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Show niinstnias y Fibre nee Harris Wells wmgsQf! JOM WALTON was lonesome. It was Christmas Eve and he had no near relatives on earth. Seeing See-ing a light in the oilice of his friend, Doctor Barnes, he sauntered in. He had scarcely entered when the Doctor lagan to exclaim oxer him: What had he been drinking? "Nothing," Tom declared, taking It as a joke. Well, what had he been eating? "Nothing unuM'.al." Tom tried ban-' tcring a little, but the doctor persisted. "You certainly have smelled something some-thing out of the ordinary?" Then Tom remembered that that morning he had received a letter from a friend of his in I n d I a with a pressed flower in it. In fact, be had the letter in h'.s 1 pocket and showed t it to the doctor, saying : "Yes, that flower has n peculiar odor. I thought of It this morning. Hut how in the dickens could you tell?" I'.ut the doctor was all business. He called the tlower by a long, botanical name; while In suppressed sup-pressed excitement he told Tom of Its ' strange death-hearing odor that within ' twenty-four hours from the time It j was Inhaled meant death. A sharp pain In the heart would be the only ! warning. The doctor slumped In Ids chair, head bowed In his hands, unable un-able to meet Tom's horror-stricken eyes. Tom staggered out Into the night as though condemned to the guillotine. His mind refused to act. Ills limbs seemed 1u1ral.v7.ed. It was as though already the shadow of death was gathering gath-ering about him. Only one thought registered. He must get to his room 1 and bed before the end came. His feet dragged as If chains were upon them, lie felt like a man In a nightmare night-mare unable to get where be wished to go but It wasn't a nightmare, Ic groaned. With the thought bis Innate 1 j courage began to assert Itself. He was ' no coward. If death lay In wait for ! blia Just around the corner, as It were, he would at least die game not like a sniveling coward. He faced about I and entered a cabinet. Alone in the gay throng he c. Mooted his wits and I made his plans. j He had money, bat 110 relatives. He ' would close bis life with a good deed. , lie would give his money because It 1 was Christinas time and the Mason I for giving. Rut It must be no mere j gift. Some one must re,ele with Ibis j gift something more than Its material mate-rial value. Cif.s and Christum.'! 1 brought Margaret to mind. She was Ihe only person In the wor'd of bis o.vn hiih and kin Hint he knew of, ami he was only a second or I bird cousin so far removed that If Margaret, loo, had not been an orphan, they would not have recognl.ed the slight blood tba They had spent their ( 'brl -I mas together to-gether unlil this year. Kit' Hie old alii I, who was Man arel's aunt, ml Ids, had pic .0,1 away early In the ,,-ar : rul at Hii lr lasl mo, 'tin,: Margaret had told 1 : 1) her mint's lust expressed wbh v. as that she should marry her aunt's stop on, who had 1 11 her 1111- om o,n.igc,l buer ..lin e childhood, lie was middled 1 ; 1 1 and well toil,, and Margaret bad promised In gle him her answer on ( 'b list mas Eve. She really didn't love him. she confided con-fided to Tom. but the limn she 'bought she loved dldn'l pay much alienllon to her; so she would settle her heart and life lluil Christmas Eve. Thai was tonight. He yet bad time perhaps to do this big I 'brlst mas giving giv-ing liefme his life ended. Margaret lived and worked In a tiny village not far from the city. She had no money except what she earned. ! Tom felt sure It was the eternal ' pinching and scraping that was inllu- encing her to make her life easier in the only way that offered. lie would i give her all he had. It was enough j to keep her from worrying about her immediate wants for some time and save her from sacrificing her soul and i body to a loveless marriage. Perhaps ! in the meantime the other chap might ! wake up and realize what a peach of i a girl Margaret is. "What an Idiot he must be." Tom 1 uttered to himself, "not to grab up a j girl like Margaret when he has the ' chance." I 1 Riotous thoughts ran through his ! mind as the slow moving traiu ml- i vanced toward the village. For t ho I time being bis errand and not what Its I outcome might be