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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1895-3-1, Page 2HOLOUD. - ' ,9, TITRILLINC Tt114L All IIW1L&I Lllr "Leak here," he said suddenly; "bout CHAPTER 7tX III. Brettieen?" A ticgRlnLE BpGGESTXON. Stratton turned upon him uneasily, " Ten is a ruin world, Mal, ofd fellew." " VVhat do yon mean 1" said Stratton, '" Only this t Brettieon's rioh--a man worth a good deal, and then of that stomp generally have people who take a good deal of notice of thein.' " Naturally," Bald Stratton, with a curious laugh; " Suppose, then, he her come to grief. Mean, suppose some gong have got held of him on hie way bank here and medoen end of NimAbsurd , ro said a s d Str tton, with acurions, ... laugh. "Nonsense t" " Snob bhinge have been done. When did he go out?"' "I do not know." " Don't be huffy with your devoted ser• vaut, Mal. Tell me thine—hoe he been back aline—or—that day?" " Perhaps. I don't know, He ie a man who goes in and oub as silently as a oat." " But he used to came in and see you often?" Stratton coughed to olear a huskiness from his throat: " Yes • bub he has nob been to seen me lately," he said hurriedly. " I am going home now." " This is home, man." Stratton euppreesed ashudder, and Guest pitied him as he thought of two attempts made upon his life. " It is too gloomy—too depressing for me." " Give up the chambers, then, and take some more pleasant ones." " No, no ; I should not care about the trouble ot moving. I am used to them, too," He laid hie hand upon the lamp, and Guest was obliged to take the hint and rise to go. " That'a right," he said ; " put the lamp out safe. This fe an ugly old place, but it would be horrible if the place were burned down." " Yes—horrible—horrible !" said Strat- ton, with a shudder. "Much more horrible if anyone slept in the place, eh ?" "lf anybody slept in the place ?" said Stratton with a ghastly look. "Yes—lodgers. There is somebody up stairs on the second floor, isn't there ?" "Yes," said Stratton huskily, ''but only in the day time." He withdrew hie hand from the lamp,and looked round,to Guest's great delight; for he was baking an evident interest in the topic his friend had started, and his eyes roved from object to object in the room. "Work of a good many yearssaving and collectidg here, old chap, eh ?" "Yes; of many, many years," said Strat- ton thoughtfully. " And all your bits ot antique furniture, too. Mustn't have a fire here, old fellow. I say," he continued, tapping a glass jar in which a kind of lizard was suspended in spirits, " I suppose if this grew hot the stepper would be blown out, and the spirit would blaze all over the floor in a mo. merit ?" Stratton's eyes contracted strangely as he nodded and watched his friend, " Yes," he said, " that is so." " And you've got dozens of Similar bot- tles about. Let's see, you've got something in your bathroom too." Stratton made no reply, but stood gazing away from his friend. " Win wandering again," thought Guest. " Never mind, I did get him a little more like himself." Then mond : " I say, Mal." Stratton turned upon him sharply. " Wouldn't do to have a fire ; why, you'd burn up poor old Brettison too." Stratton's' tete looked as if it had been carved in stone, " Such a collection, too, as he has spent years of his life in getting together." "Come away, now," said Stratton hoar- sely, as he raised his hand once more to turn out the lamp. Yes; all right. No; stop 1" cried Guest excitedly, Stratton smiled, and Me hand remained as if fixed in the air. "I have it," continued Guest. "Stratton did not speak, but retitained there with his fingers close to the button of the lamp, as if fixed in that position by his friend's words. "Look here, old fellow," oried Guest ex. citedly. "History does repeat itself." "What—what do you mean ?" "How long is it eines poor old Breutison had that terrtble illness?" "I don't know—years ; come away." "Wait anioment. Well, he was lying helpless, dying, and you suspeoted some- thing was wrong, broke open the old man's door, found him ineensible,and nursed him back to life." Stratton did not stir, but bent over the table, listening to his friend's words. "Suppose he has conte back unknown to you—as he often did—and gone in there, He is old. He may be lying in there now. Mal, old ohap,this plaoe sends quite a chill through me. How do we know but what just on the other side yonder somebody may be lying dead?" cud ne pointed toward the closet door. Ah 1" No literary sign can give bho exact sound of the hoard° sigh which escaped from. Stratton as his friend eaid those last words excitedly ; and then ae if spurred by his imagination "It's as likely as can be. Mal, old fel- low, as I said before, history does repeat itsell. He has been missing a long time. Are. Breda is very uneasy. You have been a groat deal away. I tell you what it is— an act of duty. I'll fetch up the police, and we'll break in and see," As the words left Guest's lips he started, for there was a rudden fiaeh ; then, for a moment, his eyes were dazzled; the next he was in profound darkness. Stratton's fingers, unseen by his friend, had closed upon and turfed the button of the lamp. Only a few frowns from the admiral and a severe ebake of the, head oyer their wine a day or two later, as, is obedience to a eummone more than an invitation, Guest diped with him and hie sister, Edie having her dinner with her cousin in Myra's room. "1 telt as if I ought to say a deal to you young man," growled the admiral ; " but poor Myra hoe given me my orders,' and I. must be mum. Take some more wine." Guest took some more claret with peaa. Pre, and thought that the subject was be changed, but it was not, for Sir Mar suddenly turned to him said. "I say : look here, my led,„ he s "This Strabtoe : ie he mad ?” "No," said Guest eherply: " certainly nob." "Then what the deuce is the:natter with him?" "That's what I'm going to find out, Sir Mark," But the days went by, and Guest appear- ed to get no farther, save only that Strut. ton, in a despairing way, ceased to resent his friend's determination to bo with him. He even went so far, one evening in his room in Sarum street, as to show some return of his old confidence, for he tossed a letter across the table. "Read that," he said. Guest took it, and saw that it was from the governors of the great institution, sug- gesting that Stratton should resign his poet for a twelvemonth, and go away on half salary to recoup his health. "Humph ! Can't say I'm surprised," said Guest. " Have you written ?" "Yes, and resigned entirely." "Where's the letter?" raid Guest eager- ly. " Gone?" "No ; It is here." "Let's look." Strabtou handed him the letter,and Guest tore it up. "Write that you accept their considerate proposal." " I cannot."- " But you shell." "If I wrote so, I should feel bound to leave town." Very good, l'll go with you—to the South Pole if you like." "I ehall never leave London," said Strat- ton gravely. "Then stop here and get well. Write." The weaker will obeyed the stronger, and, with a sigh of satisfaction, Guest pocketed the letter to poet. " By the way," he said, "I came through the inn to -night on the chance of finding you there." Stratton's lace grew stony. " And old. Mother Brade got hold of me to practice her tongue upon." Stratton was silent, and sat gazing straight before him. "Hadn't you better let the old woman have e general clean up ?" "I pay the rent of those chambers," said Stratton almost fiercely, "to do with them as I please. No 1•' "All right ; tell her to go to Jericho, then.. Bus look here, the was asking me about Mr. Brettison." Stratton's countenance changed a little, either from excitement or interest in his friend's words. Isn't it strange that he doesn't come bank ?" "I don't know. No. He Is peculiar in ways. Sometimes I have not seen him for months together." "Oh," said Guest quietly ; and soon after he left It was about a week later that, on going to the inn one evening, Guest was caught againby the porter's wife. "Which I won's keep you a minute, air, but would you mind answering me one question?" 'If I oan, eaid Guest, knocking the ashes from his oigar. "Then is Mr. Stratton coming back sone to the inn, sir r• "I can't toll you, Mrs. Brade." "Then can you tell me where Mr. Bret. tison is, sir?" "That's two questions, Mrs. Brade.' "Wall, yes ; sir, it is ; but if you only knew the agony I suffer from the thought of those two seta of ehembers being allowed to go to rackand ruin, you'd pity me." "Well it does seem tiresome to any lady of orderly mind, of course." "It's 'mid, air. There's] the dust, and the soot falling down the ohimbleys with- out a bit of fire, and the mice, and, for aught I know, the rate. Really, sir, there are some times almost with the chambers was empty, that I do." " Well, have patience, Mrs. Brade," said Guest. " 1 think I can see an improve- ment in Mr. Stratton, and i hope soon to get him to some back—but I don't know when it's likely to be," he muttered as he -enema the square on the chance of seeing n 'ight in tie friend's window, and this time it was there. lie hurried up to find, after knocking several times, that Stratton had evidently only just come, for be was standing there in overcoat and has, and