Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1895-01-12

| white beans, thirteen of which he
counted upon the table in our sight.
Then from another compartment in
the same drawer, he brought forth
one black one, and placed it with
| the white.
| There are fourteen" he said
again.
A hat served in want of better
receptacle, and into it the fourteen
beans were dropped. Pulaski shook
them together and passed the hat to
the man at his right hand. 1t was
too dark in the room to see the col
or CT the beans in the hat, bad one
wished but the first man looked
straight ahead as he plunged his
hand within ana brought it slowly
forth again, closed tightly over the
bean he had selected. His hand re-
NAMED closed as he passed the hat
to his neighbor, and thus it went
around the table.
A strange, odd feeling of terror
came over me as watched the prog
ress of the hat along the board. |
am not a coward but something
seemed to be sitting me, and ] could
scarcely refrain from crying out.
I felt that the black bean would
fall to me yet I know not why. |
looked about upon the faces Of my
companions, but all were SO grave
and stern that | was ashamed of my
| fear.
Was I, Francois Ducret, to be a
child in the supreme hour of trial I?
Then the hat was passed to me.
A mist rose before my eyes, and
the dingy, stuffy room seemed to
reel in my vision; yet through it all
I saw Pulaski's stern, set face, his
thin lips drawn back over his white
teeth, and his eyes fairly blazing. I
CROPPED for the hat like blind per-
son and thrust my hand within.
Perhaps occupied no more time
in drawing my lot than had the
others, but it seemed an eternity to
me.
All, yes time is not rightly meas
ured by hours and minutes, but by
events. 1t takes ages to do some
things, though the hour glass may
tell you but few minutes have
passed.
Before my fingers clutched the lit
tie bean / had been terrified by a
certain knowledge that I should
draw the fatal lot. When it was
firmly in my clasp, however, and |
Lad passed the hat along tie board,
that feeling left me.
| / felt relieved-almost happy !;
the terrible ordeal was over, and I
was impressed now so strongly by
feeling of exultant rslief-so great a
reaction from my previous morbid
fear-that I was willing to swear
/
that I had been lucky, and that the
fatal lot had fallen, or would fall, to
some other. I should not have to
die All, 1 was young and life was
sweet to me then.
1 sat back in my chair, and my
eyes followed the course of the hat
about the table, while there was al
most smile upon my lips. My hand
remained tightly closed over the
bean, however, and the Others did
likewise. I could feel the small
hard particle pressing against my
palm, yet l bad no feeling of fear as
TO its color.
Then the hat came back to Pulas-
Xxi, and almost feverishly he seized it
and clutched the remaining bean,
turning tie hat upside down on the
table, and rapping it smartly to show
that it was empty.
The noise startled us all into more
upright positions still, for several
seconds, none sought to view what
he held in his hand. Then Pulaski
opened his palm outward that we
might see, and displayed white
bean.
/ looked from one to another Of
my comrades as their hands slowly
opened, that strange feeling of safety
still in my heart, and the half smile
upon my lips.
Who had drawn the fatal lot (?
Who among my companions-men
whom / had known in the university,
men whom / had known from child
hood-who among them all was
doomed to perform the bloody work
and in the same hour end his own
existence
Suddenly, with the amazement
that peal of thunder from a clear
sky might cause one, I saw that the
eyes of all were bent on me.
] glanced swiftly about the table !;
each hand lay open, and in the palms
thus displayed we're the thirteen
white beans 1t took a minute, per-
haps, for the full significance of this
fact to dawn upon me.
Then / opened my own hand.
The lot has been drawn"
Pulaski's deep voice reached my
ear family, as though from q great
distance. l still sat at the dirty Ia
| blo tho ooudIpc cfi1l sputtorod IN