Roxy Hastings — page 85: what you’re looking at

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

76 ROXY HASTINGS. in this affair wishes to examine the box and contents more particularly, before we begin to draw, they are now wel- come to do so.” The box was passed around from hand to hand, and peered into by all, with various remarks of “‘all right,” “all regular,” etc., and one young man, affecting a levity un- suited to the occasion, thrust his hand through the aper- _ture, saying: . | | “Let us rehearse alittle.” There was a ghastly smile on his face as he did this, which was quickly chased away by a look of unqualified terror. He had drawn the black ball. He tried vainly to recall his smile, and sat down, evidently disturbed by the seeming omen. “ Are you ready, gentlemen?” asked the officer who had, from the first, been the spokesman of his party. “Ready,” was the general response, though there were one or two very faint voices among the speakers; and if any stranger to the proceeding had turned his eyes, at this moment, upon young Hartley, who sat near the six offi- cers, he could not for an instant have doubted that his lfe was one of those which were at stake. He sat, bending a little forward, with clasped hands, and with eyes which be- spoke the most intense interest, and which turned ever and anon toward the windows, and the blue sky beyond. ~ He was deadly pale, and visible tremors from time to time shook his still feeble frame. ‘Who draws first?” asked the manager, raising the box over his head, and approaching the party. ‘IT, if you please,” said the young man who had tried the unpleasant experiment. “I want to have it over with, as far as I am concerned ; that is if no one objects.” No one objecting, he advanced, with a desperate air, and thrust his hand into the box, which was lowered a little for that purpose, though not far enough to admit of a possi- bility of his seeing into it. His motions were very quick. He drew a white ball. A murmur of sympathetic joy was heard among the spectators, and with a look of intense relief he took his place among the exempts. _ “ thought I shouldn’t draw it twice in succession,” he said. ) “Who next, gentlemen?” asked the officer, shaking the box, while the marbles rattled audibly. . A stout, broad shouldered young man, whose mirth had ‘ ~EGomicbooks.co