Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1894-09-21
SHE E..
A History Of Adventure.
by H. RIDER HACGARD. !
(NIN. CONTINUED J
\ SOUL ~ TORMENT.

Ii was nearly ten o'clock at night when
cast myself down upon my bed. and be-
gan to gather my scattered wits, and reflect
upon what had seen and heard But
the more l reflected, the less could make
of It,. Was | mad. or drunk, or dreaming.
or was merely the victim of a gigantic
and most elaborate hoax How was it
possible that |, a rational man, not unac-
qualnted with the leading scientific facts
of our history, and hitherto and absolute
ID utter disbelever in all the hocus .pocus
that in Europe goes by the name Of super
natural could believe that | had within
the last few minutes been engaged in con
versation with woman two thousand and
odd years oldl The thing was contrary
to the experience of human nature. and
absolutely and utterly impossible, Non
sense; il must be nonsense. She had
warned me fairly, and had refused to
take the warning Curses on the fatal
curiosity that is ever prompting man to
draw the veil from woman and curses on
the natural impulse that hegets il |, at
my age, to fall victim to this modern
Gree But then she was not modern; at
least she said not She was almost as an
cient as the original Gree.
tore my hair, and jumped up off my
couch. feeling that if did not do some
thing should also 60 off my head What
did she mean about the scar beus tooI
1t was Leos scarab9us, and had come out
of the old Golfer that Nincey had left in
my rooms nearly one-aud-twenty years
before. Could it be, after all, that the
whole story was true, and the writing on
the sherd was not a forgery or the inven-
ton of some crack Drained, long-forgotten
individual: And if so, could it he that
Leo was the man that She was waiting for
the dead man who was TO be born again
Impossible again The whole thing was
gbberlsh; who ever heard of a man being
born again?
Next | bethought ne that | had not
been to see how Leo was so. taking up
one Of the lamps that burned away at my
bedside, slipped off my shoes and crept
down the passage to the entrance of his
cave. The draught of night air was lift
ing his curtain to and fro gently, as though
spirit hands were drawing and redrawing
it, ! slid into the vault-like apartment
and looked. There was a light in it, and
Leo was lying on the couch, tossing restless
ly in his few r, but asleep BY his side half
lying on the floor half leaning against the
stone couch, was Ustane. She held his
hand in one of hers, but she too was doz-
ing, and the two made pretty, or rather
pathetic picture Poor Leo his cheek
was burning red, there were dark shadows
beneath his eyes, and his breath came
heavily. He was very, very i'll and again
the horrible fear seized me that he might
die and be left alone in the world
And yet if he lived he would perhaps be
my riva! with Ayesha. even if he were
not the man, what chance should |, mid
dle.aged and hdeous, have against his
bright youth and beauty? Well, thank
Heaven, my sense of right was not dead
She had not killed that yet and as
stood there, | prayed to the Almighty in
my heart that my boy, my more than son,
might live, ay, even if he proved to be the
man.
Then l went back as softly as had
come, but still could not sleep, the sight
and thought of dear Leo lying there so i'll
had but added fuel to the fire of my un-
rest. My wearied body and overstrained
mind had awakened all my Imagination
into preternatural activity. Ideas, visions.
almost inspirations, foated before it with
startling yividness. Most of them were
grotesque enough some were CHASTITY
some recalled thoughts and sensations
that had for years been buried in the de-
bris of my past life. But behind and
above them all lowered the shape Of that
awful woman, and through them cleaned
the memory of her enhancing loneliness
Up and down the cave l strode-up and
down
Suddenly l observed what had not no.
ticed before, that there was a narrow aper-
ture in the rocky wall ! took up the
lamp and examined it, the aperture led to
passage Now | was sufficiently sensible
to remember that it is not pleasant, in such
a situation as ours was 20 have passages
running into ones bed chamber from no
one knows where. If there are passages
people can come up them. they can come
up when one is asleep. Partly to see
where it went to, and partly from a rest
less desire to be doing something, follow
ed the passage 1t led to stone stair,
which | descended; the stair ended in
another passage, or rather tunnel, also
hewn ont of bed rock, and running, so far
as could judge, exactly beneath the pas.
sage that led to the entrance Of our room,
and across the great central cave. ! went
on down it; it was as silent as the grave,
but still, drawn by some sensation or at
traction that can not describe, / followed
m my etockinood foot fal1incr xuttbont