The Winslow mail., 1897-07-03
@~THE OTHER BOX.@@

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been settled with due exactness. The
Junior Subaltern had been an uncon-
scionable time at work. 1t is probable
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
was an ugly side to the farce, and as
his first bOyish enthusiasm died away
he wanted to throw the thing up. But
no 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 taking
on all sides as the five youngsters filed
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 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
box-lid sliding back until it dropped to
the floor with a slight smack.
1t was a 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 ofsleep 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 go and release their voluntary
prisoners.
They were, 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 it, and
there made marked halt; and his
curiosity to see their little game pre-
vented him from announcing himself.
They stood for 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 faint murmur as he
turned the key in the lock and stepped
boldly into the room the rest following
in a crowd. The Senior Captain stood
for moment outside, wondering and
trying to make out what 1t all meant
But sudden, stifed cry caused him to
step quickly after them.
He was 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,
and had seen sights that, hardened as
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 entered 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,
Iix,i5 with diCtondad choolyc aDd oro oly
ed skin with flecks 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 floor
A CHASTITY incident aroused him. The
Junior Subaltern burst into a laugh,
faint at first, and then swelling into
peal after peal of uproarious mirth.
The others stood and watched him.
"Ha! hap' he shouted, reeling from
foot to foot, and holding his shaking
Sides "Look at them! Don't they
sham we'll? Aren't they frst-rate ac-
tors?'
The Senior Captain stepped up t.
him, and laid a hand roughly on his
shoulder.
Then the boy turned, and they could
all see in his eyes that he was rad.
But the touch had quieted him.
'9They act beautifully, don't they?"
he whispered contidentially to his
senior officer. 81 wonder when they
first found out the joke"
what do you mean" 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-
ment, a fiat, spectacled head reared
itself under one of the bodies, and two
baleful eyes surveyed the awe-struck
group.-San Francisco Argonaut.
Roughf tho Island