The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1907-01-04
CHAPTER XVII.

multitudinous voices of the press had
spoken their last word about the
Brangwyn MYSTERY for years to come.
Alexis was his old self again. The po-
lice had been foiled on their final clue,
and life, with all its various claims
of mind and body, had come to its own,
as it always does after any event, how.
ever momentous, until the last event
of all.
The cousins were at breakfast. and
old Sewar, with napkin over his
! arm, stood at the sideboard.
"Loy!" said Alexis, addressing his
companion with the familiar abbrevi-
alton of his name. Come into the
studio in half an hour, will you?
There's something l want to ask your
advice about"
Cali right" said Aloysius, looking
up from the study of that Mornings
Times. ell be there.'
Alexis finished his coffee, lit Gig
arctic, and strolled away. At about
the appointed TING the elder found
him sitting before half-wrought col
| ossal figure. He arose and began to
circle about it critically from a dozen
different hating places. Aloysius fol-
| lowed, engaging himself in the same
way.
What do you think of it," askel
Alexis.
1T promises" the other answered.
II don't like the pose of the head
though. You meant it for defiance?"
Yes, that's the idea"
"Have you a sketch anywhere?"
"No," said Alexis; II went straight
at it. like to work large, and clays
! cheap enough"
"Oh!" said Aloysius, half-laughing.
you'll do nothing worth doing so long
as you live until you cease to rush at
your work like a bull at gate. You
have fine talent if you choose to
use it, but you're so uncertain with it.
You've wasted heap of time here,
and the wholesthing's set as hard as
brick. If you want to utilize the idea
make careful little sketch, and have
this thing broken up, and begin again,
de novo."
ooh, dear, no. said Alexis, I'm not
going to have my Boadicea broken
up. Not by any manner of means. I'll
work at her again. I'll make Sewar
spray her and cover her in wet cloths,
and she'll be all right in week."
Every WELL" said Aloysius. ''We7l
see what you make of her. The chin
wants lifting full inch. You must
bring the eyeIids lower. should cut
the pupil deep - about two-thirds
seen. The right hands dfsproportion-
ate. It's three or four sizes larger
than the left. Bring it farther back
and mass it here"
"H'm!-yes," Alexis answered,
watching his Cousins hand as he drew
lines in the air. II think you're right,
SO far. Do you know, old man, I'm dy-
ing to get back to work again? I'm
sick of this unoccupied, unsettled life.
must take up something ambitious
something that will fasten on me and
distract my thoughts, or do sincerely
believe shall go mad. begin to I'M
derstand Eugene Aram with his 'one
tormenting, horrid thought, that
racked him all the time.'" He began
to pace up and down the room, NUT
tering under his breath and gesticu.
lating wildly.
STEADY" said Aloysius, "Steady!''
II was thinking of the poem" Alexis
answered. "What masterpiece" he
began to recite, with vibrating voice
and dreadful eyes:
"And well,"' quoth he. II know for truth
Their pangs must be extreme,
Wee! Woe! Unutterable woe!
Who spill life's sacred stream.
For why? Methought last night l
wrought
| A murder-in dream"
| 1t looked and sounded like piece
OF the intensest acting, and it startled
Aloysius, who never had thought his
cousin had any power that way. 1t
was not less than awful. The cry,
"Woe! Woe! Unutterable woe!" was
like the wall of lost soul, and the
despairing toss of the hands that went
with it was as eloquent as the tone
ITSELF Then the wall dropped to q
hoarse whisper, the last word Of which
was barely breathed, and soended hor-
rible because in some fnexplicable way
4 the tone proclaimed the word a lie and
the pretended vision q reality.
Hold op!'' said Aloysius, stern1y.
stop that! You make my flesh creep.
! Come into the fresh air. Come into
the park
why not?" returned Alexis His
face was pale, but he had turned back
to his ordinary manner. I
That scene, too, came back to Alloy
T. sius as he sat alone with those old let.
tiers. And then that ever-memorable
4 walk, the true beginning Of the mar.
1 tyrdom he had endured 70 long. Cold
looks. averted eyes, Inrecognizine
i stares from old acquaintances, people
4 gathering IN clusters To point him out
n ZACH other flirfivolv and turning ia