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Show I ' , Salving the Derelict S 1 r 1 1 i 1 By . 1 ?; I HECTOR BLAKE 1 . 5 . I ?( (Copyright. 1915, by V. G." Chapman!)' "A brand from the burning!" proclaimed pro-claimed wheezy, parsimonious Daniel l!,'i't. "I've put Hob Elston on his leet. I hope lie keeps his good resolutions reso-lutions which I ha, hum have tried o instill." uld liritt Indicated a figure going Jown the street. It was Bob Elston whom everybody in town knew for a aeer-do-well. but pitied him and liked aim. As to Daniel Britt, the knowing 3nes smiled and shrugged their shoulders. should-ers. It was true that he had given young Elston a suit of old clothes, but it was also current knowledge thai Elston in some unaccountable sprint 3f sobriety had delved and labored in the Britt garden for a full ten days, receiving half pay. Britt made great capital of his 'charity'- all that day. The next, how ever, his feathers drooped. More unsteady un-steady and ragged than ever, Bob Elston appeared on the streets of the village. He had sold his clothes and was back in his old attire He was blindly, steadfastly intoxicated. The lemon of rum had him fully in his power once more. "Did my duty, it's off my mind," commented com-mented Britt, and poor Bob as an acknowledged ac-knowledged institution of the lower type of the time proceeded to prolong pro-long his spree. It was about a week after that when Donald Pearce, a rising young lawyer 3f the town, coming down the turnpike turn-pike in his automobile, nearly ran It Was Filled With Bank Notes. jown a lurching, indifferent figure in the middle of the road. His machine ma-chine just grazed Elston and pushed him aside. "Narrow escape that, Bob," observed Pearce, in a warning, but friendly tone. "1 should think you'd about cut this drink business out." "Would," stammered Elston, "but Cm afraid of the tremens," and he shuddered. Pearce eyed him speculatively. He knew Elston as an irresponsible village vil-lage feature, he felt sorry for him and wondered mentally if it would do any good to try and sober him up. "See here, Elston," he said, "you've got too much material in you to throw it to the winds this way. Why don't you brace up?" and he tried a lot of coaxing arguments on his subject, sub-ject, but Elston was impervious to them all. He was at that stage whore the liquor lay dead in him, afraid of the "horrors," and he fell behind with a disconsolate face "Come to me if 1 can ever help you sober, though, mind you," hailed Pearce In parting, and waived his hand in a friendly, encouraging way, not noting that the movement disarranged disar-ranged something from his outside coat pocket, which fell into the road over the side of the machine. Elston, coming along, saw it, picked it up. It was a pocketbook and it was filled with bank notes For a moment mo-ment the drink-bleared eyes glowed with covetousness. Then Elston hrust it out of sight inside his coat, muttering: "No, I won't be a thief, if 1 am i drunken wreck. Pearce spoke right o me. I'll act the man," and half an ,our later he reached the office of the oung lawyer and returned the pocket-rook. "Whew," whiBlled Pearce, for the first moment aware of his loss. "There's twelve hundred dollars mortgage mort-gage money paid me by a farmer. I say! " He was petrified at the simple honesty hon-esty of this lost soul. He pulled Elston Els-ton into his private office. "Old fellow," he said gratefully, "you've got to let me repay this big act of yours The woman who keeps my office in order has a neat little home. I'm going to get you a room there. You'll have the best of care Rest for a week and let me put yo'J on your feet." "No use, I'm afraid." returned Els ton dejectedly "l can't bear to be shut up. I'm afraid of the tremens, and want to be where I can get the drink if 1 begin to see things." For a long time Pearce pleaded with the poor unfortunate. At length Elston Els-ton 'said : "I'll try it, on one condition." "And what Is that?" "You trust me." "1 guess 1 will, after your bring ing back that lost pocketbook!" "I want you to buy me a quart bottle bot-tle of whisky. I want to keep it by my side On my honor, 1 will not touch a drop of it unless 1 feel the tremens coniing on. It will help me out to know I've got It, If I reach the limit of endurance." "Done!" cried Pearce, "and 1 know you'll conquer." Elston did. At the end of a week, once, more clothed again in his right mind, he took a walk with Pearce As they reached a quiet spot he took out the bottle. Its contents were intact. He gave it a fling against a rock and it shivered into a thousand pieces. "That's the end of drink for me," he said, quietly but determinedly. Now a queer thing came about Pearce got to questioning Elston about his past. He found that his only living liv-ing relative was a sister, a milliner in a town fifty miles distant. Elston had kept away from her on account of his drinking. Pearce suggested that he go and see the sister. "I've got an uncle living in Mar-der Mar-der " he' explained. "I'll get you work there. You will be happier and 6afer near your sister." The first moment Pearce set his eyes on Dorothy Elston, the pretty milliner, with her sweet, winning ways, he fell in love with her. He got his old uncle in Harden to employ em-ploy Elston. The uncle was an eccentric eccen-tric recluse, something of a scientist and had a vast collection of curios and was a good deal of a naturalist. Two months went by. Pearce made a good many visits to Marden. He got on famously with Dorothy Elston, and her brother was keeping away from strong drink. His employer had sent him away from town on a mission of importance one evening, and Pearce stayed with his uncle that night, leaving leav-ing early in the morning before his uncle was awake. Serious news reached him in his own town before nightfall. His uncle had been robbed of a large amount of jewelry. The fact of Pearce being at the house and leaving as he did, led to gossip, and then suspicion. Elston could prove that he was absent when the old man, now turned sour and suspicious, had been robbed. The latter did not prosecute, but he ignored ig-nored his nephew and former heir after that. Elston returned to Marden greatly perturbed over the charge that affected the man who had been his best friend. All one day he prowled about the old house, trying to figure out how and why his employer was robbed. At last Elston rested suspicion upon a stranger who had come to the town the day before the robbery, and had been found intoxicated on the public streets the ensuing evening. The man was serving a thirty days sentence for the misdemeanor. One day another stranger met Elston Els-ton and scraped up an acquaintance with him. He informed Elston that the man in jail was a friend of his. "I want to get some money to bim so he can buy little necessaries," explained ex-plained the man. "You're acquainted here and you can get into the jail. Just give him the money, will you ah, yes, and this cigar." Elston assented. The mission would enable him to get closer to the prisoner. pris-oner. On the way to the Jail, however, how-ever, he happened to notice the cigar. It felt soft in the center. He suspected sus-pected something and investigated. It was to discover a note packed into small compass, and reading: "1 can't hang around here for fear of exciting suspicion. Your share of the loot is hidden in the loft of the old shed back of the house we robbed." rob-bed." Immediately Elston set the officers on the trail of the man who had given him the money and cigar. He was captured, confessed, and Pearce was restored ' to the good graces of his uncle. Donald Pearce blessed the hour he had reclaimed from the dregs the reformed re-formed derelict who saved his good name, and led to his gaining the dearest, sweetest wife in the world. If a man's credit isn't good he can easily cut down his expenses. |