The Minneapolis journal., 1902-08-21
HIS HEROIC INSTINCT
By D. H. TALMADGE.

, yes. I've never seen him. He looks like me.
she writes in her letter from the hospital.
sure, hope he feels better than feel. Molly
| says I'd never know her, she's that thin and
1 white and nervous. IT'S hard time OF it
! she's had, poor girl. She says she'll brace
up all right after she once gets home to me-.
o, my! o. my! The four weeks she's been
| gone have been centuries long. And tonight
! she's comm home-with the baby-that looks
4 like me-
He clnched his hands in an effort to arouse
/ his will power and staggered on. An hour
| later he reached the roundhouse, having
| passed on the way the cottage where he
/ dwelt He had hesitated there, clinging to
| tree by the front gate.
| =" 'Tis very fortunate" he told himself,
| 'that I've not been stoppin' at home I
| couldn't stand it with Molly not there. All,
but ia give the world to go in this minute
and stretch myself on the lounge in the little
| parlor, our parlor, now!"
No one saw him enter the roundhouse.
The place was for the time deserted. He
rang the telephone, calling for the physician
whom he had visited that evening .-s=
Doctor said he, "this is Callahan. Small
pox, you know. Don't tell my wife,. Seq
Miller at the freight Office for further par
ticulars."
That was all he said to the astonished ply
sican Then he called up a friend at tho
freight Office.
Miller" said he, "this is Callahan. at the
| roundhouse. I've got the smallpox. Ny wife
and baby are comm IL on No. 4G tonight
| Open up my house. The keys over the back
! door. Meet her and lie to her a bit. VIII
! you? You will? That's a good old chap
Tell her got wire sayir' my mother was
| dyin and that I've gone to her. Molly won't
take 1t hard, because my mother was intend.
| in to come and stay with us this summer,
I've got-Ive got the smallpox, you know.
Ha. hal Be Sure-veS-all right
| He was still laughing ho,lowly as he reeled
| away from the telephone, leaving the receiver
dangling at the end of its cord, out into the
yards among the dancing switch lights.
| The next morning when a long freight train
clanked into the city hundred miles from
St. James it bore in otherwise unoccupied
boxcar the all but unconscious form of Cala-
han. A brakeman found him there. Callahan
feebly motioned the brakeman from him.
| "Smalipox!" he whispered.
I The brakeman fed. Soon the car was set
out on a side track. and physician, clad
| in rubber garments, clambered to Calahsuk
| side. 81
| Your name?' he asked.
'"Murphy,'' replied Callahan. J.
Where from?'' 1 -;
| 'tChicago." -
And that evenings papers in the city to
which Callahan had come chronicled the
| addition to the list of patients at the local
| smallpox hospital Of tramp named Murphy,
| who claimed Chicago as his home. 'r
| This happened last summer. The doctor
| has told the story to Callahan's glory q
| thousand times, and Miller of the freight
Office has told it a thousand more.
''You see," says Miller, Callahan neglected
to remove certain letters from his pockets,
and these letters led to inquiries. We knew
where he was all the time after the first day
or two. We through his plan easily
enough. And say, Of all the tall lying that's
been done since the days of Ananias that
which we practiced on Callahan's wife was
probably the tallest. We forged letters. Doc
said that the shock, had the truth been told,
might have killed her, frail and nervous as
she was. Her confidence in Callahan never
. wavered for an instant. 1t was beautiful.
! And when he returned and We met him at the
, ira inland went with him to his house. We
+ witnessed the meeting in the doorway. His
wife had the baby in her arms and a look
on her face that was-well, it was simply the
+ greatest thing 1 ever saw. And when the
, door closed and We knew that explanations
were being made Doc punched me in the ribs,
and I slapped Doc on the back, and we
danced like kids t..' .'.-' -
callahan himself modestly dismissed the
matter with wave Of the hand and tns
utterance of seven words.
- Sure, I was out of my head" he says.