Part 11 (1/2)
”The sword has certain properties which may induce him to confess. My brother tells me that if he simply shakes it at a cat the cat falls dead.”
”Do so,” said I, ”and I will try it on him. If he recognizes the sword and remembers its properties when I attempt to brandish it at him, he'll be forced to confess, though it would be awkward if he is the wrong man and the sword should work on him as it does on the cat.”
The next day I was in possession of the famous toy. It was not very long, and rather more suggestive of a pancake-turner than a sword, but it was a terror. I tested its qualities on a swarm of gnats in my room, and the moment I shook it at them they fluttered to the ground as dead as door-nails.
”I'll have to be careful of this weapon,” I thought. ”It would be terrible if I should brandish it at a motor-man trying to get one of the Gehenna Traction Company's cable-cars to stop and he should drop dead at his post.”
All was now ready for the demonstration. Fortunately the following Sat.u.r.day night was club night at the House-Boat, and we were all expected to come in costume. For dramatic effect I wore a yellow wig, a helmet, the silver-tinsel tights, and a doublet to match, with the bra.s.s bugle and the tin sword properly slung about my person. I looked stunning, even if I do say it, and much to my surprise several people mistook me for the man I was after. Another link in the chain! EVEN THE PUBLIC UNCONSCIOUSLY RECOGNIZED THE VALUE OF MY DEDUCTIONS. THEY CALLED ME LOHENGRIN!
And of course it all happened as I expected. It always does. Lohengrin came into the a.s.sembly-room five minutes after I did and was visibly annoyed at my make-up.
”This is a great liberty,” said he, grasping the hilt of his sword; but I answered by blowing the bugle at him, at which he turned livid and fell back. He had recognized its soft cadence. I then hauled the sword from my belt, shook it at a fly on the wall, which immediately died, and made as if to do the same at Lohengrin, whereupon he cried for mercy and fell upon his knees.
”Turn that infernal thing the other way!” he shrieked.
”Ah!” said I, lowering my arm. ”Then you know its properties?”
”I do--I do!” he cried. ”It used to be mine--I confess it!”
”Then,” said I, calmly putting the horrid bit of zinc back into my belt, ”that's all I wanted to know. If you'll come up to my office some morning next week I'll introduce you to your wife,” and I turned from him.
My mission accomplished, I left the festivities and returned to my quarters where my fair client was awaiting me.
”Well?” she said.
”It's all right, Mrs. Lohengrin,” I said, and the lady cried aloud with joy at the name, for it was the very one she had hoped it would be. ”My man turns out to be your man, and I turn him over therefore to you, only deal gently with him. He's a pretty decent chap and sings like a bird.”
Whereon I presented her with my bill for 5000 oboli, which she paid without a murmur, as was entirely proper that she should, for upon the evidence which I had secured the fair plaintiff, in the suit for separation of Elsa vs. Lohengrin on the ground of desertion and non-support, obtained her decree, with back alimony of twenty-five per cent. of Lohengrin's income for a trifle over fifteen hundred years.
How much that amounted to I really do not know, but that it was a large sum I am sure, for Lohengrin must have been very wealthy. He couldn't have afforded to dress in solid silver-tinsel tights if he had been otherwise. I had the tights a.s.sayed before returning them to their owner, and even in a country where free coinage of tights is looked upon askance they could not be duplicated for less than $850 at a ratio of 32 to 1.
X. GOLF IN HADES
”Jim,” said I to Boswell one morning as the type-writer began to work, ”perhaps you can enlighten me on a point concerning which a great many people have questioned me recently. Has golf taken hold of Hades yet?
You referred to it some time ago, and I've been wondering ever since if it had become a fad with you.”
”Has it?” laughed my visitor; ”well, I should rather say it had. The fact is, it has been a great boon to the country. You remember my telling you of the projected revolution led by Cromwell, and Caesar, and the others?”
”I do, very well,” said I, ”and I have been intending to ask you how it came out.”
”Oh, everything's as fine and sweet as can be now,” rejoined Boswell, somewhat gleefully, ”and all because of golf. We are all quiet along the Styx now. All animosities are buried in the general love of golf, and every one of us, high or low, autocrat and revolutionist, is hobn.o.bbing away in peace and happiness on the links. Why, only six weeks ago, Apollyon was for cooking Bonaparte on a waffle iron, and yesterday the two went out to the Cimmerian links together and played a mixed foursome, Bonaparte and Medusa playing against Apollyon and Delilah.”
”Dear me! Really?” I cried. ”That must have been an interesting match.”
”It was, and up to the very last it was nip-and-tuck between 'em,” said Boswell. ”Apollyon and Delilah won it with one hole up, and they got that on the put. They'd have halved the hole if Medusa's back hair hadn't wiggled loose and bitten her caddie just as she was holeing out.”
”It is a remarkable game,” said I. ”There is no sensation in the world quite equal to that which comes to a man's soul when he has. .h.i.t the ball a solid clip and sees it sail off through the air towards the green, whizzing musically along like a very bird.”
”True,” said Boswell; ”but I'm rather of the opinion that it's a safer game for shades than for you purely material persons.”