Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1901-11-08
away, and after the panic and the
storm, then comes the time for the


All men who were poor would try to
seize what lay nearest to their hands,
and those of higher station, and any
soldiers who could be collected and
still remained true to command, would
ruthlessly stop and strip any man they
saw making off with plumber. had
no mind to clash with these guardians
of law and property, and so I fed ON
swiftly through the night with my
burden, using the unfrequented ways,
and crying to the few folk who did
meet me that the woman had the
plague, and would they lend me the
shelter of their house, as ours had
fallen. And SO in time we came to
the place where the rope dangled
from the precipice, and after Nais had
been drawn up to the safety of the
Sacred Mountain. put my leg In the
loop of the rope and followed her.
Now came what was the keenest
anxiety of all. We took the girl and
laid her on bed in one of the houses.
and there In the lit room for the first
time / saw her clearly. Her beauty
was drawn and pale. Her eyes were
closed, but so thin and transparent
had grown the lids that one could al
most see the brown of the pupils be-
meath them. Her hair had grown to
inordinate thickness and length, and
lay as a cushion behind and beside her
head.
There was no flicker Of breath;
there was none of that pulsing Of the
body which denotes life; but still she
had not the appearance of ordinary
death. The Nais 1 had placed nine
long years before to rest In the hol-
low of the stone was a fine grown
woman, full-bosomed and well-boned.
The Nais that remained for me was
half her weight. The old Nais it would
have puzzled me to carry for an hour;
this was no burden to impede grown
man.
In other ways too she had altered.
The nails of her fingers had grown to
such great length that they were
twisted in spirals, and the fingers
themselves and her hands were so
waxy and transparent that the bony
core upon which they were built
showed itself beneath the flesh in
plain dull outline. Her clay-cold lips
were so white that one sighed to re-
member the full beauty Of their car
mine. Her shoulders and neck had
lost their oomely curves, and made
bony hollows now in which the dust
of entombment lodged black and
thickly.
,Reverently set about preparing
those things which II all went well
would restore her. heated water and
filed bath, and tinctured It heavily
| with those essences of the life Of
beasts which the priests extract and
store against times of urgent need
and sickness. laid her chin-deep in
this bath, and sat beside it to watch,
maintaining that bath at constant
blood heat.
| An hour I watched; two hours I
watched; three hours-and yet she
showed no flicker of life. The heat
of her body given her by the bath was
the same as the heat of my own. But
In the feel of her skin when stroked
it with my hand there was something
lacking still. Only when our Lord the
Sun rose for his day did I break off
my watching, while said the neces-
Harry prayer which is prescribed. and
i quickly returned again to the gloom
| of the house.
/ 1t is hard to take note of small
changes which occur with infinite slow
ness when one is all the while on the
tense watch, and, high-strung though
my senses were, think there must
have been some indication of return
ing life shown before was keen
| enough to notice it. For of sudden,
as gazed, saw faint ripping on the
surface of the water of the bath. Gods!
would it come back again to my love
at last-this life, this wakefulness?
The ripple died out as it had come,
and stopped my head nearer to the
bath to try if could see some faint
heaving Of her bosom. some small
twitching of the limbs. No, she lay
there still without even hutter of
movements. But as watched, surely
1t seemed to my aching eyes that some
unge was beginning to warm that
blank whiteness Of skin?
How filled myself with that sight
The color, was returning to her again
beyondqa doubt. Once more the dried
blood was becoming fluid and begin
ming again to course in Its old chan
nels. Her hair foated out in the liquid
Of the bath like some brown tangle Of
the ocean weed, and ever and again II
twitched and eddied to some impulse
which In itself was too small for ths
eye to see.
She had slept for nine long years
and knew that the Weakening could
be none Of the suddenest. Indeed, i
came by its own gradations and will
Infinite slowness, and did not dar.
do more to hasten it. Further drug!
might very well stop eternally wha
those which had been used already hae
begun. So / sat motionless where
was, and watched the color come back
and the waxenness go, and even thu
fnllness of her curves in some small
measure return. And when growing
strength gave her power to endur,
| tueul, anu she was racket Win tQOS'
pains which are inevitable to being
borne back again in this fashion to life
I, too, felt the reflex Of her agony, ant
writhed in loving sympathy.
Still further, too, was / wrung by
torment of doubt as to whether life o
these sackings would in the end b
conqueror. After each paroxysm tn