THERATby ThyraSamter Winslowarchive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/tribune/trib00000000/trib00000000848.pdf ·...
1
SUNDAY. NOVEMBER 5. 1939, W E were in camp in the vil- ducats on the table before him, he lage of --- Everyone sat down and shuffled. We formed in knows the life of an officer a circle about him and the game of the line: in the morning began. When playing Silvio never drill and horseback exercise; then uttered a word, neither objecting nor comes dinner with the colonel of the explaining. If a player made a mis- regiment, or else at the Jewish res- take, he paid out exactly the amount taurant: and at night drinks and due him or else credited it to himself. cards. At --- there were no enter- V"e were all familiar with his manner tainments of any kind, for no one of playing and always let him have had a marriageable daughter to bring his own way. But on the day I speak out. We spent our time in each of, there was with us an officer other's quarters, and at our evening newly art ived who, through absent- gatherings there were uniforms only. mindedness, doubled his stakes on However, there was one man in our a certain card. Silvio took the chalk set who was not a soldier. He must and marked down what was due him. have been about thirty-five and con- The officer, convinced that there was sequently we looked upon him as a mistake, made some objections. Sil- quite old. His experience had great vio, still mute, went on dealing as if weight with us, and besides his reo he had not heard. The officer, out of serve, his grand air and sarcastic man- patience by this time, took the brush ner made a deep impression on us and wiped off the figures. Silvio young men. There seemed to be some- picked up the chalk and wrote them thing mysterious about his life. He down again. At this, the officer, ex- looked like a Russian, tho he bore cited by the wine, by the play, and a foreign name. In days gone by the laughter of his comrades, and he had been in a regiment of Hus- thinking he had been insulted, took sar s, where he was quite prom- up a brass candlestick and hurled it inent at one time; but suddenly he at Silvio, who by bending aside, had sent in his resignation, no one averted the blow. Great was the up. knew why, and had retired to this roar! Silvio rose, pale with rage, and poor out-of-the-way village, where he with eyes blazing: fared very badly, while at the same "My dear sir," he said, "you will time spending much money. He al- please leave this room, and be thank. ways wore a shabby overcoat and still ful that this has happened in my he kept open house where every offl- house." cer was made welcome. To tell the truth, his dinners generally consisted of two or three simple dishes pre- pared by his servant, an old dis- charged SOldier, but the champagne always flowed. No one knew any- thing of his circumstanc s or his means, and no one dared ask him [Continued from Page 2.] Jerome hesitated. Sat down. any questions on the subject. There Dr. Bradley went to the door. were plenty of books in his house- Called the trained nurse in. "Miss mostly military-and a few novels. He 'Weston can confirm most of my dts- lent them willingly and never asked coveries," he went on. "My two con- for them again; on the other hand, ferees, too, know much of what I'm he never returned those he borrowed. about to tell you." His one pastime was pistol shooting. "When I fnst went to the sani- The walls of his loom were riddled tai iurn I did the usual work," Dr. Bradley sat down. "I saw patients. with bullets, giving it the appearance Looked at charts, That's a wel l-run of a honeycomb. A rich collection sanit dum you have there, gentle- of pistols was the only luxury to be men!" seen in the miserable house he occu- The other two doctors nodded. pied. The accuracy of his aim was "Only Mrs. Hamilton didn't fit into remarkable, and if he had taken a her groove. The sympt ms for which bet that he could shoot the pompon she was committed were plain on a helmet, not one of u w uld have enough, almost too much according hesitated to put the helmet on. Some. to type, in fact. But a par onoiac gets times we talked of dueling, but Silvio worse, not better. And here was Mrs. Hamill n, talking with everyone, l I will give him that name] never making Jtiends with the nurses, read- opened his lips on the subject. If ing, assisting with the patients. It some one asked him had he ever wasn't right. I recommended that foubht a duel, he answered shortly she be discharged." that he had, and that was all; he "But now she's ill again. The same never entered into any particulars syrnpt ms! " Jerome Hamilton's voice and it was evident that he disliked was excited, higher than it should being asked such questions. We sur. have been. ••Exactly! Isn't that curious? Or mised that the death of one of his rather, it isn't