Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-02-23
CUAPTER XVI

Paul Rodier, good reporter, had
learned before his COntrcres of the ar
test Of the young man, and abandon
ing what he had called his trail of the
woman in black he abruptly whirlod
about and quickly invented sensa-
fional biography of the newcomer.
Charles Henri Pradcs, or rather, Carlos
Prades, as he called himself, had been
u Gaucho, buffalo tanner cowboy,
using, turn by turn, the American re-
volvcr against tho redskins and tho
Mexican lasso against the Yankees.
Tho journalist had obtained Il sigma
turc, picked up by the lodging house
keeper where the guilty man had been
hunted down. and published in his paper
the autographs characters, He had de-
duced from them some dramatic ohscr-
vations Cooper of former times Gus
fave Aymarl of yesterday, Rudyard
kipling or Bret Harte of today, had
never met parsonage moro dreadful
and at the same time moro heroic. Car
los Pradcs used the navajo Spanish
lnife) with tho terrible rapidity of u
Catalan. He had felt since the days of
Bucnos Ayres fierce hato for the OK
consul, and this crime, which some Of
his brother reporters habitually indif-
ferently informed (it was Paul Rodicr
who spoloj, ROW attributed alone to tho
Rvarice of this cambrioleur from over
the sea. He (Rodier) gave this note as
the cause of vengeance, and built there
upon romance which made his readers
ehiyer, or, rather, he said nothing out
right. He permitted one a glimpse into,
he outlined, one knows not what dark
history. Soon he made this Carlos
Prades the instrument and tho arm Of
an association of vengeance. He could
even believe that there was anarchy in
the affair. Then he had the young man
mixed in some love affair, "a drama Of
passion, with the Argentine Republic for
the theater.
As result he had succeeded in max
ing interesting the man whom Bernardct
had pushed n few nights before into the
station house.
And, what was singular thing, the
reporter had OWNED part of the truth
1t was still another episode in his past
that Revere eXpiatod when he found
himself ono day, in his salon in the
Boulevard de Clichy, face to face with
the man who was to be his murderer.
At Buenos Ayres the x-consul had been
associated in a large agricultural enter.
prise with a man whose hazardous spec
ulations, play and various adventures
had completely ruined him, and who
had left two children--a young girl
whom Revere thought for "A moment of
marrying, and son, younger-poor be-
ings of whom the consul, paying his
partner S debts seemed the natural pro.
tector. Jean Prades, in committing sui
cide-he had killed himself, frightened
at the magnitude of his dcbts-had
commended his children to Rovere's
care.
If Carlotta had lived, without doubt
Roverc would have made her his wife.
lie loved her with a deep and respectful
tenderness. The poor girl died very sud
denly, and there remained to Revere
only his dream, one of those rcmcm-
branccs Of a tlreside, one of those spec
tiers which brush the forehead with
their wings or the folds Of their wind
which he has voluntarily buried him.
self the searcher after adventures re-
calls the paSt-the past of Yesterday,
illusions, disillusions, old loves, mis-
cries.
Revere gave to this brother of tho
dead girl the affection which he had
felt for her. He remembered also the
fathers request. Prades' son, passion
ate, eager to live, tempted in all his an
petites, accepted as his duo Rovcre's
truly paternal devotion, worked on the
sympathy Of this man, who, through
pity and duty, too, gave to Charles a
little Of the affection which he had felt
for the sister, almost his fancee. and
Gor the father, dead by his own hand.
But little by little, the solicitations.
the unreasonable demands Of Pradcs,
who, believing that he had Just claim
ON his fathers old partner, found it
very natural that Revere should devote
himself TO hlm-thcse continual and
pressing demands became for the consul
Irritating obsessions. Rovere seemed TO
tins young man, who was "A spcndthrift
and gambler--a gambler possessed
with atavistic frenzy-a sort of living
savings bank, from which he could
draw without counting His importu.
mites at last seemed tatiPuing and ex-
cessivc, and Pradcs was adv sed one
beautiful day that he no longer need
count from that moment on the generos-
ity Of his benefactor. All this happened
at BuenOs Ayres and about the time of
the consul's departure for France. Ro-
we're added to this very curt declaration
Il last benefit. He gave to the brother
OF the dead girl, to the son of Pradcs,
of the firm of Revere d. Prades, a sum
sufficient to enable him to live whilo
waiting for better things, and he told
the young man III proper terms that as
he had now no one to depend upon that
he had better take himself elsewhere to
be hung. The word could not be, with
the appetites and habits of Charles
Pradcs, taken in figuratiyo sense, and
the young man continued his life of adj
ventures, as tragic in their reality and
as improbable as the reporters melo.
dramatic Inventions
Then, at the end Of his resources,
after having searched for fortune among
miners, weary Of tramping about in
America, he embarked one morning for
llavre, with the idea that the best gold
mine was still that living placer which
he had exploited in Buenos Ayres and
which was called Pierre Revere