THE LOST STRADUARIUS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2199, 23 April 1896, Page 45

THE LOST STRADUARIUS.

" I wants to make your flesh creep," saia the Fat to old Mrs Wardle. This is the evident/ intention of the author of " The Lost Straduarius " as regards the reader* and it must be admitted that he has eucceaded. It is not the least like an ordinary ghost story, but it is a very ghostly one, though one can jast fancy a despiser of music calling it " all fiddle." Indeed, it takes a considerable ■ amount of culture, and some acquaintance with the occult, and, above all, 14 an ear," to be moved by it as orb ought .to be. .Still, it is a powerful tale. Two undergraduates of Cambridge, " sons of harmony " of a very different kind from Dick Swiveller's friends, are playing, one the piano and the other the violin, in the rooms of one of them at Magdalen Hall. They are executing a piece found in an old manuscript musicbook a hundred years ago, the " Gagliarda," by Graziani, As they do so, one, of those low basketchairs dear to collegians performs an entirely unconcerted and disconcerting accompaniment. 11 The sound was a perfectly familiar one, as of some person placing a hand on either arm of the chair preparatory to conveying himself into it, followed by another as of the same person being leisurely seated." When the "Gagliarda" was finished the creaking began again j Bounds such as would be made by a person raiting himself from a sitting posture. The young men are not so much alarmed as some people — myself, for example— would have been.-. They discarded tlie notion— which only .persons of their intelligence would have entertained — that there must bs in the wicker ohair " osiers responsive to certain notes of the violin." They at once entertained the idea, no flattering to their musical abilities, that there might really " coma night after night some strange visitant}" (why, by-tbe-bye, is a" supernatural dropper-in always called that, and never a visitor 1) "to bear them — some poor creature whose heart waß bound up in that tune." Would it not bemnkind to send | him away without again and again having ! the opportunity' of hearing his favourite | piece so exceptionally well played 1 The pluck' of tbe two young men no doubt increased our respect for their uuseen audience, the effect of whqse presence becomes in the end so destructive to one of them. He alone was privileged to see the visitant— , " The figure was that of a man perhaps 35 years of age and still youthful appearance. Tho face was long and oval, the hair brown and brushed straight off an exceptionally high forehead. His complexion was very pale, indeed bloodless. He was clean-shaven, and his finely-cut mouth, with compressed lips, wore something of a sneering smile. Hi* general expression was unpleasing, and frcm the first my brother felt aa by intuition that there was present some malign and wicked influence. His eves were not visible, as he kept them cast down, resting bis head on his hand in the attitude of one listening." - Most people under inch circumstances would have thought with a well-known philosopher that there was' nothing less desirable than " a little manic " in the world ; bub the intrepid violinist continued the " GiKliarda " to the end— "Then the visitant got op, putting bis hands on the arms of the chair to raise himself, and causing the creaking so often heard before. Tbe hands forced themselves on my brother's notice : they were very white, with the long, delicate fingers of a musician. He showed a considerable height ; and, still keeping his eyes on the floor, walked with an ordinary gait towards the end of the bookcase at the side of the room farthest from the window. He' reached the bookcase and was then suddenly lost sight of. The figure did not fade gradually, but went out, as it were, like the flame of a suddenly extinguished candle. In a cupboard in this bookcase our hero afterwards discovered the Stradnariuß. It had lain there for more than a century, and whether such a treaßure-trove belonged to the college or the Grown, it did not, it is plain, belong to the discoverer. Nevertheless, he stuck to it. This is the one blot in the character of our violinist. If he had been a collector, of course, one would not have expected him to resist such a temptation ; bat. that a mere love of music Bhould cause a young gentleman to commit. such a crime gives rise to reflection. One deduction may well be drawn from it and laid to heart both by professional and amateurs— that if you steal a fiddle, it is the rightful owner that calls tbe tune. Our musical friend plays little else than the " Gagliarda " from the day of bis misdemeanour, and with the eadest consequences. They are narrated with much literary skill, and in a vein that has not been worked so well since "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde "