’Twas midnight. The landscape was still as death. Hills, rocks, rivers,
even the babbling brooks, seemed locked in sleep. The moonbeams dreamt
upon the hillside; stars slept in the glittering sky; the silent vales
were full of dreaming flowers whose parti-colored cups closed in sleep.
In all that solemn hush of silence one watcher broke the charmed spell.
’Twas Aubrey Livingston. Now he moves swiftly over the plain as if
some sudden purpose drove him on; then he turns back in the self-same
track and with the same impulsive speed. What is he doing in the lonely
night? All day, hour after hour, mile on mile, the scorching midday
sun had blazed upon his head, and still he wandered on. The tranquil
sunset purpled round his way and still the wanderer hastened on. In his
haggard eyes one question seems to linger--“I wonder if she lives!”
Many, many dreary times he said this question over! He has a secret and
’tis a mighty one; he fears if human eye but look upon him, it must be
revealed. Hark! suddenly there falls upon his ear the sound of voices,
surely some one called! Again! His straining ear caught a familiar
sound.
“Aubrey! Aubrey Livingston!”
“By heaven, it is her voice!” he told himself. And as if to assure him
still more of who addressed him, close before his very eyes moved two
figures. Hand in hand they passed from out a clump of sheltering trees,
and slowly crossed his path. One face was turned toward him, the other
from him. The moon revealed the same white robe in which he had last
beheld her, the long, streaming hair, her slippered feet--all were
there. Upon his wondering eyes her own were fixed in mute appeal and
deepest anguish; then both figures passed away, he knew not where.
“’Twas she, and in full life. God of heaven, she lives!”
Pausing not to think he was deceived, enough for him, she lived. He
turned his steps toward his home, with flying feet he neared the hall.
Just as he reached the great entrance gates, he saw the two figures
slightly in advance of him. This time Dianthe’s face was turned away,
but the silver moonbeams threw into bold relief the accusing face of
Molly Vance!
With a sudden chill foreboding, he entered the hall and passed up the
stairs to his wife’s apartments. He opened wide the door and stood
within the chamber of the dead.
There lay the peaceful form--spread with a drapery of soft, white gauze
around her, and only the sad and livid, poisoned face was visible above
it; and kneeling by the side of her, his first love and his last--was
Reuel Briggs.
Rising from the shadows as Aubrey entered, Charlie Vance, flanked on
either side by Ai and Ababdis, moved to meet him, the stern brow and
sterner words of an outraged brother and friend greeted him:
“Welcome, murderer!”
* * * * *
Dianthe was dead, poisoned; that was clear. Molly Vance was unduly done
to death by the foul treachery of the same hand. All this was now
clear to the thinking public, for so secluded had Aubrey Livingston
lived since his return to the United States, that many of his intimate
associates still believed that he had perished in the accident on the
Charles. It was quite evident to these friends that his infatuation for
the beautiful Dianthe had led to the commission of a crime. But the
old adage that, “the dead tell no tales,” was not to be set aside for
visionary ravings unsupported by lawful testimony.
Livingston’s wealth purchased shrewd and active lawyers to defend him
against the charges brought by the Vances--father and son,--and Reuel
Briggs.
One interview which was never revealed to public comment, took place
between Ai, Ababdis, Aunt Hannah, Reuel Briggs and Aubrey Livingston.
Aubrey sat alone in his sumptuous study. An open book was on his knees,
but his eyes were fixed on vacancy. He was changed and his auburn locks
were prematurely grey. His eyes revealed an impenetrable mystery within
into whose secret depths no mortal eye might look. Thus he sat when the
group we have named above silently surrounded him. “Peace, O son of
Osiris, to thy parting hour!”
Thus Ai greeted him. There was no mistaking these words, and gazing
into the stern faces of the silent group Aubrey knew that something of
import was about to happen.
Aubrey did not change countenance, although he glanced at Reuel as if
seeking mercy. The latter did not change countenance; only his eyes,
those strange deep eyes before whose fixed gaze none could stand
unflinching, took on a more sombre glow. Again Ai spoke:
“God has willed it! Great is the God of Ergamenes, we are but worms
beneath His feet. His will be done.” Then began a strange, weird scene.
Round and round the chair where Aubrey was seated walked the kingly
Ai chanting in a low, monotone in his native tongue, finally advancing
with measured steps to a position directly opposite and facing
Livingston, and stood there erect and immovable, with arms raised as if
in invocation. His eyes glittered with strange, fascinating lights in
the shaded room. To the man seated there it seemed that an eternity was
passing. Why did not these two men he had injured take human vengeance
in meting out punishment to him? And why, oh! why did those eyes,
piercing his own like poinards, hold him so subtly in their spell?
Gradually he yielded to the mysterious beatitude that insensibly
enwrapped his being. Detached from terrestrial bonds, his spirit soared
in regions of pure ethereal blue. A delicious torpor held him in its
embrace. His head sank upon his breast. His eyes closed in a trancelike
slumber.
