Show THE 0 by ARTHUR CLEVES jim driscoll found himself upon his feet bearing at the wreck of the train in which he had been traveling all about him lay the dead and injured and the carriages which were begin ning to catch fire illumined the night with a lurid glare it was in the middle of the moun tain district of pennsylvania dris coll had left his little town in to go to new york it was his first journey in ten years A discovery ot oil upon his property had given him the promise of wealth and he had set out to negotiate with a company jim drscoll at fifty was reputed the crabb edest old man in bonville boxville Box ville it mary and he had had children he might have discovered that life Is not wholly a vale of tears As it was be was a town character he knew it too knew that mary shrank from him and feared him though loyalty kept her to him knew that presence anywhere chilled the mirth that the children hated him that his neigh bors avoided hm he gloried in it he had the reau of a vindictive man and he gloried in that he was closefisted close fisted hard as nails and he bugged his sin ister reputation to his heart the wreck had come suddenly it had unsettled him of course ho was not going to interest himself in any of the injured that was not way but the physical had unsettled the habits of years and tor the first time in yeara driscoll began to take stock of him self his thoughts were changed by hear ing a child s cry at bis side stooping down he saw a pretty little girl of eight or nine years lying beside the track near her lay the body of a man he had been killed in the disaster and the girl who seemed only slightly injured was stretching out her arms to him and sobbing beneath his hard exterior driscoll had a heart tender in one respect he loved children that was why he scowled at them to hide his feelings opened his eyes ana stared into hia cifes face if mary and he could havo had a child like that tie spoke gruffly to the little girl but she did not seem to notice his presence and at last with a shrug of the shoulders driscoll turned his back on her he started away not in the direction of new york however but back toward his home A new idea had come to him he would pretend that he had been killed in the wreck and return home secretly to discover what people were saying about him he anticipated the jeers the scoffing and congratulations and his own triumph when he suddenly appeared la the midst of them the news of the disaster had spread rapidly and five miles down the line driscoll passed a wrecking train with a medical car attached behind it along the wayside track there came a man in a buggy who pulled up bla sweating steed have you seen the wreck he shouted yes answered driscoll 1 I was aboard my friend jim driscoll was killed and enough for me are you a reporter yes I 1 m a newspaper man an the other give me a short account while I 1 rest my horse quick 1 I will if put jim driscoll down us dead answered driscoll Drie coll say jim driscoll of bonville boxville Box ville waa killed by breaking bis neck because I 1 m not a going to break the new s to his family the bargain was struck and driscoll gave the other a five minutes account of the wreck then he hurried along the line he caught a branch train at the junction and finally about eight clock the next evening attired in a shabby suit which be had purchased at a pawnbrokers pawn brokers he made his way in the dark through the streets of bonville boxville Box ville nobody who in the gathering darkness recognized dris coll in the shabby slouching stranger he pushed open the garden gate and crept to the outside of the par loz window inside ho saw a small aaa crowd of neighbors u w va f not thero it 11 be a hard blow for mary one of the crowd was saying poor jim driscoll recognized him as the local druggist with whom he had been on bad terms for years he clenched hia fists he hated the mans hypocrisy even more than himself now there s many talks against jim but bo such a bad fer low broke in the shoemaker he was a man named austin with whom driscoll had had a feud of several months standing on account of a business misunderstanding when a mans cranky folks makes allowances for him I 1 tell you a man who can keep the love of a woman like mary driscoll must have some good in him it stands to reason its a pity there no ahll dren sighed miss hemans the sis ter of the butcher that a what ate into their hearts like add but I 1 guess that if he lives mary driscoll will be so overjoyed that life 11 take on a happier look for her no chance of his recovering Is there asked austin A small one said the butcher the doc says that it he recovers consciousness hell most likely get well it seems theres a splinter of bone pressing on his brain and they can t tell how much its injured him it he recovers consciousness the brains all right if he don t well he won t all did mary driscoll write that asked another sure she wrote to miss hemans here jim driscoll was conscious of min aled emotions the first was of shame and humiliation of all the neighbors gathered there not one had a bad word for him but the second was of disgust could it be possible that his wife had gone to the hospital and actually mistaken another man for himself or was somebody that was a more probable explanation of course it was a lie his impulse was to run into tho room but he restrained himself and he heard an other speaker say 1 I tell you miss hemans when I 1 saw mary driscoll start oft this morn ing she looked actually pretty in that black dress of hers in spite of her sorrow she was crying and she coulden couldn t hide it but she looked like a girl again sorrow seems to bring back the youth in some people she s had sorrow enough broke in the first sneering voice that driscoll bad heard living with a man like jim Is enough to make any worn an wish she was dead driscoll knew the speaker he was the cashier of the local bank and about the only friend be had in box valle and he sudden realization of the fellows treachery almost un nerved the watcher at the window he driscoll had been so wrapped up in his hatred and moodiness that he had never been able to tell his true friends from the false ones ho had acted like a fool an overwhelming sense of remorse came over him it he could see mary now and tell her what a fool he had been and unable longer to restrain him self he sprang for the door opened it and rushed into the parlor 1 I m here and I 1 ve heard every word he shouted to the assembly you mr he turned to the cashier were my best friend and you can walk right out of my house and never come 1 well jim driscoll was a good man in his way said miss hemans wiping her eyes they had not heard him nobody bad heard or noticed him and even as he stood there bewildered walked straight into him and through him in an instant driscoll understood he waa dead he had died in the collision and be was in bis own home in the spirit while the mangled flesh lay in the hospital no doubt where his patient wife was watching I 1 agree with you miss hemans the butcher answered jim driscoll turned slowly away and with the realization that bis last chance to redeem his life was gone an agonizing sense of hopelessness crushed him jim jim driscoll opened his eyes and stared into bis cifes face 0 thank god jim you are con you are going to get well jim god has answered my prayers I 1 have prayed for you night and day these ten days past and the doctor said it you knew me again you would recover jim my dear jim 0 my dear and kneeling at the she flung her arms round the sick man a neck jim everyone la talking about it she said later about what whispered driscoll feebly the little girl in the next bed look at her jim dont you kemem bert you pulled her from beneath the car which had fallen on her ta ther and killed him nobody knows how you freed her but it fell back on your head and injured you terri bay and jim driscoll could read the hope in bis cifes eyes yes my dear he answered pat ting her hand it you like mary you 11 adopt her jima abbe has nobody in the world and that time mary driscoll read tha answer in his 1914 by W chapman we admire a man who always laughs at our jokes and tolls any of his own r taut |