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Show H WITH MALICE AFORETHOUGHT M By Martha Gruening. M Johnson did not wish to livo. He had made M this perfectly clear to those about him, without, M however, impressing tliem 'with the importance M of his wishes in the matter. He came out of lih M apathy at times to marvel a little at the resolute B patience and cheerfulness with 'which they kept at H the tedious task of keeping him alive, despite his M manifest disinclination to help them. They had B always to contend with the dogged if passive re- M sistance whicli was all he could oppose to their Hj ministrations. H One night, however, when lie had become more H than usually exasperated by all this, he managed1 H to sever an artery with a 'bit of broken glass and m to lose a quantity of blood before he was discov- H erecC They rushed him to the hospital and worked H over him for hours witli all the resources at their H command. For days his life hung in the balance, H but at last he began slowly to improve and to H his disgust was pronounced -on the road to re- H covery. After that he was never left alone. They H feared that he would try it again, but fear was a H mistaken one. They had proven themselves too H strong for him. He was resigned to the care with H which they surrounded him, almost ready to ac- H cept the life which had been forced upon him. H (He scarcely resented the fact that he was con- H stantly watched. One morning, some four weeks later, when he was well enough to ibe up and about, there came to him not only the solitary watcher to whom he had grown accustomed, but others. There was the doctor, whose untiring efforts had brought him back from death that night; the priest who had given him the sacrament "when there had seemed to be no hope, and others -whom he had learnt to know well in those weeks of struggle against his fate. When he saw them, Johnson knew quite definitely that he wished to live and so he told them, but his wishes seemed to mattei as little as ever to them. They were grave and gentle with him, just as they had been when they frustrated him (before. And they were quite as patient and resolute and methodical, if less cheerful. cheer-ful. Gently and implacably, as they might have led a fractious child, they led him through the little door and to the big, clumsy chair. All the while, Johnson was 'trying to make them understand under-stand that he was ready to live, while the nightmare night-mare feeling of impotence grew and closed in on him. It seemed Incredibly absurd and horrible to him. He simply couldn't believe that these gentle, deliberate men were going to kill him, brt"ause of something that had happened in a vl one night months and months ago. fThey nod and spoke just as they had when they came iv his bedside at the hospital to ask how he was. or to know if he needed anything, and they had the same air of doing something whicli would bo good for him. The priest was praying for him while one of the others adjusted the straps. In another moment, he felt, he would ibe able to get it across to them that it was all a hideous mistake and just then one of the quiet, metho dical men threw the switch. That night the paper said. "Frank Johnson, the murderer, was executed at Wrayburn prison today. It is greatly to the credit of the prison authorities that he lived to see the electric chair. It was feared for a time that he would succeed in taking his own life, and since his last attempt he has 'been constantly guarded." The Forum. |