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Show ' "Death' s Messenger" By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter. PUT on your shudder bumpers, fellow adventurers. Here's a yarn so weird and terrifying that you half expect old Doctor Fu Manchu himself to come walking into the picture. You might look for something of this sort to happen in Oriental fiction, fic-tion, but not to a South Boston housewife and her children in their own home. But take my word for It, boys and girls, It did happen happened to Mrs. Kathryn V. Shine of South Boston. And here she is to tell us all about it. . The Shine family had just finished their evening meal one evening last August, when the doorbell rang. Kathryn Shine opened the door and was confronted by an old man who asked her if she had any chores he might do to earn a night's lodging. And when Kathryn told him she didn't have any chores, his face took on such a pained, disappointed expression that she told him she'd see If she couldn't put him up for the night. . It Was a Queer Old Duck They Sheltered. Kathryn asked her husband about It, and he fold her to do whatever she thought best. So Kathryn asked the old man in and prepared him a hot meal, for . which he thanked her almost too profusely. After the dinner dishes were cleared away they all went into the living room to listen to the radio. The bid man, by this time, seemed to. have made himself pretty much at home. He even took off his shoes a .thing that Kathryn didn't like very much. But she said nothing for the old fellow was obviously tired. " ' As the evening wore on it developed that' the old man was something of a religious crank. He talked ramblingiy and Incoherently on religious subjects, and took especial interest In the youngest of Kathryn's seven ; children, a fair-haired little boy. ' .. The old fellow kept repeating over and over again that he was "marked for God." " ; ' In fact, he said it so often that Kathryn began to be disturbed by it, and drawing her husband aside told him to lock the man In his room when he went to bed that night. Along about 11 o'clock, Kathryn had to leave. She had a job that occupied oc-cupied her from midnight until morning, and It was time to start for it. ., , . Kathryn Gets an Unusual Scare. . As she was leaving, she picked up a card she saw lying on the kitchen table. She didn't look at it then didn't think of it until after she had arrived at the place where she worked. When she did look at it, though, she almost screamed aloud. For crudely printed on one side of the card were the words, "Messenger of Death." Back to her mind, then, came the queer old man's repeated assertion . - , , , r Crudely Printed Were the Words "Messenger of Death." that her youngest child had been marked for God. She had to get back tZaWe dlately-t0 Pr0tect her from this mad fanatic.; But how That was the question. There was no telephone In her house The street cars weren't running at that time of the night, and she had no money with which to hire a taxi.. . . e nau no The only thing left to her was to make the long journey afoot. She started out on a dead run, only slowing to a walk when she was too winded to run another step She had gone but a few blocks when more trouble arose to add itself to her already crushing burden. As she was nearin- Columhu, ruL rough-looking men In a sporty, baby blue rtrt She thought she was going to have tmnhio win, m, . sir o" M"- Kathryn still didn't like the Innb u HAD ,., she c..mBS'ta t 1 'ana "S,"' ta , This Anti-Climax Was Almost Too mm. It was just too much for Kathryn-lirst, the life of h..r L . , ger, and now to be thrown In with a mir r J. I, ahy ln flan' turn her house Into a shambles. K-mpsters who threatened to When they arrived at her home she pleaded with th. . is.rr.hr.rsrss :nr r-' t man safely In bed in his room. , . , tJl cetniiy bIs CI.lb,he oM Kathryn locked him In, and resolved ih-it .. , , until he was safely on his way Z next n'orning ' leaVe the ho1 She went outside then-told the canasters th,t was all right, and added that she honed c,T , everythlnfl for the good turn they had done her bI . .b,e.s the of stunned when she said that. Finally one of th 80rt out of one side of his mouth and saTd- " 6miled a blt ' "Lady, it's a long time since anybody asked !h , , , thanks, anyway. Maybe we'll be nee, ing , before . m eM US- Rut "And," says Kathryn, "mayoe they did tn, V 8 over" read of the holdup of a big iLde .s'an ' bu, k S'uilued 1 who got away ln a baby blue sport roadster." col,lul'tted by two men VV.VU Service |