River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1909-02-11

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ksy155f1Ts9Ha ments one morning in
MllMH midsummer A shade of
4 IEHE0 anxiety passed over the
4 NXSFA b face of my house mate.
5Nlll1N 4 Strange, | thought, that
lItIHIH \ Carlton Clarke, the great
&zs41d2&z24aAAhz5 te -epathic detective, should
be disturbed by so ordin-
airy an event as the receipt of a tele-
gram. Clarke took the yellow en-
velope and held it thoughtfully in
his hand as a woman studies a tele-
gram before summoning the courage
to open it.
DO you remember Thaida?" he
asked suddenly, still holding the en-
velope as | signed the messengers
book
Did / remember Thaida? AS if l
could forget that glorious vision of
young womanhOOd that had flashed
into our presence in the ghetto dis
trict of New York and whose psy-
chometric mind had aided us in the
solution of the puzzling mystery of the
blue Bokhara"
Il see you do continued Clarke.
We'll, my mind has been filled with
forebodings concerning her all morn
ing. | have no word from her for
several weeks. Something tells me
that this message concerns her and
that the news is not good. We will
see,' and he tore open the envelope
and read it hastily. A look of distress,
passing quickly to black frown Of
anger, overspread his face. Without
word he passed the message to me.
| read:
"On board s. s. Magellan, off Pen
sacola, Fla, Marconi Station. The
VOLTS fangs-"
No signature. A cipher? None that
was familiar with, yet it must have
a meaning and a deep and terrible
one, for as | looked at Clarke his eyes
blazed with anger and beneath it he
wore look of the deepest concern.
1T is from her. The wolf! | must
save her, but how? Sexton, can l
count on your"
You know that without asking"
replied; but / haven't the slightest
idea what it all means"
"Of course not. Come into the IL
brary and | will tell you while we
plan some method of action, l do not
yet know what.
Il first met Thaida," continued
Clarke, when we were seated in the
library, when | was an inferno at
Bellevue. She was student, delving
deeper than the mind of woman or
dirarily goes into subjects phil
Osophical and psychological She
was true friend, a jovial COM
panion, ana these traits, allied with
the beauty of which you can testify,
had the effect of gathering about her
an ever charging court. But with an
admirable reserve she held them all
at length.
alone came ire nearest to her-confi-
dence and the life we lived was ideal,
both too busy for our chosen work to
mar it by thoughts of anything closer,
both protected, she by her womanly
reserve, | by my sincere respect for
her.
Then Compile Armand de Loup
came into our lives. He was a young
French nobleman, very rich, living
where and how he pleased We were
attracted to him by his love of the
occult which he had studied in India,
In Tibet, wherever the minds of think
erS run in the direction of the unknow-
able. He was suave, handsome and,
at first, charming in every way. 1t
was not long however until his adj
vances to Thaida became so pro-
nounced as to cause her to fear him
and me to hate him with all my heart
When it became necessary for her
definitely to repel his offers he went
out of our sphere as suddenly as he
had entered it, but leaving behind him
his curses and his VOWS of the most
terrible vengeance his fiery Gallo
spirit could invent.
Nine years have passed since then
and no blow has fallen, unless this is
It, After he left, translating his name
literally, we called him the wolf.
We often talked jokingly of the time
when the threatened fangs of the
WOiA NOulu G1OSS upon us. Inc 1dQgS
of the wolf 1t must be Thaida."
As Clarke was speaking the bell
rang again and a second messenger
arrived. Clarke feverishly tore open
the cover and reading it passed it to
me- 1t was:
- have struck. Save me-"
Like the first it was sent by Marconi
system from the steamship Magellan.
Wait" exclaimed Clarke. I'VE can
do nothing. There will be third. She
is sending me word despite some ter
rible obstacle
He had hardly finished when the
third message arrived. Sent from the
same station. it read:
- come to -"
Would there be fourth that would
give us the final clue? All the day we
waited with all the patience we could
summon. but it came not. Clarke
spent the time porting over the time
tables of the North and South lines. AT
last he gave up and throwing the time
tables from him he exclaimed: Some
thing has happened. She cannot fin
ish. But there is another means ii
only she will try it,"
Then he lay back in his chair and
closed his eyes. For more than an
hour he did not stir. began to think
ho slant TboD he iuropod IN CO end