he would have stepped outtt once had not Guest shown so decided au intention of coming in. " Do you want me ?" amid Stratton un- easily ; and Guest's heart sank, for his friend looked more careworn than ever. Yee,"hesaid ; "I wanted to talk to you about something particular." "Yes -what?" said ytratton sharply. "Surely you were not coming away, and about to leave that lamp burning?" "Was I going to leave the lamp burning Y said Stratton absently. "1 suppose I forgot," Well, don't clo that, then. This house is so full of wood that if it caught fire it would burn like tinder." "You think s, -•t-1 Stratton with a serious leek in 1,,e uy,w. "That I do, In half an hour there wouldn't be one of your preparations left. They, your furniture, the brie.a-bras, and your specimens In spirits, would be con- sumed and in ashes in no time." The strange look in Stratton's eyes in. teasified, but Guest did not notice it, nor yet that his companion was lotting his eyes wander atonnd the old carved paneling with itseaken architraves and heavy plinths and moldings" For Gueet was intent upon hie own houghts, might strike et him, hot until now he had never kuowu abeelube fear, !for, manly and reckless as ho wan as a rule, he could not oouceal from himeelf that Stratton was, after all, .dangerous. That turning out of the light hod beenintentiott. al; there must have bean an objeet u d and, in his tremor of nerve, tfo think of no other aim than that of 'nuking a sudden attack upon ono who had become irksome to him. They were quite alone in that solitagy place. If he called for help, no 000 would bear, and he might be struck down and killed. Stratton, In his medullae might find some means of hiding his body, and. what thou ? Edie—poor little Edi), with her bright wept and merry, teasing smiles? He W01110 never' the her again; and she, too, poor little one, would be heartbroken, till some luckier fellow Dame along to make her happy- " be hanged if he shall; thought Guest, es a oulmination to the rush of thought that flashed through hie brain. Poor old Stratton is really as mad se a hatter; but oven if he has mush thoughts, I've amood'a chance as he has in the dark, and l'll die hard. Bah 1 who's going to die ? Where's the window, or the door ? Herd, this is a nioe game, Mal," he said aloud, quite firmly, Where are your matches ?" But as he spoke, he made a couple of rapid steps silently, to his right, with out. stretched hands, eo as to oongeal his pos. ition from Stratton in the event of the latter meditating an attack—an event which Guest would not now allow. There was no reply and Guest stood listen. ing for a few moments before speaking again, " Do you head?" he said. " You shouldn't have been in suoh a hurry. Open the door, or I shall be upsetting come of your treaeurea," Half angry with himself for hie coward. ice, as he called it, he repeated his mono- logue onologue and listened ; but he could only hear the throbbing of his own heart. " Well, of all the ways of getting rid of an unwelcome guest—no joke meant, old man—thio is about the ehadieeb. Here," be cried, more excitedly now, in spite of his efforts to be calm, " why don't you epeak?" MARC/II 1, :SO r oonteet with o bronze ornament, whicdt full into the fopdee with a loud olang. Good started round once mere, knowing exactly whet() he stood,and teeing Stratton, who earned to have eprup out of his seat, "" Who'e there?" he oiled floroely, "' Who's there?" retorted Guest. "Why, whet'e tomo to you, moult Where .are your lights 1 Bah 1" he added to himself, " have I lost my head, toe?" As he spoke he drew a little silver 0808 from his vest pocket, and struck a wax match, Whose bright ughb showed hie friend Kink hank in the choir by the writing table, gazing wildly, in his Enos. A glanoe showed Guest a Dandle in a little holder on the mantelpiece, and applying the match, in another moment the blank homer had given place to hie friend's room, with. Stratton looking utterly pros-- trate, and nnworthyof a moment's dried, Guest's words partook of his feeling of annoyance with himself at haying given his imagination so mach play. "flare, what's Dome to you, man?" he (tried, seizing Stratton roughly by the Be did not step aside now, bub stood firm, with his fists olenohed,ready to strike out with all his might in case of attack, though even then he was fighting hard to force down the rising dread, and declaring to himself that he was a mere child to be frightened at being in the dark. Bub he knew thee he had good cause. Utter darkness is a horror of itself when the confusion of being helpless and in total ignorance of one's position is