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About Lincoln County leader. (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 13, 1907)
The Roupell Mystery By Austyn CHAPTER I. It wai a fiue night toward, the latter part of May. During the daytime there had been clouds over Paris ; but on the approach of evening the sun had come out, and, descending in a blaze of glory, tinged the housetops with a fiery glow and burnished the waters of the Seine with a golden, mellow light. The small suburb of Villeneuve, distant from the French capital but fourteen miles, shared this generous halo of brilliant coloring. It lacked just fifteen minutes of eleven o'clock when the moon, which was nearly at the full, rose with slow and majestic motion above the horizon, and hung sus pended between earth and heaven like a huge silver lamp. The great trees which almost surrounded the chateau Villeneuve cast across the smooth and velvety lawns their deep shadows. 1 From the chateau itself, the light of a solitary lamp, pal ing to a few mere twinkling rays, shone fitfully. It came from a window in the left wing of the building. Remote from the great metropolis, the hush of a pro found peace was here upon everything, save when stirred by the soft breeze from the south, the leafy branches of tenderest green rustled and moved gently to and fro. In the deep shade of an enormous oak which seemed to keep watch and ward over the sleeping Inmates, stood a young man named Charles Van Lith, to whom very familiar object but conjured up to bis ardent imagination the interior of that faintly illuminated apartment. This ilent watcher continued to gaze for some momenta In the direction of the chateau. Ilia demeanor was that of one undecided aa to what course to pursue. Twice he stepped from the shadow of the tree and placed his foot upon the gravel walk, and as many times retraced his footsteps. At length he Issued forth more boldly, though not without caution, to prevent the crunching of his shoes upon the travel, and stood beneath the window. ticking up two or three small pebbles, be threw them against the glass. His heart beat somewhat faster than its wont as, after the third essay, a girl of about nineteen years of age, who had been read ing by the light of the lamp, left her seat and, opening the swinging casement. looked out upon the night. "Who is there?" she asked In a tone which indicated some alarm, but singu larly sweet and musical. "It's I it's Charles," replied the young fellow ; "don't be frightened. I must see you, if only for a moment. I am going away. I am leaving France. I return to America to-morrow." "Ob, nonsense," exclaimed the girl. Tou are saying this just to try me." "I am not, upon my word, Harriet," answered an Llth. "My passage is al ready taken. I sail from Havre to-mor row afternoon." "Why did you not let me know earlier?" she asked. "I was afraid to write. Ton know your aunt strictly forbade it But, Har riet, can t I get in, if only for a few moments? "I really don't see how you can Harriet Weldon began, when the faint re monstrance died away upon her Hps. Seizing the strong stem of a thick vine which ran near the window, and assisted by the trellis work, the young athlete be low commenced an ascent which to an older man would have proved an impossl ble feat. In a few moments his band was on the window sill and the next instant he had leaped lightly into the chamber. Harriet, the first raptures of their meet ing over, begged him to be gone ; but he, sitting beside her on the low window seat, urged his plea for further time so elo quently that she yielded, and could not find It in her heart to dismiss him at once. The lovers, too, had a hundred confidences to interchange. Harriet told Van Lith how, since his quarrel with her aunt, the persecutions of a certain M, Chabot bad become well-nigh intolerable. She was afraid, moveover, that Mme. Roupell favored his suit. "And now you are going to America, varies, aua mere wiu be no one to atand between us. I am sure the man has not even the excuse of loving me. It is my dowry he is after. He is, no doubt, aware that Madame Roupell has made a will In favor of Emily and myself." Charles Van Lith could only clench his fist in iii)otent rage.. To the house where he had once been an honored and wel come guest he now had to come like a thief in the night to seek a farewell in terview with the only being on earth who jet loved and trusted him. In his mind there wn a burning sense of injustice. The cold and severe tones in which Mme. Boupell bad dismissed him seemed still ringing in his ears. "Do not go," pleaded Harriet "I am certain that it will not be long before my aunt will relent ; that, after all, she really v thinks a great deal of you ; stay, and I will myself go to