Los Angeles herald., 1906-08-26

w pehtu from Cne library Dy ner faCner,
! fsyS(TS5I the Pasha Jibaoff sheer physical pain
| GSkeSV drove for the time all thought from
| mind. She limped down the corridor
uttering screams which her fortitude was un
aole to suppress, screams OF agony But when
Vne pam had in a measure subsidized the spirit
winch she had unconsciousy inherited from her
maternal stock at last asserted ITSELF and the
long dormant hate with which her fathers con
slant brutal treatment had inspired her awoke
to life and sudden vigor
Deslre wandered through the castle, restless
as q lost SOUL searching feverishly for she knew
not what. 1t is at such moments as this that
the rates delight in assisting the puppets whom
thelr vagarles control. Desire came upon a ne
gro servant lying sleeping at his post The
sight gave her thrill, and like flash of light
nlng long train of possibilities occurred to her.
Tor the mans pistol had slipped from his belt
and lay idly on the floor beside him.
She would take the pistol, make her way into
the network of tunnels underneath the island
and thence proceed to the panel that opened on
the gallery of books above the library of her
grandfather
She knew the secret of the panel: well. she
would open it and lying perdu on the floor de-
hberatey shoot her father and thus avenge her
self for the long series of insults which that
night had crowned, and also save the friend she
loved from shame, for Desire had grown to love
Miss Elliott with passionate devotion.
Swiftly, noselessy as phantom, she ap-
preached the negro and caught up the pistol
without disturbing him, then with the speed of
thought she glded from the castle and approach
ed the boathouse.
Entering, she suddenly remembered that the
tunnel door was locked and she no longer pos
sessed a key to open it.. But she had thrown
prudence to the winds. She skilled chem
list, and many explosives in her charge.
Choosing bottle from her laboratory, she
quickly and roughly manufactured an open
] &c Id -..-l..-- III ~
of the iron door, she balanced above it a heavy
block of iron with cord attached which she
could release and precipitate its weight upon the
fluid.
Cautiously retiring for distance without the
shed she pulled the cord and Instantly an ex-
plosion like the noise of muffed gun sounded
duly through the silence of the night 1t was
this noise which had startled the Count and
fJibaloh as they were about to resume their play.
Careless of consequences, the excited girl hur-
ried back to the boat-shed and slammed the
door behind her. Striking match scene of
terrible wreckage met her eyes, but scarcely CLAN
cling at the ruin about her she gave a cry of tri
umph, for the tunnel door torn and bent
inwards like crumpled sheet of paper and the
dark pathway lay open to her desires.
She came at last to the final cavern chamber
which she knew lay directly underneath the
chateau. There her precautions commenced for
she knew that each slightest sound made would
become magnifed by resoundng echoes and
might penetrate to the castle and thus warn her
prospective victim Holding the candle on high,
she dimly two flights of steps leading spiral
| ly upwards from the opposite wall, and with the
utmost care she prepared to cross the chamber.
She already almost in the centre of the cav
ern when slight grating noise in the darkness
far overhead arrested her attention
She glanced up, to catch suddenly a CLEAN of
light a hundred feet above, to hear a mans
wild shrek of mortal fear; two fateful seconds
afterwards there crashed at her very feet dark
and dreadful substance the rush of whose fall
extnguished the light she carried.
There ensued a repetition of the queer graf
ing sound she had heard at first, then leaden
silence and an awful gloom that weighed upon
the senses like a pail.
Desire felt by instince that she not alone,
and chill of terror held her spellbound and
breathless for long, frightful moment, during
which icy fingers seemed to twine round her
body like thin currents of coldest air. clutchng
at her heart and making her flesh creep, her very
soul turn sick and shudderng
With courage born of desperation, she struck
a match at last, and the ftfu cleaning of the
vesta showed her the form Of mangled corpse
lying on the rocky ground scarce yard away,
crushed and battered almost out of human sem
blance Desire became conscious of a sentiment
of pity Relighting her candle, she fell on her
knees beside the body, and with trembling hands
tried to feel if any spark of life remained. A
moments examination assured her that death
had irrevocably claimed victim, and the girl
slowly turned to the mans face in order that she
might ascertain who the victim
She saw and saw too that her hands and
feet were STAINED and dabbled with her own
fathers blood. All thoughts of anger and re-
2 venge faded quickly from her SOUL and with a
5 sharp revulson of feeling came horror and re-
morse.
She had intended to kill her father, and had
, Providence allowed it another few minutes would
B.. have made her parricide, but confronted with
7 her fathers corpse, she could only think OF the
! hopelessness. the unutterable soemnity and
5 terminalty of death This mangled, blood-be-
S spanQled shapeless thing had no later than a
v minute since been a living breathing man,
A creature powerful for evil, who had robbed many
better men of life and only half hour ago
0 brutally assaulted her.
e With gasping cry full of terror. for panic
had seized her, she ran like one pursued, spring
:. ing recklessly down steps and over crags, until
a the sudden darkness warned her that she must
a pause for safety. Trembling in every limb, she
lighted her candle, then hurried again and
n soon had gained the boat-shed.
h She was about to return to the castle, when
a another fear beset her She saw in Silhouette
against the sky a band of silent black-robed fig
s ures stealing down the steps, her grandfather
palanquin in the van,
~ Sinking behind a rock, she watched their sub
% seauent proceedings the murder of her fathers
boats crew the launching Of the torpedoes the
destruction of the Turkish Yacht
She saw her mother pass like phantom up
le wards TO the castle, she marked the Count and