superadded. Nature plays strange pranks then with one's mental faculties, even as she does with a traveler in some dense fog, or the unfortunate who finds himself " bushed," or lost in the primevalforest, far from help and with the balance of hie mind upset. He learns at such a time that his boasted strength of nerve is vary small indeed, and that the bravest and strongest man may suooumb to a dread that makes him as timid as a child. Small as was the apace in which he stood,. and easy 0.8 it would have been, after a little calm refieotion,to fiaddoor or window, Guest felt that he was rapidly losing his balance; for he dare not stir, face to face as he was with the dread that Stratton really wan mad, and that in bis cunning he had seized thie opportunity for ridding himself of one who must seem to him like a keeper always on the watch to thwart him. He remained silent, the cold sweat break- ing out all over his face, and his hearing strained to °atoll the sound of the slightest movement, or even the heavy breathing of the man waiting for an opportunity to strike him down. shoulder, " Come to me ? I—T—don't know." "Have you been sitting there ever einoe you put out the light?" " Yea—I think so." "But yeti heard me speak to you4" "Non I think not. What did you say p' "He's trembling Like a leaf," thought. Guest. " Worse then I was." Then aloud : "I say, you had better have a glass of grog, and then go to bed. I'll etop with you if you like.' "Here? No, no ; come along. It must be getting late." He made for the door and opened ib, signed to Guest to Dome, and stood waiting. ',All right; but don't leave that Dandle' burning,: men. Yon seem determined to burn down thio place," Stratton uttered a curious little laugh, and hastily oroased the room to the mantle• piece, while Guest stood holding the door open sous to admit a little light. The next minute they were on the land- ing, andStratton, with trembling fingers, carefully looked the door. "Now,"eaid Guess "About poor old Brettison ? What de you say ? Shall we give notice to the police ?" "No, no," cried Stratton angrily. "It is absurd 1 Ye will come bask some day. See me home, please, old fellow. My head -all confused and strange. I want to get back as anon as I oan." Guest took bis arm to the entrance of the inn, called a cab, and did not leave him till he was eafe,inhis rooms at .Sarum Street, after whioh the young barrister returned to hie own chambers to think ooer she events of the evening in company with a pipe. "Takes all the conceit out of a fellow," he mused, "to find what a lot of his old childish dread remains when he has grown up. Why, I felt then --Ugh 1 I'm ashamed to think of it all, _Poor old Stratton! he dosan'tknow what he's about half his time. I believe he has got what the doctors pall softening of the brain. Strikes me, after to•night's work," he added thoughtfully; " that I must have got it, too." He refilled his pipe and went on think- ing. " How he started, and how strange he seemed when I talked about the poieibility of the poor fellow lying there dead. Only a fanny of mine. How does the old saying go: Fancy goes a great way'? There, I've had enough fanoy for one night." (TO BE CONTIIIIIEL,) DAIRXMBN ANA PAIRXIVIAIAS. nN0#1a11BPtte)tl the v 1)tIlin 118 the'Pulrleo or the CountrY, If women aro crowding men Put of 00020 fields of.,empleyment, there 10 at leaet 0130 in whioh tide preemie of dioplaosment is reversed, That is the dairy, There the wife Wagoner: queen, but now the husband holde the Sceptre. And the ohange hoe been for the better. The dairy industry of Canada was pretty well FOR down when the men of the country took hold of it, set ie on its WV and soon made a flourishing branch of produotion out of it, Butter was 5110 only dairy produot turned out when the women had charge, and good butter much of it was. But the butter that was bad and indifferent outweighed the good. The mode of marketing tended to lower the quality, The farmers' wives bartered their butter for merchandise at the country stores, and the country merchants, not wanting to make firth of one and fowl of the other, paid the SAME mucei FOR AUG qualms. For it was in vain to try and combat this feeling, He could find no other explanation in hie confused mental state. That must be Stratton's intention, and the only thing to do wee to be on the alert and master him when the time for the great struggle came. There were moments, in Guest stood there breathing ae softly es he could, when he felt that tnie horrible suspense must have boon going on for hours ; and, as he looked round, the blaokness seemed to be full of arrange, gliding