Daily public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1892-191?, 1896-09-12

wretch had placed over my mouth rem
dered breathing itself a matter of diff
Guilty, and made shouting an impossi-
bility.
Big beads of perspiration broke out
on my forehead as, more dead than
alive, watched the receding light. Bit
by bit the taper dwindled away, until
half an inch of wax separated me from
my doom. The events of a lifetime
crowded into those last few minutes,
and transfiXed me with horror. Before
me was reflected as in a mirror every
scene in which had every played a part
for good or i'll. Each particular of my
career stood on the canvas, limned in
distinctive outline, and the record of an
entire existence was reenacted with as
much fidelity as if they were the orig
inal acts was witnessing. Engrossed,
unclaimed, my mind seemed held by
some magnetic spell from which there
was no escaping.
Suddenly a Pickering at one of the
windows arrested my attention, and,
like the drowning man who catches at
l.
to get rescue from thence. But it was
only a moth fretting at the window
pane, and, sick at heart, turned my
gaze away.
Yet, although at the moment exc
pected it not, it was from that insignifi-
cant insect that deliverance came.
There was a fracture in the glass, and
through it the moth presently careered
into the room. 1t flew aimlessly about
for a few seconds, until, attracted by
the Turing light, it sped toward the can.
die. Hesitating an instant, it made a
circle around the burning wick, and
then, with the mad impetuosity of its
species, dashed headlong into the flame.
The fatuous act cost the creature its
own life, but it saved mine, the impact
completely extinguishing the light at
time when it wanted but few more
moments TO reach the powder and eX.
plode it!
This unexpected escape from what
looked like certain death had such an
effect upon my overweight nerves
that I swooned right away, and when
consciousness returned to me daylight
was breaking into the room. With re-
newed strength struggled at my bonds,
and at last the ring that held them gave
way, and fell exhausted to the ground.
Somehow managed to crawl to the win.
dow, and after awhile succeeded in at
tracing attention. Soon after / was
free.
A clew to the identity of the wretch
who had thus diabolically designed my
death was furnished by a sheet of note
paper found in his room. 1t bore the
impress of an address on the outskirts
of Paris, and proceeding thither in due
course, l found it TO be the locale OF a
private lunatic asylum. Description
and inquiries established the fact that
my assailant had formerly been an in
mate of this place, but had succeeded
in making his escape some time pre-
viously, and was entirely lost sight of.
1t transpired that he was an English
man by birth, ,but had lived for a time in
Paris, where he lost large fortune in
gambling. This fact had caused his
mind to give way. A feature of his mad
ness was the belief that some one had
robbed him of his estates" and his one
cry was for revenge for this supposed
injury. OF course there was no founda-
ton for his wild fancy. His ruin was
due solely to his own acts, and no one
else was in any way responsible. But
the fellow persisted in his tale, and evil
IDENTIFY believed in II implicitly. Sane in
all other respects. on that point ne was
a dangerous mailman. Nemesis finally
overlook him, for some TING later he
met hiss death in a railway Cecident In
Germany, whittier hIs wandering steps
seemed 10 have led him. aad his career
a now forever closed -T,t-Blfn.