Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-08-18
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happy thoughts, and now vengeful pas
sionate thoughts. ne sat on and on for
eternlties OF time.
He contrasted what might have been
with what was. BY now Celestia should
have been his. linked to him by In
dissoluble bonds. Perhaps now, he thought.
she would love me. He would have kept
her in the cave for while, and then he
would have snesked her, feastinE his
eyes on her beauty. to some far coun-
try. where her face and voice were not
SO we'll known. There he would marry
her legitimately. and by him she could
have many wonderful and beautiful sons
and daughters.
That was what might have been. In
stead behold him. sitting in pitch dark
ness. his shelter burning behind him, as
call for that help which might never
come. How long, oh. Lord, how long
Suddenly through his right hand, which
rested on the ground. there shot a sharp
stab of pain. He jerked his hand up
ward with an oath. 1t flashed through
his mind that he had been stung by a
ground hornet. As a matter Of fact. a
little creeping tongue of flame had burnt
him.
Prof. stilliter's fire was spreading
Crevices in the rock in which were lichens
and dried moses. carried little torches
hither and thither. torches that were
only too eager to find and set fire to
something worth while.
The main fire made such a cracking
and roaring now that Prof. stilliter had
not heard the lesser sounds which IL
made In spreading. II was some mo-
ments before he realized that he had
rot been stung but burned. II was a
smell OF burning cloth that made this
clear to him. The professors coat had
caught fire. He moved further away un-
I'll there seemed to be nothing about
him but unburnable rock. He found the
place in his coat which was burning and
managed to spit upon It till II was out.
He sat down once more. He was in
the midst of one OF those great open
splashes OF granite on the mountain side.
As a matter of fact. he was near the
| edge of one of these masses. Within
reach OF his hand was n dense tangle
Of finder dry scrub trees, shrubs and
dead wood.
! Suddenly this shrubbery caught and
went off almost like an explosion. Prof.
Stilltter staggered backward from the
intense heat, and realized presently that
he was backing into another area OF
heat equally intense.
! On his hands and knees he made off
In a direction that took him winding be.
tween the two; he went quite a long way
In his breast was the first touch OF
4
/ Now for the second. Directly In hi,
path there arose steady, a vibrant. a
horrid and incessant cIashing; of ali the
sounds in this world the coolest bIooded
and the most rnenacing and sinister.
The fire urged him forward The rat.
elesnake coiied in his path. dared him to
come on.
He rose to his feet shivering and in
an agony of fear and dread. Suddenly
he cried aloud:
my Godl My Godl What have
] done to deserve this9"
/ Only the fire answered him and tbs
/ rattlesnake. Presently 1t became neces-
sary for him to go forward or to burr
to death where he stood.
/ He went forward with slow high stan,
IA figure at once tragic and grotesoue
But the snake, too. had grown uncom.
Portable In the increasing heat. ana ha
too. made off after one final balancins
and drawing back OF his head, the law,
wide open as II to strike.
i