Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-01
CHAPTER I.
The Awakening.


my head with rhythmic force to mark
each beat of my lurching pulse. The
mere effort to open my eyes was torture
and when made an attempt to rise. my
head fell back. causing me such agony
that 1 must have swooned again.
When I,came round next the pain was
less distracting. and / opened my eyes
and stared vaguely at the smoke-black-
ened rafters above me and sought to col
lect my dazed wits.
was lying on my back on the stone
flags of room which was entirely
strange to me. and utterly unlike any
thing j had ever seen in New YORK .
suuare1room: the walls and low rafters
alike dirty and smoke-begrimed: meager-
" furnished with wooden settle. two. OF
three chairs. and table on which a
paraffifL lamp was burning dimiy some,
thing IN the shape of the settle ana
Thoughts were too bewildered to fix. But
certainly no place / had ever been In be-
fore. -
How had come there? Presently re-
membered that had been struck on the
head. and with an effort recalled what
had occurred before the blow.
I had dihed that evening with Gerald
Thring at Delmonico's. and had told him
of old Giacommetti's appeal for help and
of my intention to go to him In the
my dear Dalrymple. I wouldn't 60
there alone at night for pile OF dollars. :
remembered the warning and how
had laughed at it.. told him had been
there a hundred times. and that knew
my New York far better than he did. We
had parted on the steps of Delmonico's S.
he to go to the club, where was TO
meet him later. and I to start on my
prowl downtown.
recalled the incidents of the stroll I'M
til 7 was near my destination, then the
noise of street trouble. the rush of foot
steps behind me, and then the blow and
sudden darkness.
Nothing more.
Gradually 1 began to reason. I had
been robbed, of course, and when 1 could
bear to move felt my pockets. The
start / gave then sent a thrill of pain all
through my body.
My clothes were all strange!
I had been in, evening dress, wearing
my tuxedo jacket and overcoat, and now
there was not a single garment that be-
longed TO me.
sailants had carried me off to some low
den or other, stripped off my clothes, and
left me either to die or be discovered as
might happen.
felt my clothing again, more carefully.
This time my hand encountered some
thing hard fastened to my side.
1t was the empty sheath of a dagger in
belt round my waist.
/ fingered it in trembling wonderment,
baffied and amazed by the discovery. AS
/ withdrew my hands touched the cuff
of my right sleeve. 1t was wet with some
sticky. clinging substance. l held it be-
fore my eyes in the dim light of the lamp
and shuddered
1t was blood!
In my horror at this I put my hands
to the ground in the effort to rise. My
left hand rested on a dagger.
1 was almost afraid to look at it. And
when at length I lifted 1t, found the
blade covered with blood.
What could it mean? I was not
wounded: or, at least, felt no wound, save
the injury to my head. 1 lay back and
put my hand to the place. There was
scarcely any blood on it, and I guessed l
had been sandbagged.
1 lay back and felt carefully all over
my body for a wound from the dagger.
There was nothing.
Then I tried to call out, but my voice
was feeble from shock, horror and weak
ness. Not sound came in response. 1
was alone in the place-whatever place it
was.
lay still for while bordering the
problem; and now the suggestion of ia
miliarity which had so puzzled me be-
fore recuEred- with clearer distinotnesss~
Had not known that was in New
York. should have said the room was
one in an Italian peasants house. / had
seen many such rooms in Sicily when
had lived in Italy some years before.
must have been attacked by some Ital-
ians. and they had carried me of to one
of their homes in the outskirts Of New
York sas-'zessz- z,-gezs5.Fr-, ze.
After another effort I raised myself on
my elbow to look about me. I stared at
the deadly blood-stained knife lying close
to me. and from that to the sheath at
my side. Ny eyes wfdened in amaZement
when / saw that the one fitted the other.
The knife must have been fastened about
me. therefore.
Why?
Again lay back trying to grapple with
endeavor to make it appear that l was
armed with such a weapon?
My pain was now much less. my
strength returning. and my brain work.
preservation awoke. Whoever my assail-
ants were, they would probably soon re-
turn. and I must lose no time in getting
away to the police.
I began to scramble laboriously to my
feet. therefore. and at that moment my
eyes fell on something which turned my
blood to ice.
Beyond the end of the rough table a
mans legs protruded. stiff, motionless.
rigid.
stared at them, fascinated with new
and horrifying apprehension.
Slowly and painfully 1 dragged myself
nearer. until first the body was visible
and then the face. The man was lying
from a thrust through the heart lay
stagnating in a little pool close to the
left side.
In the start of horror 1 gave at the
sight. / threw my head back. and in q
long common mirror on the wall opposite
me l saw the reflection of my face.
Mine, yet not mine surely. An hour or
so before l had been clean shaver. But
the face I saw reflected there was half
hidden by beard.
God had surely gone mad,
/ stared at myself like one spellbound,
and presently rose and went close to the
mirror. scrutiniZing myself long and
earnestly from head to foot.
could not believe the evidence of my
own eyes,
Could the scarecrow l saw in the glass
be the reflection of myself-Cuthbert Dali
rymple, the sprucely tailored, we'll
groomed man of fashion. whose care in
dress was source of chatting comment
among friends at the club and in 5th
avenue?
The figure at which / was staring was
CARRIED like an Italian peasant, wearing a
beard of many weeks growth. unwashed,
unkempt and swarthy with the tan of the
sun. A character straight from scene
OF comic opera, except that 1t was too
dirty and touseed to pass the eyes Of the
stage manager
My first inclination was to burst into a
loud laugh but ti9 laugh was killed on
my lips by the trembling fear which
seized and held me at the solution which
flashed next into my thoughts.
The blow which had been struck must
have bereft me of my reason for the time