Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1898-08-04
A WAGER OF DEATH.

All llV bditoi hOdu' -Aiiu tHtu dRdlL
another voice, pitched in higher
key, took up the cry on the further
side of the street-"Speshul! spe'
shul!"-and the rest was lost in in.
coherency as the sound of the voices
mingled and intertwined, gradually
faded away in the distance.
What loathsome noise that ISL
said Peel, with a shudder. There Ii
something positively ghoulish abou,
it"
ut always gives me the creeps, es-
pecially at night. 1t suggests all
sorts of horrible, morbid ideas,
joined in LeDange, who was perched
on the model throne, smoking innu-
merable cigarettes.
Kovno, the owner of the studio,
said nothing, but smiled in rather a
superior way. He was a person OF
somewhat unusual taste-his pictures
betrayed him in that.
we were rather Lsmopoitan lot
gathered in the big studio that night.
Lelange was merry, lig'ht-hearteh
little Frenchman, clever to the tips of
his restless fingers, but quite incapa-
BILE of serious work. Peel and myself
were Emglish-painstaking not Who'll
ly unsuccessful, but without half Le-
lange's versatility. Ferguson was
Scotch--serious and argumentative,
and Kovno-the owner of the studio
was Pole by birth, though much
of his life had been lived in Paris and
London.
He was two or three years older
than the rest of us. As far as his art
was concerned, he was brilliant, orig
'nal and starlingly unpleasant. For
himself he had a fine head-the head
OF a dreamer. Usually a reticent
man, he would at rare intervals flash
out into fiery, animated food Of
talk, accompanied by wild gesticula-
ton.
Only one other person was in the
studio-Dora Smith, our model-a
pretty, nervous little person, at the
present moment toasting her toes at
the big stove, and enjoying cigar
cite during her well-earned rest.
swell, there's only one good thing
about a murder said Ferguson-"it
will out! And that, as rule, ends in
hanging"
Nonsense, my dear chap!" said
Kovna. It's only THE clumsy idiots
who are found out, Anyone who isn't
"A fool could kill as many people as
he pleased, and never be suspected
" you grant him an average amount
of luck"
Ferguson shook his head doubt
fully.
1T takes more than brains to make
successful murderer" said he. 1T
would require an absolute lack of
nerves or imagination, call it what
you please. ugh!"-he wen on with
a shndder-'if ever got led into
anything of the sort | should never
know another peaceful moment US
long as ] lived"
Lelange began drumming a sort OF
"danse Macabre" on the model-throne
with his heels, and struck a tragic
attitude which made Dora laugh.
IT wish you wouldn't all be so hor-
ribly gloomy she sand. 81 believe
this great big barn of studio is
haunted Do, for goodness sake, talk
about something cheerful"
TITS not gloomy at all; it's most in
teresting,' persisted Kovno. 81 don't
mind owning that the possibilities OF
crime have a great fas-
cination for me-"
"The possibilities of an undiscov-
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