St. Landry democrat., 1894-02-10


Coming back to the table, he drew his
chair close up to it, and cast furtivc
glance about the unhcmelike room and
into the deep shadows that lurked in the
cobwcbby corners. Then, with com
pressed lips and trembling hands, be
drew the palette to him and gently
pressed a finger into the little daub OF
mummy-brown still upon it.
A cold thrill shot up his arm, shaking
the very nerve centres of his body as it
did so, and making him shudder again
and again, even as he sank back into the
chair half unconscious. In another mo
mcnt sudden dusk filled the room, through
which the familiar pieces Of furniture
and drapcries seemed to lose their famil-
iority and to take new shapes and cOlors
unto themselves. With staring eyes he
s;rove to pierce the mist that half OBJ
scurcd his vision, and to shake off the
weird feeling that had seized upon him;
but gradually the lids dropped and
closed; and to his distcndcd nostrils there
came, as h3 lost consciousness, a faint,
sweet olor which even then he recog-
nizcd-thc smell Of ccdar-ptch and
myrrh. How long the terrible dream
which followed lasted he could not
know; but at last he woke to life again,
and, struggling to his feet, he staggered
to the window, threw it open, and let
the faint breath of air stirring
in the court yard far below
sweep up past him and into the
dark room behind The dusk was just
falling over the city, and far, far below
him he could hear the tenement's inhab-
itants of the first and second floors pre-
pairing their evening meal, singing and
cursing by tu;ns as the preparation
pleased Or displcased them. The night
air cooled his fevcrcd face and refreshed
him, however, and the great beads Of
Precipitation that had gathered Oh his
forehead were gone, as he turned back to
the room again.
II am fool !" he exclaimed i'm
patiently, land hungry, l dare say. No
wonder imagine things ~ and catching
up the worn soft hat that lay beside his
tumbled bed he hurried out into the
hall and down the weary length of stairs
to the street.
But as he closed the door, a small,
heavy bladcd dirk, upon a shelf directly
over the spot where he had hastily showed
the unfinished picture and its easel,
Jared by his haste, Whirled slowly
around until it rested upon the very edge
OF the shelf, where it balanced to and
fro and trembed in the little breeze that
still pulled in at the open window.
Morgan, the favoritc story-t teller of the
Bohemian Idlcr's Club, was talking as
Richardson and the painter came in from
their journey to the pawnshop, and the
usual audience of interested listeners
was collected about him.
at may or may not have been hum
bug lie was saying, with shrug of his
shabby genteel shoulders, but it was
dcvilish queer any way you take it. I
saw the man do it five times, too, and he
failed but once"
"What do you call it--hypnotism?"
asked newcomer.
Il don't know; he simply says he
sen>itizes the water and lets you call it
what you like. First he puts the tum
bier Of rl.iu hydrAnt water into one
room, and he and the subject go into
another. lie ma os a few paSscs-that
is where the hypnotism comes in, sup
prsc-and once the man is under his
control, the professor walks into the
other room and stands with his hands
over that tumbler of water for perhaps a
minute, not uttcring a sound. Then he
sends some of us into the room with the
sleeping subject, and he stays with the
est Of the witnesses. When everything
is ready, he tells one Of them to take his
pcrknifc and thrust the blade carefully
into the water. lie does 50, and we he II
a mu!ffcd scream from the other room, as
If the hypnotized man had felt the stab.
This WAS repeated three times, and every
time tho sub pcf screamed and twisted
about in his chair, as if in agony, while
the knife remained in the water. AS
soon as it was removed the pain APP
parently ceased, and he rested quietly
again. | was skcptical, Of coursp,' con
clutled the talkntiye Morgan, land sad
it was all chicanery; but after seeing
the thing half dozen times, felt diff
!crcntly, and | must say that it is cX-
trcmely peculiar. ii not mysterious"
"W hat had the subject to say for
himself whcH he came toy asked Rich
ardson, who had joined the group.
Every little, except that some one had
tried to stab him, and had succeeded three
times in sticking knife into his back,
he thought"
"And did he know of the tumblcr
of water and lis bearing Oh his halluci-
nation?"
"No, he had been kept in still
another room when first brought to the
house, and had not seen or heard of the
watcr.'
That is rather PECULIAR, said Rich
ardsoo, thoughtfully. Il should like to
have seen it nyself.' As he spoke,
Knowlton, who had been talking with
a fellow painter at the other side of the
smoke-flled room, started across it in
answer to bcckoning nod of Richard
sons. He had taken only a few steps,
however, before he stopped suddenly and
clutched convulsively at his breast, while
an inhuman shrek, shrill and piercingly
loud, burst from his lips. For second
he swayed there in the silence that fol-
lowed, for every man in the room had
heard the scream, above the talk and
laughter, and had turned to see what it
then his knees bent, and he
fell heavily on the roughly carpeted floor,
an insensible mass. A young physician
who had been chatting near the fire place
hurried forward as Richardson did the
same, and kneeling at the stricken mans
feet, he tore open the shirt and put his
hand over the heart.
Gle is quite dead, gentlemen" he
said. in a moment, in answer to the r.
curing looks of these collected about
them. Then he got to his feet and
brushed the dust from his trousers. But,
as they picked the lifeless artist carefully
up, not one among the number saw the
queer, white mark, Just over the heart,