The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1900-04-04

too, and just worshiped him. I dom
know what has become OF poor Henr
Van Tassel; but if he is still alive, he
would fight for my rights agalns'
Carlos OF any man. But Carlos is
dead, of course. although that Mr.
Stanley is so like HIM that he has
made me lose my wits almost; and
even if he were still alive, it wonld be
no use row, for am married to the
Baron Won Helmholtz-and he is sc
Jealous. If Carlos has come to life
again he would kill us both. Tell me,
cherie: Do you think it possible that
in all the world two people should be
so much alike as my Carlos and this
Honorable Clarence?"
1T is certainly singular and un'
usual" said Olive, in meditative
manner; "but, as Miss Hamilton said.
there have been such cases. If your
Carlos is dead, and you say that you
saw him dead, that seems to settle
it,
"Oh, Dieul Yes, I saw him! ]
kissed his cold lips and his golden
hair and held his dear head against
my heart!" exclaimed the excitable
creature, and in a moment she was
weeping frantically and wringing her
hands. ~
Olive waited for this paroxysm to
wear itself out, and then said calmly:
"Can you tellme how it hsppened?'
cit was q quarrel over cards!"
sobbed Mrs. Helmholtz. In that
part of the world it is mostly quarrels
over cards. It was in a mining-town
IN California. Henri Yam Tassel lmy
brother, I always called him; I should
have told you that I was poor waif,
picked up on the plains by another
French Canadian family, who were
making their way from Montreal to
California across the contine emit, more
than twenty years ago)-well, Henri,
Carlos and myself had just9reached
this mining-town, where we were 60
ing to give our show. Itconsisted of
of sleight-of-Hand tricks, singing and
dancing. I did the singing and dane
ing, of course: and as was beautiful
more beautiful than I am now, for I
was only seventeen-we always had
big houses and plenty of money.
The entertainment was called Pro
fessor Van Tassel's Wonders of
Magic;' but was the real magic, and
it was to see. me dance that people
came. But Henri supposed they
came to see his wonders Of mesmer-
ism and thought-reading and all such
nonsense, because he was quite crazy
Oh that subject and believed every
word Of it himself. After I left him,
I guess he found out his mistake. It
was at one of our shows that Carlos
first saw me, and then he came every
night. He was only atcow-boy, but
his father had belonged to the real
Spanish aristocracy; his name was
Mendoza, and there is wonderful
treasure belonging to the Mendoza
family hidden somewhere in Cali
fornia. That was what attracted
Carlos to our show. He had heard
of the mesmerism and clairvoyance
and all that stuff, and he thought if
there was any truth in it he might
find out something through me; but
he soon saw that l was fraud in that
way, though he declared Iwas a per-
feet witch to him and had the magic
of beauty, which was the only magic
any man ever wanted in a woman.
"Ah, mon Dieul How he made
love to me, and how I loved him! We
had been married nearly year, when
we reached the .minIng.town on the
night am going to tell you Of; the
show was over, and we had just raked
in the dust-I mean the money-you
see how it takes me back to- those
days! And 1 was waiting for Carlos.
I was waiting for him in anger, too,
for I had learned by this time that the
man who had married US was not a
real priest, and was going to ccm-
pei Carlos to do me justice or else
never see me again; and he would
have done it, too, for I had bag of
gold, and Mendoza loved the yellow
dust more than he loved me or God or
even himself. But he came no more
-ah, never more. It was Henri and
two other men that came before day
light in the morning, and laid down
before me the bleeding corpse of my
Carlos, stabbed through the heart
with his own dagger that was still in
the wound-grand Dieu! But I am
nearly mad at the thought. Gould I
have seen his murderer then, the
same knife had killed him, too. but I
never saw him; none had seen him,
and none had seen the quarrel but
Henri; only these three had been in
the room, and Carlos had brought
death On himself, for he had cheated
at the cards, and if the whole camp
had been there none would have in
terfered; for to cheat at cards, that
was o capital crime. Well, we fed
away in the early dawn, and we could
not even bury his body; but l saw
him dead, Olive. All, eherie! Dead,
dead, though saw him no more, for
the dagger had gone through his
heart till you could have touched the
point on the other side! But I
I 4lok L. sl. l