The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1896-08-26

teered to take in the approaching
drama stood out in vivid and disconcert-
ing relief. Common sense awoke and
demanded q reason for the hazardous
plan, pointing the finger of ridicule at
the melodramatic stage setting, and
suggesting that nothing had been omit
ted save calcium light to be flashed
upon the scene at the critical moment.
He saw the absurdity of it all, and how
much more sensible it would have been
to take Ludlow's suggestion, surround
ing the house with posse of armed
men whose numbers would have made |
resistance on the part of the mountain
GERS useless and hence improbable.
And what was there to be urged |
against such safe and practical plan
of procedure? Nothing, or less than
nothing; merely the demonstration of
I'm abstruse metaphysical problem
within himself; the application of a
heroic test which had no place outside
the realm Of fiction. And with this
thought it occurred to him that he had
unconsciously planned the whole thing
upon the lines that would have made
it most effective in story And then
the suggestion of the calcium light and
the alarmed young woman looking
down upon the theatrical tableau from
her window came again, making him
sick with disgust.
Looking at it from any point of view,
the romantic project, which was more
than likely to cost him his life in the ex-
ecuting, was merely fantastic idea OF
proving himself in some way knight
without fear-a modern type of gor-
tesque mediaeval parsonage who went
about Staying impossible dragons and
disembowelling neurological giants.
1t was Standardization
GUS! and from this point in the argu--
ment the descent to the Avernus OF ter
ror was easy. At the end of half-hour
he felt the premonitory spinal chill
heralding q return of the well-known
symptoms; in five minutes more the
paroxysm was upon him, and he was
struggling furiously in the grasp of his
familiar demon, blind, deaf and help
less, with every fiber of his being strain
ing itself for flight in an impulse so real
that he turned and grasped at the rough
bark of the tree to keep himself from
being carried bodily away by the whirl-
wind of terror.
The attack did not last long, and
about the time the blood began to tiDgle
, in his veins again he heard the muffied
| trampling of horses approaching along
, the dusty road. At the signal the very
recollection of his late discomposure
, seemed somehow to vanish into the
limbo of remote past; his pulses
r quickened and his muscles thrilled
t with the vibrations of an accumulating
5 energy that sang joyously as it leaped
: through the tense nerves and the throb-
hing arteries. His sharpened senses
/ were unnaturally acute; he heard the
c woody clink of the rails as the men
( made breach in the zigzag fence, then
y the smothered hoof-bcats of the horses
coming across the soft turf OF the lawn
> n moment later, in an interval of silence
r he fancied he could almost hear the
c whispered instructions given to jed
G When the two men emerged from the
4" deeper shadows of the grove he saw
= them quite distinctly in the starlight
l. they came directly toward his hiding
70 place, and when they paused within {
few feet of the trees be could scarcel.
1. restrain the eager ferocity that prompt
l. ed him to rush out upon them. In tn
Il instant of hesitation he had time to not
that one of them carried an armful o
Eindling wood; the man gathered
into q firmer hold while they paused
and there was a smothered tinkle o
breaking glass, and the pungent odo
of kerosene filled the air.
"Nhat was that thar noise?" aske
the other.
"FIit's that thar blame bottle o Goa
oil, that's what hit is; hits don
busted an run all down into my boots,
n replied the first; and they moved fol
y ward and disappeared behind the cornc
of the house.
Ringbrand kept them in sight as Ion
as he could, and then ran across to tn
\. clump of laurels, going down on HI
: hands and knees and staring intentl
into the gloom until he found thel
again, two darker blots of shade
crouching in the angle formed by tn
bay window in the parlor. While
IN was straining his eyes to catch IL
CLEAN Of the match which would be IL
his signal for their return, he did not hei
II the stealthy steps of man who was a
st preached him from behind, nor did
TO know Of it's presence when the glidiI
figure came quite close and stood wit
Il dubbed gun waiting for him to rise.
es, The appearance of the third broth
ne, upon the scene was due to the fact tn
Ludlow had chosen his position unfo
he tunately and so was unable to see Il
he men when they dismounted. For tn
he reason, he waited until he was sure tn
ut the two incendiaries had started +
cts the house, and the delay gave the hold
'ad of horses time to yield to sudden il
In pulse born of desire to know If /
of warning to Hester had accomplished
nd- purpose. Looping the horses bridl
nd together and throwing them over t
wv branch Of tree, he followed noiseless
led in the footsteps of his brothers; q
zen coming out on the open lawn in time
his catch glimpse of Ringbrand as he r
ak, across to the laurels, he crept forwa
ved until he stood with uplifted gun hehi