Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-11-06
THE DAILY
SHORT STORY.
The Return of Buddha.

I'm 1af from wen. says ne merry
ously. 'But you needn't be frightened
Of infection or anything like that. Fact
is, I've been poisoned-poisoned near
place I've got in west Ceylon, near Pa
latupane. 1t began five years ago last
month" lie went on IN dreary sort of
way, land / suppose l was i'll some de-
gree To blame at first.
You see there was so little for a
man 10 do about my district, and not a
soul to speak To except natives, and
one naturally got wild for bit of ex
element. Still l think l must have
had some drink i'll me at the time or
shouldn't have gone messing round
temple. | suppose the priests looked
/ further ahead and thought they could
get more out OF me dead than alive. SO
+ they poisoned me-
But. pardon me, wasn't it rather Al
mad thing of you to eat anything in
such place.
Il neither ate nor drank. l was not
So insane as that.
''One OF them gave me push with
cane he had In his hand, and l felt
tiny prick and the thing was done.
1t was not till IL week after that |
began to get seedy. But the worst of
I il was no one could make out exactly
what was the matter with me-neither
native Quack nor white doctOT--and for
three whole years l hadn't ghost of
notion myself either. l just wasted
down.
1t was just three years after that al
/ fair in the temple that L got the first
/ inkling OF what was the matter with
me- and then only Indirectly from
HwhiSperings among the coolies. But Il
man in as bad Il fix as l was will clutch
at any hope. and so l got Il palanquin
rugged and had myself carried away
through the woods to the gloomy little
temple
The priests were fulsomely civil.
They remembered my honOred visit,
time back: were Frustrated with the
honor l did them in apolosizing. but
fatty denied that they had any hand in
doing evil To- my celestial person.
so | went YEARLY back again ami in
a week had mysterious communic;-
ton handed mellow. l know not
couched in very grammatical English.
1T stated simply that for my insult
TO them the gods. through their servant
I priests. had chosen To punish me. Al
ready / had tasted Of their power in
that had wasted from Il heavy. strong
man To Il puny skeleton l could save
myself by delivering my own ransom
ON the threshold of the temple.
Years back. so | read. Il wandering
Irishman had visited the shrine aud
Z had purloined a bronze statue OF Bud
dha possessed of infinite sanctity. He
had departed. leaving small trace. and
had taken with MIN the BuddGa to the
place whence he had come.
THE letter went OH To- give minute
description of the lost treasure and its
iprobab whereabouts and wound up
! by assuring me that il. ana IL alone,
contained the sole antidote which
would cure me How the healing drug
was to he administered the writer for
/ bore To tell. but that would be shown
! when the image was replaced in its
shrine.
Convincing rs this letter was, l be-
Iieve l should have disregarded the adj
vice but for one thing. Accompanying
ii were notes for ten thousand rupees.
\ Cingalese native may lie, but he Will
never outlay his money without seeing
clearly very good return for it,
And SO l set out. with old death al
ways squirting me to hurry in the
search. and after three weary months 1
have found the Buddha in your house.
1t remains to see if you will surrender
ii to me"
That was the fellows yarn. OF
course 1 took him to Ice mad at first.
but as lie went OH. in spite of myself I
could not help believing in il. l took
him into the hall and lie spotted the
beastly green thing on its perch in
minute.
That's my fate" says he; land, look
you. inside it there ought Ia he a small
packet OF purple powder done up in a
scrap OF snakeskin. May | look
Go ahead" says /; and. reaching up
/ his bony hands with a bit of a shudder,
lie presses knob. aud I'm blessed il
I the little idols stomach didn't swing
out on a hinge. showing Il tiny cup
board which held the speckled snake
skin and the stuff, just as he said.
"And what are, You asking Tor this
piece OF bronze? You know what it's
worth TO me. but I've not much money
left. / ask you, as a man, not To he too
hard with the pricer'
"Oh, cOnfOund you says /, Il bit con
fusedly. 81 may he fond of driving Il
stin bargain over horsehair sometimes,
! but I'm not altogether n brute. Take
the ugly thing with YOU and welcome"
Well, the fellow went away, and for
a long time / heard no more of him,
\ and Mabel said I'd been swindled 10y a
clever rogue. and / began TO think as
much myself, although 1 didn't say so.
And then, by Jove, a long letter full OF
thanks came to say that he'd delivered
up his prize, and the priests stood to
their promise and he was getting well
rapidly.
And after that we didn't hear any
thing more till about a couple. OF
months ago, when some lawyer out
Shere wrote to say that the poor fellow