Evening star., 1896-11-07
Part T..

his brother foxes to the same curtailment.
The reason of my making this philo3ophic
reflection will appear as the present story
is developed.
This is not study of character. an araly
sis of motives. an autopsy of IDEAS. 1t IS
simply a narrative, stringing together of
Incidents. of rapid changes and of swift
happenings. in the order in which they oc
CURED.
Furthermore, every word. every iota of
what l have here set down, is the truth,
the bare and naked truth. Some Of these
incidents may appear. to the prosaic and
humdrum reader, somewhat startling.
as being improbable. and inclining toward
the supernatural. Startling and fantastic
they may be, improbable they may seem,
but 1 hold that they are in every sense
and strictly possible, and that they follow
exactly and in every particular the i'm
mutabe laws of nature.
1t came about in this manner: l was trav-
cling in Germany two or three months ago,
and. in an evil hour. 1t came INTO ny head
to go n hundred miles thaceaDouts out
of my way to make call on Old college
friend of mine, whom / had not seen IN
several years. That man was Jack Jen-
kins- In some romantic way he had De-
come acquainted with and married Ger
man girl of noble birth, d CerIain Fraulein
I1ida Won Waldeck. 1t was this insane
this particular idea always is insane. which
submerged me in the of troubles from
which barely escaped with life and honor.
Jenkins was the United States consul at
Oidendorf. the residence town of the petty
principality of Andel Schwartzburg. 1t
was at Oldendorf that Jack met and mar
red his wife. After the wedding the fair
but obstinate Hilda declined to leave the
place of her birth. and my friend made
the best of it. secured his appointment
consul and settled down in this sleepy cid
German city.
Well. 1 arrived at Oldendorf after A
roundabout and tedious journey. and Jack,
who expected me, was at the station and
gave me what seemed a hearty welcome.
For a few minutes / thought him the
same frank, rough-and-ready. jovial chap
whom l had always known; but l soon be-
gan to notice something of a change in
him. There seemed, at times, TO be sort
of restraint in his manner; there was, it
struck me, often false note in his ais
course. He was more Subdued and he
seemed 10 have grown ten years older than
he should have grown in the space of time
since l had s-en him last.
His talk, like the letters he had written
me was all of Hilda- 1t was Hilda tnS and
Hilda that ere was never a creature like
her. and / must go straightway with him
and see her. Now, l was not particularly
interested in Hilda, excepting as / naturally
would be in something which belonged to a
friend of mine. My benedick acQualntaaces
have often bored me by detailing :he per-
fections of their wives, and i suppose l
have shown that / was bored and have
been considered very unsympathetic ard
british: nut what is a fellow 10 90. v hen
he knows that these dotards. IKE the an
cieut mariner. speak from compulsion, and
that seven-eighthS of what they say IS
falsehood or only imaginary? / came there
to see him. to talk with him about the old
times ten years before, when We hEnked
together. and 1 did not care a fig -:bout
Hilda; but. of course, 1 couldn't tell him
so. and therefore he had his way and
dragged me off at once to his house TO
meet his wife.
l shall say very little of Frau Hilda Won
Waldeck Jenkins. for the reason that she
figures quite slightly in my tale. She was
tall and not half bad looking. and / could
easily see how man of my friends yield
ing and enthusiastic nature might imagine
her to be an angel. / say imagine because,
of course, you know, she wasn't; none of
them are, and some of them are quite the
reverse.
character. well. 1 will only say that scarce
ten minutes had elapsed e'er / felt the most
hearty commiseration for John Jenkins
The fact was that he was completely -iuder
petticoat rule. He gave no opinion, made
no assertion without meanwhile glan:ing
toward her for signs of her approval. The
fact was, as | soon saw, that the man
breathed only because he thought that it
was her pleasure for him to do
Almost Immediately after the first words
of greeting, after the first ordinary and
necessary remarks and questions, my
bachelor position was assaulted by my
treacherous friend; and in this he was ably
seconded by his wife. He would have it
that | must marry at once, and he cited
their cwn and irresistible arg dment. Would
that he could have seen the irony OF It!
Not content with extracting a promise
from NE to the effect that / would think
the matter over, they descended to the de-
tails and produced from their recoliections
German beauties, ary one of whom would
a incNmhrdQpe
whole assortment. properly arranged and
labeled. was to be shown me upon the fol-
lowing afternoon.
Not if train leaves Oldandorf tornor-
row morning. said / to myself.
After tea / gladly accepted Jacks invi-
tation to go down to the market place and
see balloon ascension.
You Will not be long, love?" said Frau
Hilda, in d caressing tcne. but with a pc
culiar glance in her eyes.
only hour. dearest answered Jen-
kins. anG witk that went out.
After leaving the house Jack seemed to
resume something of his oil hearty man
ner. and begin 10 think that l would be
able 20 take some comfort with him. We
threaded d labyrinth of narrow, ancient
and crooked streets. and at length emerged
upon the market place, which was almost
filled with the people of the town, anxious
like ourselves, to See the balloon go up.
1t was about { O'Clock of an August
evening The air was balmy and the dusk
was beginning to settle down. l thought it
strange at first that any one should make
an ascension at this hour. but it was not
strange at all. for the balloonst was in the
employ of the military authorti s. and he
purposed TO make some experiments with
electric searchlignt, some other Kind of
light. or burn some kind of fire. the re-
suit of which might be found useful IN the
military operations of the empire
When We arrived they had about finish
ed initiating the balloon. which was syyaying
back and forth above the heads of the
people in about the center of tae SQUARE
We gradually pushed our way through the
crowd until we came quite near 10 it, and
i saw that it was rather small and capable
of bearing aloft but one person. After a
delay of fifteen or twenty minutes the aero
naut appeared and Signified mis- readiness
to make the ascension, but he did iot go
up. The balloon went up without waiting
for him.
1t was a laughable accident but did not
wonder at it. l must rather have been
surprised if it had not happened. They had
piled number of bags of sand in the wick
er car of the balloon 20 keep 1t down while
they Were initiating it, and, besides this.
they had tethered it to neighborng post
with rather srnall-sized rope or thick
cord. These precautions they supposed to
be perfectly adequate. and they perhaps
would have been under ordinary crcum-
stances. but when the balloon was fully
inflated and the aeronaut had removed sew
came along smSrt gust of wia1, the great
a