The log cabin Democrat., 1908-09-14

ioViliS 'S | iIVN IdllGIl IL.
 The catalogue proved no cata- Ioguc after all. but letter from my uncle to me.
 Dear nephew, whom I shall never see, II began, ''l am soon 10 die. Why should one go to ones grosc bearing the full burden of cre's secrets: l am not a believer. I cannot make my confession to any priest make it now to you. Yet you may never sec this paper. You are 10 see it only under condition of making a request which you may never make. Yet your interest ir the gargoylcL-' L-'
 Your interest in the garsovle may lead you to make inquiries con- cerning is history alone can tell you what il k.
 'Whcn 1 returned from the conti- ncnt to England after many years of travel. ndec,Jablishcd myself in this house. l brought with mc q strange creature. q horrible Qaa,iHodo of dwarf. whom 1 had saved oac day in Padua from the attack of a mob who believed he had stolen child Here, l thought. is d ear9oyIrcomc to life. l will add him to mt curi- ositjc>. The monster attached him. self to me with dog-likc fidelity. and l made of him d kind of fclch-and- carry servant. In the course of our relationship l found that at times he was sullcn and malignant, and need ed close watching, but I never feared him. His sullen fits were al- ways followed by expressions of vio- lent attachment to my person.
 We had been in this house six months when what 1 am about to re- late took place By we I mean the gargoyle and the old 'housekeeper, whom you will find when you come to take possession. She was hor- ribly afraid of the dwarf, and I kept him out of her sight as much az possible. 1 don't think she ever al- lowed herself a good look al him. I never allowed him 10 go outside the garden walls lest he should frighten women and children.
 'Then came a bad night. The dwarf had been sullen had twice re- fused to do my bidding. l was in my chair tormented with gout, and at his third refusal to obey me, ac- companied by muttercd words of in- science, l reached out my crutch and struck him a heavy blow, heavier than I intended. He fell to the floor and lay there squirming like a hurt spider, and all the time looking up at me with horrible, malignant stare that maddened me. I dealt him another blow. Then he was quite still.
 q lost all sense of pain then. I could walk and even go to the side of the thing where it lay on the floor. I had made myself a mur- dercr-for that carcass!
 What was to be done? I could not hang for such paltry life. I could not rid myself of the body. I resolved to conceal my crime by re- vealing it. In my youth l had be- come familiar with a method of em- balming which turns the body, by a kind of petrifying process, into a hard, dense substance. This l em- ployed upon the body of the dwarf, afterwards coating it with a thin layer of cement, which when dry has the consistency of granite Then l affixed this strange gargoyle to the wall.
 q told my housckeeper that I had sent my dwarf back to Italy. Her re- lief was great. l kept my new art treasure covered, as I did many of the other objects in the room, so she suspected nothing. After many  wears l showed her one day my 'gargoyle from a French cathedral The horror in her face, still rcmem- bered, compels me to this confess sion. l trust you to be as faithful in guarding my secret as she has been." REFORMING THE HEAD HUNTERS.