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Show SSHISBJL - Throne's Emergency Gall Ey A. MARIA CRAWFORD (Copyright, 1911. by Associated Literary Press.) The telephone bell rang Insistently and Dr. Marshall Thrane tbretf down a book on abdominal surgery and turned indifferently to the Instrument. Instru-ment. "Yes, this is Dr. Thrane. Automobile Automo-bile accident? Call Dr. Gates. 1 am very busy." Thrane loved his profession and the lie about being busy was his Hrst act of disloyalty. Although a young man of thirty, he was considered the leading lead-ing surgeon, certainly the most successful suc-cessful one, in the city. On this particular evening he was not disposed to help humanity, for the world had gone wrong and the bitterness bitter-ness of his first sorrow had made him morose and sullen. His engagement to the beautiful Eileen Hunt, three months before, had made him supremely su-premely happy. She seemed possessed of the tact and democratic attitude toward the masses that go to make a successful and helpful wife for a professional pro-fessional man. The quarrel had occurred oc-curred two days before. They had gone to the country club for dinner and he had thought to himself him-self at the table that the girl had been blessed with every feminine attraction attrac-tion of beauty and charm. And now within two months of their wedding day, they had quarreled. Over what? Dr. Thrane closed his eyes and for the hundredth time tried to recall the exact conversation. They had been discussing love. The topic was natural, for there had been a full moon shining on the river before be-fore the clubhouse and the soft strains of the waltz from Salome had reached them from the ballroom. What was it he had said? Something Some-thing about the moon making a man say foolish things, he remembered. Then she had grown strangely quiet and when he tried to penetrate her silence and learn the cause, she had told him that probably he had been foolish when he proposed to her; It was moonlight then, she reminded him coolly. All his protestations to us i S3 "For Me Now?" the contrary proved vain and useless. He had made the remark because he believed it to be a true statement and she had fortunately been clever enough and quick enough to see that he hoped it would be taken as a personal per-sonal intimation of his attitude toward to-ward her. Argument was plainly useless and in a great and overwhelming over-whelming silence they motored home at high speed, ignoring the beauty of the night and the voiceless things that breathed of love through the fragrant darkness " Two days had passed slowly. He . was too proud to make advances when he had been Innocent or her charge against him. He had proven his love in every known way and he concluded that she was evidently grasping at any petty reason as an excuse for breaking her engagement to him. Again the telephone rang sharply and Dr. Thrane answered. "Yes, this is Dr. Thrane. . . Who wants me? . . . The people hurt In the automobile accident? . Who are they? ... I will be there In five minutes." Somebody at the Hunts had been hurt He summoned his sleepy chauffeur chauf-feur and was soon on the way, a fear growing in his heart that it might be Eileen. How would she receive him? Would she speak? A dozen questions presented themselves as he hurried on to his patint. It was more than probable prob-able that her brother Bob had been injured. He hurried up the steps and found Mr. Hunt holding open the door. His worst fears were confirmed when the older man said, "Come in, Marshall. Eileen was thrown from a car. She fainted, but 1 think they have brought her around." "Eileen wanted us to seJd for Dr. Gates, but of course we didn't want to take any chances, for we didn't know how badly she might be hurt, so 1 had them telephone for you, Marshall." "This Is no time for personal feeling," feel-ing," said the young surgeon sternly, his heart aching at sight of the girl's white face and twitching hands. "Some hot water, please." "My ankle is hurt, Marshall." said the girl. "All right, ni make you comfortable comfort-able in a few minutes," he assured her as he dropped a tablet Into a tiny glass of hot water. "Close your eyes," he ordered as he sat down beside her and pushed back the sleeve from her round, white arm. "1 will stay with her for a while, Mrs. Hunt. Go and get some rest," he told her mother when he had bound up the girl's sprained ankle and made her forget her pain. , While Eileen slept Thrane idly picked up a magazine on a table near him. It fell open where a telegram had been thrust In. The words on the yellow slip seemed to leap into the mind of the man against his will. It was addressed to Eileen Hunt "Expect "Ex-pect to sail for Japan the first Can you go with me? Wire at once. Tom." Thrane looked at the girl, then back again at the telltale slip of paper. pa-per. She had precipitated their quarrel quar-rel because it .was necessary to find some excuse for breaking her engagement engage-ment to him. Who was Tom? At the same time that Eileen wakened, wak-ened, her mother came in, thanking Thrane profusely for allowing her a few hours of sleep. The young surgeon sur-geon was merely professionally courteous cour-teous when he declared that it was nothing more than he should have done under the circumstances His quiet acceptance of changed conditions hurt the girl's pride. She had had a sufficient amount of time in which to regret her folly and she was ready for Thrane to pave a pleasant way for her confession, but the young surgeon came and went daily, coolly, impersonally professional. profes-sional. It was late Sunday afternoon when Thrane came in to see Eileen. It had been a strenuous day for him and he dropped Into a chair and sat silent, unmindful of the efforts of callers to interest him In the general conversation. conversa-tion. In a short time he rose to go and Eileen beckoned to him. "I want you to wait until these people go, please. 1 have something for you. It is your birthday, you know." "All right," he said, "provided you won't open up the wound. It's too fresh a hurt and always will be for that matter to bear any unnecessary probing." "I promise," she answered lightly, "not to hurt." When they were alone, he moved his chair so that he could watch her face in the light from the west window. win-dow. She was going to tell him about Tom and her trip to Japan, he reflected, re-flected, and braced himself for the ordeal. "I had this made for you, Marshall," Mar-shall," she said, and slipped a velvet case toward him along the arm of her invalid chair. He opened it and there was a locket set with diamonds. "For me now?" he asked, wonder-lngly. wonder-lngly. "Yes, open it," she commanded. He pressed the spring and her own face smiled up at him. "Is this rosemary for remembrance?" remem-brance?" "Oh, Marshall, can't you understand? Don't you see?" cried the girl seeing the shadow on his face. He looked up then and stumbled toward her blindly. "What does It mean?" he urged. "I've suffered enough, Eileen." Her arms, went round him at Bight of his pain. "It means that I that I can't give you up." "But what about Tom and Japan?" he questioned, afraid of his new happiness. happi-ness. "How did you know about that?" "I read the telegram the night you were hurt. 1 opened a magazine and the words on the blank just flashed up at me. I didn't mean to read." "Tom was my chum at college. She was named for her father." "How I have hated the poor Innocent!" Inno-cent!" laughed the man all weariness of the flesh dissipated by his changed spirit. "This week has been terrible, Marshall. Mar-shall. I wanted to die." "When anybody wants to die, sweetheart," said Thrane happily, "It Is better not to put In an emergency call for me." |