The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1896-03-26

/ will kill me now"
Il dare not he answered. st must
/ finish the game But we will have it
on a surer foundation this time. You
must give me your word of honor to
finish the game fair, and not attempt
to escape any more"
/ had nothing to do but give the re-
! quired promise, for I saw murdersin
his eyes if refused. So we went on,
and my nervousness, in a great meas
S1ie, left me. / played grandly, and
reached the 100 to his 90 1t was now
his turn to lose heart, aud he was just
4 getting in an awful funk, and /
i thought the game won. when I left
him a good opening. and he, to my alb
solute terror, made a break Of 78. put
ting him on the 1877, I being 154 I
made another good break and the
score was level, We each wanted 3.
At these words all my nervousness
came back, and I had to lean upon the
table to make my shot. steadied
struck the cushion, and, bounding
gracefully round, struck the red on
the side, forcing 1t into the middle
J pocket. had won by fuke, by the
narrow margin of one point Ny life
was saved. sat as one dazed, realiz-
ing nothing, seeing nothing but the
fact that had come back almost as it
were from the dead. AS to my tor
mentor, he stood there as calm as pos
sible, watching my emotion with scorn-
full eyes. &
''Ah," he said, with gray smile 81
have lost Well, l must not grumble
we had good game. I am weary
of life. The Spirit of Evil haunts me
day and night; he never leaves me-
You see, he was with me all through
| the game; it was he who made me
! lose-he gave you good luck"
This sort of talk from a mailman
did not seem very much to my taste,
and l asked him if could not go.
| Go" he answered.; certainly not
You have got to see me die, and then
you must go and tell the police. The
police, all! ali! they will think I was
insane, or else that you murdered me-
All! an idea strikes me. You shall be
charged with my murder "
He hastily ran out of the room, lock-
ing the door after him, returning in a
few minutes with a stout piece Of
rope. Before I had time to think what
was going to happen I found myself
firmly fastened to the table, my hands
tied behind me. I was helpless.
"You promised to let me go if 1
won,'' I said
II did nothing of the kind; prom
Used not to kill you. I am not going
to kill you. If you had not tried to
murder me I should have let you 20
at once; as it is shall punish you for
it. I shall keep you tied up till some
one comes"
In vain I entreated him for mercy.
He was memorable.
II must now make out my state
ment."
He fetched pen and ink. and sat
quietly writing for some time
'How do you think that will do?' he
asked, with malicious grin, and
handed me the paper.
Great heavens! this is what the pa
per contained: - r-...,: ~"r
Il have been shot by the man who
is bound to the table. felt very little
pain at first, and managed to secure
him fell headlong. I managed to
crawl here and write this. am dying
fast; my only prayer is revenge"
I looked at the paper and read it
through.
Il cannot imagine" said, chow you
could think of such a fiendish plot
"Yes," he said, looking as though I
had paid him a great compliment, cts
not bad" ~ ri
Just then neighboring clock struck
s. I had only been in the place three
hours, but it seemed lifetime
II have four more hours to live" he
broke in; sat. II must die. At least
you shall make my last hours happy
Il shall experiment on you" -,
/ So saying, he fetched some small
skewers, and commenced heating
them. The sight completely overpow-
cred HE and I tainted away. l must
have remained unconscious for sew
eral hours. When I recovered the
first sight that caught my eye was the
body: of my tormentor lying few
yards from me. He was dead. By
his side lay the accusing paper. All
at, once I became conscious of a great
pain in one of my legs. I examined
it as well as I could. Great heavens!
it was burnt horribly. All r1ddled
with small holes-he had done it with
the skewers. What a bl0;sing I was
unconscious through it all.
Just after the friendly clock pealed
out again, One-tWo- three. 1t was 3
o'clock. Nobody would be about much
before 8; I had six long hours to spend
in this horrible den before I could pos
sibly be heard. What went through
all alone in that place no tongue can
tell. The hours seemed centuries, the
minutes years. was losing all con-
troll over myself; was going mad.
Suddenly, to my horror-stricl1en eyes,
the figure seemed to get up and walk
toward me. L struggled to flee, I
screamed, but it was of no avail, the
rope held fast. And then my good
angel took compassion on me and fell
off into a dose, and so that night
passed, sometimes waking, sometimes
doing, never at rest. If slept went
over all my troubles again, till my
fright woke me up.
1t was now broad daylight; surely
some one would soon be here. I could
hear the people walking along the
pavement. Would they hear me if
shouted? It was my last chance, and
I gave two or three yells with all my
| niuht Thov woro hoa ri for r now