Show once II s sK sur K 1 ur OM OM WALTON was lonesome It ItI I J was a T Tv Eve and and he I. I tin h hn H nw w no near relatives es on earth Seeing See SIe ing lag a light In the office of his friend Doctor Barnes he sauntered In He Ill had scarcely entered when the Doctor began to o er him What had bad he be been drinking Nothing Tom declared taking It as a joke Well what had he been eating Nothing unusual Tom tried bantering bantering bantering ban ban- a little but the doctor per persisted You certainly have smelled Something something some Some- thing out of the ordinary Then Tom remembered that that morning he had received a 0 letter from froma a friend of his InIn in In India d 10 with a n pressed flower In It In III fact he Ike had the letter In his pocket and showed it to the doctor saying Yes that flower has lias a peculiar odor I 1 thought of ot It this morning But Bat how In the dickens could couill you OU tell But Dut the doctor t fP ww was as all aU business He lie e called a II e d the iV flower by a n long botanical name w while h 11 e in suppressed suppressed suppressed sup sup- pressed excitement he told Tom of Its strange death bearing odor that within four twenty hours from the time It was os Inhaled meant death A sharp pain in the heart would be the only warning The doctor slumped in his chair head bowed in his hands Tunable un unable Tun- Tun able to meet Toms Tom's stricken horror I eyes Tom staggered out into the night as though condemned to the guillotine Ills His mind refused to act Ills limbs seemed paralyzed It was as though already the li shadow hadow of death deuth was gathering gathering gathering gath gath- ering about him Only one thought registered lIe He must get to his room and bed bed before the end carne came Ills feet dragged as If chains were upon them lie felt like a man lOon in a nightmare nightmare nightmare night night- mare unable to get where he wished to go hut go-hut hut it Ita a wasn't nt a nightmare he groaned With the thou thought ht his innate courage began to as assert ert Itself He lie was no coward If Ie death drath lay lar In lu watt walt for fOI him around the coiner as fiS It were he would at least die game not game not like a sniveling coward lIe He faced about and entered a cabaret Alon Along In the gay goy throng he ho collected his wits WitH and made malle his pi plans fins lie He had money moner but no relatives lie would close his life with a n good dt deed edIll ed He lie would give ghe his money because It was Christmas time and the 1 season for tor giving gl But It must be he no mere gift lCt Sonic SOllie one inus must t receive with this I gift lCt something more than thon Its material material material mate mate- rial value GIns Gifts and Christmas brought Margaret to mind She She wa was the only person persa In the world of his own kith and kin that lie he knew of and she was only a n second or third cousin cousinso to so far fur removed that If Margaret to too ha had not been heen an fin orphan they would not have ha rt recognized the slight blood tie The They hl had l spent their Christmas together together to to- gether until this year ear But the old aunt who was Margarets Margaret's aunt not his hla had passed ay a away early In the year and at their last meet meeting Ins Margaret had holl told him her aunts aunt's last expressed wish was wall that she he should marry her aunts aunt's step stepson on who had hod been her nn tin tin- encouraged lover loyer since childhood He lie well do and was middle aged and anI Margaret had hud promised to give ghe him her hr answer on Christ Christmas milS Eve She really didn't love lon him him she confided confided con con- to Tom but the man she thought she ehe loved IO didn't pay much lII attention to her t so 80 n she Fhe would settle her heart heartt and life that Christmas Eve t That was tonight lIe He yet et had hart time perhaps to do this big Christmas lu lag ing before his life lite ended Margaret lived II and worked In n a tiny village not Dt far from the city She had no money montY except what she he he earne earned 1 Tom felt sure lorl lit It was wu the eternal pinching h and scraping that wax was Oil Influencing slicing her to make her life easier o ler In Inthe Inthe Inthe the only way that offered d. lie Ile would give he her all h he had was enough to keep her from worrying about her Immediate wants wanta for tor some tune time and save save v her from her soul loul ont and body bodi to a loveless mania marriage man Perhaps In the meantime the other chap chap might wake wate up and realize realise what a peach of ot ota ofa a girl aid Margaret Is II What an Idiot he be must be be Tom uttered d to himself not to grab crab up a girl like Margaret when he bas ball the th chance Riotous thoughts thought ran through his hi mind salad as the slow clow moving train advanced ad ad- toward the village Tillage