The record-union., 1897-10-17


at it.
Body of the Madonna!" he whisper
ed; but he is blacker than an ebon
Christi
Then he had thought which tickled
him.
1T is that dog of an Ali's father!-hot
he did, l think, have a father in the
asylum, the black Well. but the house
l am going to must be his Excellency' $
Red Palazzo, then!'
He struck a match, and looked at
the slip received at the asylum gate.
On it, in truth, was the name of Ali
This was one of the three mansions Of
the Bellini, an Oriental-Gothic pile,
very ancient. 1t had long stood dark
some and empty, save that Ali and
some few of Bellini's henchmen used
it as sleeping place.
In a few minutes the weighted body
rolled over and disappeared like a pill
lar of stiffness into the waters, sending
up belch Of phOsphorescences; in a
few more Antonello was bending over
Brescia.
OUl 10 tHIS the pun yOUlA uC SetId,
wonderingly, that his Excellency
spoke of? Or was that his Ex-
cellency's playful way of talking mere
ly? Yes, he is cautious!" A knowing
finger went to his undulating nose.
His Excellency does not blab every
meaning as a bungler would; one must
put together his hints-and obey!"
But he took the precaQtion to search
the vault. and finding nothing, bore the
body to the she'll The diamond finger
caught his eye; he stopped to it; hes
itated nervously; and covered the coffin.
AT the prov there was laughter when
he told the gondoliers Of Ais white fe-
male father; and they set out. few
yards forward, behind an angle, lay
Brands gondola; few yards behind,
the empty gondola of the sbirri.
At this time Brand was again in
flight. The sbiIui had stood over him
at the waterside, but failing to see him,
ran further. He clung to the ring un-
til a. shiveaing seized him; ran then
once more, trying to steer his guessed
way backward to his bark. He at
length reached clear space near the
when, close behind him, the cry,
There he isl" He forced am agony
Of urgency into his legs. Rushing up
on his deck, he whispered his men to
toll for life, and plunged into the cabin
amidships. But as the gondola moved
out he could see the sbirTi wildly oar
ing after him.
Antonello, bending over the coffin,
with one Venetian blind drawn up, was
hardly ten yards ahead. The man had
closed the shell; nail and hammer were
in his hand; when the temptation of
the diamond again overcame him. He
feared-the little rat-eyes winked. He
was a person of keen nervosity, all
tremors, believing in the omniscience
of his excellency, and the matter of
the diamond formed no part of his
instructions If he should be discov-
cred to have presumed, transgressed ?
Most stealthily he slid the lid footward
a little. Then the thought came to
him that the body dropped into water
would remove all possible discovery of
the theft; he drew it out a little TO a
half sitting position, and considered.
Just then the bark passed under a
lamplight, and Brand, now close be-
hind, recognized as he peered forth the
luxurious gondola of Belvidera- its liv-
cried cabin of purple and gold. An
tonello, too, the diamond in his hand.
had leered out and seen the two APP
parently pursuing boats. In a guilty
trepidancy he ran STOPPING forward,
bidding the gondolieri fly in his excel
lency's name. AS for Brand, his heart
went hurrying with a thousand doubts.
If she were there? in trouble, danger?
why did she fly? what did she here
and now? If he could secretly board
her, would 1T not mean safety for him ?
He crept sternward, and urged his men
with rich promises to catch the boat
in front, a double trembling of eager
ness in him at the peril behind, at the
promise before. The three slender
banks, light as life went darting like
swifts over the troubled water
III
Venice, the Silenti the Sahara OF
Beauty! The Cana1azzo was empty;
only far beyond in the dark a gondola
lamp might shoot an instant, quenched
in the flood, as meteors vanish in the
SDeu,
piles of Oriental glory rich with gold
and colors, with pinnacle and cupola
and arcade; where the lamps threw
long streams of dusky crimson on the
black water, while to the phosphoric
dash Of the oars wide behind them
wavered their wake to it's lazy slap up
on the marble stairway, or column, OF
facade; and around them, reaching to
the ancient stars, an utter lonesome
ness and hush of gloom, save where,
at turning, a gondolier sent warning
OF his coming in strange, lugubrious
wall. The foremost boat had gone
curving, like a creature of life, into a
complexity of narrow channels totally
dark, except where rare corner lamp
Streamed out upon the waves.
Near one Of these, Brand, crouching
ready at his PROV, leaped lightly upon
the poop near him, while Antonello
who had been cringing behind the cab
IN, at once slid at the slight concus-
sion, diamond in hand, in mortal fear,
into the wafer. Brand was hid by the
hearse-shape Of the cabin from the
front gondole1i, but his own men
watching for his leap, stopped, and
We're overtaken by the shirri. He
meanwhile, had slipped into the cabin
of Belvidera; he could barely discern
the half-recumbent form, and murmur-
ing, why, love, in the name of all
that is" impetuously stopped for
ward. He shrunk with an "ah 80
covering. That body again-and here
in Belvidera's boatl The thought that
she might be implicated ever so little
in the dark deeds of her uncle made
him sick: he spat out the suspicion
But how came this thing here? Much
time was not given him for question
ings; the gondola was then darting past