The Washington times., 1912-04-05

'luhtpSus nOl, SHb oily SId1 GU
In wild kind of cringing amazement,
as perhaps you might If you should see
dead man move.
Then to the door she ran. Out into
the hall she peered, this way and that,
down the dismantied corridor, up the
wreckage Of the stairs, which were all
numbered, like the Office itself, with
dust and webs and vermin.
Aloud she hailed: "Oh! Help, help,
help!" No answer Even the echoes
flung back only dull, vacuous sounds
that deepcned her sense OF awful and
incredible isolation.
What? No noise of human life any
where TO be heard? None! No familiar
hum OF the metropolis now rose from
what we're swarming streets and miles
on miles of habitations.
Instead, a blank, unbroken, Iesden ST.
lence, tint seemed part of the musty,
choking atnosphere-a silence that
weighed down on Beatrice like funeral
pals.
puinfounded by all this, and by the
universal crumbling of every perishable
thing, the girl ran. shuddering, back
into the office. Thare in the dust her
foot struck something hard.
She stopped; she caught it up and
stared az 1t.
MY glass ink-well: What" Only
| such thnes Temain|'
No dream, then, but reality! She knew
at length that some catastrophe, in.
Credibly vast, some disaster cosmie IN
the tragedy. OF Its sweep, had desulated
| the world.
"Oh, my mother" cried she. ny
mother-dead? Dead. now, how long|
She die not weep. bat Just stood there
covering, q chill Of snguisted horror
racking her. All at once her teeth be-
gan - CRATER. her body to shake aS
with &Gl aGIe.
| THIS for a moment dazed end stunned
| she remain 81 there, knowing not which
way to turn EuT what to do. Then hei
! tcrror-stricken gaze fell on the inner
! doorway, leading from her outer offc'
! TO the inner one, the one where SterI
! had had his laboratory and his con
sIlltation room.
! THU door now hung. few worm
| eaten planks and splintered bits o
wood, barely supported by the rust!
! hinges.
Toward il she staggered. About he
! she drew the sheltrging masses OF he
| hair, like a Godjva of another age; anC
10 her eyes, WomanlIke, the hot teari
mounted. As she went she cried in 4
voice OF horror:
! Mr.. Stern. Oh-Mr. Stern! Are--ar'
! sou dead, too? You can't Belts too
frIghtful!'
She reached the door. The mere toucl
OF her outstretched hand disintegrateI
, Il. Down in a crumpling mass it fell
! Thick st heliied up in cloud
through Which single ray that enter
ed the copwebbed pane shot Iadian
arrow.
Peeriur, nesitant, fearful OF eveI
! gTchtgr terrors IN that other room
l3eatrtce poeTed through this dust haze
- sick forebodlng Of evil possessed he
aE thought OF what she might fin'
thegc-yct more afraid was she OF wha
! ahe l.lcr' Icy there behind her.
IN ir&la:t she stood within the ruinet
GDcrway, Lsr left hand resting on tn
lno,dT Iamb. Then, with a cry, sh
| ,,sartcG iorVra-d--a cry in which terro
rCd c..Yc- place to joy, despair to hope
! U3rg0ttnl row the fact that, save 70
the sEroudiES of her massy hair, sh
s,ood rrcind. Forgotten the wreck, tn
Gosoia;i<,n t@er"wAere.
"Oh--th III IIecTu0:' 2asped she.
There IL ta2, in1es c2Iice, half risinl
from the -,.2cII OF many things tina
!:ld hcCn and were uow 10 more, he
sta.lllR lycs bcAeld a" figure Of
maE-oG -lliau Stern.
lie lived.
At ner hc peercd EAE eyes that saV
not yet; toward her he S-oped u vague
hand