Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1902-04-29

HERR STEINHARDT'S NEMESIS
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. NIAl!lgslsAIIllIlltIllVIl!
BY ]. MAcLAREN coBBAN.

" sN.tsess!ss.vs!tS.ss.s!gs.es.sAsssA
friend Freeman.
learned in few words from Free
man that the poor fellow had been EN-
ployed for years at the chemical works
where he had contracted liberation o.
the lungs; on Sunday night he had
stood in the doorway of the crowded
church, had caught cold and had come
home to the bed from which he woulo
never rise again.
While he spoke he was seized with 8
fit of violent delirium, in which he had
to be restrained from getting out o.
bed. Soon he calmed down again into
more lucid interval. While he lay
speechless, and a neighbor by the bed
kept moistening his dry, cracked lips
with rag soaked in brandy and water
he gazed around him, and at last fixed
his eyes ON me, and essayed to speak
but no words came. This prostration
and silence continued for some time.
Now and again the head of the family
would ascend from the kitchen Tin his
stockings, lest he should make noise),
and stand in solemn silence with in
quiring eyes on his son; he would stand
SO still and retired that his presence
was forgotten till the gulp of big sob
was heard, and the loose back of his
large waistcoat was seen disappearing
round the door. At length the son
found speech.
"Father," he said, when the old
man was about to withdraw. 'bide."
He then signified that all the others
should leave the room except Freeman
and myself. When they were gone he
motioned his father to his pillow. The
old man went.
"Ha'e you summat to say, Dick?' He
nodded. ''Mun raise you up?"
He was raised and propped up with
pillows. He asked for drink, and
was given some whiskey and milk.
"I'm dying mon," he began; 81
know I ann His eyes, glazed with
disease and want of sleep. turned wildly
about: his head dropped; and his
damp thin fingers (still discolored with
dye) clawed at the bed clothes. He
resumed fixing his eyes on me-"I
must confess summat; I hope God'll
forgive me. had nought to do WI it;
what for should 1? He was aye good
to me. had nought to do wit, tell
you!'
"No, lad" said his father to soothe
him; "thoo hadna."
"Weel," said he, "dunnot say had,
because hadna. Wasna 1 on night
shift? That was all. I took jim S
place; he wanted to go whoam to wife
in bed wi babby. That was it,
He muttered on some other phrases,
while he turned his eyes about as if
lost; his recollection was wandering
He resumed with energy, "They came
right in, speaking loud and angry. He
walks up to thing, and lifts lid. j
knowed it!' says he. But yo' medina
let a. tn world know it!'says TIL other.
This shannot be!' says he.''
The poor fellow was growing terribly
excited; every word was uttered with
fierce emphasis and wild gesture; his
eyes were fixed on vacancy. and, in my
reflex excitement, fancied 1 saw the
interior of the color shed, with it's
vague tinted vapors, through which
loomed the figures of two quarreling
men, whom tremblingly watched in
imagination by the side of this dyed
demon of the vat. The man grew so
excited, and we were so engrossed, with
his revelation, that he had risen to his
knees in bed before we could prevent
him. He continued his fierce, dis.
jointed utterances.
'We mum ha' no more of itn says
he. He leans lower! All. Lord! he
wants to spill it! A-h-hv"
With wild leap he was standing up
in bed and fiercely initiating the action
of man stopping, and tipping or
throwing some heavy body. We were
so transfxed with surprise and horror,
that we could not stir hand to restrain
him. He looked like weird corpse
suddenly raised from the dead to a
grotesque, galvanic life. What chiefly
seized my attention was the black
shadow on the wall of this delirious fig
ure thus stopping with his head and
hands outstretched. The incident lasted
but a moment, and then the poor man
fell back on his pillow with distracted
cries.
"Murder! Oh, my God! murder!
An couldna speak! Nay, couldna!
But I'd nought to do owi't!-nought!"
Again he lay exhausted, and mis- rel
atives and neighbors came back hur-
riedly to his bedside to wall over him.
He looked sadly but calmly on them,
gasping in the last faint struggle of
nature against dissolution. And so he
died, and the wailing broke out re-
doubled.
Before Freeman and I left the house
together to go out into the cool summer
morning air, the old man said quietly
to us-"I've seen for long he had sum-
mat on his moind, but what he means,
I Gonna tell; so we'd best ho'd our
tongues, think"
CHAPTER V.