The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-01-19
A PURSUING DEMON.

Cl6 N1CElIn was Ol I TSuCn SAGfdCE1On. CQ0
was fine, handsome woman of between
So and 40 years of age. Her name was
Valerie LestraDge, and she was one of that
wretched class Of beings who live by the
1evying of blackmail and other evil prao-
tices.
She made DIR. x. s acquaintance as an
ordinary patient and had occasion to call
upon him at his consulting room several
times, SO that he came to know her pretty
well. He had no idea of what or who his
handsome patient was, and no suspicion
of her evil character ever suggested itself
to him. Therefore he was quite UMPIRE
pared for the terrible danger with which
he suddenly found himself confronted
when she threw off the mask.
The charge she brought against him was
that he had made a serious mistake in her
medicine by putting in a poison in such
proportion to have endangered her life
if she had taken it. She alleged that she
had indeed taken one dose and had only
escaped its fatal effects by the assistance
of q chemist, who had administered to her
an antidOte.
Itwas late at night when she had called,
and DIR. X. had met her in his consulting
room.
do I understands" he asked, rising to
his feet as he realized the nature of her
scheme, that you expect to extort money
AIOl1 IIlS uIlC6E J4lI6uU Vi DIluSIuS dSd1uSU
me this charge and SO injuring me in my
profession:"
Doctor she urged, Il don't want
much. It's mere nothing to you, while
to me it 8 matter of life and death. [
must have e5 by tomorrow morning, or
shall be turned, out of house and home.
It's nothing to you, but to me it's every
thing"
Don't talk to me like that he replied
n ~
ten times over team be poltroOn enough to
pay it to you as you have asked it,
''Then look to yourself, DR.. X, look to
yourself, for what say 1 can do. 1 will
expose you, and, what is more, the chemist
will corroborate what say
what do you mean? What horrible
plot is this against me?''
You will see. I tell you I have the
bottle of poisonous medicine as evidence,
and the chemist will bear me out in all
say
DR.. x. was desperate. Never for one
moment did he entertain the idea of buy
ing her off, for he held, and held rightly,
that the man who submits to an imposi-
ton of this kind is traitor to society and
public enemy scarcely less worthy con-
demnation than the matchmaker herself.
And yet something must be done, for the
danger was imminent.
the window, and looking up Valerie Le-
strange saw looking in at her face like
that of a demon. It disappeared almost
Immediately, but she saw it distinctly
The creature was of dwarfish build, had
reddish brown hair about its face and
eyeswhich shCne in the darkness. At the
sight she shrank back in terror and de-
manded of the doctor:
''What is it? Who is it, and what does
he want?'
Never you mind who it is. It might
be Jack the Ripper, or the Old Man of the
Sea, or an imp of satan come TO fetch you
| before your time. p"
Jack the Ripper!"
At the word the wretched woman turned
| pale to the lips and leaned against the ia
| bic for support. She had read the CHASTITY
| details of that strange series of murders
till they had become kind of nightmare
to her
Seeing the terror his words had aroused,
DR.. Y. conceived an idea for his deliver
ance.
Stepping forward he seized Valerie by
the wrist, and bringing his lips close to
her ear he Kissed between his teeth:
Woman, l have told you the truth,
but don't drive me to do it. That unclean
creature whom you saw is really what 1
called him in jest 1t is indeed Jack the
Ripper and if you do what you have
threatened he shall go like bloodhound
on your track and hunt you down, though
you shelter in the darkest corner of the
| earth
For a moment the bold eyes of the wom-
an quailed before the fierce threatening
glance of DIR. X. Then, with laugh, she
turned to the door. saying:
Bah! You can't brighten me with a
bogy. Unless you pay me in the morning
| ic
So saying she banged the door behind
her and went out into the night.
That was the last time DR.. X. ever saw
her alive.
What really happened to her: after she
left his house was this
In spite of herself she could not alto
gether shake of the sensation of fear which
the uncanny appearance and the doctor S
words had reused within her. Ever and
again she glanced backward over he1
shoulder to see that she was not followed
and assured herself in an undertone that
it was some bogy with which the doctor
had endeavored to alarm her.
She had reached the corner of the by
street in which she lived and had almost
got the better of her nervous fears, when,
suddenly looking back along the road she
had just traversed, she saw that which
froze her blood with sudden fear.
She was being followed by the dwarfsh
creature she had seen on the window sill
of the doctors consulting room.
With cry of terror the wretched WON.
an sank down beneath the shadow of q
projecting doorway and for moment be-
came unconscious.
When she opened her eyes, her pursuel
was standing over her, and with a Shrek
of frenzied terror she flung herself fiat
down upon the paving stones. A long arm
reached out to seize her, and with the ter
ror of it she again lost her reason.
The following morning she was found
by police constable lying in the same
spot, and above her, crouched upon thu
threshold of the doorway, was large In
dian monkey. This it was that had aroused
her fears when it climbed up to the doc
tors window sill from it's kennel in thu
yard beneath his window. And this i
was which by some chance had followed