pointe of light, whioh he was ready to think must be Stratton's eyee, till oommon sense told him that it was all fancy. Then, too, he felt certain that he could hear rapid movements and hie enemy approaching him, but the sounds were made by his own pulses ; otherwise all was still as death. And at the mental suggestion of death his horror grew more terrible than he could bear. He grew faint and giddy, and made a snatch in the air as if to save brmeelf. The sensation passed offas quickly as it name, but in those brief. moments Guest felt how narrow was the division between sanity •and its reverse, and in a dread greater now than that of an attack by Stratton, he set hie teeth, drew himself up, and foroing himself to grasp the fact that all thio was ouly the result of a minute or or two in the darkness, he craned forward his neck in the direction of where he be- lieved Stratton to be, and listened. Not a breath ; not a sound. There was a oloek on the mantelpiece, and he tried to hear its calm, gentle tick, but gave that up on the inetaas, feeling sure that it must have been neglected and left unwouuu, ami uerving himself now, he spoke out. sharply "Look here. Mai, old fellow, don't play bus fool. Ilititet' open the ,,our, or strike u 115111, before 1 smell sumetutng valu- able," There was no reply,but the effort he had made over himself had somewhat restored his balance, and he felt ready to laugh at his childish fears. "Has he gone, and left me locked in ?" he thought, after striving in vain to hear a sound. Improbable ; for he had not heard the door open or close, and he would have Been the dint light from the etairoase. No, not if Stratton had softly passed through the inner door and olosed it after him before opening the outer. " Here, I must act," he eaid to himself, mentally strung once more. "He couldn't have played me suoh a fool's prank as that. Now, where am I? The writing table should be straight out; there." He stretched forth hie hand cautiously, and touched eomethiog whioh moved. Is was a picture in the middle of u nanel, hanging by a fine wire from the rod, and Guseb fared round sharply with a touch of hes old dread, for he knew now that lin had been for long oeougil standing in a position that would give his enemy—if enemy Stratton Was—an opportunity for etriking him downfrom behind. With the idea growing upon him that hie alarm had all been vain, and that Stratton must have gone straight out the moment he turned down the lamp—either in hie absent state forgetting late presence, or imagining that he had gong on oat -•-Guest felt now a strange kind of irritability against himself, and, with the dread, oompletely gone, he began to move cautionsly, and pouring BUT by step, till his outetretehed hands Man in CHAPTER XXXIV. A e'5Ar.TL1NO SITUATION. Three steps bank were sullireient—three steps taken suddenly in that profound darkness wero enough, to the excitemoot of the moment, to make Guest completely lose what a nautical man would call "hit bearings" ; and, startled, as well as puz- zled, be waited, in utter ignorunee of its position in the room, for what was to Dome 0x5. Time and again he had been aneasy,evon startled, by hie frieud's actions, feeling that there woe a oortain amount of mental aberration, He had felt, too, that it was quite possible thatilt some suddenparoxyem, when galled by his dictation, Stratton BrMMMsb anA Forel With boavy anew at Genoa, skating ab Aleseapdria, two home away, aid the Arno frozen over at Moreau, began the new year in soupy Italy, Dr, bivingstone'e sister. Miss Agoot LiviugsGone, died early in the month, aged 71. Like her brother she was for many years a missionary ip Africa, Atl asylum for inearablee of all oreede is being erected by the Sultan of Turkey not far from hie palace. it will ooptalu synagogue, a mosque, and a church, At °hatter, England, the Recorder has received for the fourth time in five years a pair of white gloves in token of there being no criminal men on the oalendar. A monument bo King Ludwig II, of Bavaria wee erected some menthe ago at Murnau, but not paid for, The oommibboe in charge Bent tee bill for the deficit, 4,000 marks, to the Prince Regent, who. Paid it, In the course of a speech 10 the London Common Council lately, an Alderman pot. ed Taoitus in the original to his eolloaguee. He followed it up, however, by translating the Latin for their benefit. At Berne recently a hneband and wife, both Readmit, teak their degrees of Dootor of Philsopby at the same time. They were examined in adjoining rooms, the exam• ing profeeeore going from one to the other. John Walter, the third, of the London Times, left personal property valued at inlf of one share the ' TTimes boo,hi fyc ng one raeon, and all hie other shame to the elder son A.11'. Walter, France has three Bishops who are not ashamed to take exercise. The Arohibishop of Sons and the Bishop of Chalons kept up their fencing, while the Bishop of Mende, besides being a good lancer, rides horseback and drives. Elheuf, the centre of the French woolen cloth manufacture, is so well off that it has abolished nearly all ibe town taxes, and now p titions the Government for leave to do away with theoctroi, the duty on pro- visions entering the town. Baronosa Seefried now has a little girl. The baroness is the Princess Elizabeth of Bavaria, who a year ago eloped with a young cavalry lieutenant, whom she mar. read. Her mother ie the Princess Gisela, daughter of the Emperor of Austria. If they had dieoriminoted they would have lost custom. Since bad butter brought as large a prim as good butter, there was nothing to be gained by keeping up a high standard of excellence. So the average of quality declined, tons of butter were made that was unfit to use, and we lost our mar- ket in Beltain. Then the men stepped in. They carted the bulk of the milk to cream- eries and oheeee factories, and these yield- ed profitable retinue almost from the start. The production of cheese increased by leaps and bounds, and went on so prosperously that it now takes the lion's share of our milk. Fifteen years ago we had a compara- tiyely small number of miloh cows, and for much of their produce we could not find sale. Now we have a large number of miloh cows, and they are all giving a profitable return on the food they consume. In other ways dairy interests nave improved under the men's administration: The Dare of the cattle, their food, drink, shelter,; their treatment, breeding, eto., have all under- gone a marked change. Men have put the dairy industry on asoientific and commer- mal basis, and behold the astonishing results I. Nowadays no dog or boy must ohaio or annoy a cow that given milk. She must have clean, well -aired, warm, com- fortable quarters. She must be milked A NEW ELEMENT. An Important Discovery by Lord Roflegi1 and Prof. gainsay—Perhaps Pi r, Crookes Ideal Protyle. A despatch from London says :—The existence of another element in the atmoa- phere, announced last summer, but received with a good deal of incredulity, has now ACCORDING TO RIILB, her milk has to be .kept spent from all odors, the cream has us be; separated in a certain way,and the dairy has been changed almost into a laboratory, where the nicest care is taken to keep milks of differing richness in butter -fat from being thrown into the 'same vessel or from being tainted. Moreover, a cow has to yield a milk that contains a certain percentage of butter -fat or she will be placed on the retired list. Mere volume of milk no longer counts. The receipts from the dairy are now boo large to be passed over as pin money to the mistress of the household. The frugal hue. band and husbandman looks upon them as one of hie tweets, and a snug one they have come to bo. But it woman has been dethroned in the dairy, and if the adminis- tration and the revenues of that depart. meat of production have been assumed and greatly improved by than, woman is to be congratulated on her deliverance from the drudgery of butter -making and butter. marketing. But her deliverance is not yet complete. She has to help milk the cows, and now there are more cows to milk. in a time when we see women taking an active part in movements and deliberations that were once looked upon as outside their sphere, it tenet a little surprising to note that at the large convention whioh met to discuss dairy affairs lase week in Stratford there was not a woman present. been fully dentonetrated. The proofs were adduced in a highly interesting fort" betore a distinguished audience at the Royal Institution on Thursday. The new element has been named argon by its die. coverers, Lord Rayleigh and Prof. Ramsey. There is still some doubt whethe' this strange inert gas, which defies some of the best kdown Laws of physics, consists of one or two primary elements- The discoverers have finally auoceedea in separating it from the atmosphere nn a large scale. and have sent a portion to Prof. Orookes, the eminent speotrossoptet, and a portion to Dr. Ols- zewski, of the University of Cracow, to liquefy and solidify. These great authori- ties have found that the new substance gives a spectrum of its own, and has its own boiling point, freezing point, critical temperature and critical pressure, that are all different from those of any other ele- ment. One of its properties is its invinci- ble reluot,.nee to combine with anything else. It will have nothing to do with oxygen, ohlorine, phosphorus, sodium, platinum, or various substances: Even' the electric atm does not make it take con. panionehip with anything.