The Press., 1911-12-06

%Well. Tnefp ls no DettGF way or spending m evening. Let us have game
 He took up the chessboard, set the pitcher of punch aside. placed the board on the table. arranged the men. Without saying ''by your leave," he ing at the mans audacity, lowered his eyes to the chessboard and soon forgot his astonishment in the game. He saw at once that the stranger was an ex- cellent player. The game was long one. and for some time neither gained an advantages; then Bishoff, thinking he saw way to checkmate his an- tagonist, moved and looked up at his antagonist as if to say, ''I'll soon have you now. my fine fellow"
 The stranger looked up, too, and with low laugh turned his head toward the picture of the chess play CTS that hung over the chimneypiece. Bishoff glanced from the board to the picture. then back to the board. He started. The chessmen were in the same position as in the painting, Bish- off having the advantage. And then it dawued on Bishoff that his visitor and the man with the red beard were one and the same.
 "I will checkmate you in six moves" said the stranger.
 "You mean that will checkmate you in six moves," said Bishoff.
 'This against your castle that it is I who checkmates you" He drew forth a draft for 30O00 marks on a bank in Cologne.
 Done" said Bishoff.
 His opponent took up a piece and moved it like an automaton. Bishor moved again. On the strangers fourth move something Bishof had never counted on happened. It seemed to him that the tables were turned. Aft CT a long time he moved. The stran- ger moved again. Bishoff, who now lost his head, moved for the fifth time.
 "Checkmate"' said the stranger, moving.
 You've won; the castle is yoursw' gaspcd Bishoff.
 The stranger chuckled. . "AIl this is very queerv' gasped the American. staring at the man with eyes as big as butter plates.
 You are mistaken. Nothing is queer. What is, is. You have only certain relations with the world of which you are conscious. You think the past is dead. Nothing is dead. Everything always lives. but all things change. , Good night. This castle is now mine, but leave you in possession for the present"
 That's all Bishoff remembers of that memorable evening. The next morn ing he awoke sitting in his chair. The fire had gone out, and he was shiver- ing. He left without even waiting for breakfast and offered the castle for sale. An agent found a purchaser, and before Bishoff returned to America be met the man in the agents office to complete the sale.
 He nearly tainted on recognizing in the new owner his visitor who had checkmated him at chess.
 While the papers were being made out and the signatures appended Bish-
 
 who gave no sign of ever having seen him before. The man was fin modern dress. and his beard, though red, was cropped close. He had lost everything of his old fashioned appearance in the picture. In other words, he seemed to have been taken out of the fifteenth or sixteenth century and dropped into the twentieth.
 Have you ever been in the castls?" Bishoff asked him.
 "No. l do not live in Germany. have since my boyhood been in busi- ness i'll South America. It is there that I have acquired the means to re- cover the home of my ancestors"
 At this point the agent finished work ing on the papers and said:
 Baron Becker comes into his own after many centuries. He is lineal descendant of the original baron who built the castle. It was lost some 400 years ago at q game of chess. There is a legend that a descendant of its first owner would come again into its possession in the same way that it was lost to the family"
 Bishoff was so affected at this in- formation that he signed his receipts and hurried away without asking any questions. much to his regret ever since, for he appears to be in a mud dle about the whole affair. The only part of it about which he is certain is that he was wide awake and in his full senses when the events occurred in the agents office.
 He always ends his story with the remark. "There is so much legend about that Rhine country that some of it must be true"