Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-08-30

trap. in the wall opened, and through
the aperature a mans hand appeared
In the darkness, there was no sug
gestion Of features, but Tnendon c0ult
see the >. head dimly silhouetted
against the low light which burnec
within.
who's there?" asked gruff voice
! "Trendon," answered the watcher.
Trendon could feel the piercing eyes
turned upon him through the gloom.
BE quick, "he cried, "lt's deathly
cold out here
! The head, vanished, and the noise
less trap closed again. In a mo
ment the great door swung inwards
and Trendon stepped into the room
1t was close, stuffy chamber IN
which he found himself, lined with
couches and chairs. A dozen men
were disposed in as many different
attitudes throughout the place. One
of these started up at his entrance,
and gazed at him with CLASSY, unsee'
ing eyes. The others manifested no
knowledge of his presence, but re-
NAMED motionfess and silent. The
air was filled with little riffs of cir
cling smoke, heavy and odorous.
Trendon drew it into his lungs with
quick thrill of pleasure, as men
madly athirst quaff water, again and
again, joying in the delight of it.
No word was spoken. One couch
was vacant, and to this Trendon made
his way. AS he flung himself upon It,
there flashed upon his Consciousness
the thought that ere he should rise
again the personality other :hau that
which now possessed him, the one
Which could deplore folly aid weep at
transgression, would be dominant. In
this reckless moment he could have
laughed at the marvel Of It, this duality
of being.
A silent attendant entering from
an adjoining room, now brought him
a pipe, filled with opium prepared for
smoking, together with tiny spirit
lamp. With an eagerness he could
neither subdue nor dissemble, he held
the little jet of flame to the curving
bowl of the pipe. AS the narcotic
caught fire, and tae ricn smoke filled
his mouth. and issued in vaporous
curls from his lips, an expression OF
almost seraphic tranquility spread
over his face, and deep sigh Of sat
isfaction escaped him. Here was pan.
acea for his ills, nepenthe for the evil
days which Fate had woven for him
upon his loom of life, recompense for
the weary hours of sobriety which
his other self conceded to the rigors
of conventional living.
Ever the circling smoke crept high.
er and higher into the air above him,
and his eyes turned CLASSY, even as
the eyes of those others who lay about
the room, wrapped In the soothing
tentacles of stup0r. Narrower and
narrower grew the pupils OF his eyes
to the size of tiny pin point. The
transition was now quick from the
substantial world of reality to the
shifting unstable relm of dreams and
visionings. Decisions crept quick
and fast into the seething caldron of
his brain, wierd and wild as the vap-
orings of a human soul struck mad.
His mood became one of deep re.
Election. The vastness of the uni
since earth began, all problems which
verse, endless fight Of years
to men are 80 infinite as to combat
and defy finite mensuration, his clari-
fed mind seized upon as concrete
things, and all which puzzles and har-
asses and moves to conjecture these
creatures of the dust, were to him
as lucid entities of thought, which on
ly spiritual blindness could veil.
Transcending all human experience
was the wisdom which seethed like
living fire in every atom Of his being.
knowledge unspeakable was bred OF
this restless generative force which
pulsed evry beat Of his laboring
heart. A sensation as of floating,
arbitrarily and without any p1econ.
ceived objective point, came over him.
1t was the summit of eatrhly power,
a material truth, but of celestial fash
ioning.
From somewhere out of the roalm
of earth which he had left. behind
sound of alteration, the threshing of
there was borne In upon him the
ponderous bodies back and forth, and
the quick scuflle of feet. Voices,
framing meaningless, Swallowed words
nebulous of form and information, PEN
etrated the recesses of his exalted
mind, but he could not feel the re-
sponsive thrill of comprehension.
Theirs was the speech Of earth, gross
and material; he responded to moth
ing save the sublimated influences of
the happy heaven to which he had
found egress. He was Of no time nor
place, nor had he specific identity,
His individuality permeated every
atom and molecule Of space or matter,
omnipresent, omniscient, the actual
ing stimulus which spoke in every
thing. Centuries ago he had been;
aens hence would he still endure.
From the haze of an unfathomable
past he looked forth into the cycles
of an interminable future. He was
not a shackled worm as other men,
earth-bound and evanescent. He was
a god, and like the gods, exultant.
The noise had become louder, dis
rupting the strands of his divine med
itation. The narrow pupillary pin
point spread out q trifle, and the light