- One important quality is a great puzzle. All the heat given to the new substance produces only the motion of translation. In another respect argon presents diffienitieo. The great Russian chemist, Mr. Endelj eff, has discovered an empirical law whion associ- ates the properties of elements with their atonic wefuhts. Now the new element has a density of 99 or 40, whioh does not nt tale law. Argon gives two spectra, the red and the blue, and it ie this whioh raises a doubt whether the investigators are dealing with one or two substanoee. 11 the latter should prove true, then there is a new vista opened up, and it is euggeeb• ed perhaps one of these snbotances will prove to be Prof. Crooke's ideal pcotyle,. the ultimate basis of matter, from which all others are only combinations. • ONLY 21, BUT A BIGAMIST. Mildred Darkness or Orangeville, Who . amped 11er buil, Catgut In ltnirnlo. A despatch from Buffalo, N. Y., says:— Mildred Whitmore, 21 years old, was ar• rested os Tuesday for iugamy. Four pears ago she met a man named John .Harknes,ofOrangeeille,Ont, Each became enamored o the other and a marriag ,soon QUEEN VICTORIA'S DOGS. 500 Iles Seam or the Fluent to the World ill Her Kennels. Some of the finest dogs in the world are owned byViotoria„Quseuof England. Her Majesty is particularly fond of animals, and she loves every species of dog, from the largest St, Bernard to the tiny _Sing Charles spaniel which can be put into a that pocket. There is a man at Windsor Castle who does nothing else but take oars of the dogs, and the royal kennels there are of atone, and the yards aro paved with red and blue tiles, and the compartments in which the little doge sleep are warmed with hot water, and they have the freshest and oleaneat of straw in which to. lie. There are filtyfive doge in these kennels and almost all of them are acquainted with the Queen. She visite them often while she; is at the castle, and she looks carefully after their health and comforts. The dogs ot Windsor Caeble keep regular hours. They are turned out et a certain time each day tor their exercise and sports, and they have a number of courts connected with the kennels uponwhioh they scamper to and fro over green lawns. There are umbrella. like affairs on these lawns, where they eau lie in the shade if they wish to,and in some of them there are pools of water where the dogs can take a bath, and in whioh they swim and ootne out and shake themselves just as though they were ordinary yellow dogs rather than royal puppies. the Queen has her favorites among the dogs, and some of them become jealous on the attention the pays to others. Among those she likes beet is one named "ivbarao,” This is acid to be the finest Spitz dog in England. It has taken a number of prizes. Marco is an auburn dog, Hie hair, is of tawny red, He weighs lust about twelve pounds, and • ie has brighter eyes, quicker motion and sharper bark than steer ()the' dog in the kennel. He is just three years old, and he carries hie tail over his back as though he owned the whole establishment. The Queens collies are very fine, and a number of them are white. One of then is called "Snowball," and another goes by the name of "Lily," Another little dog, an especial favorite with the Queen, weighs just 009011 and one. half pounds, or no more than the timeliest baby. This is the Queen's toy Pomeranian "Gina," nho is one of the tnost'famnue dogs in the world. Gina came from Italy, and has won a number of prizes in tie only, shows of larigland. Gina 18 a very good dog, and eat as quiet ae a mouse while her photograph wae'rniten not long ago: k a number of pugs, and ono itnoclt'laieed little ,iapanees pug which the late Lady Braesey,tbodistieguished traveller,preseub- ed to the Queen. There are big Gorman daohehunde and little Skye terriers, and, in short, every kind of beautiful dog you can imagine in these famous Itennele. The Queen names all the dogs herself ; and near the kennels le a 'little graveyard whore there pate are buried when they die. followed, Both lived happily for some time, until she became wearied of .het husband, Some time afterward, the story goes, she :net a ma" named W lutmore, and after a limited courtship "tarried him, Then trouble began, She was arroetod for bigamy' and indiuted. She gave bail to appear before the Court of Assizes. When the time for her