The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1895-05-04
the blood from one hand with The

sharp raps sounded on the door. "Tell
them I'm gone-gone-anywhere, New
York, New Zealand, anywhere you like,
but don't let them in, Lennon"
He made a rapid dive behind this
curtains Of the alcove, and emerged
again only after repeated assurances
that the reporters had gone.
That's about the fifteenth reporter
since l came in," he said. "See hold
ing out his hands, the blood is all off
now. 1t had dried, you see, and in the
excitement of the affair I did not no.
tice It,
He was certainly crazy. These in
termitent periods OF calmness, depres-
sion and intense excitement were proof
conclusive 1t seemed to me. I shivered
at the thought.
ITS beastly cold here" remarked
Collins, in a perfectly normal tone.
Light the fire." he added, land I'll
brew a punch. I suppose the thing
can't be helped now, but I wish 1t
could have been kept out Of the papers.
/ shall be branded a charlatan from
San Francisco to New York"
Another phase Of the dementia, I
mentally observed. 1t seemed that the
best possible thing to be done was to
humor him. While l was busy about
the stove my friend stood peeling a
couple Of lemons, now uttering a half
subdued curse, now chuckling idiotic-
ally.
II give you my word" he suddenly
broke out, "that I was never so COM
pletely ~paralyzed, so absolutely appall.
ed in my life. Why, the blood literally
poured from him In a stream. Money
wouldn't have tempted me to do the
thing, Lennon, but the woman seemed
in such intense grief that I could do
nothing but consent"
Look here, Jayne" I said trying to
speak calmly, who is the woman?
Whom have you killed, and why did
you commit the crime?"
Collins had finished making the
punch. He stood with the ladle in his
hand about to fill our glasses, when my
questions arrested his progress. He
looked at me f1xedly for a moment,
then he laughed aloud, dealt out two
goblets Of the streaming brew and sat
down near the stove.
This affair Is beyond a Joke, though,
Lennon" he said with much gravity.
at means that I shall be published to
the wide world as a fakir who paints
portraits from photographs and that
sort of thing-a daubing trickster of
the breed that no reputable man would
recognize"
L could not imagine what his drift
was this time. The fellow was abso-
lutely babbling.
"You may be mistaken, old man." /
said. "Tell me how 1t all came about"
you know Mrs. Brown Bailey" he
began. "Well. I had a note from her
yesterday. 1t read: Come at once and
without fail I was rather surprised,
because-well you remember how af-
fairs stood between us when she sud
denly declined to marry old Brown and
his money. However, I decided that |
could not afford to disobey the injunc-
ton, so I went. Madam was in tears.
Brown had died before and she was
utterly disconsolate. The old gentle
man was going to have a portrait done
for the last two or three years. but he
never did. The old likeness his wife
had of him was a bad photograph, tax
en- three years ago. She wanted Inc to
have Brown tilted on one end in his
coffin and paint a portrait of him. I
could use the expression in the photo
graph, she said, and the eyes of the
youngest child were exactly like
Browns. I refused point blank. A
man can't afford to do that sort Of
thing, you know. 1t savors too much
of the solar print and pastel shop.
Mrs. Brown wept and beseeched. l
was ohdurate. At last. though. Il pref
t. woman's tears won the day. She's
still pretty, you know, and only %.
The price was to be any amount l
chose to name-fapcy naming a price
to Madge Brown. Well, the long and
short Of 1t was that I promised to do
my best.
He paused to fill his pipe and take
a nip at the punch before continuing.
After a few preliminary whlffs at the
long-stemmed "churchwarden" he pro-
ceeded.
I went to Browns bright and early
this morning. The blinds We're all
down, crepe on the door. widow un-
able to leave her room, servants walk
ing about like ghosts and that sort Of
thing. The undertaken had just put
Brown in his coffin, and he was the
only mar l could get to help me stand
the silver studded sarcophagus on end
against the wairscoating. The lid had
been screwed down and the glass front
removed, exposing the face and throat
of the dead man. There was a very
good light on it from the large window
on the right, and I began to see that,
after all, I might be able to get some
thing worth while. The face looked
wonderfully life like, and I commenc-
ed to take a real interest in the work.
The undertaken had Withdrawn and I
was alone with my model. I had just
sketched in the outline of the face,
when there was an occurrence that con-
gealed the blood in my veins and made
the skin creep UP on the back of my
neck. A tearing, splitting noise seem
ed to come from the coffin. I looked
up and-well, you can imagine the
horror Of it saw the body Of old
Brown coming toward me. The next
instant my model fell heavily forward
to the floor, the coffin overbalanced
and falling with a crash on the top
of the corpse.
"Good Lord" l gasped.
Collins was pacing the DOR again,
his face twitching with nervous e
element. as he recalled the details of
his adventure.
THE body lay face downward" he
went on. Il was so paralyzed with the
ghastliness of the whole proceeding
that for a moment 1 stood rooted to the
floor. Then it suddenly flashed across
my mind that the affair would be a
terrible shock to the widow, and over
coming my repugnance, / set the coffin
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