It soothed him after a little, and that was what he sought. He leaned back in his chair and lighted a cigarette, which he puffed leisurely. In the blue smoke he saw strange pictures of himself overthrowing and destroying one whom he hated with all his heart, and that one was Merriwell. How strong he felt! Why, it seemed that he could crush Merriwell to the earth without an effort. What did he care, after all, if he had failed to be chosen to enter the ivy-wreathed door of “Bones”! That was a passing joy, but absinth he could have always--till death! “Waiter, bring another of the same.”
With the second glass, everything passed from him save his determination to get even with Merriwell. Of late he had feared Merriwell, but now he did not fear him. Merriwell had seemed to possess a strange power over him, but now he felt that the power was broken. He knew he was in every way superior to Merriwell, and it seemed strange that all others did not know it as well. In his heart something was making soft music, like chiming bells, and he listened to it with quiet delight. How easy it was to start that music to going! “Waiter, another absinth.”
But the waiter was not near, and it was too much effort to call him. He smiled to think he had cared if he failed to get into “Bones.” Foolish! He knew the fellows who had been chosen, and he was better than the best of them. He would prove it, too, some day. He knew he could prove it easily, for he had the power to do anything he desired.
Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle!--he seemed to hear the fall of water in a fountain, which sparkled and glowed before his eyes, as his imagination conjured it there. He saw it in the moonlight of a soft Italian night, and the odor of a thousand flowers was brought to him with a passing breeze. He looked into the fountain, and a face smiled up at him. He saw it was the face of the man he hated, and he put out his strong hands to grasp it by the throat. There was no struggle. He was so strong that his enemy could not struggle. So he forced him down and held him beneath the surface of the water, watching him drown. It was a great delight to watch him drown.
The end came, and he relinquished his hold on that throat. Down, down to the bottom of the fountain sank the head, and there it lay looking up at him with wide-open, staring eyes. He nodded and smiled at it, saying: “I have conquered at last!” But it simply stared straight into his soul.