The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-06-27


der against the tower, his eyes rowing alb
sently over the dim and shadowy land
scape beneath.
The night was warm and still. Low and
indistnct through the haze, the wood
blotched plain rolled away under the flash
ing of the stars till the last lines of earth
and sky ran together and melted in the
mist. In spite of the starlight the shadows
We're very heavy, yet the darkness was no.
where such as to destroy vision wholly
and it was possible with some exercise of
effort to make out surrounding objects with
fair degree of certainty.
Thus it was that, shifting his position to
watch the fight of a bat round the tower
his eyes fell upon the door giving entrance
to the dread stairway within. 1t was dis
tant from him about 10 or II feet, and
after the first careless look his eyes return
ed to 1t again and again with an oddly puZ-
zled expression. This Wonderment of the
Feeling could be so described, was due to
an idea that there was a light shining be-
hind the door and shimmerng family
through 1T. 1t was dim and phosphores-
cent, very much like that made by rubbing
matches on ones hands in the dark and
nad waving, smokelike motion that. add
ed to the gruesome associations of it's Stu
alton, rendered it absolutely CHASTITY. An
other thing was that, while looking straight
at the door, the watcher could see nothing,
away than the whole array of shadowy
spots and lines came back; burning, way
ing, vanishing, and burning again, as if
tossed and swayed by a strong wind
After staring at it for some time, Mcleod
was on the point of going over to examine
the door more closely when his gaze light
ed on the first stars of the Southern Cross,
just then rising above the horizon. Watch
ing the famous constellation climbing up
out of the mists, he forgot all about the
door and its uncanny light. After a little
he grew droWSy in the hot hush of the
night. and before the last star of the cross
rode full over the tops of the trees, he had
fallen asleep.
How long that sleep lasted he could never
afterwards tell, buta when at last his eyes
Enclosed, his first feeling was one of chill;
cold SO intense that the blood seemed to
be thickening in his veins under it. More,
and worse, he seemed to have been de-
prlVed OF, not the power to move only,
but also of the will to attempt movement.
A confusion of mind so utter as to destroy
for the time even the sense of his own
identity. fell upon him like a cloud, cover
ing him with space on space of darkness
In horror and fear so great that he felt
as though he could have let his life out
in one frenzied Shrek, he lay there in the
first agony of that awful awakening
Slowly the first bewiderment lessened,
although the sense of terror and danger
did not for an instant loose their strang-
ling hold. The broken and scattered forces
OF thought and memory began to rally, but
in fashion so hating that he could not
tell where he was or ask himself why he
should be afraid. All he knew was that
he was awake, and that if ever the hope
and soul of a man were all but lost to
the tends of the pit, his were then. And
as with every seconds flight the weight,
the mountain of fear crushing his life out
grew and grew, there rose within him a
horrible love, an overmastering desire to
look on the face of the woman-if, indeed
beauty had led him there, under whose
spell he had become accursed.
Death crawled nearer and nearer in the
dark. His heart fiuttered and leaped like
that of one dying in torment. His breath
came in gasps, rafting in his throat as it
came, and his brain was swollen to burst
ing with torturing fire.
Suddenly, as he sank lower and lower
toward the ending of what was literally his
death agony, upon his inner sight one
word uprose in mighty characters, blood
red against a sea of livid flame. In his eX-
tremity his soul seemed to reach out of
him and snatch at it, while from his throat
broke hoarse cry.
''GOd!'
Was it fancy? or did he hear rushing of
wings around him? He could not tell
of only one thing was he assured, that
frightful fear had gone. Gone, too, were
the hellish longings for the fearful being
whose woman's shape he had desired,
and with their going went the dull numb
ness that had held his limbs in chains.
Rising heavily to his feet, he staggered
back till his outstretched hand felt the
wall of the tower. Leaning against it
with laboring breath and wild eyes, he be-
held thick darkness melt and dissolve I'M
der his sight, leaving him staring out over
the lower plain all asleep and dreaming be-
meath the white sheen of the risen moon.
The sight Gained him at once, and then
out of the very sense of relief which it
brought he drew strength to mock his re-
cent terror. With a savage oath he caught
his arms above the elbows and shook
himself.
Hector MLeod, you are either going mad
or there are devils here. Well, no matter
if only she comes,'' and as he ended he
laughed.
The last of that laugh was yet on his
lips when his heart was sprung sheer into
his throat by hearing-almost, at his ear
it sounded the answer he had heard be-
fore, that laugh in a woman's voice.
With eyes almost starting from their
sockets under the shock of unreasonng
surprise, he wheeled in the direction Of the
sound-to find himself still alone. Then,
falling upon him like a tangible thing, the
old fear and horror returned; but now
with a strength that left his mind absolute
ly blank to every impulse of reason or of
will. Even the former touch of his
roundings, slight as it had been, was lost.
He could only stare fixedly before him;
hearing and feeling-see he could not-in
mechanical way, but intelligently know
ing nothing The old fiuttering did not
turn to his heart, his breathing was calm
as that Of a sleeping child; the fire had
not rekndled in his brain. But in their
place came renewal of that sick love and
longing, the burning fever of which was at
once joy and torture indescribable-that and
DUH certainty of absolute and unutterable
despair. Then out of the pent hell within
him he felt his soul rising, heavy with
STRINGS and suggestions of evil unspeak-
able, to defy and blaspheme the eternal
and to his face.
Yet even in the thrilling moment of
the shadow of impending doom, some power
of which his consciousness knew no name
and to which it could give no place. held
him back from utterance and safety One
thing to do-one word to say-that-to end
1t. But what was the thing-what the
word? He had forgotten, forgotten, for
gotten-and the sands were running out, A
little longer-a very little longer was left
and he could not remember-and the issue
was for eternity. And still in that STONY
agony, and still with that flood of evil
surging higher and higher in his SOUL and
still with that fearful passion storming into
nearer and nearer victory, he stood there
In the night, knowing as far as man may
know and live, something of the secret of
the damned.
knew not, all existence seemed to merge
in this one thing-the scorching strength of
desire for the presence of the woman-be
she what she nighttime whose hands he
nad, as ne now knew, given his soul. And
even as he thrilled benea tn the certainty Of