Evening star., 1928-10-20
WORLD FAMOUS STORIES
THE BELL TOWER
BY HERMAN MELVILLE.

preached to within seconds of l O'Clock
A silence pervaded the plain.
Suddenly came dull. mangled sound
but no ringing. No bell stroke from the
tower. The hour of l had come and
gone.
The chief magistrate hailed the tower
No response. Again. and yet again
All was hushed and still.
Soldiers burst in the tower door and
soldiers guarded the entrance while the
magistrates climbed the inner steps
No sound. Up they went, reaching the
belfry and pausing on the threshold.
There lay Bannadonna. PROSTATE and
bleeding at the base of the bell with
the girls and garlands. He lay at the
foot of one of the hours. And there,
with downcaSt face bending over him,
stood a monster of metal, now cloaked
no more. 1t had limbs, it was man.
acled, and its dubbed arms were up
! lifted as If to strike it's victim once
more One advanced foot was inserted
beneath the dead body as if about to
spurn it.
| 1t is uncertain, of course, exactly
what happened in that tower. The
superstitious believed the supernatural
had intervened The skeptics thought
otherwise, and offered a more scientific
explanation.
1t does appear. however, that the
blemish in the bell caused by the blood
of the dead workman was the spot on
which Bannadonna was working to i'm
prove it when the fatal blow fell on
him Beyond this the death of the
architect was the merest accident
Bannadonna had dared to fashion q
new mechanism. Until that time bells
had been rung by clappers which were
moved by men, especially trained bell
| ringers. Bannadonna had conceived
the idea of making mechanical bell
ringer to respond automatically at each
hour and strike the hour on the bell.
This mechanical man was what he
had hoisted in the tower the day be-
fore. He wished no one to see 1t until
| he had finished it. This figure was
placed in special grooves, SO that. as
| each hour came around. he would be
| released, would slide down the creased
| grooves, and, reaching a certain point,
would be impelled by released spring
to bring down his club against the bell.
ringing the hour. Then he would slide
back to his post until the next hour
came around.
1t is thought that Bannadonna had
unpacked this image, placed it in opera
ton, and tested il during the night.
| IlNousAl olCIlLig. IuGIl, teHVIIlR III III
| position, 1t seemed that he forgot about
| it and turned his attention to putting
/ the final touches TO the bell.
| Thus. apparently. was Bannadonna
absorbed on the final figure ss the hour
! approached l the next day. Having
left his figure 10 skip all intervening
hours. but fixed TO emerge at /. and
! then infallibly emerge, and. having
failed to note the passing Of time, the
accident is thus clear.
True to its heedful winding up. the
image left its post precisely at the given
moment. Along its we'll oiled route 1t
slid noiselessly to its mark, and aiming
at the bell to ring one dangerous note.
Gully smote the brain of Bannadonna,
winch was intervening just then and
turned backward to it. The manacled
arms sprang up instantly to their how
erlng poise. The falling BODY of the
architect clogged the things return, So
there it stood. still impending over
Bannadonna as if whispering some
post-mortem terror.
Bannadonna WasS buried with great
funeral. But all was not over. At the
last, before 1t could be r,lng. when
swung out for its first ringing, the giant
bell overbalanced the tower. fell out
and split the bell tower sidewise down
the middle. SO the creator was killed
by his creature. So the bell was too
heavy for the tower And so pride went
before the fall