he white throat and breast, seemed almost golden under
the light of the torch. A draft from the open door moved the hair and
the heart of the prince stirred in him.

He strove to loosen the arms of the painter, but they were frozen stiff
by death.

"She was a fool, and the loss is small," sighed the prince. "After all,
perhaps God was nearer than I thought. I bound them together with a
chain. He saw my act and must have approved, for see! He has locked them
together forever. Well, after all--_le Dieu, c'est moi!_"

THIRD TALE

PLUMB NAUSEATED

BY E. K. MEANS

I.

"Yes, suh, I feels plum' qualified to take on a wife."

The black negro blushed to a darker hue and his face shone like polished
ebony in the blazing August sun. In his embarrassment he twisted his
shapeless wool hat into a wad, thrust it under his arm like a bundle,
turned his back upon the white man's quizzical eyes, and sat down upon
the lowest step of the porch.

At the feet of the white man lay half a dozen pairs of handcuffs. He
stooped and picked up a pair which showed rusty in the bright light,
rubbed the rust off with sand-paper, squirted some oil into the
mechanism from a little can, and busied himself for a few minutes seeing
that his police hardware was in good condition.

The sheriff remained silent for so long that the negro imagined he had
been forgotten. Then Flournoy fired a question so unexpectedly that the
black man winced: "What's your name?"

"Dey calls me Plaster Sickety."

"Gosh!" the sheriff exploded. "Can any woman be induced to exchange a
perfectly decent name for a smear like that?"

"Suttinly," the negro grinned. "Dat gal's name ain't so awful cute. Dey
calls her Pearline Flunder."

"Plaster Sickety and Pearline Flunder--help, everybody! What sort of
children will issue from a matrimonial alliance of such names?"

"I reckin our chillun will all be borned Huns, Marse John; but I cain't
he'p it."

Under his manipulation the sheriff's worn handcuffs took on a polish
like new. At intervals he glanced up from his task to see the sunlight
spraying from the pecan-trees like water and the heat rising from the
ground, visible as a boiling cloud. Once he heard an eagle scream, and
glanced toward the Little Mocassin swamp to behold a black speck sail
into the haze that hung like a curtain of purple and gold upon the
horizon. The negro sat motionless except for glowing black eyes
restless as mercury and all-perceivi