Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1895-12-13

me, but, alas, OF all the light sleep
ers he was the lightest ever knew !
Whenever ! moved, be appeared to
be on the alert. 1t was impossible
to crawl out of bed without bis be-
ing conscious Of the fact. Besides
under his pillow knew was the
pistol, and, in despair, ] had reluct-
antly to rest or as calm and IN
concerned as possibly could.
All wakeful ] passed that horri-
bic night, and the slow hours drag
gsdon interminably. Butat length
q project presented itself to my now
sharpened senses, which project /
put into execution when 6 o'clock
was struck.
" Failure" said / to myself,
"means simply death. Success
means saved reputation with my
employers and a VOW or strictest so
briefly"
Everything being perfectly quiet,
simulated a gradual waking up,
and my first yawn opened the eyes
Of my bedfellow. The second had
the effect Of raising him from his
recumbent position in the bed, and
when slowly and painfully awoke
he was bending over me, all solicit
tude.
Daylight was now stealing into
the room.
MY poor fellow exclaimed the
assiduous one, 'how do you feel
now? You will wonder, no doubt,
at being in my bed, but the fact is
you were i'll last night, were you
not?'
'Ill?' i said. Zip And l put
my hand mechanically to my head.
well, | think must have been.
My head does ache SOP
He smiled and replied, well, my
dear fellow, not to put too fine q
point upon it found you last night
in the gutter, just little bit the
worse for liquor, and two somewhat
disrepntable looking men who were
with You asked me if I could man
age to look after you for the night
expressed my profound thanks
to my good friend for his unselfish
kindness, but he modestly waved
them aside, saying depreciatingly:
Duty, sir, duty! l cannot neg
lect genuine case Of human suf-
fering or danger without some at
tempt, however slight. at succor.
l thanked him again.
Il am ILL.,, l said. Il had too
much brandy yesterday. / must
have hair of the dog that bit me.
| must have nip now. 1t is the
only thing which will put me right.
IL you have any brandy in the house,
for heavens sake, sir, bring me a
Drop
He hesitated a moment, then re.
joined:
Certainly. Lie there and I'll be
back with it in a moment and dis
appeared.
Much quicker than I can relate
it, sprang up, went to the bird
cage, drew the sliding tray, trans
ferred all the contents into nv
handkerchief and thence into my
coat pocket, finally replacing the
tray. Not a moment too soon was
l back between the sheets, for in an |
instant my good Samaritan arrived
with the brandy. | drank AID pro-
fessed to be much better. Idressed;
so did he. !
Would ! have breakfast? No!Il
most reluctantly asked to be ex-
cnsed, being in haste to catch the |
first train possibly could back to |
town, and pointed out to my noble |
host that either breakfast or that |
train must of necessity be given mp. |
Would he forgive me if felt COM |
PEELED to choose the train?
| searched in my trousers pocket |
for my money, gave a start of sur
prise, shrieked out: They have
robbed me. those Williams. Robbed |
me last night!' And sim ulated |
as ably as l could a most woeful |
expression of grief and despair.
My good friend sympathized deep
ly with me. He invoked maledic-
tons on the head of any one who |
could be base enough to rob an |
unfortunate stranger, and with a |
generosity well nigh unparalleled he
pressed upon me to accept, seeing / |
was penniless, as temporary loan |
80 EEaI tha .,m~. e ~ Inn.