Show by SEWARD W hopkins author 0 jack robbia of america in th china sea two gentlemen of hawaii OB a pale charge etc ROBERT box CHAPTER my reflections as the long hours dragged themselves along toward morning were anything but refresh ing the dominant thought of course was that I 1 had got myself in a bad scrape and would probably lose my life for one moment the thought did come to me there Is the united states minister I 1 dismissed the idea ag holding out no hope I 1 bad no means of communicating our rep in fact I 1 was entirely cut ott from all communication with the world my friends would ably never know what became of me my only hope was and where through all of this was mut terel ll calling to my assistance all the nerve I 1 possessed I 1 resolves to put on as good a face in the matter as possible and not allow the pre tetto or his guards to see any signs of weak ness in my demeanor the room in which I 1 was held was well lighted by a large lamp which hung from the ceiling I 1 drew a chair under the lamp and with the same nonchalance which would have characterized me had I 1 been n my favorite corner at the lotus club with I 1 the major and bilkins around me in stead of the black looking bardin lans I 1 pulled from my pocket and began to read the paper I 1 had taken from the table in pacho maligna s room it read as follows new york city in the stat new york in the united stats of amer lea may 16 18 to the person who when I 1 am dead shall obtain this paper I 1 salute it Is that I 1 am at every day in the great danger of being killed by an accident of my prof eshun that I 1 leave in this form the story of nita bar lotti that perhaps in some long day to become she may be to those where she belong and who hat lost her and I 1 who am known to the world as barlotti the trapeze king pray to that person who reads these words to do what he can and what I 1 cannot to the good end anat nita bar lotti may know who she really Is and may come into her own it she Is as I 1 belief the daughter of a rich person it wll be a surprise to the person who find this to know that my name it Is not barlotti but yes I 1 am antonio big motta and barlotti Is the name I 1 haf take in the circus to please my brother who was very rich and a physician rhys ician in new york when I 1 came this country I 1 was poor very poor I 1 went to my brother and ne was angry to me in words but he did some kindness to me that he let me live in hi house till I 1 haf money to keep myself I 1 make contract with malign to go in the circus as trapeze actor and m brother malt me change my name so not to disgrace him one day I 1 went into my brother private room tor something it was a workshop he all labor atoria or some like that it was at the nl ht and was very dark my brother was in his bedroom I 1 lighted the gas in the labor atoria and found what I 1 was looking tor some medicine he gave me when I 1 had the aching of the i ead As I 1 was about to turn back the gas to go out I 1 saw a bundle on the floor it seemed to me that it move then I 1 stood and I 1 hear a little cry like a child I 1 rush to the door I 1 listen tor my brother but he not to be heard I 1 open the bundle it was a sack with strings in the end it had in it a little child a girl I 1 drew it out the child breath and moan but do not seem to know and then I 1 know my brother had given it a drug then I 1 hurry trembling much and I 1 took some cloths and other things and I 1 make a rag baby just the size of the child I 1 took from the sack I 1 put the rag baby in the sack and made it tight like it was before I 1 opened ic then I 1 quick carry the live child to my room and hide it in my bed then I 1 watch pretty soon my brother come and go to the labor atoria I 1 keep quiet so he do not hear me and follow him he take the sack and my rag baby and steal from his own house like he was a thief and I 1 know he was worse still I 1 bolow him my brother went into a dark street and went to the docks on the east river I 1 saw him take a stone and tie a cord to it and around the sack then he throw all into the water when he saw it sink be turn round and sneak home I 1 had in new york near my brothers house a sweetheart I 1 met her at a concert hall and I 1 otten went to see her at her house she was a great singer and I 1 love her so J want to marry her she was a gaoa girl and her name was nita late in the night I 1 took the child and when my brother was asleep I 1 stole from his house and carried the child to nita I 1 told her all about my brother and she promised not to say one word for I 1 knew my arother would kill me it he knew I 1 was then intend to fand out who the child was and it she had parents who love her give her back but I 1 must go with maligna in the circus and I 1 leave the little girL wIth nita till I 1 come home when I 1 come home my brother charles was gone and I 1 never saw him again nita was married to me and she called the little girl nita after herself for a few year my wife nita and little nita travel with me in the circus but my wife nita take sick and die then I 1 haf little nita put in a big school in albany and she Is there now I 1 haf a pin and a locket and a chain little nita wore I 1 haf kept they will be in the box with this letter on the pin Is the name alice the locket haf a picture of a beautiful lady I 1 took this pic ture out and put a little slip of paper under it with the date on it when i found the child this Is all I 1 know I 1 love little nita like she was own my brothers name Is charles Sig motta but I 1 do not know he Is little nita la at madame de long s school in al bany in the stat 0 new york I 1 swear by all the holy saints that what I 1 haf written Is true ANTONIO here indeed was a valuable docu ment my exultation was so great that I 1 seemed to have aalph gravis court completely routed and edith broughton s sweet face seemed to smile encouragingly at me from way across the sea but after a few min utes of supreme gratification the thought flashed over me that the statement of antonio S geotta other wise known as baciotti Ba did not in any way connect ralph with the case of course the photograph the pin with the name alice engraved upon it and nita baciotti Ba s striking resemblance to the wife of charles Gravis court were to any mind sive evidence but would the evidence hold in lawa I 1 knew tt would not I 1 took the locket from my packet removed the picture and found a slip of white paper bearing a date I 1 ex this and my heart throbbed with excitement when I 1 saw that the date of doctor Sig motta s attempted murder of nita barlotti was the same as that inscribed upon the tomb stone in trinity cemetery new york as the date of little alice Gravis court s death I 1 carefully replaced the paper and the picture and with wild dreams of what might occur if I 1 ever escaped