Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1896-10-31

hree, win us downy red hairs and its
.doifs dc founf.r
How exquisite the verses were! As one
read them, one seemed 10 be floating down
the green waterways Of the pink and pearl
city, lying in a black gondola with silver
Prov and trailing curtains. The mere ines
looked TO him like those straight lines of
turouois blue that follow one as one pushes
out TO the Lido. The sudden flashes OF color
reminded him Of the CLEAN OF the opal-and-
iris-throated birds that futter round the
tall honey-combed Carnpanile, or stalk, with
such stately grace, through the dim arcades.
Leaning back with half-closed eyes, he kept
saying over and over 10 himself:
"Deyant une facade rose,
Sur ie maiDre d un esealier."
The whole OF Venice was in those two
lines. He remembered the autumn that he
had passed there, and a wonderful love that
had stirred him TO delightful fantastic
follies. There was romance In every place.
But Venice, ike oxford, had kept the back
ground for romance, and background was
everything, or almost everything. Basil
had been with him part Of the time. and
had gone wild over Tintorct. Poor Basil!
what q horrible way for a mar TO die!
He sighed, and took up the book again.
and tried 10 forget. He read Of the swal-
lows that rs in and out of the little cafe at
Smyrna WHORE the Hadiis sit counting their
amber beads and the turbaned merchants
smoke their long tasseled pipes and talk
gravely 10 each other: of the Obelisk in the
Place de la Concorde that wceps tears of
granite in It's lonely uuless exile. and longs
to be back by the hot lotus-covered Nile.
where. there are Sphinxes, and rose-red
ibises and white ~vultures with gilded
claws, and crocodiles. with small beryl
eyes. hat crawl over the green stcaping
mud and Of that curious statue that Gautier
compares 10 a contralto voice, the ''monstye
chdrndntn that crouches in the porphyry-
room ~ the Louvre. But after a time the
book fell from his hand. He grew nervous,
and a horrible tt of terror came over him.
What If Alan Campbell should be out Of En-
gland Days would elapse before he could
como back. Perhaps he might refuse 10
come What could be do theni Every mo-
ment was of vital importance.
They had been great friends once, five
year. oefore-almost inseparable. indeed.
Then the intimacy had come suddenly to an
end. When they met in society now. il was
only Dorian Gray who smiled Alan Camp
bell never did.
He was an extremely clever young man,
Though be had no real appreciation of the
visible arts, and whatever little sense Of the
beauty of poetry he possessed he had gained
entirely from Dorian. His dominant in
tellectual passion was for science. At
Cambridge he had spent a great deal Of his
time working in the Laboratory, and had
falap a mood afauu q, ,h. Manual C,s,~.n
tripos Of his year. Indeed he was still de-
voted TO the study of chemistry. and had a
laboratory Of his own, in which he used TO
shut himself up all day long, greatly TO the
annoyance of his mother, who had set her
heart on his standing for Parliament and
had d vague idea that "a chemist was a per-
son who made up prescriptions. He was an
excellent musician, however. as well, and
played both the violin and the piano better
than most amateurs. In fact. il was music
that had first brought him and Dorian Gray
together-music and that indefnable at
traction that Dorian seemed TO be able TO
exercise whenever he wished, and indeed
exercised often without being conscious Of il.
This was the man that Dorian Gray was
waiting for, pacing up and down the room,
glancing every moment at the clock. and
becoming horribly agitated as the minutes
went by. At last the door opened. and his
servant entered.
"Mr. Alan Campbell, sir"
A sigh of relief broke from his parched
lips, and the color came back to his cheeks.
ASK him 10 come in at once, Francis"
man bowed and retired. In a few
very stern and rather pale, his pallor being
intensified by his coal-black hair and dark
eyebrows.
''Alan this is kind Of you. I thank you
for coming
II had intended never TO enter your house
again, Gray, But you said il was a matter
of life and death" His voice was hard and
cold. H. spoke with slow elaboration
There was a look of contempt in the steady
searching gaze that he turned on Dorian.
He kept his hands in the pockets Of his
Astrakhan coat, and appeared not 10 have
noticed the gesture with which he had been
greeted.
at is n matter of life and death, Alan,
aud to more than one person. Sit DOWN"
Campbell took a chat by the table, and
Dorian sat opposite to him. Tn two mems
eyes met. In Dorian's there was infinite
pity. He knew that what he was going to
do was dreadful.
After a strained moment Of silence, he
leaned across and said. very quietly, but
watching the effect of each word upon the
face of the man he had sent for, ALAN, in a
locked room at the top of this house, a room
to which nobody but myself has access, a
lead man is seated at a table. He has been
lead ten hours now. Don't stir, and don't
look at me like that. Who the man is, why
- III -. - l.al aa. .,ayt.., thos IL
not concern you. What you have TO do is
this
..Stop, Gray. I don't want TO know any
thing further. Whether what you have
told me is true or not true, doesn't concern
me. / entirely decline TO be mixed up in
your life. Keep your horrible secrets to
yourself. They don't interest me any more"
ssAlan. they will be OF interest you. This
ono will have TO interest you. am awfully
sorry for YOU. Alan. But l can't help my.
self. You are the one man who is able TO
save me am forced To bring YOU into the
matter. | have no option. Alan, you are a
scientist. You know about chemistry, and
things Of that kind. You have made ex-
periments. What you have got TO do is 10
destroy the thing that is upstairs-to de-
stroy il so that not a vestlge will be left OF
it. Nobody saw this person come into the
house. Indeed, at the present moment he
is supposed to be in Paris. He will not be
missed for months. When he is missed,
there must be no trace Of him found here.
! You, Alan, you must change him, and
everything that belongs TO him, into ahand-
ful of ashes that ! may scatter in the air"
You are ma1. Dorian"
All! ! was waiting for YOU TO call me
Dorian-n
You are mad. / tell you-niad to imagine
that | would raise a finger to help you, mad
b make this monstrous confession. l viii
have nothing to do with this matter, what
ever 1t Is. Do you think / am going to peril
my reputation for you, What is il TO me
what devils work you are up to-
III was a suicide, Alan
81 am glad Of that. But who drove him
10 it' You, l should fancy
do you still refuse to do this for met"
of course l refuse. l will lave abso-
lutely nothing to do with it. l don't care
what shame comes on you. You deserved
it all. ! should not be sorry to see you dis
graced, publicly disgraced. How dare you
ask me. Of all men i'm the world, to mix my
4 -Alf M H. ~. L2--- A.x kAwn