cutious, because I Victims had left a blight on his life. know the answers. They weren't hard Never for a minute would any of us to fathom, once you got the hang have thought that he could have been of it. guilty of faintheartedness. There are I "Miss Weston, will y u bring in some people whose very appearance our discoveries," he nodded to the precludes such an idea. nurse who went into the hall, and One day eight or ten of our officers returned with the unkempt man Were dining at Silvio's. We drank whom Laura had seen following her. as much as usual, that is excessivel. ••You see," Dr. Bradle~ went on, , y "it's rather odd for a patient to find When dinner was over, we begged only one man following her. So, of our host to take the bank in a when Mrs. Hamilton came horne, game of faro. After refusing to do Miss Weston happened to be in the so, for he seldom played, he finally neighborhood-and followed Mrs. called for cards and laying fifty Hamilton's follower," Not one of us doubted the outcome of this fray, and we all looked upon our new comrade as a dead man. The officer went out saying he was ready to meet the banker just as soon as it was convenient. The game pro- ceeded a few minutes longer, but it was evident that the master of the house was not paying much attention to what was going on; we all left, one by one, and returned to our qual" tel's discussing the while the vacancy in our ranks which was SUle to take place. Mysterious Silvio Refuses to Challenge Next morning, while at riding exer- cise, we all wondered if the poor Jieu- tenant were dead or alive, when, to our surprise, he appeared among us. We plied him with questions and he answered that he had had no chal- lenge from Silvio, which caused us all much surprise. We called on Sil- vio and found him in his yard, firing bullet after bullet at an ace nailed to the door. He received us in his usual manner, never mentioning the scene of the night before. Three days went by and the lieutenant was still alive. We kept saying to each other: "Will Silvio not fight?" amazed at such a thing. But Silvio did not fight. lIe simply gave a very lame explana- tion and that was all that was said. This forbearance on his part did him much harm among us young men. A want of courage is never quite for- given by youth, for to him fearless- ness is the greatest quality one can possess and it excuses many faults. Still, after a while, all this was for- gotten and by degrees Silvio regained his old ascendancy over us. I, alone, could never feel the same toward him. Being of a romantic turn of mind, I had loved this man, whose life was an enigma to us all, more than anyone else, and I had made him, in my thoughts, the hero of some mysterious drama. And he liked me, of this I felt sure, for when we were alone, dropping his sharp and sarcastic speeches, he would converse on all sorts of subjects, and unbend to me in a fascinating manner. Ever since that unlucky evening I speak of, the fact that he had been in- sul ted and had not wiped out the offense in blood, worried me to such an extent that I never could feel at ease with him as in the days gone by. I even avoided looking at him, and Silvio was too clever and quick not to notice and guess at the reason. He seemed to me to feel it deeply. On two occasions, I thought I detected a wish on his part to explain matters, but I avoided him and he did not follow me. After that I never saw him except when others were present, and we never again resumed our in- timate talks. Those happy mortals who live in cities where there is so much to see and do can never imagine how im- portant certain small happenings can TH E RAT by Thyra Samter Winslow The man hung his head. "I was out of work," he said, "and when I got a job to follow a woman-not to t lk to her, just to follow her around it seemed too good not to take." "Of course!" said Dr. Bradley, and nodded. Miss Weston took the man out and came back with a small machine. ••It's a talking machine. Very sim. pie type," Dr. Bradley expl inert "It's been in a closet with only a thin wall separating it from Mrs. Hamilton's room. And slots in the wood base of the closet-and into the room, made the sounds audible." Miss Weston adjusted the I' cord. A thin, screeching voice said ••Lau- raaa"! And there were the moans that Laura had listened to in such terror and anguish. ••The food and the salt for Mrs. Hamilton had been treated with so- dium nitrite and nitroglycerine. That had caused the low blood pressure, the headaches, and the bitter taste to the food. It's all vel y simpl , isn't it? " The Guilty Husband Is Caught in Time Laura was crying now. Dr. Bradley walked over to her, put an arm around her shoulder. "It's over now," he said. "Your real troubles are over. There are de- tails, of course. Mr. Hamilton has managed to get away with quite a bit of your property. He had