The Night Horseman

ave been termed handsome had not his features been so deeply cut and roughly finished. His black hair was quite long, and as the wind from the opened door stirred it, there was a t

the doc, Kat

answered, "and I've broug

s gaze to drift leisure

all

ly irritating about their mere physical size; they threw him continually on the defensive and he found himself making apologies to himself and summing up perso

ng, "is Mr. Daniels. Buc

ing kind of cold. So I wrapped him up in a rug. Then he sat some as usual, one hand inside

did

tting excited. The way you know

room first, doctor, or will

, and followed her down t

it was a memorial cross surrounded by a wreath inside a glass case. Most of the wall space thronged with engravings whose subjects ranged from Niagara Falls to Lady Hamilton. One entire end of the room was occupied by a painting of a neck and neck finish in a race, and the artist had conceived the blooded racers as creatures with tremendous round hips and mighty-muscled shoulders, while the legs tapered to a faun-like delicacy. These animals were spread-eagled in the most amazing fashion, their fore-hoofs reaching beyond their noses and their rear hoofs strik

scence of this picture lay the sick man, propped high

or Hardin was not in town. I've br

rne, but a grim emaciation which exaggerated the size of a tall forehead and made his eyes supernally bright. It was in the first glance of those eyes that Byrne recognized the restlessness of which Kate had spoken; and he felt almost as if it were an inner fire which had burned and still was was

Cumberland was dying. It was not a matter of moment. Death might be a week or a month away, but die soon he inevitably must; f

more closely. Fire wi

that it was hardly a whisper; then he leaned closer and pored over Joe Cumberland with

mself. Kate Cumberland listened intently and she thought that what the man mutte

e triumph of m

was not the strong beating of the normal organ; the hands

d stared again at the face of Cumberland. He felt as if he understood, now, the look which was concentrated so brightly o

oken away. The eyes of the world looked in upon him and the wise men of the world kept p

ay there to co

no prolonged trance. He was vitally, vividly alive; he was concentrating with a bitter and exhausting vigour day and night, and fighting a battle the more terrible

and particular and so well witnessed that they would have to admit the truth of all he said. And science, which proclaimed that matter was indest

transformed him. His nostrils were quivering, his eyes were pointed with light, his head was high, and he

ng. He wanted to be alone, to think. But when he followed her she stopped him in t

ked Kate C

Byrne to face. If there had been a garish brightness about her when he had first seen her, the brilliancy of a mirror playing in the sun against his feeble eyes, there was now a blending of pastel shades, for the hall was

the value of a first impression is not negligible. The best I can say is that there is proba

all he thought; i

about to be punished for a crime it has not committed, and it came vague

ities for observance before I give a de

m and at once the heavy ste

ase. Buck, will you take the doctor up to his room?" She managed a faint smile. "This is an old-fashione

lay. She walked slowly, with her head bent, and her posture seemed to Byrne the very picture of a burden-bearer. Then he followed Da

old-fashioned room-the bare, painted floor; the bed, in itself a separate and important piece of architecture with its four tall posts, a relic of the times when beds were built, not simply made; and there was a chest of drawers with swelling, hospitable front, and a recta

to an adjoining chamber. All he could see clearly was a corner on which struck the shaft of light from the lamp, and lying on the floor in that corner was something limp and brown. A snake, he surmised at first, but then he saw cle

He slammed it with violence. "She's been in there again, I g

ntured th

els whirl

checked himself with choking suddenn