The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1898-06-22

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| aItts comsng, gesat,emen"-
something our eyes said to each other
once aud forever, mighty as the married
whorls Of music which the band tossed
of.
Afar eight bells struck. The jangle
went along the silence. Four o'clockl
I felt all over me a sh.rp electric
thrill crawl Caithness was leaning
over the professor and the plate ON one
sidey ] ON the other. 1t is coming,
gentlemen
He stopped.
E For cry rang out from Caithness,
who was bending intently over the
plate, watching-a cry that I can hear
now in northern India. God, it hoze
/ She blood in my veinsl I looked at the.
German. He was as white as death.
He pointed down to the plate, where the.
shadowgraph had shown up to vision.
the interior of the girdle-the dread
Vipera cerastes, the leprous asp Of Af-
rica!
In one moment my dream serpe1tinedi
again along the night. It twisted:
through the long desertness Of sand till
the whole earth, narrowing track that
pzessed me closer to the leprous oncom-
ling. was=a smear like the great crimson
sea Of sunset, dotted here and there
with darker blotches Of blood exuding
from srcman's heart. And all the
stars were out.
sttWe are such stuff as dreams are
made Off" I cried aloud. Ny voice
lechoed horribly through the room. And
lthen there was great silence through
/ the dark stateroom Caithness told me
afterward that he saw two feet of my
SIX feet OF George Washington's acres
shake.
For fully five minutes not one Of us
spoke a living word. but tell you
three heads and three white faces bent
| over that plate
The snake was lying in torpor-as
the shadowgraph revealed. Itwas about
2 feet in length, but 90 in utter 1oath-
someness In its long curying drowsi-
ness it looked like the long. oozing.
reaching finger of death, from which
you could upbuild the whole gaunt
ringed and moving body of the dread
shadow. The broad head, fattened
down against the casing Of the girdle,
would lift at any impulse OF serpentine
volition. You felt it. saw Caitbness
himself, officer in the glorious South
Stafordshire as he is, start back a mo-
| ment FROM that girdle and its Internal
lining. The thin, lightning streak Of
tongue protrudeds Above each eye of
the snake arose scaly spine or horn,
whel ce its name, horned viper. The
eyes were bali closed, but watched you
with leer.
| ssJoyev' from Caithness. And then
none of us spoke, but tell you we
| bent over again and watched that gir
dies double, and the leer Of eye watch
ed us.
I read it saIInow. The dumb, beseech-
ing look in my lady's face like the cry
of wounded animal-to save her from
the leprons leap of that lculating eye.
| And again that changing face OF hers
the contemplating self murderer, was
it not? The CLASSY look that begins to
reflect the slippery precipices of the fall
and clutch and fall again Of soul,
while the banks Of the abyss are dap
pied with its DOOM And then the mem
ory of the coils of ascending brilliance
in those eyes Of hers, rising in ringed
beauty, deepening in power in the deep
enirg power Of the waltz whorls which
the band tossed off. Was she slowly,
surely and surely slipping into the
snake charm of snake life? Resisting
today, bound to succumb tomorrow:
Bah! How could think it? For-mem-
ory Of memories that sent big manly
heart throb to my very throat and made
my temples beat like trip hammers, that
one moment when her life b1eathed up
on my arm. and we moved metrically
on the pulse Of music, when through
the lotus moonlight our eyes arose to
one another and spoke forever.
tHello! What are you thinking
about?' says Caithness, breaking into
the silence. Look out, man. You'll
kick the lantern over''
"A1so. Now, what to do, gentle
men:" demanded the professor, staring
down at the shadoweraph Of leer that
stared up at him and stared at us all,
though fixed upon one. II fear it is
very sad. I know the horned viper. l
meet him in Africa Also. He can live
two years IN glass jar without to eat
He endures prolonged hunger. What to
do, gentlemen"
4 ..Wbat in earth does the woman want