The record-union., 1896-12-13
/ II.

III.
pass over Camilles meeting with his
mother, and the wonder and fear and
pity of it all. Our hurts We're attended
to and the battery of questions met
with the best armor of tact at command.
For myself, I said that 1 had scorched
my hand against redhot rock, which
was strictly true; for Camille, that 1t
We're the wisest to take no early advan-
tage of the reason that God had restored
to him. She was voluble. fearful, half
hysterical with joy and the ecstasy of
wonder.
THAT blow should effect the marvel!
| Monsieur, it passes comprehension.
All night long heard her stirring and
sobbing softly outside his door, for l
slept little owing to pain and the Won
der in my mind. But towards morning
l dozed and my dreams were feverish
and full of terror
The next day Camille kept his bed, and
l my room. By this l at least escaped
the first onset of local curiosity. for the
villagers naturally made of Camille's s
restoration a nine days wonder But
towards evening Madame Barbiere
brought a message from him that he
would like to see monsieur alone if mon
sieur would condescend to visit him in
his room. 1 went at once and found
him, as Hayden found Keats, lying in a
white bed, hectic and on his back. He
greeted me with smile peculiarly sweet
and reStful.
Does monsieur wish to know?" he
said in a low voice.
IF it will not hurt thee, Camille"
mot now-not now; the good God
has made me sound. 1 remember and
am not terrified"
/ closed the door and took seat by
his bedside. There, with my hand shad-
ing my eyes from the level glory OF
sunset that broke into the room, l lis
ltened to the strange tale of Camille's
seizure.
Once, monsieur, / lived in myself
and was exultant with a loneliness of
fancied knowledge. My youth was my
excuse; but God could not pardon ME
all. I read where / could find books,
and chance put an evil choice in my
way for / learned to sneer at His name,
His heaven, His hell. Each man has
his God in self-will I thought in my
pride and through it alone he accepts
the responsibility of life and death.
Heis his own curse or blessing here ard
hereafter, inheriting no sin and earn
ing no doom but such as he himself in
1icts upon himself 1 interpret this
from the world about me, and knowing
it, I have no fear and own no tyrant
but my own passions. Monsieur, it
was through fear the most terrible that
hi fn
The light was fading in the west, and
a lance of shadow fell upon the white
bed as though the hushed day had put
a finger upon its lips as it sank.
II was no coward then, monsieur
that at least may say. lived among
the mountains. and ON their lodges the
feet of my own goats were not surer.
Often, in summer, / spent the night
among the woods and hills, reading in
them the story of the ages, and explor-
Iing-exploring till my feet were wearier
than my brain. Strangers came from
| far to see the great cascade; but none
but land you, too, monsieur, now
knows the track through the thicket
that leads to the cave under the waters.
/ found it by chance, and. like you, was
scorched by the fire, though not badly"
"Camille-the cause?"
Monsieur, 1 Will tell you a wonder
full thing. The falling waters there
make a monstrous burning glass, when
the hot sun is upon them, which has
melted the rock behind like wax"
Can that be so?"
1T is true-dear Jesus, have fearful
reason to know it,
He half rose ON his elbow, his face,
crossed by the bandage, white as milk
in the gathering dusk. Hereafter he
spoke in an awed whisper.
when the knowledge broke upon me
1 grew great to myself in the possession
of a wonderful secret Day after day
| visited the cave and examined this
phenomenon, and yet another more
marvellous in its connection with the
| first. The huge lens was a simple ac-
cident of curved rocks and convex
water, planed smooth as crystal In
other than a droughty summer it would
probably not exist the spouting tor
rent would overwhelm it-but 1 know
not. Was not this astonishing enough? =?
| Yet nature had worked second mira
Gle to mock in anticipation the self
sufficient plagiarism of little man. I
noticed that the rays of the sun con-
centrated in the lens only during the
half hour Of the orb's apparent cross
| ing of the ravine. Then the light smote
upon strange curved little fan of
water. that spouted from a high crev-
ice at the mouth of the shallow vitrified
tunnel. and devoured it, and played
upon the rocks behind, that Kissed and
sputtered like pitch, and the place was
blind with steam. But when the tooth
of fire was withdrawn, the tiny inner
cascade fell again and wrought coolness
with it's sprinking.
Il did not discover this all at once, for
| at first fright took me, and it was
| enough to watch for the moment of the
| lights appearance and then flee with a
| little laughter. But one day l ventured
back into the cave after the sun had
| crossed the valley and the steam had
died away and the rock cooled behind
| the little cascade.
| Il looked through the lens. and it
| seemed full of a great white light that
blaZed into my eyes SO that I fell back
| through the inner fan of water and was
| well soused by it; but my sight pre-
| sently recovering, l stood forward in the
scoop of rock admiring the dainty hol-
| low curve the fan took in it's fall By
and by | became aware that was look
ing out through a smaller lens upon the
gr eat one, and that strange whrling
mists seemed to be sweeping across a
huge disc, within touch of my hand al
most.
1T was not long before ! grasped the