Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1908-01-02
CHAPTER vII.-contInued.

house while he went to Sand Land
ing to the funeral. After the old
judge and his victims had been 1 d
away and the relatives had gathered
in the library of the great white
Sands mansion, he explained their
kinswoman's condition and told them
that she was his wife. He. insisted
upon paying all Judge Sands debts,
over $50O,O 900 of which was owed to
members Of the Sands family for
whom he had been trustee. Before
he went back to his mothers, Bob
had turned a great calamity into an
occasion for something near rejoicing.
Judge Sands and his family were
very dear to the people of the sec
tion, but his. misfortune had threat
ened such widespread ruin that the
u~nlooked-for recovery of a million
and a half was a godsend that made
for happiness.
Two days after the funeral Bob's
dearest hope fed. He had ordered all
things at the Sands plantation put in
their everyday condition. Beulah
Sands, uncles, aunts and cousins had
arranged to welcome her and to try
by every means in their power to o a
back her lost mind. They assured
Bob that barring the absence Of
Beulah's father, mother, and sister,
there would not be a memory-recaller
missing. Bob and his wife landed
from the river packet at the foot Of
the driveway, which led straight from
the landing to the uncovered, white
pillared portico. Bob's agony must
have been awful when his wife clap
ped her hands in childish joy rs she
exclaimed, "Oh, Bob, what a pretty
place." She gave no sign that she
had ever seen the great entrance,
through which she had come and gone
from her ~babyhood. Bob took her to
the library, to her mothers room, to
her own, to the nursery where were
the dolls and toys of her childhood,
but there came no sign of recognition,
nothing but childish pleasure. She
looked at her aunts and uncles and
the cousins with whom she had spent
her life, bewildered at finding so many
strangers in the otherwise quiet place.
AS a last hope they led in her old black
foster-mother, who had nursed her in
babyhood, who was the companion Of
her childhood and the pet Of her
womanhood. There was not a dry eye
In the library when she met the old
mammy's outburst of Joy with the puz-
Zled gaze of the child who does not
understand. The grief of the old ne
gress was pitiful as she realized that
she was a stranger to her Honey
bird" The child seemed perplexed
at her grief. 1t was plain to all that
the Sands home meant nothing to the
last of the judges family.
Bob brought her back to New York
and besought the aid Of the medical
experts Of America and of the Old
World to regain that which had been
recalled by its Maker. Ahe doctors
were fascinated with this new phase
of mind blight, for in some particulars
Beulah's case was unlike any known
instances, but none gave hope. All
agreed that some wire connecting
heart and brain had burned out when
the cruel System" threw on a voltage
beyond the wires capacity to trans
nit. All agreed that the woman.child
wife would never grow older unless
through some mental eruption beyond
human power to produce. Some Of
the medical men pointed to one posi-
bility, but that one was too terrible
for Bob to entertain.
The first anniversary of their mar
riage found Bob and his wife settled
In their new Fifth avenue mansion.
He had bought and torn down two
old houses between Forty-second and
Forty-third streets and had erected a
palace, the inside of which was unique
among all New York's unusual struc-
lures. The first and second floors
were all that refined taste and unl.m.
tied expenditure of money could pro-
duce. Nothing on those splendid
floors told of the strange things above.
A sedate luxury pervaded the drawing
rooms, library, and dining-room.
Bob said to me, in taking me through
them, Some day, Jim, Beulah may
recover, may come back to me, and l
want to have everything as she would
wish, everything as she would have
had it if the curse had never come"
The third floor was Beulah's. A child's
dainty bedroom; two nurses rooms
adjoining; a nursery, with a child's
small schoolroom and a big playroom,
with dolls and doll houses, child's
toys of every description in abandon,
as though their owner were in fact
but a few years old. Across the hall
we're three offices, exact duplicates of
mine, Bob's, and Beulah Sands at
Randolph & Randolph's. When l first
saw them 1t vas with difficulty that I
brought myself to realize that I was
not where the gruesome happenings
of a year before had taken place. Bob
had reproduced to the minutest de-
tails our downtown workshop. Stand
ing in the door Of Beulah Sands Of
flee | faced the fiat desk at which she
had sat the afternoon when / first saw
that hideous result Of the work of the
System" I could almost see the lit
tie gray figure holding the afternoon
paper. In horror my eyes sought the
floor at the side Of the chair in search
Of Bob's agonized face and uplifted
hands. AS I stood for the first time
in the middle Of Bob's handfwork, I
seemed to hear again those awful
groans.
"Jim." Bob said, II have a haunt