The Irish standard., 1896-03-14

xansbraad unfoldsd It and spelled eat tAs essr
. -..s tents . ..r ,.g
low went down the avenue and
crouched in the black shadow of low
branched pine; and Ringbrand, armed
only with the revolver which had been
his companion in the cavern. took his
stand against the trunk of a great oak,
whose spreading limbs overshadowed
the ambush selected by the mountain
: GERS. 49,. & -
Up to the moment when the compile
ton of the arrangements for the cap
ture of the conspirators had begun to
cancel the factor of excitement, Ring
brand had not reflected upon the Pc
clliarly trying nature of the. test he
had proposed for himself. When the
plan had suggested itself, he had wel-
coined it gladly, hurrying forward 10
it's elimination with the eager impa-
thence of one who inagines he sees the
turning point of his life in the perspec-
tive and runs impetuously to double it.
After he had taken his position under
the oak, however, the suspense, and the
darkness and silence of the night, be-
E4u w VIC AAC.Ol
the food-tide of excitement turned and
cbbed slowly away; and the heroic re-
quirements of the part he had volun-
tered TO take in the approaching
drama stood out in vivid and disconcert~
ing relief Common sense awOke and
demanded a reason for the hazardous
plan, pointing the finger of ridicule at
the melot1ran1atic stage setting, and
suggesting that nothing had been omit
ted save a calcium light to be flashed
upon the scene at the critical moment.
He saw the absurdity of it all, and how
much more sensible it would have been
to take Ludlow's suggestion, surround
ing the house with a. posse of armed
men whose numbers would have made
resistance on the part of the mountain J
GERS useless and hence improbable.
And what was there to be urged
against such a safe and practical plan
OF procedure? Nothing, or less than
nothing; merely the demonstration of
un abstruse metaphysical problem
within himself; the application of .
heroic test which had NO place outside
the realm of fiction. And with this
thought it occurred to him that he Ind
unconsciously planned the whole thing
upon the lines that would have made
it most effective in story: And then
the suggestion Of the ca1eium light and
the alarmed yolng woman looking
down upon the Observation-Disclosures
her window came again, making him
sick with disgust. 7"
Looking at it from any point Of view.
the romantic project, which was more
than likely to cost him his life in the ex-
ecnting, was merely fantastic idea OF
proving himself in some way knight
without fear-a modern type Of gor-
tesqne medieval parsonage who went
about staying impossible dragons and
disembowelling NEUROLOGICAL giants.
It was absurd ridiculous- preposter-
Gus! and from this point in the 2argl-
ment the descent to the Avernus Of ter
ror was easy. Attic end of a half-hour
he felt the premonitory spinal chill
heralding return OF the wcll-known
symptoms; in five minutes more the q
paroxysm was upon him, and he was
struggling fnrio,1sIy III the grasp Of his
familiar demon, blind, deaf and help
less. with every fiber Of his being strain
ing itself for flight man impulse SO real
that he turned and grasped at the rough .
bark of the tree to keep. himself from
being carried bodily away by the whirl-s.
wind of terror r I. r ~ 5
The attack did not last long, and i
about the time the blood began to tingle {
IN h - yaino q ro;, H. hna 81 f%a ~ !, "a III