Show B BLok y ads J 0 F FICTION I C CI ON SERVICE SERVICE 1926 INC ING n Clifford Ernest Lynn WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE To ro the bon p of or Prof and anti Mollie Elwell in Ind md one night in October of at 1898 comes Martha l Dalton Daton a nurse bearing a woman who had bad fainted on the train on which Martha had been traveling Elwell is an artist He lie has a ason ason son SOIl Jim aged 5 Late that night twin girls are born to the woman woman who dies without revealing her name I The Ewells adopt the girls The story then moves move forward eighteen years The twins now growing to beautiful womanhood h have vo been named Margaret and andI I Elizabeth lizabeth and nicknamed Rusty and Betty America merica enters the World war and Jim Jinn E Elwell well enlists Two To nights before he enlists he discovers that one of the twins loves him and he loves her lIeI He tells his mother this thil but do does s not tell her which one be because because because be- be cause he wants her herr to treat them both boLh alike ame Over I it in France he is wounded In his his first first big battle and sent to the hospital He is discharged again and sent to the front and put in charge of a detail to clean out an enemy pill box NOW BEGIN THE STORY CHAPTER XVI Had Had J Jm m. m Elwe been equipped equipped- with a larger experience experience- with German German German Ger Ger- man pill boxes he would have been very discreet discreet about about peeking over the shelter t of the little ravine where they lay Jay and would have been very careful about exposing his I anatomy I I He Hes He's didn't look saw w something that I so good But he didn't see it quickly quick quid ly enough It was a stream of of fire and smoke But machine gun bullets bullets bul bul- lets eLs travel Just about as fast Cast as light d does es for a distance of half halt a amile amile mile so Jim felt elt what he saw as soon as he saw it I He felt Celt it in the left shoulder the tIle same place he had had- felt it the other I time He felt too that the thing tiling was getting ge to be bea a habit with him So he sat down down quickly quickly Serves me damn well right was his emphatic remark to the others as they rushed over to himI him I bought ought to have had bad better sense than to do a think like that an go my head right at them Here John he said to Powell help me meo o f with my iffy coat Im I'm goin gain down downto to the creek an an get some water And for heavens heaven's sake dont don't any of you Lou ou fellows try what I did Im I'm layn in luck I didn't get it Jn my darn fool head John Powell PoW was looking at him queerly Jim noticed that his face had bad suddenly ny gone greenish white the matter John he asked quickly t. t Oh Oh Good Jim Jinn Jim Jimi last st i lemar Just keep under nd r cover that's JI Leaving his coat behind him he r N J p it f. f r rM 45 r Vi F Y v 4 ru 5 y iy Yot ff ii R. R j a j i j t a y i N 4 I S Sl l J 6 y r 1 ts Jr Y f r. r in i naG Jim never even heard the crashing roar of the second shell Why he wasn't blown to atoms was Vias just a miracle of Providence Providen e. e I started 1 under cover Covel of the sloping bank down to the little creek He Hei i made his ls way without difficulty for tor forthe forthe torI the wound this time was a mere I scratch and paused on the bank to wash the burrow made by the bullet with water Then he succeeded after atter a II fashion in binding it up His rough first aid surgery over ovet he filled his canteen took look a long drink for drink for his throat was parched and stinging stinging filled filled it up again ana and straightened up to climb back up the slope to the little nest But he didn't start just start Just then A crashing roar that shook the hillside also shook him off his feet and backwards into the shallow creek A blinding light flared before beCore his eyes and amI the creek bed seemed to tremble ben beneath ath him What see seef an age titter later fter when his dazed brain finally began to function again ho crawled out and looked up the hillside m What lt he 3 saw gave min Him another shock but one that pulled him to his feet and then left eft him stunned with its ils awfulness Where the machine machine ma mo chine gun nest had been was now nowa a hole in which a boxcar could have been hidden fr from n sight My God he gassed gashed I gueSs Johns John's hunch t h He started up the hillside and then short his eyes riveted on something something almost at his feet What lie te saw w was th the mangled body of or John Po ll The The face Cace half blown away hung hunt b bK a fe jj fe bood bloody cords T The o legs were verc gone entirely ely torn off at the hips Jim gr gre grey v sick at heart And u a 3 I he stood loon looking down own at the fell fear fear- rul sight the chill of cold horror clutching at his heart there came cameto to his mind the promise he had made that morning to his new buddy who had looked so much like him The John Powell had asked him to mail And they ther were sewed inside poor fellows fellow's coat cc at I Ive got to to do cIo it It It he muttered thickly and I suppose I might as aswell aswell aswell well take off his coat and wear It myself No use lookin for mine Its It's probably blown to shreds The wonder was not that ho lIe could think of that promise at this time but that he could think at nt all nIl His brain was still num numB from that awful roar his senses reeled he was sick dreadfully sick It was no easy matter handicapped handicapped handi handl- I capped as he was with his wounded shoulder to get his dead comrades comrade's coat oft off and on himself But he kept at it mechanically and managed managed managed man man- aged finally to accomplish it it il Leaving it il unbuttoned he turned his head toward the invisible lines whence had come come that deadly messenger messenger mes mes- Bengel and cursed Cursed not noL only the men mell who had but cursed the war itself and awfulness of ot It the futility and senselessness of or it And then the devil devit of ot circumstance circumstance circum circum- stance invisible but standing close b by laughed augh d a a sardonic laugh Jim n neither ither saw the devil nor heard hint him laugh la and yet et this this- evl spirit of chance and