The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-17
NEW hooks.
a Tale Of genuine wonder.

4 LTACt1u 10 MI Va bOhAA tAhAN p NllIV ~
The Treasure of Peyre Gaillarl" CTbo
Century Company. IL was a very fnc
s~tairway-rich in meanderings. parabolas
landings, panellings. carvings and metallic
and crystalline ornamentations. We felt
ourselves covetous of such a stairway and
said 10 ourselves that if We had one Wa
should surely go up and Town stairs noes.
sanity a for sheer pleasure. 1t WIS plaln
10 us that the historian was not oyappe.
rating when he declared of thiS stairway
in Indigo House, a STORED mansion Of
Huguenot and Colonial times, that It was
probably the most beautiful in South Caro-.
lima, that land of beautiful stairs. It was
a stair most in~geniously contrivcd, -prInC-
| ing from buttress to buttress 10y iauras,io
fights. The irregularity Of it, curve added
to it's beauty; it rose, it paused, il rose again.
winding in dizzy spirals through the stair
well to the roof; h~esitating atthe halcony-
like landing as an eagle, soaring, seems
here and there at the turn to par~r for an
instant in it's flight to trim its wings 10 the
changed wind and then, again soaring, TO
rise upon the gale"
We followed these stairs with enthusiasm
and not without some natural sense Of
complication. The ornamental Diet al was
magnifcently copious. The wainscot, black
with time, displayed a trapezoided paueling
which was a marvel of cunning %iolnerv.
workmen brought from France had made
IL, and they had made it so that it seemed
dancing upward rather than fxedly to rise
along the easement" All along the airy
curve there were scrolls and horns Of plenty,
garlands of flowers, mouldings of exquisite
grace, rows Of figures such as John Keats
might have dreamed for the Joy OF man
kind. These figures, according TO tradition,
had a habit Of walking about and changing
their panels twice a year. There wers
~newels of Spanish mahogany, cypress,
wrought brass and ivory, Of almost super
human beauty" There were twisted caves
Of acanthus and iris. the acanthus wrought
in cypress and mahogany, the iris IN brass;
there was a wreath Of iris blooms carved N
ivory, and a pomegranate reposed in the
centre OF the wreath, set in a little garland
OF leaves.
II did not surprise us to read that this
stairway took strange hold on Jack Gignil-
latt, the hero of the tale. Ii was not thu
atmosphere of the stairs that fascinated
him. They had an atmosphere. They
conveyed a sense Of grief. the grief ~
Tristan n Iseult, of the lover of Guino-
we're; more than that, the murmur OF the
wind along the stair bore with ii "A sound
as of many voices choked with grict.'
But that interest attaching to the stains
was not the one that was particular with
Jack. He was of a scientific and mechanl-
cal turn. He went about measuring and
tapping and listening. Sherlock Holmes
was no closer an observer and WAS not
keener in looking for reasons. We were
tremendously interested rather than greatly
surprised when Jack twisted and pulled the
pomegranate and one of the wainscot panels
trembled and swung open, giving access
to a lark and draughty corridor and 10
another and secret staircase within the
wall. That Jack and his cousin, Jeanne,
the heroine OF the story, should have ira
versed this Zimmerman passage without
a light is a circumstance that may be held
TO be reasonable, sir 20 il contributes much
TO the possibility of fearful interest. II
they had taken along a candle the visit 10
old Francois lie Solitaire's secret chamber
might rave been shorn of some of is
stranRest and most desirable terrors. IL
will be a fine deep breath that the reader
will find himself drawing when Jack and
Jeanne come out through the beautifully
joinered panel again, bearing the iron box
containing the c~ryptogram and the mI-
tilated map and the other matters relating
TO the 800 pounds of treasure which had been
buried for 100 years in Pompion Swamp.
The story is fascinating all the way along.
The detail is ably managed. The reader
will surely he round eyed as he reads the
inventory of Peyre Gaillard's splendid
property. When the Re volution broke out
this planter was enjoying the princely
income OF G30,000 a year. IL puzzles US a
little where the story says regarding this
" Beyond the dreams of avarice! How
Shakespeare fits the bill" But the point
is not important.
The love making in the story is treated
all by itself in a single chapter. The ac-
count Of it is curious and rather heroically
sustained, reminding one in these particl-
lars Of the account OF the great stairway.
We may quote just a little: A presence
great and terrible, a something sweet h"-
You'd endurance, was upon the stair; an
unbidden guest, perennial ss the ages
themselves. A thousand guests had come
and gone upon those stairs; they bad come
and gone, they and their histories; they hal
faded into forgetfulness; but one guest.
mighty and ~unbidden, came and went as
comes the unbiddcn wind. There are On
earth two things not subject TO will and
reason; one is death; the other a. strange,
invisible, enchanting presence, with power
over the hearts Of the lovely and the young.
By nature and by instinct the element Of
dreadful fear is with them both inco~ poratcc,
a paradox of strange and fatal Compo~l-
ton. On the stairway aof Francois n
Solitaire the Unbidden and Immortal Guest
was standing face to face with these u~nsceiuE
children of mortality. Like wind in tine
night he came; like wind through the night
he might go. The moment tremblcl
potential. With faltering breath the shrink
ing girl waited his advent, not knowing
what she waited"
That was Jeanne waiting for Jack 10 k--
her hand. There is soaring poetry as well
as minute fact in the story. An unusually
clever and interesting tale.
Historical.
The long series of books in which 'he
associated college professors are narratlrL
leisurely. under the editorship Of Pro.
Albert Bushnell Hart. tho history of 30