her on the first oppor tunity which offers and plead your cause." "You are more hopeful than I am," replied Van Lith, bitterly. "If I hnd been treated with anyi show of justice, why, I would not care. But your aunt Is prejudiced against me. I am well aware' that Monsieur Chabot 'lias sought to undermine her confidence In me, and he has succeeded. I tell you, Harriet, when I think of all these things it makes me a desperate man." He had been pacing (he floor restlessly with long, impatient strides. His face was flushed with anger. With the mem ory of .Mme. Roupell's merciless treat ment aroused anew within bim, he could kardly restrain himself. "Bha U wars than unjust," he con Q r a n v 1 1 1 e tinued; "she has deliberately opened her ears to these tales of Chabot'a and as deliberately shut them to my explana tions. She has magnified my smallest misdemeanors into great faults." "You must not blame my aunt to me, Charles. Recollect that to us girls, at least, she .has ever been good and kind. I wonder what would have happened to us when mother died, if it hadn't been for her? Few women would have cross ed the ocean as she did to fetch us, for her dead sister's sake; and she has been as good as a mother to us ever since. No, Charlie, you mustn't say a word against Aunt Ruth in my hearing." "Harriet," he said, "you are quite right to stand by her. It would be but a poor return on your part for all her kindness to you if you didn't; but In- wronging me she has wronged you as well. In opposing our union, she not only wrecks my happiness, but youra." He was quieter presently. In the soft ening influence of Harriet Weldon's pres ence his evil genius seemed to desert him. The angry expression of his features re laxed. They sat side by side and began to talk. Still pleading with him, Harriet Weldon strove to persuade her lover to abandon his intention of immediately leaving France. "I have given you all my heart," she said, tearfully, "and now you are going away, perhaps forever but hark, what sound is that?" She leaned out of the window and list ened intently for a moment. The sound of wheels on the carriage drive was dis tinctly audible. She rushed to the man tlepiece where a little clock stood ticking away the precious moments. "Jt is long past twelve," she exclaim ed. "That's their carriage we hear. They've come back from the opera. O, Charlie, go, go, I beg you, while you can get away." Van Llth turned at once to go. For a moment only, he held her to his breast. Into that brief interval of time were com pressed a hundred different emotions. which stirred him as he had not been stirred for many a day. "I cannot, yet I must leave you," he cried. I He bowed his head a little and kissed her twice upon the lips. She trembled violently, but thrust him away from her, repeating in tones of entreaty: "Be careful ! O, do be careful !" He was himself once more. He placed the half-fainting form of the girl upon the sofa, and hurried away. He was about to commence his descent from the window, and had already swung the old fashioned, dlamond-paned sash half way open, when Harriet, in whose agitated mind the fear of discover; overcame all feminine weakness, rushed forward, and, catching hold of his arm, exclaimed : "You are too late! Come back. Be quick, or you will be seen." Van Lith had just time to close the window when, through a chink in the cur tains, he saw a hooded barouche, drawn by two powerful horses, sweep rapidly around the bend of the avenue and draw up at the main entrance of the chateau From the vehicle there alighted a gentle man of about thirty years of age. With a great Bhow of attention he first assist ed a young lady, evidently still in her teens, to descend. He then with much solicitude placed his nattily gloved hand at the disposal of the third occupant of the carriage, a gray-baired lady, evident ly well advanced In years, for she leaned heavily upon the shoulders of both her companions. She shivered slightly as she -stood upon the gravel path in the moon light, notwithstanding that the night was warm. There were traces yet of extreme beau ty in this woman's features, who, as Sarah Graham, had once been the toast of the club rooms in fashionable New York, It was still the face of a refined and cul tured American lady. The nose was thin and aquiline, and an expression at once haughty, yet kindly withal, sat upon the mobile, nervous lips. Jewels flashed upon her still firm neck and her little wrists. She held herself erect and her eyes flashed proudly, as she looked upon her splendid home. "Emily, my dear, I have left my shawl in the carriage. Will you please hand it to me? Monsieur Chabot your arm." The younger lady at once sprang light ly into the carnage, and returning with the shawl, wrapped it closely