coincidence with his diabolical sense of cit humor humor- h had d Just slipped another one of ot Ills his s Jokers Into the pocket of the man from In In- In diana That's why he laughed The boom of guns now Haw grew louder loud loud- er and the bursts more frequent From Prom where he stood Jim dint could see seo great clouds of ot earth flung into the air all as a shell plowed its wa way into the ground The world around aroundhim aroundhim aroundhim him seemed bursting with the terrible terrible ter ter- sound The air all grew oppressive oppressive oppressive sive and Jim for the first time rae realizing realizing realizing real real- izing what a narrow shave he had had himself grew faint taint as his Imagination imagination imagination imag Imag- pictured himself lying there thereon on the ground instead of poor John Powell pOJ Pott Powell ell wit his hunch that something was going to happen Well it had and Jim was going to keep his promise If It was the thelast thelast last Jast thing on earth he did hed he'd get i those letters off And so Jim Elwell covering his eyes to hide the awful sight of ot that thing tiling at his feet turned and slowly vy riy began again dip climb the hill to the craters crater's edge I When he reached it he hunted around for Cor ten minutes for some somo sign of ot his companions But not a trace could he find of one of at the four The big shell had done dono Its ts work completely Where his men had been was a gaping hole and that was all They probably lay ay buried burled beneath tons pf dirt lUrt And so he turned and started back d down t the IC e hill hili stumbling along cry crY- ing in lg Jim Elwell never even heard the crashing roar of the tho second shell that was hurled at their position It ItI tore another big hole out of the tho hillside hill hill- side at the spot not more t I or sixty feet away Why he e wasn't t blown to atoms was Just a of ot Providence are s some somo e thin thing thing that that and worse are as bad as death Right night then and there a strip in the fabric Cabric of or Jim Ilm inn Elwell's brain split split the threads snapped and th the ends curled up Whether tJ r ever would be found and tied ell again was something that time and time timo alone might tell toll But time reve ij no secrets until that hour strikes that thatis is set by the hand of a work sure ing destiny Back Bad h home me in the town of Indiana they thought Jim Elwell h safe sare in fn n the hospital at Vaux But that happiness t that at had come to them on the day of the tine armistice was to turn 4 0 bitterest grief f Sedan last battle batHe of the war and anel Jim Elwell smashed smashed gone gone to join the ranks ranis of th living JIvIng dead lead menOn menOn menOn men On the day that America was giving ing Itself over to the frenzy of joy with which it greeted the news of ot the tho armistice and the end of or the war a pretty TIed Red Cross nurse from New York stood at the bedside of bed Number N 38 In an American army hospital in the cit city of Metz l It was the afternoon of November 11 She was looking looking- down at a anew anew anew new patient a man who had been brought In that morning And although that which which- which site she beheld beheld be be- held beltT had become sadly familiar to her during the months since she had come overseas to do her bit yet this mans man's pitiable condition brought the tears welling into her eyes While she stood there leaning ever aver the life that figure figure figuie that la lay there o othe or orthe orthe the bed with closed eyes eyes eyes' the hospitals hospital's hospitals hospital's hospi hospi- tal's tas chief surgeon a man who had left leCt a wealthy practice in New York to lend a helping hand hanel canto camo In the tIle room and approached the bed bcd In his Ills hand he carried a small pack patk age lIe He smiled at the nurse Irene Hero arc are some letters and pictures belonging bo- bo longing to this patient n MIss Iss D ing he said extending the pack pack- age Better put them under his pillow Miss alias Downing took them Tell me nie Doctor she asked with a little little little lit lit- tle catch in her voice who Is he and where is he from Has JIas he heany heany helny any chance chanco The doctor shook hool his head slowly Not much of a chance Im I'm afraid was his reply Its an unusually bad case of shell shock This man is isI isone isone I one of ot two t of a machine gun unit o of I six sir according to the ambulance I men who brought him here who wasn't blown to the four winds wind when two German shells hit the their nest at Sedan And do 10 they then ow I vho he is Yes This Thi mans man's name according according according accord accord- ing to these letters and and pictures picture found sewed up in his coa coat is John JohnV JohnW W W. Powell of Newark New Jersey He lie was found some fifty feet from ono of the shell holes The The other man manthe ho hc doctor continued con con- U- U tj was a James T. T Elwell from some since ne place in in Or so Or 01 so 1 It was assumed from letters found round i ia J a coat lying nearby As there was n-as no coat on the bod body the one found of or course Belonged to him Both his legs and nd half hair his head were torn off oft Not vestige of ot the other four men men k known own to to lo have been in the squad was as found The nurses nurse's lips lip moved in pity What a shame I The rhe doctor said Too bad and anel looked it the man on the bed The pa patient f had opened ibIs his eyes bu but tin in them was no recognition whatever no sign of intelligence or of ot life They just stared stare stared 1 repeated Too bad the doctor I and and- turned away leaving the nurse still standing at the bedside She laid ald her herr cool hand oft otT the patients patient's hot and watched with wom wo- wo m pit the muscles of or the face twitch and jl jump mp and the vacantly staring e eyes ejes s that saw nothing nothing- Under Un Un- der the bed covers the mans man's legs were jerking up and down up and down constantly fIss Downing sat down clown and am opened the package the doctor had left e To Be Ee Continued f S Jim ElwelL is is thought dead He now lives un under ler the name name ame of another nother man And astounding ing developments are in jn If store I A A I V s |