A Modern Aladdin; or, The Wonderful Adventures of Oliver Munier: An Extravaganza in Four ActsPyle, Howard
History
A Modern Aladdin; or, The Wonderful Adventures of Oliver Munier: An Extravaganza in Four Acts
Pyle, Howard
Alchemists -- Fiction; France -- History -- Louis XV, 1715-1774 -- Fiction; Saint-Germain, comte de, -1784 -- Fiction
At that moment she looked up, and Oliver saw her face. It was
beautiful, but as livid as death; just such a face as might utter the
sound that had awakened him to his blind terror. The eyes were fixed
upon him, but not as though they saw him, and he leaned far out of the
window, gazing fascinated. Presently the thin lips parted, he saw the
white teeth glitter in the moonlight, and for the third time he heard
that quavering, unearthly wail break out upon the night.
Suddenly the door of the house beneath opened noiselessly, and two
figures stepped out into the pale glamour. One was the American uncle,
the other was the clever servant Gaspard. The latter carried over his
arm something that looked like a long black cloak. At their coming the
sound instantly ceased, and the woman slowly turned her white ghostly
face towards them. The American uncle strode up to her and caught her
fiercely by the wrist, but she moved no more than if she had been dead.
Oliver saw the American uncle stand looking this way and that, like one
seeking for some escape; then he looked at Gaspard. The clever servant
was mouthing and grimacing in a horrible, grotesque manner. Oliver
could see him as plain as day, for the white moonlight shone full in
his lean grisly face. He opened what he carried upon his arm; it was a
long, black, bag-like hood.
Once again the tremulous, wailing cry cut through the night, at first
faint, then rising higher and higher and clearer and clearer. Oliver
saw his uncle shudder. Gaspard grinned; he crouched together, and held
the black bag open in his hands. Oliver heard the American uncle utter
a sharp word that he could not understand, and saw him fling the wrist
he held away from him.
What next passed happened in an instant. There was a leap, a swift,
silent, horrible struggle, and the sound was stilled. Gaspard had
drawn the black bag over the woman's head and shoulders. Then, without
pausing an instant, he picked her up, flung her limp and helpless form
over his shoulder like a sack of grain, turned, and with noiseless
feet ran swiftly down the street. Oliver watched him as he ran into
an inky shadow, flitted across a patch of moonlight, disappeared in a
shadow again, appeared, disappeared, was gone. "My God!" he muttered to
himself; "the bridge and the river are down there. Would he--"
When he looked again he saw that his uncle had gone back into the house.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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