about her aunt. There was an Inexpressible ten derness in the action. "How thoughtless of me, dear. You might have taken cold. Don't ring. Mon sieur Chabot. I have a latch key. Ah. here Is Pierre. Pierre, are you sitting up.' l hope there s some supper, ready, for I'm hungry as I can be. Come, aunt ; let's go in." But something seemed to have attract ed Mme. Roupell's attention. She with drew her hand from the arm of her male escort, and adjusting her monocle, a dainty toy of gold and ivory, gazed stead ily at the upper windows of the chateau. "Isn't It rather strange, my dear, that there's a light In Harriet's room? I thought she was going to bed. If her headache was no worse than that, she might as well have accompanied us this evening. When I was a young girl. Mon sieur Chabot, It would have tnken some thing more than a headache to keep me away from the opern." M. Chabot smiled, and showed his white teeth pleasantly. "Madame can still teach us inexperi enced people how to enjoy life," he re marked, gallantly. "It remained for the t'nited States to send to France another Ninon D'Enclos. to prove that chanting women never grow old." "Really, Monsieur Chabot, I am over whelmed. For simplicity and natural ness in compliment, my d'-ar Emily, lei me recommend thiat flatterer." Mme. Roupell'r favorite pastime was to make M. Chabot believe that bis ex aggerated praises of her as a great lady struck home. One of her sayings was, "I like Monsieur Chabot He is such a sincere humbug," but she must hare really been a little moved on this occasion, for her smooth, white finders on the French man's coat sleeve tightened their pressure and her face lightened wonderfully. Harriet, sheltered by the window cur tains, looked at Van Lith, who ground his teeth so furiously that, notwithstand ing the gravity of the situation, the girl could not forbear laughing. Mme. Rou pell below was still smiling at the French man's compliment "Let us go inside," she said, at last. "No doubt we shall find some supper somewhere. Poor Harriet ! I trust she is not sick. I will go right upstairs and see how she is." "That's comforting tidings, anyway," thought Van Lith, who had again cau tiously opened the window, and to whom, as he peered through the curtains, every word uttered by the party below was dis tinctly ,audible. "Look here, Harriet what on earth am I to do? Madame Roupell is coming to see how you are. In a minute she will be here." Harriet's cheeks blanched 'for a mo ment for from her station near the door of the chamber she could already hear Mme. Roupell's footsteps ascending the stairs. "Come here," she cried to Van Lith, frantically. "There is no one sleeping In your old room. Run across the hall quickly, and hide yourself there until I cull you. I will lock you In, n my aunt will have' to go the other way. You must return, through her sitting room to the corridor. You can do it easily, for she is a sound sleeper. Van Lith did as he was directed. Har riet had barely time to turn the key on him, return to her chamber, seat herself and snatch up a book, when her aunt's footsteps were heard In the corridor, and a moment later the old lady entered the apartment. "Awake yet my dear child? Can't you sleep? Oh! You are thinking of that young scamp, I'm afraid. Well, I wouldn't if I were you. He isn't worth it. Besides, If you don't go to bed earlier where will the roses go to?" She stooped and kissed her niece ten derly on both cheeks, and then went to the window. , i "I mustn't keep the horses out all night Jean ! Jean !" The coachman turned on the box and looked up at the window. "You can go to the stables. Monsieur Chabot will not return to the city to night." Mme. Roupell closed the window again and came back to where her niece was sitting. "Monsieur Chabot sleeps here to night?" inquired Harriet, in a tone of apparent unconcern, while her heart was really beating violently. "Where will you put him, aunty?" "Can't he have Monsieur Van Lith'a old room, dear?" "Not very well. But the chamber off your own Is ready, and the sheets are aired." "Very well, child, then I will give di rections that he be lodged there. And now good-night. Don't sit up reading; but try to sleep." Mme. Roupell turned and left the apartment. It was the last benediction that was to fall from the lips of Harriet Weldon's benefactress; for the shadow of an awful crime was even then hovering over the chateau. (To b4 continued.) A Plague of Clocks. We had been settled but a little while in our Indian clearing, and had Just Required a deed to It bearing the signature of Andrew Jackson ".Tonquln" H. Miller In the Boston Transcript, when one day a hi MOT boned, hatchet-fneed mnn in a beaver hat come to us by way of the State road, with a lond of clocks In n car rlage. He