Ai quitted his position, and approaching Aubrey, lifted one of the shut
eyelids. “He sleeps!” he exclaimed.
Then standing by the side of the unconscious man he poured into his
ear--speaking loudly and distinctly,--a few terse sentences. Not a
muscle moved in the faces of those standing about the sleeper. Then Ai
passed his hands lightly over his face, made a few upward passes, and
turning to his companions, beckoned them to follow him from the room.
Silently as they had come the group left the house and grounds, gained
a waiting carriage and were driven rapidly away. In the shelter of the
vehicle Charlie Vance spoke, “Is justice done?” he sternly queried.
“Justice will be done,” replied Ai’s soothing tones.
“Then I am satisfied.”
But Reuel spoke not one word.
* * * * *
One day not very long after this happening, the body of Aubrey
Livingston was found floating in the Charles river at the very point
where poor Molly Vance had floated in the tangled lily-bed. The
mysterious command of Ai, “death by thine own hand,” whispered in his
ear while under hypnotic influence, had been followed to the last
letter.
Thus Aubrey had become his own executioner according to the ancient
laws of the inhabitants of Telassar. Members of the royal family in
direct line to the throne became their own executioners when guilty of
the crime of murder.
* * * * *
Reuel Briggs returned to the Hidden City with his faithful subjects,
and old Aunt Hannah. There he spends his days in teaching his people
all that he has learned in years of contact with modern culture. United
to Candace, his days glide peacefully by in good works; but the shadows
of great sins darken his life, and the memory of past joys is ever with
him. He views, too, with serious apprehension, the advance of mighty
nations penetrating the dark, mysterious forests of his native land.
“Where will it stop?” he sadly questions. “What will the end be?”
But none save Omnipotence can solve the problem.
To our human intelligence these truths depicted in this feeble work
may seem terrible,--even horrible. But who shall judge the handiwork
of God, the Great Craftsman! Caste prejudice, race pride, boundless
wealth, scintillating intellects refined by all the arts of the
intellectual world, are but puppets in His hand, for His promises
stand, and He will prove His words, “Of one blood have I made all races
of men.”
(THE END.)
Transcriber’s Notes
Errors in punctuation have been fixed.
Page 33: “he addded dreamily” changed to “he added dreamily”
Page 36: “the degredation” changed to “the degradation” “It Mount
Auburn” changed to “In Mount Auburn”
Page 38: “out of choas” changed to “out of chaos”
Page 104: “subtile magnetic agent” changed to “subtle magnetic agent”
Page 105: “potent pressence” changed to “potent presence” “The muse
returned” changed to “The nurse returned”
Page 106: “once ingored him” changed to “once ignored him”
Page 109: “lonelly, darkened life” changed to “lonely, darkened life”
Page 110: “we stand dwadling” changed to “we stand dawdling” “aided and
abbetted” changed to “aided and abetted” “anything else but dwadle”
changed to “anything else but dawdle” “Oh, you, Aubey” changed to “Oh,
you, Aubrey”
Page 112: “stop your nonsence” changed to “stop your nonsense”
Page 191: “strange coincidencies” changed to “strange coincidences”
Page 192: “I supose” changed to “I suppose”
Page 193: “away befort” changed to “away before”
Page 195: “learned savans” changed to “learned savants” “he the happy
groom” changed to “be the happy groom”
Page 197: “his slender wrist” changed to “her slender wrist”
Page 199: “beauty of the lanquid” changed to “beauty of the languid”
Page 264: “artists, savans” changed to “artists, savants”
Page 266: “enough dilapitated abandon” changed to “enough dilapidated
abandon” “period of inacitivity” changed to “period of inactivity”
Page 268: “antennal of a lobster” changed to “antennae of a lobster”
“interrupted by a low vail” changed to “interrupted by a low wail”
Page 269: “came again an unevennes” changed to “came against an
uneveness” “perched on imminences” changed to “perched on eminences”
Page 270: “enterpret of trade” changed to “entrepot of trade” “learned
savan” changed to “learned savant”
Page 271: “Lister, listen” changed to “Listen, listen”
Page 272: “hypnotice trance” changed to “hypnotic trance”
Page 339: “learned savans” changed to “learned savants”
Page 341: “impassible barrier” changed to “impassable barrier”
Page 344: “watching the unlfading of the apparatus” changed to
“watching the unloading of the apparatus”
Page 347: “the echoeless sand” changed to “the echoless sand” “before
the entrace” changed to “before the entrance” “Here were ranger great
numbers” changed to “Here were ranged great numbers”
Page 429: “Lybia’s solemn hills” changed to “Libya’s solemn hills”
Page 497: “toward Afric’s shores” changed to “toward Africa’s shores”
Page 582: “Ethoapia’s bondage” changed to “Ethiopia’s bondage”
Page 646: “overwraught brain” changed to “overwrought brain”
Page 731: The line ““To Reuel!” gasped Dianthe, and set” was
incorrectly printed above the previous paragraph and has been relocated.
Page 806: The spelling of “Abdadis” changed to “Ababdis”.