Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1909-02-05
The Crime of s''z';;s &c :
e. a.! sss' the Boulevard

why not?" DR.. Erwin responded
in a sharp tone. "Do you know what
happened? Knowing that he vas dying.
the unhappy mar went, urged by a
tragic impulse, TO that portrait which
represented to him all that was left,
concentrating in one image alone all
his life"
Then 1t is possible? 1t is possible p
Bernardet repeated.
II believe it, said the Dane. "The
ma Is dying. He has only one thought
Ito go directly to the one who, surviv-
ing him, guarded his secrets and his
life. He seized his portrait; ne tore it
from its hook with all his strength: he
devoured 1t with his eyes: he drank 1t
in with a look. If may be allowed the
expression. TO his picture of the being
whom he loved ne spoke. He cried to
him, telling him his last wishes, dictat-
ing to him his thoughts of vengeance.
AT this supreme moment his energy
was Increased q h~undredfold. / know
not what intensity OF life was concen-
trated on this image, and gathering all
his falling forces In a last look the man
who wished to live, the man weakened
by Illness. dying, assassinated, put into
that last regard the electric force, the
fire which fixed the image CONFUSED,
no doubt, but recognizable since you
have traced the resemblance upon the
retina, A phantom, If you wish. which
is reflected in the dead mans eye"
And" repeated Bernardet, who
wished TO be perfectly assured In re-
gard TO the question, ut is not only the
image of a living being; it is, to use
your words, the phantom even of a
painting which was retained on the
retina?"
Il do not reply to you, That is pos
slble. 1t is you who q 10 me, Il have
seen it. And you have seen IL In truth,
and the form. vague though 1t may be.
the painted figure, permits you to find
In a passerby the man whose picture
the retina had already shown you"
oh, well, doctor" said the little
Bernardet, II shall tell that, but they
will deny 1t. They will say that 1t Is
impossible"
DR.. Erwin smiled. He seemed to be
looking with his deep blue eyes at some
invisible perspective not bounded by
the walls of the little room.
"One has said" he began, that the
word impossible is not French. 1t
would be more exact to affirm that II
not human. We attain a knowl-
edge of the u~nknowable. The myster-
ious Is ap~proachable. One must deny
nothing a priori; one must believe all
things possible M not only a dream.
Search for the truth. the harsh truth.
49, oa1N w IL Liz WOIu
is wrong. One ought to say Justly the
exquisite truth, for it is a joy for
those who search that daily life
each movement marks a step
advanced, where the heart beats at
the thought of a rendezvous OF love.
All, he is happy who has given his life
to science. He lives in a dream. 1t
is the poetry in our times of prose.
The dream" continued the young doc
tor as in an ecstasy, While Bernardet
listened, ravished. the dream is
1t is impossible to make
it tangible. Thought. human thought,
can sometimes be deciphered like an
book. An American physician
asked to be permitted to try an
experiment upon the Uranium OF a
a still living. Through
the Uranium he studied the mans
brain. Has not Edison undertaken to
give sight to the blind! 1t is the hour
of miracles. But in order to accom-
plish all these things ii is necessary,
as in primitive times, to believe, to
believe always. The twentieth cen
fury will see man others
"Ah, doctor, doctor" cried poor
little Bernardet, much moved, 81 do
not wish to be the ignoramus that /
am, the father of q family, who has
to feed, and l beg of you TO
take me as a sweeper in your labora-
He departed. ~nthused by the inter
view. Henceforth he could say that
he. the ignorant one, had. by his
foolish conviction, proved
the reality OF an experiment which
had been abandoned for some years,
and the humble police officer had re-
opened the nearly closed o to crimi-
instruction.
A scruple. moreover, came TO him.
A doubt, an agony, and he wished to
share il with NJ. Ginory.
All the same. with the admirable in
he had caused an innocent
to be arrested. This thought
made him very uneasy. He had pro-
duced a power which, instead of strik-
ing the guilty. had overthrow an un-
man, and it was this famous dis
covery OF DR.. Bourbon, persisted in by
him. which had resulted I'm this mis-
1T must be-" he thought, that man
may be fallible even In the most mar
discoveries. 1t is frightful! 1t
Is perhaps done TO make us more pru-
dent-prudent and modest.
Doubt now seized him. Must he
stop there In these famous experiments
which ended in this lie? Ought he
abandon all research on a road which
ended in a cul-de-sac? And he cor
that unhappy scruple to the ex-
amining magistrate, with whom the
chances of the service had put him in
in strange discoveries, but
original little Bernardet.