Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1904-02-04

shed. For what use IL had orig
inally been intended | cannot say.
There was neither fireplace nor win
dow. II consisted merely of four wood
en- walls, roof and a clay floor. A
grave could not have been barer, for
from floor to ceiling there wasn't so
much as nail on which to hang ones
hat. Someone had improvised a can
dlestick by jabbing the sharp point of
a big pocket-knife into the wall. The
knife had a fiat double-edge blade,
upon which there stood a guttering
candle-end, which was our only light.
AS soon as the circle was complete,
Number Two, who was the last to ar
rive, took up his place by the candle;
perhaps that he might better see the
faces of his comrades, perhaps because
he fanced that nearness, even to this
miserable emblem, constituted the
place of precedence in the assembly.
"Fellow-councillors," he said, Il am
here as promised to report progress,
but regret to say, as you must already
have assumed, that there is no progress
to report. Our glorious jubilee scheme
has failed, not for want of care on my
part, but because there has been a
traitor in our midst. The more |
think OF it, the more irresistibly am
| forced to that conclusion. Gentle
men, how did our late chief, Number
One, meet his death? We took it for
eranted-and | admit that took it for
granted-that the irreparable loss
which the society sustained by his re-
moval was the result of an accident.
But does it not strike some of you as
strange that, ever since that lamenta-
bic accident, things have gone wrong
with us, and that some power seems
to have been at work whose object aD-
parently is to pull the linch-pin out OF
our most carefully planned projects?
What about the unaccountabe occur
renee in connection with the punish
ment which we proposed to mete out
to Lord Cranthorpe? Was that the re-
suit of another accident, or was it the
deliberate fOiling of our schemes by
some one that knows our secrets? And
now what about the jubilee fiasco? |
pledge you my word brother council
lOrs, that the project was carried out
exactly as | had planned it. The cell
luloid ball, containing an explosive so
deadly and so sure that a smart rap
with the finger end would have sufficed
to explode it, was hung, as | promised
you it should be hung, exactly over the
spot where the queen was to pass.
And as she went by, |, with my own
hand, cut the thread and saw the ball
fall to the ground, scarcely a yard be-
hind her carriage. What was the re-
suit? A miserable failure! But why?
Because the ball had been tampered
with Because we have been fooled.
Instead of coming here tonight flushed
with success and proud to receive your
congratulations, | am here feeling like
and looking like fool. And only be-
cause of treachery, black, hell-damned
treachery!"
He stopped speechless with passion,
and glared around the assembly like a
madman. AS for myself, the very
heart of me went down into my boots.
No doubt his next words would be to
denounCe me. If, as he said, and said
rightly, he had been fooled, and the
ball had been tampered with, by whom
could it have been done but by the
councillor who had volunteered to as
sist him-myself, the so-called and sup
posed Number Seven?
ITO Re roDtInuad