The bee., 1908-05-07
A Change
Of Bill

The electric signs at either side Of
the stage winked and the number
changed to 8.
In the audience people glanced at
their programs and stumbled over the
phrases which announced Senior Avar-
lilo and Dainty Marguerite in the
thrilling death-defying knife-throwing
act
'T wish they wouldn't have such
things" said the woman with the firm
chin in the first box 1T Is so nerve
rackingl What If a knife should
slip2"
The audience held its breath with
the same mental question as the cur
tain went up and disclosed the large
upright board against which Dainty
Marguerite twice a day was outlined
by the deadly hatchets and knives Of
the Spanish gentleman attired In Grim
son and yellow and with the sweeping
mustache. Always when he first came
on and bowed to the pIaudlts Senior
AMARILLO was wont to wave hand up
ward and through one side of the mus
tache before he gracefully whirled
about toward the board. Marguerite,
unsmilingly bowling, wondered with
dull WEAKNESS how many hundred
times she had seen him make that
identical gesture.
There even had been a time when
she, too, admired It, but that had
been three years ago, when she had
Just married him and he had cared
about her. 1t had been some time
now since she had come to realize
that everything was ended for her.
When AMARILLO grew tired he also
grew brutal Not that he struck her.
His cruelty was as graceful and subtle
as his stage gestures. When she had
reproached him with the patent fact
that he cared for her no more he
had merely murmured endearing
phrases in his own tongue and smiled,
and that smile had piled the last stone
on the tomb of her hopes.
1t was not love for him. AS she
watched him sorting his deadly weap-
ons and noted his gratifed vanity at
the interest Of the spectators she won
dered If she did not hate him des-
perately. She had reached such
negative state of mind that she was
not certain even about that. She
was only deadly tired; tired Of the
footlights glaring in her face, of the
rustling of the hslf-seen people In
the body of the theater, of the orches-
ira music, and. most of all, of standing
plastered against the board.
Once he glanced at her seeingly,
and his eyes we're malignant They
changed as they swept to the wings,
where stood the song-and-dance wom-
an, who came next-all pink satin and
rouge. with her languid eyes bent
upon him. Marguerite understood, but
jealousy did not torment her, for one
gets beyond that after time. She
did not care.
1t came to her that II only she
could care about something could
be happy or enraged-life would look
simpler.
There came an excited rustllng from
the spectators as the large frame
pasted over with manila paper was set
up In front Of her as she rested
against the board, for this was the
thrilling finale Of Avarillo's act. When
she was thus hidden both from him
and the people in the theater, the
man, with an apparent blindfold over
his eyes, hurled his knives through the
paper up and down either side of her,
and then. with flourish, tore down
the flimsy shield to show Marguerite
safe and smiling amid the shining
steel blades.
She counted mechanically the
whizzes and thuds One-the knife
at her foot. Then gradually they crept
up her loft side toward her head.
A sickening disgust, the climax of
her misery, swept over her. With
sudden ferceness she desperately
swerved behind the paper barrier from
her position toward the right to be in
line with the course of the knives as
they should make the turn over her
head and creep down that side.
The singing knives were making the
line up the left side, from which she
had moved, at her waist. little high
Grand then from the spectators
smothered cry as the knife, on level
with her heart, curved and landed
three inches closer than IL should!
There was pause az If they await
ed her shrek, and then Senior AMARILLO
continued his throwing.
The woman against the board
turned her head and stared with fas-
cinated eyes. in which horror grew,
at the knife that had been thrown to
pierce her heart. The spectators
might be deceived into thinking It a
careless slip-but she knew better.
Still staring. she swerved back into
her original position out OF the way
of the knives now descending on her
right side.
When the paper shield was torn
down Senior AMARILLO did not look at
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