outweighed the J gloom of the Impending doom that 1 hung over his own life.. His thoughts j were on another's trouble rather than I his own. He wondered If perchance she might already be married. People did such things on Christmas Eve, and i it was late fall when he last talked with Margaret. With the thought came a tightening about the muscles of his heart. It was the first warning, warn-ing, Tom knew. The train fairly crawled. It was an hour late. Tom remembered It was always an hour or so late on Christmas Christ-mas Eve. It had been so every year. I he recalled. lie was surprised that 1 he hadn't thought of that before. In I the maze of his harassed brain be j hoped the deadly odor would not take effect too soon. He had too much to j do first. At last the train drew In at the station. sta-tion. There was no taxi. There never were taxis at Smithsvllle: but other years Margaret had met him. He stepped out. almost expeitlng to see her laughing a welcoming Merry Christinas at him. He almost felt dis- ' appointed, and again that queer little j sensation about his heart, recalling to 1 him the importance of losing no time. 1 Without reason, from force of habit. I Tom went directly to the old house of, Margaret's aunt. The house was in j total darkness but Torn gave the old- ' fashioned bell a vigorous pull and Its ring seemed to solemnly re-echo on ; the chill wintry air not at ail like a i Christmas chime came the unsolicited thought to Tom. The house was dark. It might be empty, but Tom was going to be sure. Again and again he pulled j down the bell. Ages It seemed to Tom before a light appeared and big. burly. Peter Kline, arrayed In night apparel, threw wide open the door. "Is some one sh-k or dying this night that i,u raise such a hullabaloo at a man's door?" He lowered the lamp and peered at Tom : "So It's you? I'll be gol-darned. You're white as a sheet. What's allin" you? Come In! Come In!" He fairly pushed Tom In, banging the door behind them. All the time Tom had been asking for Margaret, but Peter apparently heard nothing until they were In the cozy living room where embers still glowed In the old-fashioned fireplace. "Is It Margaret you're se, k!ng? iMad enough I am that you've come to at last. Married to me, did you say? Certainly not. I married the WI, low-Stone low-Stone at Thanksgiving. I'm not the sort of man that wants to marry a girl who loves some one else. Margaret Marga-ret lives nvcr at Neighbor Lewis'. Some one's up." Peter unceremoniously unceremoni-ously ushered Tom out Into the night. Tom never knew unite bow- be go; across the street to the Lewises', but It was Margaret herself who opened the door. Neither did he know how-It how-It came about that Margaret was In his arms. It was later when they got their breath and senses that Tom remem bered his real mission, and the futility of the love he had been so slow In realizing realiz-ing broke u on him. The slab at his heart woke h I 111 completely from his dream and he poured out to Margaret Hie tragedy that hung oer them. He hadn't I h o u g h t what Margaret would do, but he was cut I rely u n p r e-p e-p a red f or Ihe burst of g a y 1 Hi ft w M-d Vj ' ' ,t I 1 laughter at the end of his recital to which she had listened apparently so sympathetically. "Listen, Tom," and she reached for the evening paper. ''I read this Just before you came In and was Interested because he was your friend. 'Doctor r.ariies was this afternoon declared bv prominent specialists to be Insane, For some time be has been ob-u-ssod by the Idea (hat bis friends as well as his patients for various and sundry reasons had but twenty four hours to live, etc.' No use reading It all, Tom. Thai's enough. I dldn'l laugh when 1 read II. but now 1 feel like shoiillng bei-.iuse It broiighl me j 011." " nd It bronchi me you," Tom returned, re-turned, Inwardly rejoicing that he hadn't allowed Fate to make a coward of him. The lli'Might of what It would have mount If be had followed his Impulse Im-pulse and gone to bed swept over lit in for a mlnule; then he clasped Margate! Marga-te! lo him. ' "Isu'l It a Merry Christ mas, Hioughl" He cMilted from sheer Joy of living. "A most merry one I" Margai et laughed up at him triumphantly. l(t. r26. Wpilirn Npwiir I'nlun. 1 |