The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1895-10-31
IMPERIHL MILLIONS
By JULIAN HAwTHoRHR
tCopyright. issi. BY American Prss Aneei
toni

tOopyright. iso1. By American Prss Aneeda-
tion.1
"What will you ask for setting me
across?" inquired Keppel.
"How does dollar strike you?"
Done" said Keppel, and he got on
board.
He had no idea why he was going to
Port jefferson, but he felt impelled to go
somewhere, and thought he would feel
more secure in the comparative wilder
ness of Long Island than in a large town.
Perhaps he might get temporary employ
ment with some farmer, or he might find
captain of fishing smack to ship him
for cruise. When he was boy in New
England he had lived near the seashore
and had learned how to sail boat.
The wind blew from the southwest,
and the catboat started out on the star
board tack, headed nearly for her desti-
nation. In two hours the coast was close
on board; they ran into the harbor, and
Keppel, having paid his dollar, jumped
ashore. 1t was then within an hour or
SO of sunset-a warm, quiet evening. He
set out to walk at haphazard, and soon
found himself following narrow track
through an apparently interminable
growth of small pine and oak. Once in
while he passed lonely farmhouse;
but though he was getting tired and
hungry again he could not make up his
mind to ask for shelter.
Night came on and found him still
tramping onward, with woods on either
hand. But as the darkness increased
the path seemed to fade away and be-
come obliterated, and he was soon
stumbling through thick underbrush.
The boughs and twigs whipped his face
and the briars caught his feet. Stagger-
ing forward, exhausted and impatient,
he felt his feet sinking in muddy ooze,
and discovered that he was on the bor-
ders of swamp. He turned to the right
and began to skirt along its borders; but
again and again he narrowly escaped
plunging neck and ears in the treacher-
Gus morass. Frogs croaked on all sides
and mosquitoes buzzed around his mead.
He lost all sense of direction, and thought
only of putting one foot before the other.
Often he fell, but scrambled up again
and groped onward. Whichever way he
turned the swamp seemed to lie in wait
for him. He thought: sit will swallow
me up in the end! And it was for this
that / escaped from the railroad wreck"
Just then he stumbled up slope. and
his feet trod on firmer ground. The
bushes and trees thinned away. Looking
up he saw before him black, rectangu-
lar mass He drew nearer; it was house.
There was no light in the windows. 1t
seemed ruinous and deserted. But it was
human habitation, and would suffice.
He passed around the corner and found
the door; it yielded to his hand. He en-
tered, and felt his way along the parti-
ton of the hallway to another door on
the left. Passing in he saw gleam of
light through a crevice in front of him.
In another moment he had crossed the
floor and was standing on the threshold
of an inner room.
There was low bed against the oppo-
site wall At its head stood table, on
which was lighted candle and some
small bottles. The furniture of the room
was wretched in the extreme and the at
mosphere foul and sitting.
On the bed was stretched the gaunt
and ghastly figure of man, who, as
Keppel appeared, raised himself with
| difficulty on his left elbow, and with his
right hand leveled revolver at the in
truder. The glare of his sunken eyes
was appalling, and his hand shook so that
| the pistol wavered from side to side.
Haiti or shoot you!" he said, with a
strong foreign accent.
Don't shootp' cried Keppel, lifting
his hand. 81 mean you no harm. I'm
fainting from fatigue and hunger.
must eat and Sleep"
The man lowered his weapon. "Ah!
it is no ghost, then?" he muttered in
French, and sank back on his pillow.
Keppel approached and looked down
on him. He seemed all skin and bone;
his hair grew disorderly on his forehead,
and the lower part of his face was COW
cred with three weeks stubble of red
beard. His skin was dark yellow, his
lips black and parched. Keppel had
never seen the yellow fever, but he per
ceived that the man was dying. He had
arrived at this deserted spot in time to
behold the curse of Maurice Solange full.
filed upon the thief who had betrayed
| him.