The Madisonian. (Richmond, Ky.) 1913-1914, 1914-03-31
sashioned rusted dueling.pistol.

fashioned rusted dueling pistol.
The box had originally held two
pistols. He shuddered as he stopped
to pick up the weapon, and with the
crawling repugnance mingled pang-
ing anger and humiliation. From his
very babyhood it had always been so
that uncomfortable aversion to the
touch of drearm. There had been mo-
ments in his youth when this unrea-
soning shrinking had filed him with a
blind fury, had driven him to strange
self-tesrs of courage He had never
been able to overcome it. Analyza-
ton had told him that his peculiar
adherence was no mere outgrowth of
this. It lay far deeper. He had rare
ly. of recent years, met the test Now,
as he stood in these unaccustomed
surroundings, with the cold touch of
| the metal the old shuddering held
him, and the sweat broke in beads
on his forehead Setting his teeth
hard, he crossed the room, slipped the
box with it's pistol between the vol
urnes of the bookcase, and returned to
his seat.
The bulldog, aroused from nap,
1 thrust a warm muZzle between his
knees. Its uncanny, Chusnl' he said,
4 as his hand caressed the velvety
head. ''Why should the touch of that
fool thing. chill my spine and make
my flesh tipsoe over my bones? Why
should l hate a pistol? Do you sup
pose I was shot in one of my previous
existenccs?"
For long while he sat there, his
/ pipe dead, his eyes on the moon
lighted out-of-doors The eery feel
ing that had gripped him had gone as
quickly as it had come. At last he
rose, stretching himself with a great
boyish yawn, put out all save one Of
the candles and taking a bath-robe,
sandals and a huge fuzzy towel from
! the steamer-trunk, stripped leisurely.
/ He donned the bath-robe and sandals
and went out through the window to
the garden and down to where lay the
little lake ruffling silverly under the
moon. On it's brink he stopped, and
/ tossing back his head, tried to inli-
tate one of the bird-calls but was I'M
successful. With rueful laugh he
threw off the bath-robe and stood an
/ instant glistening, poised in the moon
light like marble faun, before he
4 dove, straight down out of sight
Five minutes later he pulled him.
] self I'D over the edge, his flesh tin
Cling with the chill of the water, and
threw the robe about his cool white
shoulders. Then he thrust his feet
into his sandals and sped quickly
back. He rubbed himself to a glow,
and blowing out the remaining can
4 die, stretched himself luxuriously be
tween the warm blankets on the
couch. The dog shifted inquiringly at
his hand, then leaped up and snug
gled down close to his feet
John Valiant's thoughts had fed a
thousand miles away, to the tall girl
who all his life had seemed to stand
out from his world, aloof and unsur-
passed-Katharine Fargo He tried to
picture her, perfect chatelaine, grace
full and gracious as tall, white, splen-
did lily, in this dead house that
seemed still to throb with living pas
sions. But the picture subtly eluded
him and he stirred uneasily under the
blanket.
After time his hands stretched out
to the reading-stand and drew the
glass with its vivid blossom nearer.
till, in his nostrils, its musky odor
mingled with the dew-wet scent OF
the hoheysuckle from the garden. AT
last his eyes closed. Every man car.
ries his fate on a riband
about his neck, he muttered drowsily,
and then, Roses red
roses
And so he fell asleep.