Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1911-10-12

"Do you play chess ?"
eyes"
"Well, there is no better way spend
ing an 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 took the first
move. BiShoff, wondering at the mans
audacity, lowered his eyes to the chess
board and soon forgot his aStoniShment
in the game. He saw at once that the
stranger was an excellent player. The
game was long one, and for some time
neither gained an advantage; then Bish-
off, thinking he saw way TO checkmate
his antagonist, moved and looked up at
his antagonist as if to say, "Pll soon have
you now, my fine fellow"
The stranger looked up, too, and with
a low laugh turned his head toward the
picture Of the chess players that hung
over the chimneypiece. Bishoff glanced
from the board to the picture, then back
to the board. He started. The chess
men were in the same position as in tile
painting, Bishoff having the advantage.
And then it dawned on BiShoff that his
visitor and the man with the red beard
were one and the same.
81 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 |
who checkmateS YOU" He drew forth
draft for 10000 marks on bank in COL
ogne.
Done" said Bishoff.
His opponent took up piece and
moved it like an automaton. Bishoff
moved again. On the strangers fourth
move something Bishoff had never counted
on happened. II seemed to him that the
tables were turned. After long time he
moved. The stranger moved again.
Bishoff, who now lost his head, moved
for the fifth time.
"Checkmate !" said the stranger, NOV
ing.
you've won; the castle is yours !"
gasped Bishoff.
The stranger chuckled.
"All this is very queerP' 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 re-
lations 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 morning
he awoke sitting in his chair. The fire
had gone out, and he was Shiyering. He
left without even waiting for breakfast
and offered the castle for sale. An agent
found a purchaser, and before Bishoff
returned to America he met the man in
the agents office TO complete the sale.
He nearly tainted on recognizing in the
new owner his visitor who had check
mated him at chess.
While the papers were being made out
and the signatures appended BiShotf
continued to stare at the purchaser, who
gave no sign OF ever having seen him be-
fore. The man was in 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 castle ?"
Bishoff asked him.
"No. | do not live in Germany. !
have since my boyhood been in business
in South America. II is there that have
acquired the means to recover the home
of my ancestors"
At this point the agent finished work
ing on the papers and said:
"Baon Becker comes into his own
after many centuries. He is lineal de-
scendant OF the original baron who built
the castle. II was lost some 400 years
ago at game OF chess. There is leg
end that descendant of its first owner
would come again into its possession in
the same way that it was lost to the FAM
ily."
Bishoff was so affected at this informa-
ton that he signed his receipts and hur-
ried away without asking any questions,
much to his regret ever since, for he ap-
pears TO be in a middle 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 re-
mark. There is so much legend about
that Rhine country that some OF II mus
be true"