Sunday morning globe., 1901-11-10

God bless you; you have saved my
life and / shall never forget you. nor
viii She" and mounting lAe wheel he
rode noiselessly into the gloom, while
/ stood learning against the door Of
the pavilion, half dead with fright
1t seemed to me that | stood there
an hour my heart beating so that
could almost hear it though / pressed
my cold hands over my breast to
stiiie the sound. In reality it was less
than twenty minutes, when a big bell
began to boom from the prison, and
Immediately / heard the sound Of a
cannon roar out on the quiet night
the signal Of an escaped convict I
trembled like a leaf, and then my
throat filled up as / heard the town
clock strike nine, and I know that II
he had reached the train he was safe; 4;
and | prayed God, for the sake Of the
woman that loved him, that he was.
The confusion around me was tre-
mendous; and as the big searchlight
flashed from the prison tower Jim
came running through the garden, all
excitement
"Oh, Nell,' he cried, mo 67 has es-
capped; my friend, you know, and he
auded under his breath, 81 hope he gets
away"
Just then big Dennis came running
towards us with the other guards and
said, Sure this lady can tell yez that
no man has ever come over this wall;
she's been waiting here for the last
hour and a half; excuse me. nam,
but did ye see anvthin' in the shape
Of a man come over the wall?' And
in the light Of the lanterns ] looked
squarely at them and swore I had seen
no one save the guard-anu l think the
lie was forgiven.
Such a commotion as ensued OF
course that put. an end to all idea Of an
elOpment, for the whole town was up
in arms. Even the oldest inhabitant
couldn't remember when a prisoner
had escaped before This convict had
been given special privileges on ac-
count Of good behavior, one Of which
was an outside single cell during the
warm weather; and when the watch
man had gone through the yard and
locked up for the night he had in some
way forgotten to properly secure the
door Of mo. g." Most men would
have been safe enough but the athletic
training Of the big Westerner and his
superb muscular control, had enabled
him to scale the steep wall--a feat i'm
possible Of achievement by a man of
ordinary strength.
The next morning my wheel was dis.
hnT ,na a,N
the railway station, that led to the sup
uostion that he had stolen it while
l was seated in the pavilion, and Sc
my presence there was thoroughly
aired, to the infinite disgust Of my
father, who said that as / had com
promised myself with that Worth
less jim" the best thing I could do was
TO marry him, and strange to say, for
once in a lifetime l agreed with my
father.
l never shall forget that Thanksgiv
ing day! Jim and I talked 1t all over
and when 1 told him Of the part I had
played in his friends escape he went
nearly wild with delight
The circumstances Of the escaped
criminals trial and sentence were dug
up by some clever reporter, who mad,
a romantic Thanksgiving story out Of
it, and worked in a reference TO jim
and myself Cas the scheme of the pro
posed elopment had somehow leaked
out; though no one ever guessed that
/ had a hand in the escape), and a
most affecting description of the alb
sent sweetheart Of the man who had
so Unexpectedly escaped a living death
and a wave Of sympathy swept over the
whole community I'm that gladstone
holiday time, so the search was carried
on I'm a half-hearted sort of way, and
nothing was ever heard Of the missing
mo g."
Three months later Jim and I were
married. One the eve Of our wedding
a package postmarked paris with
customs paid, arrived for jim. When
we opened It, there was the old rain.
coat and in the pocket a box addressed
to me in a delicate feminine hand,
with the words, May you have the
great happiness you sent to me-" and
inside was a magnificent diamond sun
burst. In an envelope also written
across the outside in masculine chiro-
graphy, we read
"To JIM AND HIS wTFE-GoD BLESS
YOU BOTH"