A LAST ESCAPE.
Death frees his body, but his soul
Goes on to its predestined state:--
But who are we that we should judge--
Or name an erring brother's fate;
The wheels of the law moved slowly but steadily forward until but one
short day remained before the extradition of the nameless prisoner to
the legal guardianship of his native country. Much interest had been
excited in his case and great scope given the imagination of the curious
regarding his identity, but all to no avail. The cloud upon his birth
pursued him and now that Dr. Seward was dead there seemed little fear of
its ever being lifted.
None but the idly inquisitive seekers after morbid sensations called
upon him in his prison home until the day before his anticipated
departure, when a Mongolian, wearing the full regalia of his country,
begged a brief audience with the carefully guarded man.
No one knew what was said during that short interview as the
conversation baffled the linguistic ability of the Irish guard, but when
it was over he was promptly ushered out by the son of Erin who had
listened with open mouthed astonishment to their unintelligible
chatterings.
It was only a brief five minutes that the guard remained away, but when
he returned to his post, after seeing the Celestial visitor safely
outside the building, he thought he detected an unusual odor, and going
immediately to his prisoner's door demanded to know "what koind of
shmell the grasy yaller shkin had lift behoind him, to be shure!"
But there was no answer to his inquiry and promptly opening the door he
was horrified to find that in spite of all his vigilance his prisoner
had escaped him. Not by disappearance of body, for the still cold form
remained, but by flight of soul, instantaneous and complete, while the
sickish odor of some unknown drug spoke only too plainly of the method
employed for his escape from earthly bondage.
For a moment the horrified guard was speechless with concern, then
closing the door silently, he repaired to the warden's office, and in a
few short hours all New York was ringing with the news of the mysterious
death and clamoring wildly for the capture of the prisoner's only
visitor.