Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1913-08-02
CHAPTER XXI.
The Stairway of Silver.

The Stairway of Silver.
The stiffness of the moment that
followed was tense; then thickly the
young man answered something ir-
relevant about a clown, bottle and a
loaf; with cap drawn down and half
averted face. he lurched a little for
ward in the darkness, and the senti-
neis weapon fell. "Oh. that's you, is
it. Henri?" he said in a different tone.
stepping back How did you leave
the fellow"
Eating the bread and calling for
more!" AS he spoke, the other
stopped. swayihg uncertainty: above
the arch. the wick, ill-trimmed. bright
ened and darkened to the drafts of air
through break and slit of the old
lamp: and briefly he awaited a favor
able moment, when the flame blew out
until almost extinguished; then with
hand near sword-hilt, somewhat over
briskly. but in keeping with the part,
he stepped toward the arch; through
1t. and quickly past the sentinel.
you seem to have been feasting
and drinking a little yourself, tonight,
comrade?" called out the latter after
him. 81 noticed it when you went in.
and But aren't you taking the
wrong way?" AS the other, after start
ing toward the barracks, Strengthened,
and then abruptly wheeled into the
read. running up the Mount
BAH" A moment the young man
passed. Cant a soldier" articulatine
with difficulty, go to see his sweet
heart without"
Eth bien!" The sentinel shrugged
mis- shoulders 1T isn't my business 1
think. though. 1 know where they'll
put you tomorrow, when they find cut
through the guard at the barracks"
To this ominous threat the other
deigned no response, only, after the
fashion of man headstrong in inso-
briefly, as well as in affairs of gal
1antry. continued his upward way: at
first. speedily; afterward, when be-
You'd hearing of the man below. with
more stealth and as little noise as pos
sibie, until the road, taking a sudden
angle. brought him abruptly to an
open space at the foot of a great flight
of stone stairs.
Broad. wide, broken by occasional
platforms, these steps, reaching up-
ward in gradual ascent had designed
ly- in days gone by, been made easy
for broken-down monarchs or corpu-
lent abbots. Also they had been
planned to satisfy the discerning eve
Jealous of every addition or alteration
at the Mount. My lord the ancient
potentate. leisurely ascending in ec-
cfesiastical gown. while conscious of
an earthly power reaching even into
England. could still fancy he was go
ing up Jacobs ladder into realms su-
pernai- Saint Louis. with gaze be-
nignly bent toward the aerial escalier
de deateile Of the chapel to the left
might we'll exclaim no royal road could
compare with this inspiring and holy
way: nor is 1t difficult to understand
sudden enchantment here, or be-
yond. that drew to the rock on three
pilgrfmages that other Louis, more sim
ner than saint, the eleventh of his
name to mount the throne of France
But those stones. worn in the past
by the footsteps of the illustrious and
the lowly. We're deserted now, and, for
the moment. only the moon. which had
escaped from the cloud, exercised
there the right of way; looking square
1y down to efface times marks and
pave with silver from top 20 bottom
the flight of stairs. 1t played, too on
facades, towers and battlements on
either side. and. at the spectacle-the
disk directly before him-the Black
Seigneur. about to leave the dark and
sheltering byway. involuntarily paused
Angels might walk unseen up and
dcEn in that effulgence. as, indeed.
che old monks stoutly averred was