The Forrest City times. [volume] (Forrest City, Ark.) 1871-1919, 1898-11-04
THE PIECE OF GOLD
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ATHEN Lucien Hem saw his last
w haEdredfranc note gripped hy
the bankkeeper's rake, and rose from
the roulette table, where he had lost
the last fragments of his little fortune,
collected for this supreme struggle,
he felt gi'!dy and thought he was go
ing to tall.
With a dizzy head and tottering legs
he threw himself down upon the broad
!eathern settee surrounding the play
table.
For some minutes he gazed vacan.ly
on the clandestine gambling-house, in
which he had squandered the best
years OF his youth, recognized the raw
aged faces of the gamblers, crudely
lighted UP by the three large shaded
lamps; listened to the light jingle of
gold on the cloth-covered table; felt
that he was ruined, lost; recollected
that he had at home the pair of regu-
lation pistols which his father. Gen.
Hem, then a simple captain, had used
so we'll IN the attack of Zaatcha; then.
overcome by fatigue, he sank into
profound sleep.
When he arose, with parched
mouth, he saw by the clock that he had
slept for barely half an hour, and felt
an imperious need for breathing the
night air. The clock hands marked
quarter before midnight
At tina. moment old Dronski--a pill
lar of the gambling-house, the classic
vNnVo -. - IL. Il l. \
woolen cloak, ornamented all over with
grease stains-approached Lucien, and
muttered a few words in his grizzled
beard.
"Len4 me fvefranc piece, mon
sieur. It's now two days since I've
stirred out of the club, and for two
days the II has never turned up.
Taught at me If you like, but I'll suffer
my hand to be cut off if that number
does not turn up on the stroke of mid
night"
Lucien Hem shrugged his shoulders.
He had not even enough in his pocket
to meet this taA, which the freqrcpt-
ers OF the place called "te Poles hun
dred sous" He passed into the ante
chamber, took his hat and fur coat,
and descended the stairs with feverish
rapidity.
Since four o'clock, when Lucien had
shut himself up in the gaming house.
STOW lad fallen heavily, and the street
"a street in the center of Paris, very
narrow, and built with great houses
on either side-was completely white.
In the calm sky. blue black, the cold
stars glittered
The ruined gambler shuddered I'M
DER his Iurs and walked away, his mind
suil teeming with thoughts of de-
spair, and more than ever returning
TO the remembrance of the case of
pistols which awaited him in one of
MS drawers; but after moving forward
few steps. lie stopped suddenly be-
lore a heart-wringing sight.
On a stone bench, placed according
TO old custom near the door of man
sion, little girl of six or seven wears
OF age, dressed in ragged black frock.
was sitting in the snow. She was sleep
ing, in spite of the cruel cold, in an
attitude of frightful fatigue and ex-
haustion; her poor little head and tiny
shoulder pressed as il they had sunk
into an angle of the wall, and reposing
on the icy stone. One of her wooden
shoes had fallen from her foot, which
hung belp!essly and lugubriously be-
fore her.
With mechanical gesture Luciep
put his hand TO his waistcoat pocket
but moment afterward he recollected
that he had not been able to find even
forgotten piece of 20 sous, and had
been obliged TO leave the club without
giving the customary "tip" to the club
attendant; yet, moved by an instructive
feeling of pity, he approached the little
girl, and might, perhaps, have taken
her In his arms, and given her a nights
lodging, when in the wooden shoe
which had slipped from her foot he
saw something glitter.
lie stopped. 1t was gold coin.
Some charitable person, doubtless
some lady. had passed by, had seen on
.nis night the little wooden shoe living
IN front of the sleeping child, and, re-
ealing the touching legend. had placed
mere, with secret hand. magnificent
oHering, so that this poor abandoned
one might believe in presents made for
'he infan. Saviour, and preserve, in