himself appointed the guardian of your per- son and property-he got permission from the COUlt not to have you pres- ent at the hearing-said it would at- fect your health. There's a lot left, luckily. We caught him in time. You've still your horne-many of your bonds-but, of course, if you go to COUlt--" ••I don't want to go to court," said Laur a. "Not about that. Just to be tre ! That's all!" ••You can manage that," said Dr. Bradley. And Laura, 10 king at him, felt that he wouldn't be satisfied just with her freedom. And, suddenly, she was happy! "What made you first know I was all right?" she asked. "All patients say t hey are sane. How could you tell? " "You looked sane," he said. ••You act d sane, too. But I wasn't sure. Not until you told me about the rat." ••Why? What about th t?" "You said you saw the rat in the daytime. And that it was a white rat. Rats are nocturnal feeders-they don't come out much during the day . And albino or white rats don't run wild-I used too many rats in expert- ments at medical school not to know about them." "But if the rats were in my imago [nation! " ••You'd never have imagined just those things, I felt sure. I knew, then, that a white rat had been planted by some one for the purpose of frightening you. Th n everything else fitted in. It was easy after that." The other two doctors arose. They still looked a bit unbelieving and be- wildered. They shook hands pom- pously with Dr. Bradley. Congratu- lated him. Shook hands with Laura. Congratulated her. They would have spoken to Jerome, but Jerome, with a look in which darkness and relief mingled, was leaving the room. They even congratulated Miss Weston. "To think that a rat was at the bottom of it all!" one murmured to the other as they went out. PAGE :t become in an out-of-the-way village or. town. One of these is the arrival of the mail. Tuesdays and Fridays, the offices of our regiment were besieged with men. One expected money, an. other a letter, and again others looked for newspapers. As a rule', everything was opened and read on the spot; news was given and the improvised post office was full of anl mat.ion. Silvio's letters were addressed in care of our regiment and he called for them with us. One day a letter. was handed to him, the seal of which he broke hurriedly. While reading it his eyes flashed with suppressed ex: citement. None of the officers but mY: self noticed this, as they were al busy reading their own letters. ••Gentlemen," said Silvio, "business compels me to leave town immedi ately. I must go tonight. I hope none. of you will refuse to dine with ma for the last time. I will expect you,' said he, turning to me pointedly. "I hope you will not disappoint me." After saying which he went away, in great haste, and we all retired to our own quarters, agreeing to meet at his house later. I arrived at Silvio's at the hour. he had named and found almost the whole regiment there. Everything he possessed was packed and the bare walls riddled with bullets st red back at us. We sat down to dinner and our host was in such a jovia mood that before long we were all in the greatest of spirits. Corks flew; about; the froth rose in our glasses, which we refilled as rapidly as they, emptied. We all felt great affection for our host and wished him a pleas. ant journey, with joy and prosperity, at the end of it. It was very late when we got up from the table and while we were all picking out our caps in the h ll, Silvio took me by, the hand and detained me as 1. was about to leave, "I must speak to you," he said in a low tone. So I remained after the others went away, and, seated facing each other, we smoked our pipes in silence for a while. Silvio seemed worried, and there was no trace of the feverish gayety he had displayed in the earlier part of the evening. This dreadful pallor, the brilliancy of his eyes, and the long puffs of smoke he blew from his mouth gave him tho appearance of a fiend. After a few minutes he broke the silence. ••It may be," he said, ••that we wil never see each other again; before, we part, I wish to explain certain things to you. You have noticed, per.. haps, that I attach little importance. to the average man's opinion, but I like you and I feel that I cannot leave without seeing you think better of me than you do." He stopped to shake the ashes out of his pipe. I remained silent and avoided looking at him. "It may have seemed strange to you," he continued, "that I did not ask any satisfaction from that drunk- ard, that young fool R--. You will admit that, having the choice of weapons, he was at my mercy and that there was not much chance of his killing me. I might call it gelk erosity on my part, but I will no [Contfnued on Page 4.]
Transcript of THERATby ThyraSamter Winslowarchive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/tribune/trib00000000/trib00000000848.pdf ·...
