Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1904-02-06

knew now the man whom l loved.
and / covered my face with my hands
that | might not see him stricken down
before my eyes. But the awful fascina-
ton of it was greater than my will /
mad to look again. Tine face of Harold
Waring was covered with beady per-
spiration, and in his eyes lurked grew
some despair.
THE stick he gasped, as he passed
the table.
But George Vardon chung to it despair
ingly, imploring Harold to save him at
any price, for heavens sake to save him.
oh. you coward, | flung at him.
Then, with a sudden inspiration:
The stick ON the desk, Harold, l
cried to him.
He reached the desk in safety. grasped
the stick, and as he touched the roller
top desk it swung back. From the desk
two more eobras slid with dull thud to
the ground. Harold Waring made his
way to a corner of the room. and made
last stand with his back to the wall.
Again and again he beat back the
venomous reptiles with swift cuts of the
stick, or tramped upon them with his
heavy boot heels. But the end was near,
and / knew II.
/ could stand it no longer Snatching
the stick from the palsied hands of
George Vardon, | leaped TO the ground
and made across the room. | heard a
tile fell suddenly STILL The whistle was
repeated, and they began to crawl toward
the box from whence they had come.
A panel slid aside in the wall, and my
late unce's valet, Lal Singh, stood smil-
ing in the opening.
He looked from one to another of as
with a curious light of understanding iii
his eyes. as if he appreciated perfectly
the part that each had played in the
scene just finished. Then he came for-
ward with his usual obsequious bow and
handed me letter.
| took it, swayed uncertainty for a
moment and pitched forward in a faint.
When | came to myself Harold was
bending over me with Il face like chalk.
Lal Singh and George stood back little
way. the one still smiling, the other with
twitching limbs.
/ tore open the letter and read it. The
signature Mt the bottom was my dead
uncle's:
Dear Nora-The-e can come to a woman
no greater misery than to marry the wrong
man She had better be in her grave than
to find that the man she has promised 70
love and honor is selfish and coward.
From long experience j know that Ii would
lie useless for me to tell YOU which of your
cousins Is a man and which is not, so /
have arranged Il little test for you to judge
them by 1t Is at supreme moments that
there appears the difference between the
coward and the brave man. For that reason
i HNFH Drought you anu them IuCS TO lace
with such a moment. If the strain has
been q hard one, remember that it has
been only on account of the great love /
bear you, and forgive.
JAMES wARING.
| handed the letter to Harold Waring,
and he read it aloud. George Vardon
shrank back in shame his breath com
ing in labored gasps.
When he had finished reading, my sol
der cousin faced me. but with counte-
nance from which all color of blood had
fled.
And this-'little test'-has it availed,
Nora p he asked.
There was something in his manner
that forbade me to trihe with him.
Yes, know now" | said. 1T is you
love, Harold"
He took Inc in his arms and kissed me
once. then put me from him.
You will have but Il short courtship
and sad, long mourning. Nora. for--I
think | am about to die. sweetheart. I
was bitten three times. and the bite of
the cobra is--fatal," he told me sadly.
Then, smiling little. You see one of us
is to die within the hour after all'
Not 50. sahib." interposed the soft
voice Of Lal Singh THE fangs Of the
cobras had an been removed. w Mcfs$
X. in Illustrated Bits.