The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1907-01-31
THE
BrangWyn Mystery

liquid and left them so. 1t was a hair
bleaching preparation OF his own in
yention, and he was well assured that
the frost OF seeming age would be up
on his head before he had repeated the
process half a dozen times. Ne placed
the bottle and small sponge with
which he had applied a portion of its
contents in the bag beside the bank
notes. Then he finished the whisky
he had taken with him, lit a cigar, and
sat down to think and to wait until he
could arrange the mop into which he
had made his hair.
He was not at this time conscious
OF much beyond a certain numbness Of
the mind. The shock Of his cousins
telegram had come heavily upon him
and had left him with little more than
a nightmare ems that some great
time OF horror was approaching. And
yet with all this he could make the
clearest picture in his mind. He saw
the men and ome whom he knew
best, and looked on whilst the newg
was told to them. He saw Aloysius
before his accusers, and saw him
produce the document which saved
himself because it condemned the
writer.
He saw himself flying southwark
with a score of divergences at obscure
country places from which branch
lines parted for other places, whence
he could work %sinuously back to the
main line again. He saw himself,
silver-haired and bowed, hating along
the streets supported by a staff. He
saw two keen-faced men-one French,
n English-in a railway carriage
detectives, with a warrant for the ar
rest OF Alexis Brangwyn. He saw
Lillian with a look of incredulous hor-
ror in her eyes. He saw her face
change to loathing and disdain.
1t was all idle thinking, with a numb
nausea at the back of it, but the pic
lures flashed upon his mind as wildly
as II he saw them as things present
themselves in dreams of unusual dis
tinctness. When his hair had dried
he restored il to its usual order, open
ed his door, and, carrying his calf
skin handbag and bestowing it upon a
table In the outer room, babe his ser
want pack for him the things needful
for a possible absence of three days.
Il may be away longer" he said.
Il may be back before
He took a last look, a conscious
look, at all the costly objects Of art
with which he had surrounded him.
self: the cleaning marbles, one or two
of them the work of his own hands:
the bronzes with which the walls were
rich, the fine etchings, the proofs be-
fore letters, the little gems of water
color signed with we'll known names,
many of them the gifts of friends.
Now cut and fetch a hansom,' he
said, when the man had finished pack
ing; land be quick about It,"
He was driven to the railway station
and arrived there with five minutes to
spare. He bought a little pile OF mag
azines and a novel. For all his be.
numbed mind, and for all that he was
flying for his life, he had thought
enough for his own comfort to thrust
into his handbag an unbroken box OF
cigars he reserved for his own special
smoking.
He encountered nobody whom he
knew, and, as it CHANGED, he had the
compartment he had chosen TO him.
self. The train bore him on the old
familiar, often-traveled line through
the sunshine Of the open fields. AS he
lay back in his corner smoking, and
looking from time to time out Of the
window, and now and then at the
pages OF the book he held In his hand,
there was nothing in his aspect which
could have denoted to a stranger the
purpose OF his journey. He thought
idly that in all his speculations on
this time he had never realized how
little exciting 1t would prove. And
yet he knew quite we'll that there were
a horror and a terror waiting for him
from which he should never escape
whilst life should last.
An acquaintance whom chance had
thrown In his way. a working journal
list whom Billery had brought one az
ternoon to the old garnet studio in
Paris, had told to Aloysius and himself
the story Of an execution. It was grim
ly told, with all the detail Of the born
observer Of events, and told, too, by a
born recounter, who had since achiev.
ed a sort Of celebrity that way. 1t
came to his mind now and he saw it
all with that creative artist eye of his
the hangman pinioning his stony
prey, the procession from the con
demned cell to the gallows, the chap
lain reading the burial service over
the living man, the investiture in the
white cap, the drawing Of the noos
about the neck. Alexis sat up with a
pale face, and passed his forefnge-
round the inside of his collar, drawing
1t from the windpipe. where it seemed
to exert an unpleasant pressure, and
moistened his dry lips with his tongue.
He reached Dover and lounged aim
lessly about the place. and made a
rretence Of luncheon and drank a pint
II champagne. Looking at his COM
'anions at table he said to himself:
III any Of these people know me by
light and name they'll make an adj