Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-20

knocked the doll-head bolt Of the grip a
with the heel OF riding boot.
THAT'S settled" he said, as he shook tn
sweat off his hands, "These little precau
tions will at least give you time to turn
You have too much sympathy with gun
room accidents"
And as he rose from his knees the thick
muf1ed voice of Hummil cried in the door
way, "You fool r.
Such tones they use to speak in the lucl'
intervals OF delirium to their friends littl
before they die.
Spurstow jumped with sheer fright
Hummil stood in the doorway with helpless
laughter.
"That's awf'ly good of you, I'm sure,
he said. very slowly, feeling for his words
81 don't intend to 60 out by my own hant
at present. say, Spurstow, that stuff won
work. What shall do? What shall do?'
And panic terror stood in his eyes.
"Lie down and give it a chance. Lii
down at once"
81 daren't. 1t will only take me hal
way again, and shan't be able to get away
this time. Do you know it was all coulc
do to come out just now? Generally an
as quick as lightning, but you had cloggec
| my feet. was nearly caught"
"Oh, yes, I understand. Go and lii
down.
mo. it isn't delirium, but it was an aw
fully mean trick to play on me. Do you
know I might have died?"
SLEEP AT LAST
As a sponge rubs slate clean, so some
power unknown to Spurstow had wiped out
Hummil's face all that stamped it for the
face of man, and he stood at the doorway
in the expression of his lost innocence. He
had slept back into terrified childhood.
"Is he going to die on the spot?" thought
Spurstow. Then aloud: Cali right, my son.
Come back to bed and tell me all about it.
You couldn't sleep, but what was all the
rest of the nonsense"
GA place-a place down therep' said
Hummil, with simple sincerity. The drug
was acting on him by waves, and he was
flung from the fear of strong man to the
fright OF child as his nerves gathered sense
or were dulled.
"Good Godl I've been afraid of it for
months past, Spurstow. 1t has made every
| night hell to me, and yet I'm not conscious
of having done anything wrong"
''Be still and I'll give you another dose.
Well stop your nightmares, you unutter-
able idiotP"
'Yes; but you must give me so much that
1 can't get away, You must make me quite
sleepy-nOt just little sleepy. It's SO hard
to run then.
"I know it; know it. I've felt if myself.
The symptoms are exactly as you describe. I"
ooh, don't laugh at me, confound you'll
Before this awful sleeplessness came to me
I've tried to rest on my elbow and put q
spur in the bed to sting me when tell back.
Lookp'
"By Jove! the man has been rowelled like
a horse! Ridden by the nightmare with a
vengeancel And we all thought him SEN
sible enough. Heaven send us understa nd
ingl You like to talk. don't you, old
man?"
"Yes, sometimes Not when I'm fright
ened. Then 1 want to run. Don't you?''
"Always. Before 1 give you your second
dose try and tell me exactly what your
trouble is"
HummiI spoke in broken whispers for
nearly ten minutes, while Spurstow looked
into the pupils of his eyes and passed his
hands before them once or twice.
At the end of the narrative the silver
cigarette case was produced, and the last
words that Hummil said as he lell back for
the second time were, "Put me quite to
sleep, for if I'm caught die-I dieP'
eyes, yes; we all do that sooner or later
thank Heaven who has set a term to our
miseries," said Spurstow, settling the
cushions under the head. SIT occurs to me
that unless drink something shall go out
before my time. I've stopped sweating, and
1 wear a 17-inch collar" And he brewed
himself scalding hot tea, which is an ex-
cellent remedy against heat apoplexy if you
take three or four cups OF it in time. Then
he watched the sleeper.
GA blind face that cries and can't wipe its
eyes. H'mi Decidedly Hummil ought to 60
on leave as soon as possible, and sane or
otherwise, he undoubtedly did rowel him.
self most cruelty. Well. Heaven send us
Understandings
IMPROVEMENT.
At midday Hummil rose with an evil taste
in his mouth, but an unclouded eye and a
joyful heart.
81 was pretty bad last night. wasn't n"
said he.
81 have seen healthier men. You must
have had a touch of the sun. Look here:
if write you a swinging medical certif-
cate will you apply for leave on the spot?"
"No,"
"Why not? You want it."
"Yes, but can hold on till the weather's
a little cooler'
"Why should you, if you can get relieved
on the spot?''
:'Burkett is the only man who could be
sent, and he's born fool"
"Oh, never mind about the line. You
aren't SO important as all that. Wire for
leave, if necessary"
Hummil looked verv uncomfortable.
81 can hold on till the rains," he said,
evasively.
"You can't. Wire to headquarters for
Burkett."
Il won't. II you want to know why par
ticularly, Burkett is married. and has a
child, and his wife's up at Simla, in the
cool, and Burkett has very nice billet that
takes him into Simla from Saturday to
Monday. That little woman isn't at all
we'll. If Burkett was transferred she'd try
to follow him. If she left the baby behind
she'd fret herself to death. If she came
and Burkett's one of those selfish little
beasts who are always talking about a wife's
place being with her husband-she'd die.
It's murder to bring woman here just now.
Burkett has got the physique of a rat. If
he came here he'd go out; and know she
hasn't any money, and I'm pretty sure she'd
90 out, too. I'm salted in j sort OF way, and
I'm not married. Wait till the rains, and
then Burkett can get thin down here. It'll
do him heaps of good"
"Do you mean to say that you intend to
face-what you have faced, for the next Sc
nights?"
"Oh. it won't be so bad. now you have
shown me way out of it. 1 can always
wire to you. Besides, now I've once got into
the way of sleeping, it'll be all right. Any
how, I shan't put in for leave, That's the
long and short of it."
my great Scott! I thought all that sort
of thing was dead and done with"
'Boshl You'd do the same yourself I
feel a new man, thanks to that cigarette
case. You're going over to camp now,
aren't you?"
"Yes, but I'll trv to look you up every