Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1897-05-26
@THE OTHER BOX.~@


that he was getting very sick Of his
hoax, and would have been glad enough
to show it up If anyone had given him
the lead. After all. he knew that there
his first boyish enthusiasm died away
he wanted to throw the thing up. But
90 one helped him out Of 1t, and for
very shame he could scarcely give him
self away. Besides, the two principals
wouldn't have thanked him.
Nothing more remained to be done.
There was solemn enough leave-taking
out of the room and locked the door,
leaving the two men in their corners
and the box in the center Of the room.
For a moment or two the five stood In
silence out in the passage, the Junior
Subaltern holding the end of the string
and shaking like an aspen leaf with
suppressed excitement. Then he gave
It a sharp tug, and they could hear the
bOxli sliding back until 1t dropped to
the floor with slight smack.
1t was hushed and rather con-
science stricken band that dispersed to
the various rooms in quarters, and the
hours of that night hung heavily. 1t Is
a fact that the five youngsters did not
average an hour OF sleep between them.
This was proved by the alacrity with
which they all turned out at the first
break of dawn, and assembled, shiver-
ing and dra wn-looking and haggard,
ready to 20 and release their voluntary
prisoners.
They We're, in fact, so disturbed that
they took no notice Of the Senior Cap
tain, who, for some reason best known
to himself had turned out, too, and fol-
lowed them as they trod softly along to
the door of the disused room. He was
still unnoticed as they reached 1t, and
there made a marked halt; and his
curiosity to see their little game pre-
vented him from announcing himself.
They stood for a moment in breathless
silence. showing a strange, sudden dis
inclination to stir.
Then as was the case the night be
fore, the Junior Subaltern took the
lead There was a faint murmur a he
turned the key in the lock and stepped
boldly into the room the rest following
in a crowd. The Senior Captain stood
for a moment outside, wondering and
trying to make out what 1t all meant.
But a sudden, stified cry caused him to
step quickly after them.
He was a man who had been in sew
eral actions. He had seen men killed
under all sorts Of CHASTITY circum-
stances. He had commanded burial
parties sent out OTTER the Afghan wO-
men had been at their devilish work,
he was. had made him feel sick and
full of horror. But those scenes were
in no way comparable with what met
his eyes as he catered the room behind
his juniors.
The two men were no longer propped
up in the position in which they had
been left. Their swollen, distorted
bodies were huddled on the floor in at
titudes that showed the awful manner
In which they had met their doom. But
the figures, almost grotesque In the
cOntOrtiOns which had attended the
last death agony, were as nothing. In
each case the face was upturned,
livid. with distended cheeks and crack
ed skin, with fecks of blood oozing
from mouth and nose, and with eyes
widely open and a fear and horror in
them past all description. 1t was not
so much the physical agony as the ex-
preston Of terror in the fixed faces that
rendered these corpses so dreadful to
contemplate. Yet the two men, while
alive, were as brave, with all their
faults, as any men should be.
AS he looked in, the Captain was
glued to the ground by the nameless
horror Of that death,stare. He seemed
forgetful Of his companions, Of where
he was, all his faculties concentrated
on the two huddled masses on the fiOor.
A CHASTITY incident aroused him. The
Junior Subaltern burst into a laugh,
faint at first and then swelling into
peal after peal Of uproarious nirth.
'Ha! ha-' he shouted, reeling from
foot to foot, and holding his shaking
sides. Look at them! Don't they
sham we'll? Aren't they first-rate ac-
tors?"
The Senior Captain stepped up to
him, and laid a hand roughly on his
shoulder.
Then the boy turned, and they could
all see in his eyes that he was mad.
But the touch had Quieted him.
They act beautifully, don't they?"
he whispered confideDtially to his
senior officer. 81 wonder when they
first found out the joke"
What do you meanT asked the
other. soothingly.
'Mean?' the maniac replied. "Why.
don't you see? l had two boxes just
alike, and put the empty box in here.
The snake is still in my own room.
1t seemed something like a grim con-
tradiction that, almost at the same mo-
| me"t, n fiat, spectacled head reared
itself under one Of the bodies, and two
baleful eyes surveyed the awe-struck
!, sroup.-San Fransisco ArRonaut