The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1909-02-04
CHAPTER xyT.-(Continued.)

This was a sinister moment. Prade5
pushed Revere back. He staggered and
fell against a piece of furniture, while
the young man, disengaging himself,
stspped back, quickly opened his Span
ish knife, then, with a bound, caught
Revere, shook him, and holding the
knife uplifted, said;
Thou hast willed it,"
IL vas at this instant that Revere,
whose hands were contracted, dug his
nails into the assassin's neck-the nails
which the Commissary Desbriere and
NJ. Jacquelin Audrays had found still
red with blood.
Prades, who had come there either to
suppllcate or threaten, now had only
n thought, hldeous and ~ferocious-to
kill. He did not reason. 1t was no more
than an unclaimed instinct. The noise
of the organs upon the boulevard,
which accompanied with their mu-
steal, dragging notes this savage scene,
like a trelmOlo 20 a melodrama at the
thealer, he did not hear. The whole In
tensity OF his life seemed to be con-
centrated In his fury, In his hand
armed with the knife. He threw him
self on Rovere. He struck the flesh,
opening the throat, as across the water
among the gauchos he had been accus-
toned to kill sheep or cut the troat OF
an OK.
Revere staggered, wavered, freed
from the hand which held him, n
Prades, stepping back, looked at him.
Livid, the dying man, seemed to live
only in his eyes. He had cast upon the
murderer a last meaning look. Now,
in a sort of supreme agony, he looked
around. His eyes searched for a sup
port, for aid-yes, they called, while
from that throat terrible sounds is
sued.
Prades saw with a kind Of fright
Revere, with a superhuman tragic eff
fort, step back, staggering like a
drunken man, pull with his poor con-
tracted hands from above the. chimney
piece an object which the murder a
not noticed. and upon which, with an
ardent, prayerful expression, he fixed
his eyes, stammering some quick, in
articulate words which Prades could
not hear or understand.
1t seemed to Prades that between his
victim and himself there was a wit
ness, and whether he thought OF the
value OF the stones imbedded In the
frame or whether he wished to take
from Revere this last support in his
distress, he went to him and attempted
to tear the portrait from his hands,
But an extraordinary strength seemed
TO come to the dying man and Revere
resisted, fastening his eyes upon the
portrait, casting upon 1t q living fame,
like the last fare of a dying lamp, and
WITH TINS last, ueSpalr1nB, aBOulzllB
look the e~x-consul breathed his last.
He fell. Prades tore the portrait from
the fingers which clutched IL. That
frame. He could sell IT.. He picked up
here and there some pieces which
seemed to him of value, as IL on a pill
iagins tour OF the prairies. He was
about to enter the library where the
safe Vas when the noise of the opening
OF the entrance door awakened his
trapper's instinct. Someone was COM
ing. Who it could be was of little Inn
p~ortance. To remain was to expose
himself, TO be at once arrested. The
corpse once seen, the person would cry
aloud. rush out, close the door n
send for the police.
Hesitatlng between q desire to pillagc
and the necessity for flight, Prades did
not wait long to decide. Should ne
hide? Impossible! Then, stepping back
to the salon door, he fiattened himself
as much as possible against the wall
and waited until the door should be
opened, when he would be completely
hidden behind Ii. AS Nine. Moniche
stepped into the room and cried out as
she saw Revere lying on the floor,
Prades slipped into the antechamber,
found himself on the landing, closed the
door, rapidly descended the stairs and
stepped out upon the Boulevard de
Clichy among the passersby. even be-.
fore Nine. Moniche. terrified, had called
for help.