had a big, Impertinent boy wun mm, and piended sadly that both of them were sick. Mother was very good to them, pull- ea out tne trundle-bed to the middle of the floor, had us children sleen nr the foot of her bed, and treated the strangers as If they had been her own blood. But they both walled and moan ed bitterly, and begged father to take the clocks and dispose of them at his leisure to his neighbors. There was a whole carriage load of them, but upon the reiterated assur ance that he could double, and even treble, bis money, our confiding fath er, not knowing one thing about the real price or value of sjich wares, signed a note and became a "merchant." At the end of the yenr'that hntchet faced man came bnck and exacted his money with enormous Interest, al though father had not yet sold a single clock. Years Inter, when we set cat to cross the great plains, those old clocks With but a single one missing, took up more thnn hnlf the wagon space. We hauled them from Indlnna almost to the top of the Rocky Mountains, and then, one night, In a terrific snow storm, when the wagon had upset, we found a use for them. Brass, wood, glass and varnish nil went to feed a fire. And so pence to their sounding brnss. rest to their brazen faces! There are B27 distinct muscles In tne hnmnn body, of which eighty-three are In the bead and farm KAKESr OF ALL XNOWH ANIMALS - - i - n' FIBST PHOTO OF A OKAPl. That interesting creature, the okapl. nllled to the giraffe, and discovered by Sir Harry Johnston on the eastern border of the Congo forest (near' the Senillkl lllver, which Joins the Albert Nyauza and the Albert Edward Lake) had never been observed and studied by a white man in its living state until five months ago when a young calf okapl about a mouth old was obtained by SIguor Rlbottl at Bambini, on the Evelle River (about 400 miles north west of the original locality). The pic ture is that of a living okapl, a calf about a month old. The photograph is the first that has ever been taken of a living specimen. WOMEN AND BASEBALL. One of the- Sex Explains Why Sha Doesn't Know Game Very Well. "I don't see that it's much wonder If women don't know a great deal about that game of baseball," remarked Cleveland woman In the role of an abused wife the other day to a Plain Dealer man. "If all men were like my husband it would be a fine chance any wife wonld have to learn anything be sides household drudgery. I think lt'a absolutely absurd the way some men seem to lose all control of their senses and all idea of ordinary courtesy when they get within sight of a crowd of men knocking a ball about a big pas ture. "I've always been so bored to death by baseball games the few times my husband has persuaded me to go, be cause I never could tell who was win nlng, that I told my husband I wouldn't go to any more of the old games with him. Then the other day he told me that if I'd go he would just make It his business for that one day to explain the game to me. "Well, he started in to explain things to me, and bis mood lasted just until some one hit the bnll, and then he be gan to shout and jump up and down as if some one had hooked an electric wire to bis seat. I thought something very unusual must have happened and I tried to get him to tell me -what he was acting so foolish about, but he Just snapped out: 'This Is too good a game. I'll tell you all about it when we get home.' And that was all I could get out of him during the rest of the tiresome old game. I'll never go to one with him again." Pet of the Permian Days. One of the most startling fossil won ders ever unearthed Is Just now creat ing a veritable sensation and arousing widespread scientific and popular In terest In New York at the Museum of Natural History, writes Lllllnn E. Zeh In Technical World Magazine. This Is due to efforts of Professor Henry F. Osborn, who has placed on exhibition a complete reconstruction of one of the oldest, and most extra ordinary four-footed creatures that ever trod earth. This ancient animal hitherto practically unknown to the outside world, called nnosnrus, or the carniverous fintmck lizard, Inhabited the region of Texas In the Permian age, estimated to have been, accord ing to geological reckoning, anywhere from twelve to twenty millions of years ago. The fin-back lizard was a most formidable creature, terrifying In appearance and possessing a mouth eighteen inches In length and armed with terrible tusks. Not a Clean Sweep. The hurricane blowed the big trees down, An' we saw the steeple fall ; An' the atrthqunke swallcred one-balf the town, But It didn't swaller us all ! The rain come down fer forty days, Till it hid the pine trees tall ; But we're thiukm'V singin' a song o' praise Fer it didn't drown us all ! Atlanta Constitution. Always Late. Blacksmith Tha knows Mm. 