Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1918-05-31

of QuetZal|
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BY J. u. GlESY q ]. 3. SMITH
Authors OF Semi-Dual Stories I
Copyright.
The Frank A. Munsey Co. 1

Laredo complied without words
Heffy and took the positions assign
ed us. Dual lifted the Indians feet.
Together we swung the body from the
table and carried it across to the seat
prepared for its reception
Qua, lowered the feet to the floor.
Heffy and drew the shoulders up
onto the back of the chair Semi
placed his sinewy hands on the dead
mans hips, and while We held him
steady, forced them backward, as one
might bend a rusty hinge, so that they
bsut slowly and slipped into the seat
Of the chair.
Holding them there with one hand.
he took each partly flexed knee and
bent It down and backward until Ute
Charley appeared to be sitting with
his back to the window, waiting for
the return of Osborne with the mir.
rors and probe.
In fact, we all waited.
Semi and Laredo and Heffy dropped
into chairs. Myself. ! walked over TO
the window, the lsNer sash Of which
was OF semi-opaque glass, and stood
gazing up through the clear pane of
the upper frame to the blue OF he
outer r',y.
wondereh what Connie was doing
how y. f II
ha1ai seen her since The nj h. b..
fore, because / hadn. wished to IN
trude into that suite Of sorrow where
she had remained while Miss Win
garde slept after Dual had hlll.tl her
first Wild grief Of bereavement. |
wondered IL, perhaps, she were not
lying down and resting, and | hoped
she was.
Then the door opened and Osborne
came in with the laryngoscope, its re.
Hector, the probe, and tongue DE-.
pressor ard mouth-gag which he laid
out on the table from which we had
just lifted Charley.
Dual rose and joined him. He
nodded. Good" he approved "You
brought all we shall need, | think"
! He took up the gag and came over
to the dead man in the chais, drawing
up a seat for himself directly facing.
Separating the Indians lips he insert
ed the blades of the little instrument
between the strong teeth and forced
them apart with little clicking Of the
rachetcatch. The Indians mouth
capped open and exposed the tongue
blush in color and swollen, like that
Of parrot.
j Osborne. watching him, lifted the re-
Hector and extended it toward him.
Semi took it, manipulated its strap,
adjusting 1t to his head, and slipped It
into position 50 that its reflecting sur
face stood like a Cyclopean eye above
his own, reached up and drew it about
on its halljoint, until its central hole
exactly covered his right eye, and
hitched his chair closer still to the
body in the chair
Sunlight was coming through the
window. Dual caught ray on the
reflector and threw it back into the
mouth, held wide by the gag. II
swaged and flickcred, searching out
the reddish blue cavity, steadied and
played on the back OF the throat In a
tiny circle which brought out the swol-
len veins under the membranes.
Dual put out hand backward to-
ward the physician,
Like a trained surgical assistant, Os-
borne was ready, and handed him the
tiny throat mirror on its long, slended
handle. Semi took 1t, and the tongue
depressor which he had laid on his lap
at first.
Slipping the latter over the tongue
he forced Il down, thrust the tiny glass
into the mouth and back into the ray
Of the mirror on his forehead, turning
and twisting It this way and that, to
at last hold 1t steady and peer intently
at the diminutive reversed picture 1t
revealed.
For long minute he continued to
gaze into the lifeless cavity of the
throat, then without words beckoned
Osborne to him. The physician came,
bent and peered along the luminous
ray to the surface of the mirror. 1t
seemed to me that he started slightly.
His face swung from what he had
seen and he looked sQuarely at Dual
His eyes had come open, his,1ips were
slightly parted. His entire expression
was that OF one deeply affected by
gone totally unexpected sghkor oe-
currencc. As their eyes met, Semi