Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1907-03-09
ZULEIKA.

L
pines, to say nothing of the days when
we saw together strikes in Chicago and
St Paul. as well as when guns flashed at
the out-driving Of the gambler element
in Dcadwood.
1t was years after we had been apart
that we met one evening in the cozy bay
window of the rel room in the Press
club. As | entered, | heard Frascr's
voice away above the normal pitch of
that room: Hello. Madelll" We
gripped hand to hand and enjoyed it as
only men can who have been aflood and
afield together, and nave met shot and
shell. Then Fraser turned and said:
'Madell, please permit me TO present to
you my friend Sergius, the Count Hal
ioneski of the staff of his imperial
majesty, the Gar of Russia!" Of
course, | was willing to meet the count.
The conversation drifted along and |
found the count a rather good sort of
chap. He possessed the peculiar old
ivory colored sort of complexion, and
the we'll groomed aspect of the aristo-
cratic class of Russians. We dined at
the club, and later Fraser, having gone
morning paper, of which he had become
editor, | begged the count to spend the
evening with me in my rooms upstairs
where Fraser had agreed to join us later
Count TIaliOneski was most entertain
ing. Stories of his experience with his
serfs on his vast estates in Russia-of
his service in the Russian navy, followed
each other in delightful rapidity. The
seconds ran into minutes, and the min
utes spun into hours, before | noticed
that the bottle had been emptied twice
In the club we kept some fairly good
cigars, and | was using them myself
Count Haljoneski preferred his own Gig
arettes. which my sense of smell led me
to believe were of the true and real Rus
sian brand. While waiting for Fraser,
begged from the count one of his cigar
cites. He handed me his cigarette case.
1t was most fantastic affair not the
kind we usually see in America but
case which held | should say, probably
100 cigarettes. 1t was of gold, and
heavily studded with jewels outlining a
beautiful female form in stones, which
shot out sort of opalescent radiance,
giving the thing an eerie appearance.
/ took the cigarette. and lighting it,
held the peculiar ease in my hand adj
miring intently the unique setting in the
gold, when | began to feel half hypno-
TIED.
Fraser still did not return, although
had left word with the hallboy that he
should. on his arrival, be at once asked
to my rooms. The cigarettes in the
counts ease had been consuming
voraciously.
| liked them ON account of their
strange flavor, which seemed to blend
with the wine. | have a faint remem-
branee of hearing Count IIalionesk say
ing: II see that you hold i'll your hand
my cigarette case in Il manner which
leads me to suppose you admire it. |
am pleased. II was owned by one who
came long before my great grandfather's
grandfather; it is linked with the history
OF Russia. and it is to me more than an
icon, it is a talisman, a fetish, or a
good luck. 1t has strange charms" he
continued, that antique-it is what the
negroes call voodoo," and, pausing while
he lighted another cigarette, he said
when held and viewed by the person
whose nature is broad and deep, whose
soul is attuned. and whose mentality is
en- rapport, it is said to give to his vision
a presentmcnt of Zuleika"
'Who is she?" endeavored to inter
pose.
she it is understood was a woman
of that type who have blasted and shall
forever wreck the hopes of man and the
! Joys of her sisters. Perchance she was
the wife of Potiphar, the Egyptian, and
| being such fancied the admiration of the
| Hebrew Joseph. Zuleika was as Eve
was to Adam, or the enchantress to st.
Anthony, The Lorclei on the banks of
| She Rhine"
! Here his voice sounded to me as COM
/ ing from an intcrminable distance, and
| consciousness ceased. Then swift as a
swallows wing. | seemed falling, then
the sense of floating. as it were, out
INTO space, with the freedom of bird.
| Then for the one,millionth of a second a
blank, ami ,hen! All, never again for me-
IN this world, can come such moment (!
| The bright glare of the sun. for an in
slant, burned and blinded my blinking
eyes. while in amazement | gazed at the
suns reflection from the dull. brown
stretches OF ccaseless moving sands
One solitary palm waving at the hori.
lon measured the distance of my vision
| | was alone, 4 wanderer. neglected, de-
serted, forgotten. on Sahara. In my
uostrilS | Smelled the hot wind OF the
desert, and on my tongue the ever-mov-
ing sand gritted against my teeth. !
tasted the bitter.~weet flavor of the des-
ert, which parches the lips and throat
saw the mirage of the oasis in the dis.
tance and stumbled toward it. but TO fall
( tainting in the hot. inhospitable sands
was aroused to consciousness by the
clasp OF friendly arm and voice
dinned into my dull ears the saving:
We have bided. We have waited for
your coming" He lifted me from the
sands and tying me on a camel. bore me
to the east.
Long after the sun had shot the light
| from the direction we We're travelling. we
arrived at a stopping place. 1t was
bleak. bare. and its walls Were of time
eaten stone with a prehistoric arcLitee-
| ture. | was dismounted. and was at once
nuilled in q scarf which being removed
{ found myself fronting an Ethiopian