The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-14
x THE ADVERTISERS # # M X .& # DAILY SHORT STORMY
BY GERTRUDE Story Publishing
SPIRIT OF THE STONE.

nad nam~d me as one of the attending physicians. During Cooley's Impris- onment had become very we'll ac- ouainted with him. In both his physi- cal and mental makeup he portrayed such startling evidence of the degen- crate that 1 had studied him with in- terest. Below medium height, solid and compact i'll build, his body con- unually reminded me of some gnarled and stunted tree. His neck was short and thick, and his head so hideous in shape and proportion. that it was ap- palhng to look upon. For all that he was quick, with d natural cunning and absolutely devoid of fear, as far as could discover, except on one point. His horror of death was supreme. At times the every thought or his ap- preaching end would be the signal for such an exhibition of frenzied terror that the man became beast instead of ,- human. He would not die, he said; there must be some escape.
 Crouched in the far corner of his cell, his fingers working. his eyes strained. his lips distended. he would go over and over the situation,- calling upon God for help. planning impossible schemes. finally. in sheer desperation, beating himself against the walls or the grating until he fell bleeding and exhausted.
 We expected a ghastly scene on the last morning, but to our surprise he walked quietly and without aid to the very foot of the scafford. There for the first time he hesitated with con- vulsive shiver. In another instant, however. assisted by the guards. he stood under the moose, his bloodshot eyes rowing over the group of men ranged below. Suddenly his glance fell on me. A flash of anxiety came into his face. He turned to the sheriff.
 May I speak to pr. Preston-just a minute?"
 The sheriff nodded and called me.
 1 stepped forward immediately, watching the mans hands that picked and picked necessarily. like the hands of the mortally sick.
 Doctor. I want to ask you some thing-a favor. You've been good to me. Now that I'm going I want you to do me one more kindness"
 Al right. Cooley"
 T want you to take something" He thrust his hand under his coat and held out to me bloodred ruby.
 Tt was thing they couldn't take from me-youll understand why later on. It is the finest stone in the world. 1t was for that that l killed the man. Take it. doctor for me my last favor"
 His eyes met mine with such an ex- pressjon of pleading that instinctively 1 extended my hand.
 You will!" he cried, a strong ele- ment of hope making his voice buoy ant. You vii! take it and keep it. wilingly?"
 Yes. Cooley"
 The sheriff read the death warrant. but the condemned seemed not to hear Its words. An actual gleam of color had come into his gray face. and dur Ing the awful ordeal that followed the pulling down of the cap, he never dinched.
 Just before the final signal there lame a brief pause. The silence was oppressive. Everyone stood ill at e4se, 'earfully nervous. All at once, With trim unexpectedness. the mans voice Toke the stiffness.
 Victor Preston, you have taken the tone freely. Know then that through that stone I shall be able to keep on arth-not bodily. but
 The voice of shrieking, fiendish tri- lmph was cut off. The mans body hot down with terrific force, spicning nadly for a minute before it steadied town to d gentle swing. The doctors Gew close. watches in hand. the curi- lsity that had been aroused by the nlns last words quite forgotten in professional duties.
 But not so with me. Holding the uby clutched in my left hand l had listened in horror to the criminals cry had not trembled - had not ytirred. but something within seized me with a kind of madness. Appari- lions rushed through my brain, chill ng me into stone. It was many sec lnds before a sense of where l was, md the duty for which l had come. 'estored my self-possesson.
 With as much calmness as l could command I joined the doctors who were standing in a semi-circle around he corpse. Mechanically l put out my Nand to touch the wrist of the dead nan. No sooner had my fingers come n contact with the cold. clammy hesh than, with cry. I started back. The ruby sill shut in my left hand had become like a coal of fire. l opened my fingers. Across the palm where the stone had lain q red scar was scared deep into the skin.
 l was about to leave the courtyard, explaining hurriedly and incoherently that l was not well. As l repassed the corpse. now unhooded the first rays of the rising sun struck down across the face. The eyes, lfeless, lusterIess. glassy were turned up. But to my appalled, senses they followed me as l moved. the orbs rolling from side to side.
 I stopped lnstinctively. straining my vision to detect any signs of life about the body. At last whether 1t was my excited imagination or the brightness of the rising sun, or a mere illusion, I could not say. something happened. No one else seemed to see. Yet, were any looking with such iutentness as looked? But as I watched, breathless, motionless. I felt the two eyes open wide and close again. al the same time every line on that ghastly countenance became stamped with triumphant ma lightly.
 With a suppressed groan I bounded away-afraid to go, more afraid to remain. My overwrought nerves bad brought me near to insanity.
 That was the beginning--the begin ming of months of insufferable' tor ment, years of indescribable agony. In coming to set these down in detail. the very monotony of what l endured prevents minute description. Suffice it to say that true to his word. the de- generate Cooley kept his hold upon earth through the stone had accepted from his hand. That magnificent, that f1awless stone. so marvellous to look upon, so steeped in evil, Its history outlined a series of atrocities. The very ownership proclaimed T man as Q criminal, for people dad murdered and stolen and remuFdered to gain possession of this gem.
 More than this. no matter how car