For the time bt being lug his hie errand and not what Its outcome might be outweighed the gloom of ot the Impending doom that hung over his hll own life Ills thoughts were on another's trouble rather than thon his own He lie wondered if It per perchance she might already be married People did such lIuch things on Christmas Eve and andt It t was wall late Inte fall when he last lut talked with Ith Margaret t. With the thought came a me a tightening about the muscles of his hit heart It was wall the first warnIng warning warning warn ing Tom knew The train fairly crawled It was Willi an Ill hour hour- late Tom remembered It was always an hour hoar or so late on Christmas Christ mae mas Eve Ee It had been so every year he recalled He Tie was surprised that he hadn't thought of ot that before In Inthe Inthe Inthe the maze of his harassed brain he hoped the deadly odor would not take effect too soon He lie had too much to 0 todo todo do fir first t. t At last the he train drew In taut at the sta sta- tion There was no taxi There never neter were taxis at but other years Margaret had met him He De I I stepped ped out almost almot expecting to see her laughing a welcoming Merry Christmas at him He Ill almost felt disappointed disappointed dis dis- appointed an and again that queer little sensation about his heart recalling to him the Importance of losing no time Without reason from force of habit Tom went directly to the old house of ot Margarets Margaret's aunt The hou house e was in total darkness but Tom gave the tho old- old fashioned bell a vigorous pull pun and Its ring seemed to solemnly re-echo re on the chill wintry air not air not at nt all like a n Christmas chime came come the unsolicited thought to Tom The house was dark It might be empty empt but Tom was going to be sure Again and again he pulled down the bell Ages Agel It seemed to Tom bt before fore a light appeared and big burly Peter Kline arrayed In night apparel threw wide open the doorIs doorIs door Is some one sick lIck or dying this night that you OU raise such suh a hullabaloo at a aman's amans amans aman's amans aman's mans man's door He the lowered the lamp and peered at Tom So Its It's you Ill I'll be gol Youre You're white nil as n n R sheet What's nil cilia In you Come Corne In I Come In I He Ill fairly pushed Tom In In banging bonging the door behInd them All AU 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 u n the old fashioned ell fireplace replace Is 1 It Margaret youre you're seeking Glad Clad enough I 1 am that youve you've come to at lit last Married to me did you say Certainly not I married the Widow Stone at Thanksgiving Im I'm not the sort of ot man that wants to marry a girl who loves lo some one else ret lives liveR over o at Neighbor Lewis' Lewis Rome Some ones one's up up Peter Ieter unceremoniously ushered d Tom out Into the night Tom rom never neter knEw knew quite how bow he e got ot across across the street to tie the s' s but hut It was wal Mar Margaret aret herself who opened I the door Neither did he know how howIt It came come about abut that Margaret was In I his arms I It was later when they got their breath and sen senses el that Tom remembered rell i bored his reo real mission and the futility of the love lave he had been so slow I in n realizing ing broke upon him The stab stab tt t his hla heart beart woke L h i Im I'm m completely from his dream dram und and he poured e out lit to Margaret the tragedy that hung hun over them He lie hadn't t thought 11 0 u 11 t what Margaret would do do bat but he was entirely u un unprepared n p prep pre pre- r e- e p pared a red f for or the b burst II r s t of gay t laughter at the end of If his liU recital to to which she had listened Apparently so lO sympathetically Listen Tom and she reached for forthe forthe forthe the evening e paper I I read this just before you OU came In und and was Interested because he was your friend Doctor Barnes was this afternoon declared by prominent specialists to bo be Insane For some pome time he has hils been obsessed by the Idea that his friends as well n nIlls ag as his Ills patients for various and sundry reasons had but twenty four hours to live etc No use reading it all Tom rom That's enough nough I didn't laugh when I read rend It lt but now I feel eel 1 like shouting because it brought me you And it brought me rne you Tom r re returned returned re- re turned Inwardly rejoicing that he be hadn't allowed alloyed Fate to make a 8 coward of ot him The thought of ot what it would have Ilae meant If he hud had followed his Im m Impulse sin sin- pulse and gone to bed swept over oer him for a minute then he clasped Marga Margaret ret to him J nt It t n Merry Christmas thou though h I Ilie Ilie lie He exalted from sheer jO joy of lining ll A most merry one I Margaret laughed up at lit him II S. 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