Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1917-02-16
|N THE I|
DESTROYING
|0 ANGEL N|
CHAPTER XX-continued.
= By =
LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE

ASlue lTOH nlul, Ine OHly OIllcI OCNu-
pant of the stage was Sara Law. She |
sat on a stone bench with her profile |
to the audience, her back to the right |
of the proscenium arch; so that she
could not, without turning, have no
ticed the entrance of Ember and her
husband. A shy, light, deathlessly
youthful figure in pale and flowing
garments that nodded themselves flu
emily to her sweet and girlish body,
in a posture of pensive meditation:
she was nothing less than adorable.
Whitaker could not take his eyes from
her, for skeer wonder and delight
He waS only vaguely conscious that
Max, at length satisfied, barked word
to that effect to an unseen electrician
off to tle left, and waving his hand
with a gesture indelibly associated
with his personality, dragged light
cane-scnted chair to the left of the
prosce1ium and sat himself down.
"AIi ready?" he demanded in a sharp
and irritable voice.
TIE woman on the marble step nod
de0 imperceptibly.
''Go ahead" snapped the manager.
An actor advanced from the wings,
paused and addressed the seated
woman. His lines were brief. She
lifted her head with a startled air.
listening. He ceased to speak, and
her voice of golden velvet filled the
house with the flowing beauty Of its
nnfOrgettably sweet modulations. Be-
yond the footlights handful of So
phisticated and skeptical habitues of
the theater forgot for the moment
their ingrained incredulity and thrilled
in sympathy with the wonderful rap
ture of that voice of eternal Youth.
Whitaker himself for the time forgot
that he was the husband of this wom
an and her lover; she moved before
his vision in the guise of some divine
creature, divinely unattainable, a
dream woman divorced utterly from
any semblance of reality.
That opening scene was one perhaps
unique in the history of the stage
Composed by Max in some mad, poet
teal moment of inspired plagiarism, it
not only owned q poignant and en-
thralling beauty of imagery, but it
moved with an almost Grecian certi-
tude, with a significance extraordina-
| rily direct and devoid of circumlocu-
| zion, seeming to lay bare the living
| Tissue of immortal drama.
But with the appearance of other
characters there came a change: the
rare atmosphere of the opening began
TO dissipate perceptibly. The acf1on
clouded and grew vague. The auditors
began to feel the flutterings of uncer-
| tainty in the air. Something was fail
ing to cross the footlights. The sweep
ing and assured gesture of the accom-
4 plished playwright faltered: q clumsy
bit of construction was damningly ex-
posed; faults of characterization mul.
tiplied depressingly. Sara Law her.
self lost an indefinable proportion OF
her rare and provoking charm; the
strangeness of failing to hold her au
dience in an ineluctable grasp seemed
at once to nettle and distress her
Max himself seemed suddenly to wake
to the amazing fact that there was
something enormously and irremedi
ably wrong; he beganwith exasperatine
frequency to halt the action, to inter
rupt scenes with advice and demands
for repetition. He found it impossible
10 be still, to keep his seat or contro
his rasping, irritable voice. Subordi
nate characters on the stage lost theil
heads and either forgot to act OF
overacted. And then-intolerable eli
max of a sudden somebody in the
orchestra chairs laughed in outright
derisiOn in the middle of a passage
meant to be tenderly emotional.
The voice of Sara Law broke ant
fell. She stood trembling and un
strung. Max, without a word, turned
on his heel and swung out of sight int
the wings. Four other actors on tn,
stage, aside from Sara Law, hesitateC
and drew together in doubt and be
wilderment. And then, abruptly, witt
no warning whatever, the illusion O
gloom in the auditorium and moonligh
In the postscenium was rent away b,
the glare of the full complement O
electric lights installed in the house
A thought later, while still all wer
blinking and gasping with surprise
Max strode into view just behind tn
footlights. Hating, he swept the al
ray of auditors with an ominous an
truculent stare.
So quickly was this startling chang
consummated that Whitaker had n
more than time to realize the reaI
pearance of the manager before h
caught his wrathful and venomou
glance fixed to his own bewildere
face. And something in the light tha
fiickered wildly behind MaX'S eyes RI
6 minded him so strongly of a simila
expression he had remarked in til
eyes of Drummond, the night the la
ter had been captured by Ember an
Sum Fat, that in alarm he half ros
from his seat.
simultaneously he saw Max sprln
toward the box, with distorted an
snarling countenance. He was IA
ging at something in his pocket.
appeared in the shape of hea1
. pistol.
Instantly Whitaker was caught ar
tripped by Ember and sent sprawliI
= on the floor of the box. AS this ha
, pened, he heard the voice of the fir
. arm, sharp and viciOus-a single r
) port.
Unhurt, he picked himself up in tin
|. to catch a glimpse of Max, on Il
stage, momentarily helpless in the eI
) brace of a desperate and frantic wOl
an who had caught his arms from l.
? hind and, presumably, had so deheC
ed his arm. In the same breath FL
+ ber who had leaped to the rail!l
round the box, threw himself aero
!. the fOotlights with the 1.-THE certain
of beast Of prey and, seemingly
as many deft motions, knocked t
. pistol from the managers hand, wre
5 ed him from the arms of the actre
laid him fiat and knelt upon him.
: With a single bound Whitaker f
r lowed him to the stage; in another
! had his wife in his arms and W
| hOr HrS