SUNDAY. NOVEMBER 5. 1939,
WE were in camp in the vil- ducats on the table before him, helage of --- Everyone sat down and shuffled. We formed inknows the life of an officer a circle about him and the gameof the line: in the morning began. When playing Silvio never
drill and horseback exercise; then uttered a word, neither objecting norcomes dinner with the colonel of the explaining. If a player made a mis-regiment, or else at the Jewish res- take, he paid out exactly the amounttaurant: and at night drinks and due him or else credited it to himself.cards. At --- there were no enter- V"e were all familiar with his mannertainments of any kind, for no one of playing and always let him havehad a marriageable daughter to bring his own way. But on the day I speakout. We spent our time in each of, there was with us an officerother's quarters, and at our evening newly art ived who, through absent-gatherings there were uniforms only. mindedness, doubled his stakes onHowever, there was one man in our a certain card. Silvio took the chalk
set who was not a soldier. He must and marked down what was due him.have been about thirty-five and con- The officer, convinced that there wassequently we looked upon him as a mistake, made some objections. Sil-quite old. His experience had great vio, still mute, went on dealing as ifweight with us, and besides his reo he had not heard. The officer, out ofserve, his grand air and sarcastic man- patience by this time, took the brushner made a deep impression on us and wiped off the figures. Silvioyoung men. There seemed to be some- picked up the chalk and wrote themthing mysterious about his life. He down again. At this, the officer, ex-looked like a Russian, tho he bore cited by the wine, by the play, anda foreign name. In days gone by the laughter of his comrades, andhe had been in a regiment of Hus- thinking he had been insulted, tooksars, where he was quite prom- up a brass candlestick and hurled itinent at one time; but suddenly he at Silvio, who by bending aside,had sent in his resignation, no one averted the blow. Great was the up.knew why, and had retired to this roar! Silvio rose, pale with rage, andpoor out-of-the-way village, where he with eyes blazing:
fared very badly, while at the same "My dear sir," he said, "you willtime spending much money. He al- please leave this room, and be thank.ways wore a shabby overcoat and still ful that this has happened in myhe kept open house where every offl- house."cer was made welcome. To tell thetruth, his dinners generally consistedof two or three simple dishes pre-pared by his servant, an old dis-charged SOldier, but the champagnealways flowed. No one knew any-thing of his circumstanc s or hismeans, and no one dared ask him [Continued from Page 2.]
Jerome hesitated. Sat down.any questions on the subject. ThereDr. Bradley went to the door.
were plenty of books in his house- Called the trained nurse in. "Missmostly military-and a few novels. He 'Weston can confirm most of my dts-
lent them willingly and never asked coveries," he went on. "My two con-for them again; on the other hand, ferees, too, know much of what I'mhe never returned those he borrowed. about to tell you."His one pastime was pistol shooting. "When I fnst went to the sani-The walls of his loom were riddled tai iurn I did the usual work," Dr.
Bradley sat down. "I saw patients.with bullets, giving it the appearanceLooked at charts, That's a wel l-run
of a honeycomb. A rich collection sanit dum you have there, gentle-of pistols was the only luxury to be men!"
seen in the miserable house he occu- The other two doctors nodded.pied. The accuracy of his aim was "Only Mrs. Hamilton didn't fit intoremarkable, and if he had taken a her groove. The sympt ms for whichbet that he could shoot the pompon she was committed were plainon a helmet, not one of u w uld have enough, almost too much accordinghesitated to put the helmet on. Some. to type, in fact. But a par onoiac getstimes we talked of dueling, but Silvio worse, not better. And here was Mrs.
Hamill n, talking with everyone,lI will give him that name] never making Jtiends with the nurses, read-opened his lips on the subject. If ing, assisting with the patients. Itsome one asked him had he ever wasn't right. I recommended thatfoubht a duel, he answered shortly she be discharged."that he had, and that was all; he "But now she's ill again. The samenever entered into any particulars syrnpt ms! " Jerome Hamilton's voiceand it was evident that he disliked was excited, higher than it shouldbeing asked such questions. We sur. have been.
