The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-22

firmly persuaded in his own mind that he
had no option but orobey the terrible
order conveyed to him, he betook himself
70 the appointed place at the appointed
hour, and although it was midwinter ana
cold evening, he was bathed in sweat
when he reached his destination WHAT
would he be to4,. TO do? To shoot the
queen?-to stab Mr.. Bailey in the back?
Ito blow UP the houses of parliament?
Alas, ne was not the man to carry out
any OF these enterprises; he had been mis-
understood; he had misunderstood HIM
self-and now it was too late! All, why is
II that nothing short of a brutal, practi-
cal test can reveal our true natures to
ourselves and others? Why must asses
needs masquerade in the skins of lions?
Why cannot a tobacconist's clerk, who
was apparently created for that position
and no other, be content to eat the bread
of servitude, and let off superfiuous steam
through the safe medium and impassioned
verses? These pathetic Questions, and
others like them, Felix, infeliX put to the
windy night, which returned no answer
a. WHd surmiSe suggested itself to him
and, Tor moment set his heart beat,
ing with hope. What if this We're a prac-
tical joke on the part of Dempster, who
mad more faith in the ina epidity of GER
tam so-caued anarchists But Dempster
was not given to practical joking, and the
sudden apparition of a tall man, envel-
oped in long cloak of which the COL
lar was turned up, SO as to conceal his
race, brought home to our unfortunate
nero the grim earnestness of the actual
situation,
The stranger approached him and sad.
without any greeting and in strong for
eign accent:
rake this package. In a quarter of an
hour time from now, but not sooner, you
wall go 70 the Westminster Bridge station
OF the Metropolitan District railway, and
book yourself east or west as you please.
Delore stepping into the train, you will
leaVe this package under one of the seats
upon the platform. Take care that you are
not observed. That is ALL"
tehXs FIRST sensation of dismay as he
nervousiy clutched the parcel thrust into
ms hand was succeeded by intense relief.
he might have been told to do something
50 much more dangerous to himself than
mat! But recurrence of panic took pos
session of him when he remembered the
rate OF sundry previous miscreants, and
darting after the unkpown, who was al
ready striding rapidly away into the dark
ness, he seized him by the arm
"One moment!' he gasped. "This-this
thing won't go off until 1 have got rid of
it, will it?''
THE explosive is timed to take effect in
about an hour" answered the other Even
II you are noticed you will have had a
long start and Should be able to escape
easily. For the rest that is your affair
You had better not be seen speaking to
me. The police know who l am, and we
may be watched now for anything that
you or can tell"
After that alarming intimation Felix was
only too glad to let his instructor depart
He himself slinked off in the direction of
the Railway station thanking the God
whose existence he had repeatedly and
scornfully denied that things were not
quite so bad as they might have been. AS
he walked, he could hear from within the
brown-paper parcel which he was carrying
| steady, muffled tick-tick 1t was awful to
think that in an hours time that inexor-
able, inanimate instrument of destiny
would be spreading death and destruction
around 1t. Not so awful of course, as the
prospect of ones own death and destruc-
ton would have been; still sufficiently aw-
full to shake the nerves of a commonplace
| youth who had mistaken himself for a des-
perado The stipulated quarter of an hour
had not elapsed when Felix reached the
| Railway station. He walked OH as far as
| the embankment and gazed over the para
pet at the dark river with great longing
| TO cast his hideous burden into it,
The bourgeois must be exterminated!
| Perhaps so; but it is not only bourgeois
who travel by the underground railway
| Working men, women, children, fellow
creatures of every age and class, make
use of this means of locomotion; and were
| these innocent beings to be hurried into
eternity because there was something rad
lcally wrong with a world which they had
had no hand In creating? Sheer cowardice
preserved the woud-be malefactor from
| yielding to such insidous temptations He
hated the idea of doing what he had been
ordered to do; but he hated even more
| the idea of being murdered and he felt
sure that his INSCRIPTIONS associates
would murder him if he failed or quailed
| Ira xvin a 1OYlp nd VIM i'm
| self that, after all, the end justified the
means, he hurried back to the booking
office, and was just about to take a ticket
for the most distant spot that he could
think Of when a slap upon the shoulder
made him jump almost out of his skin.
But it was no emissary from Scotland
yard. 1t was only stalwart. rubicund Mr..
Bailey, who called out in a loud voice:
Here's luck you're the very fellow
whom | wanted to see, Green. Come
straight back to the city with me, and you
! shall have an extra weeks pay for your
| trouble. I've just had some most impor-
tant letters, which ought to be answered
| Immediately and # you'll write while l
| dictate, we may save the night mail. I'll
| take a ticket for you. Look sharp, or the
Mansion house train will have started be-
fore we get down."
The stars in their courses seemed at
! length to be fighting for one who had hith-
| ertO deemed himself lll-Slarred. he saw
! instantly how his presence upon the scene
of the impending catastrophe could now
| be satisfactorily accounted for and he ran
| with alacrity down the stairs after his i'm
patient employer. The only thing was that
there was no time to deposit the Internal
| machine with which he had been entrusted
beneath a bench. All he could do was to
drop 1t quietly upon the platform while the
guard pushed him into a compartment.
| Most unluckily, the observant Bailey
saw what he had done, and grabbed the
parce, after the train had already begun
to move. ~
Careless fellowr' he grunted; drop
ping your property all over the place.
You'd have had a precious poor chance
of ever setting eyes upon it again If
hadn't kept mine open my boyr
| Felix gasped out few words of thanks.
Far indeed had he been from desiring
ever to set eyes uDon that fatal packet
again. But he could not he supposed be
held answerab,e for what had happened;
and, after all. an explosion at the Man
sion house station wound probably regen-
crate society as quickly as one at West
minister bridge.
A wholly unforeseen, yet not unnatural