Charlevoix county herald., 1907-08-17

been up for hours at time, nursing
his wife. His cheeks and forehead
were unnaturally hot and-his eyes
burned from loss of sleep.
Bagley strove to comfort himself
with the old saying about the length
of lane that has no turning. Per:
haps, now that his wife was to re-
cover-but his train of thought was
broken by the entrance OF customer,
an old man.
Bagley glanced at the phial handed
him. Prescription No. 1S497. Ten
drops when necessary.-Dr. Black.
He mechanically opened the I'M
wieldy scrap-book in which the orig
inal copies of prescriptions were
pasted. He rubbed his tired eyes
with his hand to enable him better to
decipher the handwriting, and COM
menced to compound the mixture.
When ready he filed and corked
the bottle, noticing that the fluid fill
ed it completely At that moment
the night clerk came in, which left
him free to go home.
AS the old man, pocketing his pur-
chase and the change, left the store,
Bagley, clothed in hat and rain coat
ready for home, paused to close up
and put away the prescription book,
which lay open near him. His head
seemed clear now, and he felt re-
lieved. He paused, his eyes suddenly
attracted to the prescription he had
just compounded.
In an instant he tasted the bitter
ness, he felt the deathly nausea, of
the man who has blundered stupidity.
grievously, disastrously. A weakness
approaching death stealthily over
came him, as with blanched cheek,
his eyes read again the ingredients Of
the deadly poison. Prescription No.
1919, so like No. 1S497, but alas!
the fatal transposition!
His instinct took the initiative,
while his consciousness strayed and,
by the time his normal vision had
returned he had turned several pages
and had commenced to compound No.
| 1S497. Yes, he would hurry after the
old gentleman, ask to see the phial,
and make the exchange surrepti-
tiously.
Tears of agonized suspense and
chagrin clouded his eyes as he hur
ried down the street in the direc-
ton taken by the aged man, whose adj
dress, he realized almost at once, was
unknown to him. But Immediately
he recalled the name on the label of
the bottle in his hand-Dr. Black
who should know the names and ad-
dresses of his patients. The detour
! to the physicians office consumed
precious minutes, perhaps the last
minutes in the life of his innocent vic
tim. Before the information for
which he so eXcitedly clamored had
been wholly impaired, Bagley was
away on the race with his destiny,
each stride of which now brought him
nearer to Cherry street.
AS he turned the last corner, an am
bulance, on it's silent tires, passed him
in the opposite direction. His heart
sank within him, he staggered so that
his shoulder was bruised by projec-
ton on a gate post. He had been
|
loss of a human life was on his
hands!
Realizing dimly, however, that
there had hardly been a sufficient
elapse Of time, since he left the store
for the death to occur and for an am
bulance to arrive, he sought and
found No. AZ, somber, three-story
brick structure. His impatiently re-
peated rings bringing no response, he
entered a basement window whose
catch proved defective, and, cropping
his way upstairs toward a light, q
beam from which struck down the
stairway. The stiffness of the house
accentuated all the dreadful possibili
ties that his imagination, aided by
circumstances of convincing sequence
had conjured up.
The light of the bedroom, into which
he stepped, blinded him for a mo
ment, but his eager glance found hin
at once the unconscious form of the
aged man, still clothed, stretched OF
the bed. Near at hand, on a small
table, stood a number of bottles con
tanning drugs. The breathing OF thu
sufferer was labored and fitful, sucl
as that of a person near to death.
Having the exchange Of phials
which he had planned, clear in hi
mind, he slipped the bottle he picked
up into his pocket, leaving, among
the others on the table, the one h,
had brought with him.
His way home led across a bridge
within a hundred yards of his home
and at the center of the arch h,
paused, prompted to hurl the siniste
phial over the parapet. An arc-lamr
high above him on its tall pedestal, Il
Illuminated the place glaringly.
Gods! His lip curled in a wolfisl
snarl of desperation, and the tinkl
Of breaking glass at his feet sounde,
an uncanny signal for the black cul