Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1901-07-15

will be to go direct to
Halle, to Robert Nordmann,
and say to him: Read this letter
from Herr Wollmeyer to my deceased
father!'-I need only give him the one
which reads:
Dear Brankwitz,-Yest [
manifested, for the present quiet.
Nordmann is condemned. I give You
power to offer as high as eighty thous-
and dollars for the property; the pub
lie auction has been fixed for Monday,
the thirteenth, instead of Friday, the
tenth.
"'Yours,
sWollmeyer.'
"Well, I think from this it is very
plain that you swOre to own nothing
more whereby your brother-in-law
would lose his property, and that this
oath was false Nothing will happen
to me if Nordmann follows up the
matter-my father is dead, and can
begin something over there with thu
price OF the letter; | have had enough
of this dogs life here"
Mammals hand now rested like iron
upon my head. For moment silence
heard the falling of a chair. the ou--
cries of an angry mans voice, as T.
two persons were struggling for life
and death. "Boy, that is my reward
for all I did for you'll" shrieked Wolf
meyer.
/ reeled. Mamma, in starting up,
had pushed me from her; / heard her
rush through the room. [ attempted
to follow her. but the door had all
ready closed behind her. I could hear
her cry: 1T is not true, Bernhard,
say it is not true!" and then her
laughter, wild, hysterical laughter. I
shall never forget it. Then the eIec-
trio bell resounded through the house
and some one passed me by with an
oath; in the darkness, to which my
eyes had now become accustomed,
recognized Brankwitz. Lights and
servants appeared upon the scene.
Then followed talking, persuasion,
warning words on the part of my step
father, and then cousin passed me, in
her arms mammals lifeless form, sup
ported by the housemaid.
Madam, dear madam" whispered
cousin, dear, dear madam!"
They paid no heed to me.
I now knew ALL Upon my step
fathers brow was the brand of
perjury. My entire body trembled;
he had by this oath cast Roberts
father into the depths of misery, and
had driven his wife to her grave, his
nephew to foreign land. and now the
curse was extended over us too, over
my poor mother and me-
All confusion had suddenly sub
sided in the house. They had taken
me from mammals bedside, although
| did not wish to stir, but with few
words cousin had succeeded in lead
ing me away. Brankwitz was in
visible; Olga Sellmann was in her
own apartment reading novel; from
time to time the maid brought her the
bulletins. My step-father paced his
floor restlessly. Servants fastened
about the town to announce that the
fete would not take place, and the doc
tor had been with mamma for hours.
I sat alone in my room. / do not
know what I thought and felt, only
one thing was clear to me, the GER
tainty that mamma would die and
leave me. Despairing grief possessed
me, but I could not weep. Almighty
Father, Thy will be done, thought |.
What should she do in the world
which offered her nothing but sorrow
and misery? But take me, too, pray
Thee! I continually repeated thu
last words half aloud, All, pray
Thee, I was tormented by horrible
thoughts. saw Wollmeyer arrested,
led away; saw the whole court filled
with people, hooking, terrible people,
who pointed their fingers at mamma
and me and said: ssThey too have par
taken of the bread of sin "a thought
which caused me to rise and pace the
floor. Let us die together, dear Lord!
No one gave me thought, and my
fancies grew more and more horrible.
The Countess had flown, upon gather
ing, from the little she had heard, the
certainty that Brankwitz was the
"necktie- manufacturer" of whom her
nephew had spoken, and Wollmeyer
his partner.
Nor was that the worst Oh,
should be left utterly alone as soon
as mamma was gone, the Countess
would desert me as WE'LL
And that unnatural silence: I stole
through the front room and peeped
out into the hall. A lamp had been
lighted, and by it's faint light the
laughing masks grinned at me from
the green frs like ghosts. Were at
least cousin with me! Did I but
know how matters were going up
stairs! And in the midst of all this I
recalled the memory of Button
Martha" who had so desperately ac-
cused the man that had driven her to
her death, and I recalled, too, the
memory of a grave in the Thuringian
Mountains. Guilt, guilt, wheresoeyer
turned, deep, dreadful guilt!