The Argosy, March 1907 — page 71: what you’re looking at

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

Set ° thinking to feel the damp, sodden earth, his fingers touched the soft covering of a bed. Instead of the weird moonlight and the leaden sky, heavy with drifting clouds, he found himself gazing at the paneled walls of a large room. For a moment he thought he was dreaming and closed his eyes—when a light step at his side brought him back to reality again. ‘Ah, monsieur,’ said a quiet voice, “you have regained consciousness and, as we hoped, the brain is uninjured.” Inwood stared into the face of the speaker, a little man clad entirely in black, who held in his hand a wine-glass filled with a colorless liquid. Inwood opened his lips to speak,. but his tongue refused to perform its office. He could only stare, amazed beyond comprehension. His strange companion made a little gesture. ‘Gently, monsieur; would you throw — yourself again into the fever by undue exertion? In a few hours it will be oth- erwise—when you have taken this,” said he softly. He held the glass to Inwood’s lips, and when the American had drained its contents, set the crystal upon a table by the bedside. Whatever manner of liquor the glass ad contained it must have been pow- erful, for after a feeble attempt to sit upright, Inwood felt his eyelids closing, ‘a sense of languor overcame him, and he sank back upon the pillow. It might have been hours, or even days, for he had lost all reckoning of time, when he awoke. His limbs still felt heavy and inert, but much of the lightness in his head was gone, and it required less effort to raise himself high- - er on the pillow. In the strange silence which filled the room he gazed helplessly about him, at a loss to comprehend how so mysterious a change had been wrought in his po- sition. But gradually his mind became clear- er, as if the mists which enshrouded it were drifting slowly away. He drew himself into a sitting posture, and though weak and dizzy, threw back the cover- ings. ‘The movement was followed by a second, in another part of the room. THE EAGLE OF EMPIRE: = = gS The sudden parting of a heavy curtain brought a flood of bright sunlight across the center of the apartment. Then, as the draperies fell into place, the golden streak disappeared and through the semi- gloom Inwood saw the figure of a man advancing toward the bed. An indistinct recollection came to him of the little personage in black who, upon his first awakening, had held a glass to his lips; a remembrance so dim that he fancied it the phantasm of a feverish dream. But the man who now advanced and looked critically down upon him bore no resemblance to the indistinct figure of the other. Inwood saw a tall form surmounted by a grave, haughty _face, out of which a pair of haif-veiled steel- gray eyes looked coldly. For a moment these two, the American perplexed and mystified, groping as it were in darkness, his companion austere and apparently indifferent, examined each other in silence. Then the latter, with an almost imperceptible gesture, spoke. — “So it seems that monsteur has quite recovered his faculties, as we were fore- warned ; but to rise easily, monsieur will find to be quite another matter.” As he concluded he leaned forward and replaced the bed-clothes which In- wood had thrown aside. For a moment the American remained silent, collecting his wandering facul- ties. The shadow of a smile—a smile without mirth—crossed the Frenchman’s lips. ‘ “ Monsieur is amazed; is it not so?” “Where am I?” demanded Inwood weakly. “J remember only—— ” “It is not always wise to remember too much,” was the enigmatical reply. ‘Nor is the time fitting for monsieur to indulge too freely in conversation.’ Inwood passed his hand across his brow. “ Monsieur,” said he, with increasing strength of voice, ‘I have but asked you where I am. ‘That I was thrown from my horse I remember. To whom, then, am I indebted that I find myself in a bed, when but an hour since I was in the saddle? ” : His companion shrugged his shoul- ders. COMMC OOOO)