Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-03


| knees, and are sewing different colored
| threads into it. The lady directs them.
NOW she moves toward the bed There is
some one lying on it, hidden by bear
SKIN. At the head Is the golden vase. The
| lady lifts the coverlet. Beneath, there re-
poses dead man, with yellow hair and
beard He lies upon his shield, his spear
I and sword beside him. The lady falls
| across the body weeping
This scene was clear enough to Idris'
comprehension. The dark-haired lady was
the ancestress of Beatrice herself, Hilda
the Alruna, mourning the death of her
husband, Orm the Viking; and the maidens
were the captive nuns who had wrought
the figured tapestry that had decorated the
interior of Ormfell.
THE maidens tremble as the stern-faced
warriors enter the hall to carry away the
body of their chief. He is borne aloft to
| the place of sculpture upon his brazen
shield The lady follows, clasping the urn
to her BOSOM"
Beatrice paused for a moment, and then
began another picture.
The green hill-tomb rises high in sunny
air. and close by murmurs the voice of the
restless sea-. The dead warrior is laid upon
an altar of wood. Many persons stand
around A fair-haired boy touches the
pile with a flaming torch. AS he does
SO, shout goes up to the sky"
Though Beatrice's utterances were not
marked by any rhythmic measure she
nevertheless began to intone them to an
air. which Idris Immediately recognized as
the Ravengar Funeral March, the requiem
that had made so strange an impression
upon him when played by Lorelie upon the
organ Of st. Oswald's Church.
See the CLEAN of lifted lance and shield!
Hank to the wailing of the women, as they
beat their breasts and rend their tresses
Tor the death of their great chief! List
10 the warriors as they clash their brazen
buckles with changing sword-strokes! Now
rises the wild barbaric song of the long
haired scald, hymning to his harp the
| md oh fiv,rr <l,o
urge that shall never be forgotten by the
Raven-race. Upward mount the flames
OF the pyre. See how the maddened raven,
tied to the fagot with slken thread. flaps
his wings and screams with terror, pecking
at the bond that holds him. The volumed
smoke hides him from view; the fire sewers
the thread: now he scars heavenward,
bearing the soul of the warrior to VAL
halla. The fire burns long, glowing in the
breath of the breeze. Now it fades glim-
mers and dies out The lady draws near
with the urn; within it are reverently
placed the ashes of the dead"
Beatrice ceased her intonation, and con-
tinued In quieter tone.
TT is a square place, built of stone. Men
are moving about. Some carry torches
Others are decking the walls with tapestry
hanging it from a metal rod. There is a
stone receptacle in the center The dark
haired lady places the within this and
retires. The lights vanish All is silence
and darkness-siIence and darkness"
1t was clear that Beatrice had been de-
scribing the incidents attending the death
ana burial of Orm. Her account had
cleared up one mystery. The contents of
the urn were nothing less than the ashes
of the old Viking. the ancestral dust from
which Beatrice herself had sprung! This
completely answered the question as to
what had become of his remains and fur
nished additional proof that the skeleton
in the sarcophagus was not that of Orm
But here disqueting thought presented
Itself VINO had removed this urn from the
tomb In Ormfell and in what way had
Lorelie become possessed of it? He dis
missed the question for the moment In or
der to listen to Beatrice, who was speaking
again.
Footsteps round about. Light shines
through the interstices of the tomb Some
one is speaking. 1t is the dark-hared lady.
There is a man with her. They take off
the I'D or the tomb and put in all kinds of
bright things-coins and rings. gold and
silver ingots, cups, lamps, precious stones
and the like. They sparkle in the light,
The tomb is full. They lay the rest on the
floor Now they steal away. The light
goes with them. Silence and darkness
again"
Thus far Beatrice's monologue had dealt
with period of history distant by thou
sands years, and had told Idris little that
he did not already know. Would she con-
tinue the story of the urn through the sue
ceeding centuries? Would she reach mod
ern times, and speak of those who had re-
moved the treasure? would she describe
the Inat ndQ taken place, and tell
how the urn came to be in Lorelie's DOS
session?
Spellbound he waited for the sequel If
any one had told him that the Vikings
treasure was lying upon the roadway out
side to be his own for the mere trouble of
walking thither, he would not have stirred
from his position.
Beatrice had been silent for some time,
when Lorelie, speaking in the same tone
of authority that she had used throughout,
said:
What comes next?"
The dropping of moisture from the roof"
What neXt?"
'Silence and darkness"
Idris began to think that he was doomed
to disappointment. Each scene described
by Beatrice had been followed by an inter-
val, sometimes long, sometimes short, APP
parently Preparedness to the actual length
of time that had elapsed between each
event. How many minutes were to serve
as a measure of the space that separated
the age of Orm from the date of the re-
moval of the treasure? Not SO many he
trusted, as to cause Lorelie to bring her
experiment to a close.
How much time is paSsing?"
"Centuries-long centuries-centuries of
silence and darkness.
For long time Beatrice continued to
sit without speaking. At length, to Idris'
satisfaction she resumed her monologue.
"A smuffied noise like spade digging.
The falling of earth. Some one is going to
enter"
rs this person the first to enter the hill
lock since the days of the dark-haired
LADY,"
THE very first. Cool air blows down the
passage, filing the chamber with it's fresh
ness 1t penetrates the chinks of the
tomb
Are there several men, only one?'
"One only"
What is he doing?"
He waits a long time at the entrance.
Now he comes forward along the passage.
He carries light; 1t CLEANS through the
interstices of the tomb. He walks about
his feet striking against pieces of metal.
He seems to be picking up some. Now,
with a cry. he drops them They ring on
the hard earth. There are fresh footsteps
coming along the passage. Coming quickly,
too!''
Beatrice's voice had lost some of it's cold
ring; she seemed to be less of an automa-
ton and more of living woman, capable
of being moved by what she saw and
heard. Idris did not fail to notice the
change. 1t was an agreeable change, but
cminous for his hopes. She seemed to he
emerging from her trance, emerging too
at very significant point of the story
He noticed, too that Lorele's interest
had kept pace with his own; there was on
her face look of painful anxiety that had
been entirely absent in the earlier stages
of the experiment
"A second man has entered the place.
There is silence. They seem to be stand
ing still. looking at each other. Now they