The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-07-07
18O 9... 18 94
coPYRIcHT 1907 BY IRVING KING ALL RIcnTJ REsrRyEn

he had been inhaling chloroform. Then 1t seemed to him as if the deadly eyes were losing their flame and fascination and were growing dull and tame. He heard a slight breathing in his ear. and, recovering his powers suddenly. he half turned, to see Elsie venner beside him, staring motionless into the rep tiles eyes. which had shrunk and faded before the stronger enchantment of her own.
 Elsie drew him away and he sat down for a moment, wiping the cold precipitation from his forehead. Then he followed her down the mountain half in 8. dream. The next morning the whole adventure seemed weird and hardly credible. Had 1t taken place exactly as he remembered 1t or had he fallen asleep sitting on the stone near the serpents den and dreamed part of 1t before Elsie awakened Lim7 Both as a man and a deep student of medi- cine the affair perplexed and fascinated him.
 One night soon after this occurance Dick venner took his wild steed out Of the stable and galloped along the coun- try roads in the moonlight among the sleeping farms. In field he saw a horse left to graze He drove the horse into the road and started him into a run. When he had the fleeing horse galloping at rattlesnake pace Dick rose in his stirrups. swung something around his head and a moose settled accurately over the head of the beast "Ah," said the gaucho to himself as he released the animal and gathered up his lasso again, T see have not lost the trick of it. Hanged himself for lovel That will make & good headline in the papers. Schoolmasters who take long walks at night are liable to have anything happen to them"
 But Dick reckoned without old Dr.. Kittredge, who knew about all that was going on in the town and who kept an especially careful watch over the people at the Venner mansion house. That Elsie was madly in love with Bernard he was not slow to per ceive; ana he was also convinced soon that Dick, whose midnight rides and whose prowlings about the institute he had discovered, was bent on having the young Brahmin's life. He set hts man, Abel Stebbins, to watch Bernard when he walked out at night. He also begged Langdon to carry a revolver always and to practice shooting.
 Bernard laughed at this at first. but the doctor was so earnest about 1t that he consented.
 There are other perils about you. 
 pityins Elsie Venner you ever come to love her you are lost. If you deal carelessly with her, beware. There are things of which I may not tell you. But be oh your guard"
 About this time the widow Rowens, @ blooming and respectable person of the two story" sort, who had mentally selected Dudley Venner as her con soler, desided to give a tea party. At 4I1 Nnh l. Ch vN1n nuA AVa Ar right, with Helen Darley next to him. She had invited poor Helen because she looked so worn and faded that the widow calculated she would make an admirable foil for her own buxom bloom. On her left sat Bernard with Miss Lefty Forester, granddaughter of Parson Honeywood, and now visiting that worthy clergyman. The others were paired off with equal skill.
 To the widows surprise and vexation Helen Darley bloomed with an un- wonted color and vivacity. Bernard as he looked across at her, thought she looked almost beautiful. This was because Dudley Venner was talking to her. He paid as little attention to his hostess as politeness would permit but he and Helen conversed like old friends in spite of the fact that 1t was the first time they had ever met.
 Mr. Bernard seemed as greatly taken up with Lefty Forester as Dudley was with Helen. In Lefty, the city bred girl, Bernard had discovered a fellow Brahmin, but one of the sort with divi- dend-paying shares and town lots gone upin price, While Bernard was talk ing with the girl he saw her shiver suddenly and then little points of moisy ture began to appear upon her fore- head. As if drawn by an occult power, she turned her face and stared straight into the eyes of Elsie. who was gazing at her with a look of dull hatred. Ser nard felt a sense of anger. Bending his eyes at Elsie so as to draw her gaze upon him, he looked straight into her gleaming eyes. steadily and calmly. It was possible for him only by a great and exhausting effort for some inex- plicable reason. At one instant he thought he could not stay where he was-that he must so and speak 10 the
 e 'sIIodBauuIW :L 'SeHuBMUW
 mently to take his eyes from hers; there was something intolerable in the light that came from them. But he forced himself to look her down. All this took not minutes. but seconds.
 Elsie suddenly changed color slight ly, lifted her head, which had been in- clined little to one side, shut and opened her eyes two UT lnroS times Ab if they had been wearied or pained. turned away baffled. and shorn. 1t would seem, for a time of her singular and formidable, or at least evilnatured. power of swaying impulses of those around her.
 There came a particularly tiresome day in the school soon after. and Ber- nard felt that he must take a little stroll before he turned in in spite of the doctors warning. He walked along a deserted country road. think ing of Lefty Forester and wishing and dreaming as young men will when the moon shines. He heard the sound of hoofs at a distance, and, looking for ward, saw a horsemain coming toward him at an easy pace. He was really ashamed of himself when he found his hand on the butt of his revolver.
 When the horseman was within hundred yards of him the moon. that had been hidden by a flying cloud. shone out clearly and revealed each man to the other. Putting his horse at full gallop, the rider dashed toward Bernard. rising in his stirrups and swinging something around his head. Bernard felt a rope settle upon his shoulders There was no time to think. He raised his pistol and fired at the horse. His aim was true. The mustang gave one bound and fell life less. shot through the head. The lasso was fastened tn his saddle and hia last