Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-11-27

mana at tne important preparation anu had succeeded so well that the worthy pro his royal master
 With i'll concealed triumph Petrus bucklcd to his task, and in the presence of tasters from the palace prepared his sweets to every ones satisfaction. Packed in delicatcly lined box, the oblong blocks of chocolate about an inch long by half an inch broad, looked most tempting to the eye. Little did the supervisors realize that in one of the top rows of the box lurked a sweet that had been carefully prepared beforehand and skiIlfully substi. tuted by Petrus for the real article.
 In his chemical researches he had dis covered an explosive of terrible power. capable of extreme concentration, and which could be stirred into instant and deadly activity by fusion with q particu- lar acid. To this end the interior of the chocolate had been carefully divided lon gitudinally by n thin wall of soft but inn pervious composition. On the one side of this wall was placed tho explosive and on the other the acid, the union of which would produce such disastrous results. With crafty and farseeing deliberation Pctrus placed the division lengthwise in and not across the sweet and so insured the fracture of the partition and consequent explosion should the partaker elect to make two Dll1S Ol Iue COuIGGlloH SoNGENu over with its coating of real chocolate, the deadly engine, as it lay snugly in the box, dcfled detection. and the moment that its victim discovered its unusual flavor that moment would he cease to feel any other sensation on this earth.
 IL was quite in keeping with Tritreff's ingenuity that this promiscuous placing of the fatal sweet in the box should entail fair amount of uncertainty as to when its mission would be accomplished. It afforded him all the joys of anticipation, and as he found it convenient to take little holiday as soon as the box was dis patched he hugged himself all the way to the German frontier with the thought that a big sensation was in store for Rus sia in particular and the world in general.
 But as he sat consuming numerous books in the hotel of q fourishing city over the border waiting somewhat impa- tiently for the dCnOucment and eagerly scanning the papers and tclegrams noth- ing happened. What could it mean: But something had happened, and this is what it meant. The box had duly arrived at the palace and after passing the customary inspection had found its way to the czar's table
 On the third day after its receipt, seated on the terrace with a favOritc bloodhound rolling in lazy enjoyment on the ground near Dy. AltAaiAltEs lIllillGESGu HI LllS pc rusal of private correspondence and yet with his favoritc sweets handy, mechanic ally stretched out his hand toward the box and slowly conveyed chocolate to his lips \ sudden movement of the dog at tractCd his attention, and finding the ani nal gazing CNpCCtantly at him he, act | ing on an unaCCOuntable impulse, arrested his hand and threw the sweet to the dog
 to catch. The snap of the animals jaws
 over the tidbit was followed instantanc- | Ously by siCkcning report, and the cZar | of all the Russias shivCrcd as he Eazcd on the manglCd remains of his savior and
 faintly realized his own wonderful escape. | of course some of Us were soon on the | spot and the mysterious nature of the cX- | ploSion investigated.
 | Though pretty well accustomed to the | various artifiCCS of our blOodthirsty com | patriots, this incident opened up n new | field. The strictcst secrecy was observed, | and no report of the occurrence got abroad. | Meantime inquiries at the cOnfcctioner' $ | Clicitcd the fact of Tritrcff's absence, and 1 though above suspicion in the prOpric- | tors eyes we of the police waited develop | mcnts. I felt sure PCtrus had n hand in 1 the business, especially after talk with
 the man whose place he filled, and who could never fathoIn the cause of his sc- l rious though brief illness. I felt certain | that ere long the willy PetruS would re-
 turn to find out the reason of the apparent | miscarriage of his little scheme.
 50 we were ready for him when he np-
 FcarCd one day in disguise. He was so up
 set. poor man, at the failure of his plot
 that in order to share at least in the merit
 nccruing to such daring attempt he con- | fcsscd all to me. Much to his disgust, his 1 confession was never made public-noth- | ing encourages crime so much as publisi- | ty in these little mattcrs-and he was
 scnt to keep his friend JanOs company ioI
 life on totally different charge. And
 the cmpcrOr-wCll. somehow after that
 little experience he lost his taste fol
 sweets. and until the day of his death tho
 responsible officials ~.ed not allow n choc
 olatc to he seen in the palacc.-LondoT | Tit Bits.