i'll nOontime glory, in a
crushing, binding flash of conviction,
started up as though to seek the de-
stroyer of his happiness and face him
with his accusations. But Eric restrained
him, and after he had grown calmer he
told him that he would endeavor to help
him.
But" he inquired, "does Iklapel or
Leila know of this?''
mot word" said Kulcan, land how
shall tell them? What will they think
of me?"
"They must be told" replied Gilbert,
and he then bound Kulcan to forswear
gambling forever by an oath which he
devised upon the spot-an oath that
chilled the superstitious priests heart as
he repeated it, for he feared Gilbert's
wondrous powers with a childlike ter
ror. 1t was plain to the latter that he
meant to keep his promise.
Sending him to Iklapel with instruc-
tons to relate his story to the old priest,
Gilbert went to Leila with much reluc-
lance, for he knew that her love for her
only brother hung largely upon her re-
| spect for his purity of character and
lofty thoughts. His sad story, he felt,
would shatter that respect, for he could
not realize, he did not even imagine,
that she shared the tolerant view that
all Atzlan held of the gambling habit
Viewing it in the light of modern ideas,
he thought she would be stricken with
horror at the discovery of his folly and
shame.
He framed plan of gently imparting
it to her, but it was driven out of his
mind when moment later he encoun-
tered Leila hurrying with quick, grace
full strides in search of him. She held
in her hand one of the cOmical Atzlan