Judge — October 4, 1902 — page 9: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

i } ‘THE VAULTED CHAMBER; OR, THE REVENGE OF GASTON DE MAURIAC. -yreys © uanoid uajo sey 11—- 1 WAS autumn in Kohack Corners. The scene of our story would hardly be called i acity. The figures “ 3500” on the weather-beaten sign-board over the depot do | not represent population, but “miles from New York.” Fifty-seven trains a day i go through Kohack so fast that a field of corn and a patch of lima beans near the | depot look like succotash from the car-window. The hero of our story did not | | arrive in Kohack by train—he was born there. However, do not infer, gentle | | reader, that he was afraid of the cars, Si Hubbell was tall even for Kohack, where | a man had to'grow to see over the rocks, From his earliest infancy he had lived | an outdoor life and was as strong as an ox. One of his favorite pastimes with which } to stump the gosh-blamed city cusses was to take hold of his side and hold himself | at arm’s length. This and similar feats of strength won Silas a wide reputation in | Dumbell county, and it was generally conceded by the yokels on the prune-boxes | ° that he would be a nasty one to pester. So much for our hero. Gaston de Mautiac was of quite another type. Undeniably handsome, pol- | ished, and agreeable, he stepped off the five-thirty-six accommodation each Satur- | day evening at eight o'clock. Gaston was a wealthy manufacturer of ping-pong | balls, and his foundry was two stations down the line. Both Silas and Gaston were | : deeply in love with Lettice Ring, the village belle, and were rivals for her hand ; and heart, It would be hard to say which she favored most—the honest, rugged | 4 farmer or the wealthy manufacturer. Like all girls of the present day, she cared | MY nothing for money ; but Gaston de Mauriac had more than mere wealth—he had brains, culture and good looks, but a heart cunning and cold as ice. He was not honestly in Frit aeeeneea das love with Lettice, but the poor thing could not tell that, and of course nobody told the belle. Her Its ways may be wily and dark. | parents objected to Gaston more than once, and her father, who was the village blacksmith and Like this it's been found | a Hercules in stature, gave him several awful looks. He owed the manufacturer money. But On cumming srcain | what of Silas Hubbell? Ah, dear reader, rugged honesty and truth will always prevail, If not There had been dirty work somewhere. in this world, perhaps in the next The old mill! Heavens! what a place fora murder! Silas Hubbell is tied hand and foot to a ring in the wall, and the water is rising stead- ily in the wheel-pit. Ha! a das- | tardly revenge, and, Gaston de | Mauriac, with a fiendish look of | joy, watches his successful rival | meet an awful fate. Inch by inch q | the water creeps up—now at his waist, now at his arm-pits. A dia- | bolical chuckle from de Mauriac. | | My God! the water has reached | his neck. What a death! Slowly but surely it creeps up. It is now covering his mouth—his nose. All | is over. But hark! A wild cry— a slight girlish figure leaps out of the wheel. It is Lettice. Silas | sees her and tries to speak, but only blows a few bubbles, The girl is quick to act. Seizing a large carriage-sponge, she hurls it into the vaulted chamber, sops up the water, and saves her loved one. «Curse it!" says Gaston, He says | this, then pauses hoarsely and vanishes for aye. Silas clasps the beautiful girl in his arms and asks her will she be his'n. Her brow | atenetKovice? burns like a Pittsburg stogie as Dauchter—"' Oh, | can't bear the sight of him!" she speaks the words which make | Motuer—" You must have patience, dear, until you get him."* him happy forever. ree y | } | Be A DOUBLE-HEADED JOKE. : 1. Mose (wi the fork)—" Dey ain't no use kickin let some ele do da.” 42 Ad the survsing finish to Mose’s joke convinced him the kicker was