The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-08-26

| pOOubCs Inv oOlAS WIN
creature pausing to strike more sure
~, and though he could see n sign
Of any other presence in the room.
he had a consciousness which he
could not account for that something
malign was watching there In the
shadow.
Nebelsen seemed to have braced
his nerves completely. "See!" he
cried, with an accent almost of trt-
umph, Ibid I not tell you? And now
you yourself can see!"
What? where?" cried Campion,
with sn Involuntary start.
"Thsas In the corner-behind the
idol, floating cross legged in the air
as in you picture-there. with his
evil gray face and the white eyes
which 80 angrily ROLL"
81 see nothing" said CamDion;
and the Chela, gripping his friends
wrist in his cold fingers, began to
roll out long and unintelligible
words, which seemed to Campion to
have a defiant ring in them.
"He ts moved" he cried, now
you can see-you must see how he
brandishes with his arms!"
But whether Campion's eyes saw
any clearer than before will never be
known for certain now his lips
have ever since been sealed upon the
subject.
However this may be, there Is at
least no mystery as to what took
place next. As the two men stood
there, a shaft of intense light made
a purplish glare on the darkness, and
almost at the same instant the heav-
lily charged clouds overhead. rushed
together with an explosion which
shook the earth, and the echo
crashed, doomed, rolled, with sundry
capricious relapses and recoveries,
making a mad circuit, as it seemed,
Of the entire solar system, and then
ceased abruptly with a far off metal
lie clank-as though 1t had cannoned
into Mars, whereupon the long stag
nant air shivered and began to cir
culate once more.
Campion, on whose retina the
jagged flash seemed indelibly brand
| ed, reeled back against the cabinet
with a horrible fear that he had lost
his eyesight-but from this he was
presently relieved by seeing Sybil and
the others around him.
"Oh!" cried Sybil, piteously, 1.-The
lightning has struck him-I was sure
it had" but he vas promptly able
to reassure them.
"And is poor Mr.. Nebelsen safe,
too?" inquired Mrs. Standard.
1t had grown somewhat lighter
and, on turning round, they all saw
the Chela huddled up inside his mys-
tic diagram, motionless, his face hid
den in his arms.
ooh, don't touch HIM" cried Mrs.
Standard; don't let me see his face.
He's dead, / know he isl"
And the same thought seized them
all-until the Chela slowly rose with
q dazed look. Where am II" he
stammered; "ah, l remember. 1 hat
in a trance state been. Mees Elsvort,
you will is accomplished. That so &C
cursed idol is now safely on the top
of Cotopaxi landed. l myself hat sen
him arrive. For once the current
has successfully worked"
MY dear good Nebelsen," said
Rabcock, from the other end Of the
room, Il don't want to ask rude
questions-kut some of it at all
events seems to have been left be-
hind-look there!"
The chair on which the idol had
lately been placed was o a blasted
and collapsed wreck, and all around
it were scattered half-fused frag-
ments of some spar like substance.
&c.," said Babcock, this looks
like its ugly head, and here's a bit of
its pedestal, with a sort Of tiger
scratched on it, and there's a foot and
hand-looks as if it had got on the
wrong current and run into some
thing, Nebelsen, eh?"
The Chelsa folded his arms calmly,
without appearing to be at all put
out by this slight inconsistency. II
remember now more clearly" he said,
the other WIS a vision only. / treat
ed him with Cotapaxi-and it was
enoff. He threw up his cardsgame,
and in despair he invoked that light
ning-and then, as you see, was shad-
dered into pieces"
And where is the-the gentleman
himself now" inquired the colonel,
who had certainly lost ONE Of his
color.
1.-THE fake tirthankar-geist?" said
Nebelsen. "Oh, now that there is no
longer his idol to care for, he cannot
any more hold together. He is dis
solved, degombosed, and once again
into mighty Magrogesm reabsorbed."
And a deuced good thing, too"
said the colonel. A conclusion with
which few, perhaps, will be found to
disagree.
What can be said of Nebelsen's
theory? Had the spirit of this long
dead Indian occultist used his old
mastery over the powers of nature
to effect his final an%nihilation? Or
had he intended to call down light
ming to avenge him, and instead been
hoist with his own petard? Or-an
even more important point-had
there ever been a ghostly tirthankar
at all in attendance upon that partic-
ular idol, or was tine story adapted
to it by the dusky and esoteric Chow
,,,-1oroo alp Thaco oro nuect;opc