appearance. arrived she was not to be found. On Tuesday she was found by Officer Smith of Orangeville, and hoe consented to return 50 Canada Without the formalities of extradition proceedings. Mrs. Harkness ie a. sister of the 15 year•old wife of John liidd,the Mono Mills canton- arian. At a regent London stamp sale a Cape of Good Bops one -penny blue stamp,anerror, brought 8235 ; a four -penny red, also an error, $200; a ninopence, Great Britain,' bistro, $1Q0, and a sit violet, Great Britain, watermark,a cross, $102. Edinburgh University has 2,979 stud- ents this year, 140 of them women ; the faculty of arta has 767, that of science, 155 divinity, 68; law, 454, and medicine, 1,494, The annual value of the fellowships and. scholarships granted by the university is $80,000. Burnham Thorpe church, in Norfolk, is to be restored as a memorial to Nelson, who wee born in the village. To raise the money needed a groat fair will be held at the admiralty, under the management of the Counters Spencer, wife of the First Lord of she Admiralty. In the Loo-Choo Islands, between Japan and Formosa ; though there are neither vehicles nor public lighting, the inhabit - ante have letter boxes and telephones, according to Prof. Chamberlain of the0:okio University, who was recently there. The chief industry of the island is the cultiva- tion of sugar. Gen. Heavy, the senior officer in the Russian artillery, has just celebrated his seventieth year ot active service. He'eu• tered the army in 1825 under Alexander 1. and has served under five Czars. Hie long service is surpassed, however, by that of Admiral Count Heyden, who entered the Russian navy in 1820. • There is a dispute between the Mayora of Winchester and Truro, in England, at to which is the senior. The Mayor of Win- ebesteristhe 711th in succession in that city, and is generally considered the most ancient Mayor in England. The Mayor of Truro claims to be the 756th of !tie order. The Herald's College ie investigating the question. • A collection of eix manuscript. and 1,190 printed version of the "Imitation of Christ" of Thomas a Semple was sold lately in Lon- don for $720, a sum whioh probably would not never even the expressage paid by the collectors. To make complete collection of all the editions of this book is one of the im;3oseible feats of book collecting. Among the other doge of the eonel are A strange murder trial has just been ended at Orleans. A peasant'a son last year was found hanging from a tree; the father suspected three of his neighbors of the crime, and last fall brutally murdered one of them, whose extraordinary name was Louie Jesus. At the trial the man admitted the deed, eaid he was glad be had avenged hie eon, and only regretted net having been able to kill the other men, too. The jury acquitted him. Football in the form of the Rugby game bas taken a strong hold on France. Some twenty clubs belong to the ;Union des Soc. ietes Franoaises des Spurts Athletfques. There are a dozen clubs in Paris, and others in Bordeaux, Mareeilles, Lyone,and Havre. The lycees in Paris and the provinces have Rugby fifteens, The aeaocfation game is confined to Paris and a few plaoee in the north, of France, the clubs being composed mainly of English residents. • During the ten years from 1883 to 1S93 the colleoee at Oxford have lost on an average $300,000 a year of income through the prevailing agricultural depression -30 per cent. of their total income. Titin has been made up in part by increased receipts from ethernet:uls,ae that the total decrease is about Ove por sent. The diminution, however, has effected individual colleges in different ways, some having lost as much as a quarter of their revenues, The Smallest Inhabited Island. The smallest Inhabited island in the known world is that upon u hioli the famous Eddystone lighthouse ie situated. At time of low water this island is but thirty feet in diameter. At high tide the base of the lighthouse completely (elvers Ib. It lies rano miles otr the Cornish want and exactly fourteen mflea from the celebrated Ply mnUM breakwater,' It ie inhabited thtou�,hout the year by throe persons. Flathoime island, in the 14oelish channel, ie another miniature in- liateteil ;eland, It Is only one-half inile in dieanoter, but is so rioh in peewee -in that [t auppoete a large familyof farmers, an Old mon and his three grown .eons. They have a fine farmhouse and the necessary outbuildings, and also care for the light, whioh le a revolving ono in a lighthouse 150 feet above the level of the Sea. Thorn are abeut 100,000 islands, groat and small, scaitered over theocoane, North Amerieaalone owning 5,600.