The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-08-09

AhOh' udchtu Dy dHlple wealth. anu
hampered by no ties. he searched the
east for the secrets it holds. India,
China. Persia, and even forbidden Tibet
he forced to give up their hidden lore.
When you have seen the things
that 1 have SEEM he often roared out
TO me in his thunderous voice, you will
believe. 1 have seen an Indian yogi
ttke tibia and materialize the COM
Biete body. raiment and all. What do
you think of that?' bringing his pom
derous fist down on ten table until the
windows ratified
;, L think 1 replied, that there are
some things that must be seen to be
believed. and even then we may ex-
plain them on purely scientific
grounds
What would you say If you saw
me materialize from this skull the body
OF her whose face forms the handle
The sentence ended in an explosion of
nestness, as he playfully tapped this
very skull that Achmon covets so.
II should like to see that, an
swered.
"'Ah. but you should have seen her
in the flesh he resumed meditatively.
Cod but she was beautiful i found
her in the mission at Mussoorie, but
she was not born for the hymn-singing
trade. Her father was French. her
mother a mountain maid of GurhWal,
and she had been up to Simla once and
seen life. When l told her Of the great
world beyond, where the shadows of the
Himalayas fell not. her bosom heaved
and her eyes flashed like those of the
she-tiger that had taken that year a toll
of a hundred lives in the foothills. She
left the mission and the half-caste
Hindu who had dared lift his eyes to-
ward her glorious self and came with
me-"
NJ saw murder in Achmon's beady
does. and his chest muscles swelled at
It's deep intaking of his breath.
land then? 1 asked" continued
Clarke
land then she died. For two short
months 1 showed her in the Calcutta
bazaars. Paris. London. New York,
We're denied the light.
Look, isn't il beautiful and DR..
Ranthan lifted the silver skull. "A ma
tive Calcutta workman did it. and ]
stood over him cursing him with a
thousand deaths if he married a line
or failed to catch the likeness from
the only picture of Ynath I possessed.
"A few days later l bolted into Ran
than's apartment after a book he had
promised me. l had not been accus-
toned to knock. and as / opened the
door l heard the unmistakable swish
of skirts. and Ranthan stood before
me confused and sheepish. l missed
: the silver skull from the table.
Pardon me, you are not alone /
tsaid.
Y. 'No-yes-that is, am alone, of
course. The book is in that room. Just
step right in
Il did so, and I heard him stealthily
close the door behind me, but not
until 1 had again heard the frou-frou
of a woman's garments. 1t took but a
second to seize the book and return to
his study. DIR. Ranthan was calmly
seated, reading. The room had no
other occupant. The door of the third
room was open and it was tenantless.
The silver skull was OH the table in
its accustomed place.
THE next night / was calling on
DIR. Cartwright, whose rooms were di-
rectly below Ranthan's. / had seen
Ranthan go up alone: in fact. had
walked over from the hospital with
him. Soon we heard footsteps over
head. the heavy elephantine tread of
Ranthan. and then the light patter of
a gentler foot. Through a faulty regis
ter we heard, also, Ranthans stem
torious voice alternated with a sweet
contralto- The conversation was in an
unfamiliar tongue. but one Astounding
in beautiful intonations.
y
nightly occurrence he said.
For some time l saw little of Ran
MAN. His visits 10 the hospital
ceased, and the studies he had taken
up with so much ardor seemed for
gotten.
One night about midnight Cart
wright burst into my room at the hos
pital just as l had come from an in
tcresting accident case.
Come along. at once he said
Something's wrong with Ranthan. /
heard the crash OF a falling body
overhead. 1 can't raise him. Both
his doors are locked.
Il hurriedly threw on a coat and
followed. The doors resisted all Our
efforts and we called the police. A
lock was smashed and we entered
Tke place was in darkness. | switched
on the electric light, and there, pros
tYate on the floor lay the huge bulk
on Ranthan. The carved ivory hilt OF
a'knife Irotruded from his left side. !
had often noted the weapon in his
collection. The silver skull was gone.
Suicide was the verdict of the
police. The doors were firmly boltec
from within. the windows looked into
a court, the only egress from which
was through the rooms of students or
tho first floor, all of whom. including
books when the tragedy occurred. Es-
cape through the hall was improbable
for Cartwright had rushed out imme-
diately. Besides, there were the bolt
ed doors.
But Cartwright and 1 both knew
that Ranthan's hand never struck the
blow that sank twelve inches of blade
and three inches of hilt into his owl
heart just at the left armpit. A left
handed blow was out of the question
A right-handed blow at that point
would lack the force.
"A closer examination OF the locks
showed me that the one which was
intact, while seemingly bolted, might
be passed with a key, as the ring into
which the bolt shot was a false one
hinged at the top and kept in place
by a spring, evidently the half-bakec
Invention of some previous tenant.
Recalling hints dropped by Ran
than, the case gradually began to tak'
shape in my mind when Cartwright
who had assumed charge of the deaf
mans papers, came to me with thi!
In Ranthan's well-known hand:
Read it, Sexton, page 4O1 of tn,
scrap book
For the benefit of science Iobr