'E was f mayor one year. Old Man Nay, 'e never got as Mgh as that 'E wor nobbut ex-muyor. Punch. How a thief must laneh to read In the papers that the $5 watch be Btole the night before is valued at $200 by Its owner. UYKPEPSIA AMD DESTINY. Wt" Who Xeajlerletl Their Bodies l-'ailt-d When Saceeu Waa SLsh. Man has a machine, an apparatus of delicate adjustment but of great pow- hls bodybnt too often he neglects to use it, say the Boston Globe. H lets It rest in ease or slumber in sloth. He coddles it He arrays It in fine lin en and purple, bedizens It with jewels and pumpers It with Indigestible foods. Dfteu sparing it the arduous labor of aastication. He penults It to sit awk wardly with crossed legs or stooped shoulders, as If the trunk was too fragile to bold up its limbs, or the weight of the atmosphere was an Atlas load for Its back. And what reward bath the mind for 'ills Indulgence granted the sybarite Sesh? Ingratitude and complaining ac companied by accusations. The poor, debilitated muscles and nerves Justly charge that the overseer mind has been neglectful of Its duties and, despising so weak and ignorant a foreman, desert or rebel, and leave their should-be boss Impotent to carry out the true work of a man. The marvelous mind of Alexander, which ruled a world, had no discipline for Its body after It became acquainted with oriental pomp and seriousness, and disregarded the stalwart virility with which In other days It tamed Bucephalus. Napoleon, busy with rearranging the map of Europe, did not properly mas ticate his chicken a la Marengo and allowed It to puss in the rough Into the iolled child of a stomach, trusting to the liver a weak one Inherited from his father to complete the lack of mastication. Probably the great disaster of Lelp elg was due to his careless eating. Voltaire has said the fate of a na tion often depended on the good or bad digestion of a prime minister, and Mot ley declares that the gout of Charles V. changes the destinies of the world. Balzac, Incomparable novelist, died at BO when he hod planned for a life of rural rest, died because he allowed the craving stomach to have coffee al all hours and In great quantities; and while his mind sauntered in all the highways, lanes and alleys of human society, his body, cabined In a monk's robe, took no exercise, but stuck to a garret, except when a sheriff's ap proach made flight a thing desired by the agile mind. k- In that delightful essay, "Snlnts and Their Bodies," Colonel Illggtnson says: "Three of the four Greek fathers ruin ed their health early and were Invalids for the rest of their days. Three only of the whole eight were able-bodied men Ambrose, Augustine and Atban aslus and the permanent Influence of these three has been far greater than that of all the others put together." "He Is born for a minister." New England parents once said of the puny twigs of the family tree, while they deputed the lusty limbs to bear the, buffets of secular storms, Luther scoffed at Juvenal's axiom of "A healthy mind In a healthy body" an axiom commended to the degenerate Romans but other religious leaders have welcomed and heeded the warn ing contained In the saying of the great satirist. If Calvin was an Invalid all the days of his life. George, Michael and. Martin were robust. If some noted prelates have not trented their bodies as they ought, we have seen even a delicate Leo XIII. Illutrnte to the let ter, "mens snna In corpore siino." In the Wrong C'harrh. An absent-minded woman one Sun. day morning walked Into church, toot a front seat and Joined Id the service vigorously, according to the Chicago Inter-Ocean. Then the collection bas ket was passed to her, and, putting a coin Into It, she looked about. She east pliuiees In every direction, her nlnd cleared, and an expression of aniezeir.ent overspread her face. She got up. She hurried down the aisle. She oertook the mnn with the collec tion basket "I'm In the wrong church," she whispered, and taking out the coin she had put In, she hurried forth. Qnealloa for Qneallon. "Farthest north, hey?" sneered tha lawyer. "Why don't you go eelur to the pole?" "Why don't you close up that will ease that you've been living on for tho last sixteen years?" Washington Her ld. Affidavit Needed Nowadays. "Why do you send two men to get that Interview?" asked the managing editor. "One of them," answered the city editor, "Is a notary public." Pittsburg Press. Wlna the Job. "She Is fitting herself for a position to apply for a Job as typewriter." "Patronizing a shorthand school?" "No, a beauty doctor." Pittsburg Press. Daniel Osiris, the Jewish banker and philanthropist of Paris, who recently died, left a will in whloh he disposed of $13,000,000, giving $3,000,000 to tit Pasteur Institute.
