Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1923-05-16

I'm going" and the room was sur
charged with the warm scent of CHINA
mon and roses. Lexington gasped,
snatching at the wall, and this vision
of his father and kOresh broke away
only the dark again, with green glow
overhead somewhere, and great
pulsing like seismic threats. Some
thing that was distantly yet truly him
self now commanded and with sur
prising difficulty Con stretched his
fingers up the barrier and began TO lift
himself His eyes came level with the
top, and he blinked into the glow.
A low altar of rock was sending up
the very crystalline soul of smoke,
clear as water rising IN a spring, or
| lifting gas in still air. Round about
| the altar, or reclining against the
walls of the low chamber, were figures,
motionlesS, their cOlored robes and the
| silken draperies of their cOucheS as
| Iifeless as the sandstone that encased
all. The light came from an inverted
| bowl of Jade upon the wall. One couch
was higher than the rest, nearer the
peak of stones that made the altar,
! and beside this couch an old woman
| stood. robed in black. Of all the fig
| ures in the chamber, the ancient fe-
| male alone moved, and her arms,
swaying so gradually, the tips of her
| sleeves drifting, were the essence of
| stiffness. Lexington was gripped cold
as he discerned through the vapors
| that this person was stroking the eye
| lids of his princess.
| GOwned in celestial blue and gold
| semmed ankle rings lax upon the cush-
| ions, Helen lay as one in death beyond
| the colorless font of smoke, and her
! lovers torture was complete.
From a yellow bowl, the woman in
| black moistened her fingers and con-
! tinued the Grugged caresses. The bag
was proof against the fumes that had
| dizzied Lexington when he was yet far
| down the passage, and that drove the
souls from the bodies of all the
devotees within the subterranean
| chamber.
Stupidity he observed the cash in the
rock behind the bowl Of jade from
which the flaming gas emerged to il
/ lumine the room; he noted the door
beyond and an iron ring in the door.
III the crisis he DULY observed details
/ the tangled long mustaches of one
waxen face in a corner, Inc CLINT of
| polished nails on a royal fat hand. the
| sill1en dragons that stood forever lick
| ing the throat of one (male or female,
! he could not teID, who lOunged with
frozen smile on couch of crimson.
! Under the weight of agony, Lexington
held on stif1y, and had the inept recol-
| lection that this was the state religion,
! a goddess and inverted prayer, a blow
ing upon the senses, soft as the
tongues of serpents, deadly as their
! fangS.
| Then came the thought that cen
tered him once more. He heard Helen
saying to him, an hour, an age, since,
"YOu are making me unhappy" TO
/ forget his words, to loose the tangle
he had brought into her life, she had
descended to pay this visit to the
darker gods. The old bag went on
and on, rubbing gently, diminishing
more and more the slight rise and fall
of Helen's breast. The gas Kissed
dryly from the wall.
Con felt a murderous impulse, but it
did not extend to his muscular sys-
TEN. His eyes narrowed with rage
and pain; yet he could not overcome
the smother Of kOresh in the air. He
hated the oriental garments of his be-
loved, hated the jeWeled bands on her
naked ankles, the chains of jade and
wrought gold about her body These
textures and precious things were tax
I ing her further from him. and they
aggravated the loss of his own bodily
control His mouth opened and GER
tain muscles of the jaw frightened in
laugh of hysterical anger, but his
lungs gave forth no cry, and his emo
ton remained silent. All that he had
formerly known to be himself was now
but an encasement, lock, dry dam
upon the real man. He pictured him
self in a leap into the chamber, past
the cone of rock, up to the side of his
pIiIlC6SS. Il6 NOulu CdIIy ACI away
out somehow into sunlight and sanity.
But the old Con Lexington of nerve
and sinew would not respond, hanging
half-bIindly upon ledge of sandstone,
helpless, While the new Lexington was
out of command-clear-eye able to
suffer, vet equally helpless. He had a
final glimpse of the dead col0rful fig
ures reclined in static delight about
the chamber, a final furious wish to
seize Helen in his arms, crush her
silks and golden wells to his heart, and
bear her away; and then the violence
of his emotions seemed to wreck him.
He slipped. The world was a purring
wind over valves Of giant clover bios
SONS and Towering cinnamon. = The
universe went black and singing.
CHAPTER XIII.