The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-08

him feel sick and faint
ut is q plot 10 ruin me There IS the
frame. bat where is the canvas that was
I'm 60. and worth fifteen thousand-nlteen
rrousaul-a fOrruuee Where IS it, Gone.
gone. gone lie paused moment and
looked round craftly- mere nave Deen
thieves or thief The picture is cut
clean OUT. a boy might do that with a
Yes said Reuben. fearfully. for the
old man still held him in a vice. and
his voice had taken a sinister tone OF ac-
That picture OF the famous Madonna
of the Sepuichre. was hanging there the
other day. when your uncle brought you
here under the pretence Of a wish to see
your-farhcr."
The BOY glanced upward for moment.
and nodded.
.'It is q plot" Missed the Jew. "and you
are the. toOl-thc instrument-the thief.
Go, CD Instantly lest you be taken by the
police before my eyes"
Before he could make any but horri-
hed exclamation Old Co. had showed him
through the shop out into the darkness
and closed the door upon his son.
Reuben steod for 4 moment stupened'
ne He'd down the narrow street.
III.
The affair of the missing Madonna Gre
ated a great stir I'm the art world for
certain period and then as no clue 10 its
whereabouts could be traced, the story
drifted into a kind of legendary lore.
IL was years ago now since the dingy
supp uel become at one anu the same
time notorious and vacant. ON ths morn
ing after he had thrust his son into the
street. people noticed that Old Co. failed
20 have his shutters taken down at the
usual hour. At first this circumstance
only gave rise TO "a few comments, for
Jarvis, the handy-man. was known %
have taken his dismissal the day before.
but as whole week crept on the neigh
borhoOd. going about its affairs in the
same snlftlcss way as usual, found It's
curiosity stirred at last to something Dor
dering on "A pitch of frantic excitement.
When the police appeared upon the scene
local interest had conferred itself. A
large crowd already blocked the thor
oughfare, and stood agape for details
of a more or less blOOd-curdling nature.
All sorts Of surmises were abroad the
least sensational of which was the sup
position that old Co had put an end
to himself in despair at making good the
loss OF the picture, but others would have
II that a sanguinary murder had taken
place on the spot, and by the perpertra-
tors of the first crime Men, women and
children now surged and swayed, COM
pact mass OF struggling eagerness, 10 get
the first glimpse of this supposed tragedy
An imaginative spectator might have seen
In them a pack Of wolves transformed
into human shapes, ready to burst in and
devour the inhospitable Jew, who had so
often driven them from this very door
and of whom they had hitherto lived in
fear, not untempered by superstition
Something like a roar Of evaporation was
given vent to by the crowd, therefore
when they We're forced back by the po-
way into the house.
Within all was dark and silent. and the
men proceeded cautiously to let in little
light, for they expected every moment to
stumble either over or upon dead body.
Everywhere was left exactly as II had
been except that in one corner of the
inner room case stood ready packed
ana directed to some country seat in
Midland county on opening il was found
to contain the spurious Greutz restored
and ready to be returned to its owner,
but of old Co. himself there was nothing
TO be seen. He had vanished as complete
~ as the Madonna, which the outside
world was just then making pother over,
and whose frame still hung upon the
wall. Every nook and Granny of the house
was searched in vain-the Jew was gone.
When the mob heard that neither muir
der nor suicide had been committed in
this dingy abode to complete curious
tale and invest commonplace district
with tragic dignity, the news dispersed
them like a sleety RAIN sullenly to their
homes They could almost picture the old
mans grin at thus banking them OF
sensations, and as the house stood silent
and empty for years after this, II came
to be an underlined belief in the neighbor-
hood that some sort of ghost of the once
familiar figure inhabiting it, still pervad-
ed the place and chuckled necessarily at
his own bodily disappearance.
Reuben's uncle came forward TO claim
what property there was in the name OF
Isaac Cohen's son, but it was found that
either by accident or design Old co. had
managed to dispose OF his Naluaples ana
of which Just sufficed to pay the rent
and one or two small debts owing. His
reputation for honesty remained unfair
nished, though the claim Tor the great
picture was still in allegiance
Meanwhile the boy, to whom his 1ather
mad accusation had been like a sudden
thrust of a knife, as he shut him out
into the darkness, had grown and pros
pered He was now handsome young
artist whose amiability and talents won
for him an entree into the best society,
and few would have looked for his origin
in the dilapidated dwelling of an obscure
by-street, out of which he had been con-
In the Year l8- Reuben Cohen deter
mined to take up his abode in Paris. his
studies there and elsewhere on the CONT
nent had resulted in his gaining the PIX
| a. Honneur at the salon, at an usually
early age, and the enthusiasm called forth
| by his picture led him to resolve he could
| nowhere else be so appreciated nor SO
happy as in that capital.
| He was strolling through the exhibition
| one afternoon with a critical glance mere
| and there as something arrested his at
! tention among the acres of canvas dis
| played upon the walls, when he found HIM
! self unexpectedly in the same room with
| his own painting. A sort of natural mod
esty made him draw back on perceiving
| the spectators clustered in front of his
| work which bore its blushing honors in
| scribed on a brass tablet fixed upon the
| frame but the next instant his eye had
| caught that of bent and shabby figure,
| eagerly pushing its way among the crowd.
! among the dusty bric-a-brac of the little
| shop His fame had vanished. He was no
| loESer the successful genius but the re-
pulsed and tender-hearted boy whose SEN
| sibilities had been cut to the quick.
As one in a dream, the artist approached
his own picture, and heard the remon-
strances addressed to the strange figure
| Glowing its way.
'"Tiensi" cried a voice. "C'est lie Juiff
| Grant II est a la hate lie pauvre hommei'
A good humored laugh greeted this sally
and room was made, while Reuben stole
! to the edge of the crowd to watch the old
| mans face. A long, white beard dropped
| upon his breast and concealed the greater
part of his features He looked so vener-
able, so picturesque. that at first the
| painter felt himself deceived. This was
| some model from the studios who had inn
| bibed taste for art; not the lean, sus-
! picious, and repulsive parsonage who had
accused his own son of being the tool and
| accomplice of a crime. a feeling of relief
| accompanied this hasty conviction but
all al once the Jew, who had now obtained
a good place, raised his eyes with the
quick, stealthy, yet penetrating glance
| which in earlier years had filled the boy S
| soul with repugnance. The glance, how
| ever, rested on the picture, coldly at first
| then critically. II scanned every detail,
] -