••Exactly! Isn't that curious? Ormised that the death of one of hisrather, it isn't cutious, because I
Victims had left a blight on his life. know the answers. They weren't hardNever for a minute would any of us to fathom, once you got the hanghave thought that he could have been of it.guilty of faintheartedness. There are I "Miss Weston, will y u bring insome people whose very appearance our discoveries," he nodded to theprecludes such an idea. nurse who went into the hall, andOne day eight or ten of our officers returned with the unkempt man
Were dining at Silvio's. We drank whom Laura had seen following her.as much as usual, that is excessivel. ••You see," Dr. Bradle~ went on,
, y "it's rather odd for a patient to findWhen dinner was over, we begged only one man following her. So,of our host to take the bank in a when Mrs. Hamilton came horne,game of faro. After refusing to do Miss Weston happened to be in theso, for he seldom played, he finally neighborhood-and followed Mrs.called for cards and laying fifty Hamilton's follower,"
Not one of us doubted the outcomeof this fray, and we all looked upon
our new comrade as a dead man. Theofficer went out saying he was readyto meet the banker just as soon asit was convenient. The game pro-ceeded a few minutes longer, but itwas evident that the master of thehouse was not paying much attentionto what was going on; we all left,one by one, and returned to our qual"tel's discussing the while the vacancyin our ranks which was SUle to takeplace.
Mysterious SilvioRefuses to ChallengeNext morning, while at riding exer-
cise, we all wondered if the poor Jieu-tenant were dead or alive, when, toour surprise, he appeared among us.We plied him with questions and heanswered that he had had no chal-lenge from Silvio, which caused usall much surprise. We called on Sil-vio and found him in his yard, firingbullet after bullet at an ace nailedto the door. He received us in hisusual manner, never mentioning thescene of the night before. Three dayswent by and the lieutenant was stillalive. We kept saying to each other:"Will Silvio not fight?" amazed atsuch a thing. But Silvio did not fight.lIe simply gave a very lame explana-tion and that was all that was said.
This forbearance on his part didhim much harm among us young men.A want of courage is never quite for-given by youth, for to him fearless-
ness is the greatest quality one canpossess and it excuses many faults.Still, after a while, all this was for-gotten and by degrees Silvio regainedhis old ascendancy over us.I, alone, could never feel the same
toward him. Being of a romantic turnof mind, I had loved this man, whoselife was an enigma to us all, morethan anyone else, and I had madehim, in my thoughts, the hero ofsome mysterious drama. And he likedme, of this I felt sure, for when wewere alone, dropping his sharp andsarcastic speeches, he would converseon all sorts of subjects, and unbendto me in a fascinating manner. Ever
since that unlucky evening I speakof, the fact that he had been in-sul ted and had not wiped out theoffense in blood, worried me to suchan extent that I never could feel atease with him as in the days goneby. I even avoided looking at him,and Silvio was too clever and quicknot to notice and guess at the reason.He seemed to me to feel it deeply.On two occasions, I thought I detecteda wish on his part to explain matters,but I avoided him and he did notfollow me. After that I never sawhim except when others were present,and we never again resumed our in-timate talks.Those happy mortals who live in
cities where there is so much to seeand do can never imagine how im-portant certain small happenings can
TH E RAT by Thyra Samter WinslowThe man hung his head. "I was
out of work," he said, "and when Igot a job to follow a woman-not tot lk to her, just to follow her aroundit seemed too good not to take.""Of course!" said Dr. Bradley,
and nodded. Miss Weston took theman out and came back with a smallmachine.••It's a talking machine. Very sim.
pie type," Dr. Bradley expl inert"It's been in a closet with only athin wall separating it from Mrs.Hamilton's room. And slots in thewood base of the closet-and intothe room, made the sounds audible."Miss Weston adjusted the I' cord.
A thin, screeching voice said ••Lau-raaa"! And there were the moansthat Laura had listened to in suchterror and anguish.••The food and the salt for Mrs.
Hamilton had been treated with so-dium nitrite and nitroglycerine. Thathad caused the low blood pressure,the headaches, and the bitter taste tothe food. It's all vel y simpl , isn'tit? "
The Guilty HusbandIs Caught in TimeLaura was crying now.Dr. Bradley walked over to her,
put an arm around her shoulder."It's over now," he said. "Your
real troubles are over. There are de-tails, of course. Mr. Hamilton hasmanaged to get away with quite abit of your property. He had himselfappointed the guardian of your per-son and property-he got permissionfrom the COUlt not to have you pres-ent at the hearing-said it would at-fect your health. There's a lot left,luckily. We caught him in time.You've still your horne-many of
your bonds-but, of course, if you goto COUlt--"••I don't want to go to court," said
Laur a. "Not about that. Just to betre ! That's all!"••You can manage that," said Dr.
