Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1897-08-23
FEAST OF THE MOON.

II am going to the band at the lakes,
| Dick, said | to my cbum after breakfast
one day last March. He nodded but mado
no remark. had known him for some
years however since his great trouble
and we were staying at the Pegu club
lettering away our time in Rangoon after
"A long shooting tour in the Straits.
Sorrow cannot endure forever, but the
death of the girl to whom he was engaged
through boating accident at Henley, had
| left two strange marks on his character
| wf1y-2 cloud had otherwise lifted at
last. He nasad white roses-and indeed
| any white flowers-and music of every
| sort. On the day of her death the girl he
was to marry was wearing white roses,
and as they were carrying the body to an
| inn they passed house in which a violin
| ist-a master of his art, SO Dick told me,
and he was a good judge and no mean per-
former bimself-was playing an air that
| haunted my friend ever after-the adagio
movement from Beethovens "Sonata Pa
thetique." For these reasons" he said
to me bitterly II shall never be friends
again with roses l shall hate sweet music
my whole life long"
! Well, l went down to the boathouse and
| taking canoe padded under the lea of an
island to read Tennyson's "Idylls" and to
dream and listen to the string band of the
-th regiment, then quartered with others
at Rangoon. When got back to the Pegu
| club, some three hours later, / went
straight to the reading room, in a corner
of which discovered Dick with look of
quite unwonted animation in his eyes,
II say, old chap" h. began with sup
pressed excitement, GIVE had the most
extraordinary visitor this afternoon-a
fakir of sorts-who told me things of my
past life that thought nobody knew"
laughed. "Been tapping your bearer,
I expect" And the moment after re-
GREETED the remark when Dick in low
voice, almost Il whisper said: "He de-
| scribed her, what she wore that day, how
she died." and then after a pause, "He
said she would be waiting for me tomor-
row night--the Burman's feast of the
moon-by the sacred tank"
Delicately as l could tried to eradicate
from his usually practical, cynical mind
the unreasoning faith in the supernatural
which the fakir seemed to have implanted
| there. l suggested the fellow might art
fully have forced his thoughts into Ger
tain channel and then read them in the
form of answers to taot questions of his
own. Dick got quite angry and said
"At any rate, am going to this sacred
tank. / have found out where it is.
Next day he showed signs of a bad night
and was strangely preoccupied, but as the
day wore Oh he pulled himself together.
| At breakfast he said, Il suppose you
won t accompany me tonight, unbeliever2"
| jumped at the chance, for somehow
had misgivings of foul play of one kind
or another
eff you dom wish to be alone, of course
will come" said, and so it was settled
After dinner a ticca gari drove us two
miles or so along the kokaing road till we
came to a cart track which led through
the pine jungle to the sacred tank, where
in dwelt the uncanny looking sacred fish
and their attendant turtles, all ministered
unto by an old wizened rAlncola who lived
in one of the few huts scattered in clear
ings round the tank. Tonight they were
| all deserted. Doubtless the dwellers were
in the city or some neighboring village,
whence floated the musical ting tong ting
of the gongs, pitched in various keys and
carried by the professions of feasting Bur-
mans, clad in many colored silks and
sporting the pretty white temple flowers
in their hair.
We sat down on a fallen tree trunk and
smoked in silence Dick seemed to be
brooding on the past, and was disinclned
to talk and annoyed with myself for a
strange eerie feeling whereof was begin
ming to be conscious. How long we had
been there l know not, but suddenly my
friend started up with cry--a veritable
"cry that shivered to the tingling stars"
and strobe forward with arms out
stretched, talking, as thought raving, to
some one could not see.
Darling, wait one moment. am COM
ing; am here" (walking few steps for
ward). And then, "My God, there it is
again." (Turning to me) ''Don't you hear
it?" And he hummed the opening bars Of
the adagio movement
heard nothing but the distant ringing
of the gongs, but suddenly caught the
sobbing cadence of that lovely piece of
| harmony; but it seemed an echo only, or,
if you can conceive it, rendering Of the
passage in huge bell jar from which the
air had, been exhausted; magically clear,
diyinely sweet and sad, but SO faint that
the ear could just catch it and no more. 1t
was only as it died away that the succeed
ing silence convinced me it had been at all.
Dick stood like a statue intently listen
ing, with strained, lost look on his
face. took him gently by the arm and
he suffered me to lead him away, like a
sleepwalker
The following day he was down with a
bad go of fever. 1 was with him most of
| the day and went to his quarters as soon
as had finished my dinner. They were
empty His bearer was in the godowns,
| and when l summoned and Intercepted
him he only looked dazed. cursed him in
| heaps, and, scribbling note to the d. S.
| p, sent him off with it, and myself
| rushed out with my own boy in quest of
| the absentee.
High and low hunted, but found no
clew Then returned, weary and dispirit-
ed, to the club, where found Curtis, the
| d. S. p, awaiting me and any reports
from the surrounding police thanas.
Suddenly an idea struck me; why it had
not earlier know not. Come said,
and Curtis and l, taking gari as soon as
| we could get one, drove to the sacred tank.
| 1t must have been in the morning
| when we came upon him. He was lying
on his face, one hand outstretched, just
| where the vision must have appeared the
night before. We raised him gently. He
was quite dead, with the mysterious smile
of those who have solved the great secret
frozen on his lips. We got him down to
the gari as best we could and started back
to Rangoon. AS we passed the barracks
by the Gold pagoda the band was practic-
ing. With shock recognized the piece;
it was the adagio again. Involuntarily
| lnnkad at the dead man pxnectinp him To