from the clutches of the pre tetto I 1 passed the remainder of the night half sleeping on a broad tow couch that stood in one corner of the guard room in the morning I 1 was served with a substantial breakfast and soon after I 1 had disposed of it I 1 was con ducted before the profetto pre fetto the elder maligna ool ed at me with a venom ous glance and I 1 saw in the faces of the crowd of men around him not one g ance of friendliness among the spectators was a rascal ly looking fellow who was called by the profetto pre fetto bordino and as he seemed to have the friendship of the powerful malegni I 1 at once didenti fled him as the count di bordino the uncle of henry rh spoken of by Mut nita was not brought into the room during the trial and did not seem to bp an important factor there was not a friendly voice raised in my behalf I 1 made an attempt to speak but was ordered to be quiet when the testimony was all in the profetto pre fetto turned to me and said young man I 1 have listened to the evidence against you and I 1 find that you are guilty of the murder of my brother from to day you are the same as dead the sentence which I 1 shall impose upon you is that you be put in the cagliari prison and work tor the state during the remainder of your life that is all I 1 have to say to you but I 1 cried springing to my feet I 1 am not guilty I 1 swear to you pro fetto that I 1 do not know who killed your bi other I 1 had no cause to hate him 01 to wish him dead but others had an attempt at his life was made in new ork I 1 saw it but I 1 had nothing to do with it your brother had enemies who have tracked him here I 1 enough you were seen yesterday in company with another examining my villa and grounds at night my brother is murdered and you are found on my property carrying off my brothers promised wife it Is enough then turning to the guard he ut a command and I 1 was conduct ed from this hall of justice to my pris on As I 1 entered the great iron gates of the prison yard and heard them clang behind me I 1 felt the deepest despair my clothes were taken from me and I 1 was clad in the bl colored pris on suits with which sardinia clothes its prisoners these suits are made of stuff very similar to that in use tor the same purpose in the united states but the colors instead of running in stripes are divided in the middle one half measuring from a line drawn from the nose downward is dark and the other light when I 1 had been thus clothed I 1 had one arm leg and the right side of my body black and the left arm leg and halt of my body a dirty gray my watch the gold locket and pin that I 1 had tal en from malegni were taken from me but the letter of an onto Sig motta was returned to me with a shrug of the keepers should ers as it to say that if the possession of a piece of paper would make me any happier I 1 might have it for all cared to the contrary this done I 1 was conducted with scant ceremony to a dungeon cell my cell was perhaps twenty feet square high up in the tower and overcool overl ool ed the north the floor was of stone and the walls of some kind of cement the fur kiture consisted of an iron bedstead an old chair and a small abie the light came through a small grated window which was above my head lor a time after I 1 reached my cell I 1 was greatly worked up the excite ment of the day and of the previous plight having a trying effect on my nerves but as the hours wore on the act that I 1 had slept little began to tell on me and I 1 grew drowsy sitting on my hard chair I 1 gave my sell up to my bitter reflections and anally my head drooped and over come by the drowsiness which was increased by the silence of my cell I 1 tell asleep and my waking aedita alons became merged in a dream in which I 1 renewed acquaintance with major simmons and bilkins and saw their faces and the face of edith broughton and the faces of other friends peering at me some in pity some in alarm some with love and most strongly outlined among them all was the calm stern face of my dead hero there was an inspiration in that face as halt sleeping I 1 saw it looking down at me it bade me rouse myself it shone like a beacon before me lead ing me to a resolution that I 1 would never have reached but for this fan bastic appearance it brought to mind the heroism of by whose death I 1 was given life the manliness of his nature seemed am parted to mine I 1 recollected that nita baciotti Ba the girl whom I 1 had sworn to save was still in the hand of men whose purposes were not always good my own love for edith broughton welled up within me and surged through my heart as it had never done before perhaps an hour passed and I 1 awoke my dream was ended I 1 awoke from it a new man I 1 arose from my chair and walked around my cell near the window I 1 paused I 1 saw some words carved in the cement wall they were in shad ow and it required some minutes ol 01 effort before I 1 could decipher them shading my eyes from the light which came through the grated window I 1 gazed steadily at the letters until accustomed to the dim light which ell upon them I 1 made them out on one line carved in bold letters was the name henry thorlene Th orlane and under it in smaller but not less distinct characters were the words I 1 will avenge I 1 was in the cell occupied once by the son of the englishman about whom had told me and who was now according to mutter elli in the monastery of the saints the first thing to be done was to learn as much as possible of my sur this was an easy matter so far as the cell was concerned I 1 1 new every inch of it already but there was the window I 1 dragged the table across the stone floor and climbed upon it it put me just high enough to enable me to look out through the strong bars 0 the ittle window looking down I 1 saw that the pris on ird extended about forty feet from the prison walls and was sur rounded by a stone wall surmounted L sharpened spi es over which it bould be impossible to climb I 1 was getting hungry and knew tl at it must be noon I 1 supposed they fed prisoners in sardinia and waited patiently for my portion dinner time came at last and I 1 was agreeably surprised to receive at the 1 ands of my keeper a substantial meal doing justice to this I 1 felt like a new man ready for any emer ancy and willing to take my chance cr liberty but I 1 must I 1 reasoned bile my time and wait tor a promas ing opportunity during the long night I 1 lay on my prison bed sleeping part of the time but having wakeful hours in which I 1 pondered and studied over the great problem of my life how to escape and carry the plans now seemingly ended in disaster to a successful ter min atlon and one day followed another in this wise and night followed night until I 1 had spent a week in the prison I 1 had heard nothing from Mut and gave him up to be continued |