The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1902-11-27

SchOuler, was entirely satisfied with
the result of Edwin's visit to his ia
Their; the youth came back to her
with a pitiful pleading to be al
lowed to see Henrietta. But she had
to deny him, she said. Her plan
was to force an elopement, and the
boy must be goaded to a very frenzy
of desire. She privately determined to
allow their next attempted meeting,
which was due within two days. But
when that time arrived she was thun-
derstruck to find that another plot
ter had entered the game; that Hen
rietta had been, in some ineXplicable
way, spirited away from her house,
half an hour before the young man
made his backyard entry to a de-
serted first-fioor parlor.
As the youth opened the Sears
front door on the evening following
his burglarious entry, the girls aunt
met him, wild-eyed and distraught.
"Oh, where have you taken Hen
rietta? Where is the child?" Mrs.
Sears was in the agony of fear.
ZIP" queried the astonished boy.
81 have not seen her for months.
Oh! what has become of her-why
did not see her last night?" Mrs.
Sears promptly tainted, and was
given over to the care of her maid.
Edwin could get nothing more from
her. But he was determined to find
Henrietta and marry her at once.
In a delirium of fear for the girl
and rage at his own cursed stupidity.
he started to walk back to his rooms
in Cambridge. He never got to them.
He disappeared from the college
world as completely as though the
earth had opened to swallow him.
On the top of Cardigan mountain
in New Hampshire, a stern-faced old
man directed the labors of two score
of workmen. This horde had sudden
ly descended upon the peaceful hill
village two days before, and straight
way began the erection on the noun
tain top of curiously divided, sub
stantial structure, where, it was an
nounced, a certain rich meteorolog-
zeal eXperimenter was to spend the
winter and spring. 1t was a matter
of snow formation and precipita-
ton, it was said, in which Prof. But
Ter was interested.
Two days from the appearance of
the worlmen the last nail was driv-
en-, and a train of wagons, loaded
with a winters supply of food and
clothing, was started for the top
And that evening, when the darkness
blotted out every feature of the
landscape, the old man appeared
with a clinging, rightened-looking
girl on the mOuntain-top. On the
next evening, the darkness blotting
everything from view as before, the
old man brought up younger man,
to be, as he said, assistant to the pro-
fessOr. Then with a corps of close
mouthed helpers, the eXperimenters
shut themselves away from the world
and were buried in the snow of the
mountain-top.
The mythical Prof. Buffers expert
ment station was constructed in a pc
anchored structures, identical in size
and shape, were set on the very edge
of precipice that dropped sheer 500
feet. Three walls of each structure
were windowless, unbroken save by
heavy doors-the third, fronting the
precipice, had abundant light and ven
tilation. And between the two struc-
lures, opening into each, was a long,
covered corridor, lighted from the
north, but through which, when it
was completed, no man could pass.
Old Richard Dumble, who had as
sumed the role of the professor,
took his son to the end of this
strange corridor, and, pointing to the
door that doomed at the other end,
said:
in the room at the end of this
long passage is the foolish young
girl you profess to love better than
your own life. This door here, as
you see, is open, and will be left I'M
locked. Yonder door is likewise freely
passable. But between these doors is
this passage, through the floor of
which, when either of you tries to
pass, you will fall upon the rocks
500 feet below. / have had marked
upon this passage floor the point be-
You'd which you may not go with
out breaking through. On the girls
side l have taken the same precau-
ton.
81 shall keep you both up here
until you are tired of this farce you
call loving. l can trust my helpers.
1 have everything ready to keep you a
year if necessary. Whenever you
are ready to come to me and swear
that you have banished all thought
of Miss Schouler from your mind,
will have you both released, send you
back to Harvard and make a man out
of you.
But if, in reality, you love one an
other better than life, you have only
to rush together through this pas
sage to romantic death. Rather
than to see you mated with that girl,
l would come up to this mountain
when the snow is gone in the spring
and gather your bleached bones off
the rocks. You won't do anything
so foolish, l know, and so goodby,
my boy, until you send for me-"
The old man went out hurriedly,