Bradley. And Laura, 10 king at him,felt that he wouldn't be satisfied justwith her freedom. And, suddenly, shewas happy!"What made you first know I was
all right?" she asked. "All patientssay they are sane. How could youtell? ""You looked sane," he said. ••You
act d sane, too. But I wasn't sure.Not until you told me about the rat."••Why? What about th t?""You said you saw the rat in the
daytime. And that it was a whiterat. Rats are nocturnal feeders-theydon't come out much during the day .And albino or white rats don't runwild-I used too many rats in expert-ments at medical school not to knowabout them.""But if the rats were in my imago
[nation! "••You'd never have imagined just
those things, I felt sure. I knew,then, that a white rat had beenplanted by some one for the purposeof frightening you. Th n everythingelse fitted in. It was easy after that."The other two doctors arose. They
still looked a bit unbelieving and be-wildered. They shook hands pom-pously with Dr. Bradley. Congratu-lated him. Shook hands with Laura.Congratulated her. They would havespoken to Jerome, but Jerome, witha look in which darkness and reliefmingled, was leaving the room. Theyeven congratulated Miss Weston."To think that a rat was at the
bottom of it all!" one murmured tothe other as they went out.
PAGE :t
become in an out-of-the-way village or.town. One of these is the arrival ofthe mail. Tuesdays and Fridays, theoffices of our regiment were besiegedwith men. One expected money, an.other a letter, and again otherslooked for newspapers. As a rule',everything was opened and read onthe spot; news was given and theimprovised post office was full of anlmat.ion. Silvio's letters were addressedin care of our regiment and he calledfor them with us. One day a letter.was handed to him, the seal of whichhe broke hurriedly. While readingit his eyes flashed with suppressed ex:citement. None of the officers but mY:self noticed this, as they were albusy reading their own letters.••Gentlemen," said Silvio, "business
compels me to leave town immediately. I must go tonight. I hope none.of you will refuse to dine with mafor the last time. I will expect you,'said he, turning to me pointedly. "Ihope you will not disappoint me."After saying which he went away,
in great haste, and we all retired toour own quarters, agreeing to meetat his house later.I arrived at Silvio's at the hour.
he had named and found almost thewhole regiment there. Everything hepossessed was packed and the barewalls riddled with bullets st redback at us. We sat down to dinnerand our host was in such a joviamood that before long we were all inthe greatest of spirits. Corks flew;about; the froth rose in our glasses,which we refilled as rapidly as they,emptied. We all felt great affectionfor our host and wished him a pleas.ant journey, with joy and prosperity,at the end of it. It was very latewhen we got up from the table andwhile we were all picking out ourcaps in the h ll, Silvio took me by,the hand and detained me as 1. wasabout to leave,"I must speak to you," he said in
a low tone.So I remained after the others went
away, and, seated facing each other,we smoked our pipes in silence fora while. Silvio seemed worried, andthere was no trace of the feverishgayety he had displayed in the earlierpart of the evening. This dreadfulpallor, the brilliancy of his eyes, andthe long puffs of smoke he blew fromhis mouth gave him tho appearanceof a fiend. After a few minutes hebroke the silence.••It may be," he said, ••that we wil
never see each other again; before,we part, I wish to explain certainthings to you. You have noticed, per..haps, that I attach little importance.to the average man's opinion, but Ilike you and I feel that I cannotleave without seeing you think betterof me than you do."
He stopped to shake the ashes outof his pipe. I remained silent andavoided looking at him."It may have seemed strange to
you," he continued, "that I did notask any satisfaction from that drunk-ard, that young fool R--. You willadmit that, having the choice ofweapons, he was at my mercy andthat there was not much chance ofhis killing me. I might call it gelkerosity on my part, but I will no
[Contfnued on Page 4.]
