Page:Weird Tales Volume 3 Number 1 (1923-12).djvu/83

Rh fainter till the closing of his dungeon door shut them off completely.

Well he knew the fate awaiting him. He would be tied against a great cartwheel so that he hung like a fly caught in a web of a giant spider. Then, with a heavy sledge-hammer, the brawny executioner would rain blow after blow upon him, breaking the bones of his legs and arms, his ribs, finally crushing his skull. In ordinary cases the headsman would have given him the blow on the head first, so that the others would have been but savage mutilation of his dead body; but his sentence had expressly provided that he should "be broken on the wheel from the feet upwards without the customary mercy stroke." He would die slowly, horribly. The thought drove him shrieking against the unyielding door of his cell, striking it with his fists, crying aloud for mercy—he who had shown no pity to the girls whose finery he coveted.

Next morning, when they led him out to die, he gave a great shout of joy as he beheld the executioner. For that grim official leaned upon the handle of a great sword, not on the helve of his terrible hammer.

The court had reconsidered its decision during the night, and commuted his sentence to death by beheading, saying, "It is below the dignity of the state to vie with a criminal in cruelty."

This is the Third of a Series of Unusual Articles that Seabury Quinn is Writing for. The Fourth Will be Published in an Early Issue.



kiss her and his hot breath fanned her cheek. Where was Aomar? Oh, why—

There came a sudden noise behind the kneeling Arab—the Hash of steel, a gasping grunt—and Seid, who had come to defile her, slid sideways to the floor!

Silence, tangible, heavy, burdened with tragedy. At last a low, boyish whimper; then uncertain, shuffling footsteps as Aomar staggered from the tent.

HEY found him the following morning, hiding in the bazars of Abouda. Like a dumb animal, accustomed to contempt and harshness, he had slunk away in terror from the encampment.

His eyes held a bewildered expression when Patricia rested a friendly hand upon his shoulder and asked him concerning his father. He told her he was an Englishman named d'Arro, and that the little ivory charm had been a cherished possession of his mother's.

And then Patricia informed him that he was to return with her to England. There he was to become educated, and live in a great house, with no one to revile him. She owed it to him, she said, and to the diminutive ivory hand that had so strangely brought them together. 



ELL, stranger, we didn't want no sleep after I had finished readin' them things ter the boys, even though we warn't able ter make out all them long words. But we did git their meanin'; leastways, we got some o' 'em.

Next day Hank, he says we all ought ter git them bodies an' bury 'em, and we does so. 'Bout the time that we gits settled down ter livin' comfortable agin, here come one o' them furriners from Vienny, an' what does he do but dig up the boy, an' takes him away. 'Course we don't see him no more, but the old house—why, it's stood there empty, gettin' rottener every day what passes.



S a result of an injunction granted by Judge Charles O. Busick, which makes I. W. W.'s subject to six months jail sentences for contempt of court on proof of membership, it is stated that Sacramento, California, is to be subjected to a "rule of terror" by that organization. An official of the organization is alleged to have said that the drive on the city would begin in the early fall, at which time they would teach Sacramento a lesson.

It is also reported that plans are under way for the promotion of a general industrial strike to take in agriculture, lumber and general construction camps. The district attorney of Sacramento County brought the suit for the injunction in the name of the people of the state of California. I. W. W.'s may be imprisoned without jury trial under the terms of the writ. 

SMALL piece of peanut candy, lodged in the throat, caused the death of Donald Wilson, 18-months-old son of Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Wilson, of Princeton, Ill. Death occurred at the University hospital at Ann Arbor, Mich., where the mother, together with her two sons, were visiting. The candy was lodged in the child's throat in such a manner as to cause strangulation. Frantic efforts of physicians to overcome the difficulty failed, and the child died on the operating table.



RANZ BUTNER is an animated jewel case.

A short time ago he settled the estate of a relative in Germany and inherited a number of valuable diamonds. Instead of disposing of them in Germany for a few billion marks, he carried them aboard ship with him when he embarked for this country.

While at sea he suddenly thought of the customs inspectors and was appalled by the thought of the duty he would have to pay Uncle Sam. In desperation, he swallowed them.

An X-Ray was used in fixing the value of the gems. 

URTHER excavations at Solutre, near Macon, where scientists have already found thousands of bones of prehistoric horses and buffaloes, have just brought to light skeletons of three Cromagnon men. The skeletons, which are intact, give a perfect illustration of the physical characteristics of man 15,000 years ago. They are of men between twenty and thirty years old and of great stature. The skull in each case is well developed, but not of great length. The nose is long and the jaw exaggeratedly high.

ASTER VINCENT OLDS, son of Mr. and Mrs. Lee Olds of Wyanet, met with a very painful accident recently, when hit by an automobile. He waa playing with another boy when he ran in front of an automobile on the hard road, which runs through the main section of Wyanet. His jaws set in such a manner that he practically bit his tongue off. He was rushed to the Perry Memorial hospital at Princeton, where surgeons found it necessary to take twenty stitches to close the wound and replace the tongue.



OHN T. HUME, JR., six, died in the Garfield Park hospital, Chicago, from a wound caused by a bean blower. Johnnie was playing with his "pal," Buddy Fray, near his home. They were blowing beans at each other when Johnnie stumbled and fell, driving the bean blower into his head through the roof of his mouth. The lad died shortly after his father had carried him to the hospital.