The Garland globe. [volume] (Garland, Utah) 1906-191?, 1907-08-24

noted, with a tinge OF RELIEF, that II
lacked but few minutes or SIX
o'clock. For several nights he had
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 a customer,
an old man.
Bagley glanced at the phial handed
him. Prescription No. 1S497. Ten
drops when necessary Black
He mechanically opened the un.
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 filled and corked
the bottle, noticing that the fluid fill
ed 1t completely. At that moment
the night clerk came in, which left
him free to so 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 Numbered 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.
1S479, SO like No. 1S497. but alas!
the fatal transportation!
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 ad
dress, he realized almost at once, wa,
unknown to him. But immediatel,
he recalled the name on the label o
the bottle In his hand-Dr. Black
who should know the names and ad
dresses Of his patients. The detou
to the physicians office consumed
precious minutes, perhaps the las
minutes in the life of his innocent vic
tim. Before the information 70
which he so excitedly clamored ha
been wholly impaired, Bagley wa
away on the race with his destiny
each stride of which now brought hir
nearer to Cherry street.
AS he turned the last corner, an an
bulance, on its silent tires, passed hin
in the opposite direction. His hear
sank within him, he staggered so tina
his shoulder was bruised by proieC
ton on gate post. He had bee
too late! The responsibility for tn
loss of human life was on hi
hands!
Realizing dimly, however, tina
there had hardly been q sufiicien
elapse Of time, since he left the store
for the death to occur and for an an
bulance to arrive. he sought an,
found No. AZ, somber, three-stor
brick structure. His impatlently re-
peated rings bringing no response, h
entered basement window who's
catch proved defective. and, gropin
his way upstairs toward light,
beam from which struck down tn
stairway. The stiffness OF the hous
accentuated all the dreadful POSSIBLE
ties that his Imagination, aided b
circumstances of convincing sequenc,
had conjured up.
The light of the bedroom, into whic
he stepped, blinded him for mi
ment, but his eager glance found hiI
at once the unconscious form OF tn
aged man, still clothed. stretched o
the bed. Near at hand. on a sma
table, stood number of bottles col
tanning drugs. The breathing of tn
sufferer was labored and ftful. sue
as that OF person near to death.
Having the exchange OF phlal
which he had planned, clear In HI
mind, he slipped the bottle he pickle
up into his pocket, leaving, anon
the others on the table, the one b
had brought with him.
His way home led across a brldg
within a hundred yards OF his hom
and at the center of the arch b
paused, prompted to hurl the sinist,
phial over the parapet. An arc.lam
high above him on its tall pedestal.
Illuminated the place glaringly.
Gods His lip curled In VOLTS
snarl OF desperation, and the tink
of breaking glass at his feet sounde
an uncanny signal for the black Gu
tain of despair. For the label. whic
| had iuat mot hia uaza had haan ,,f