Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1909-04-16
HIS DECISION.

rest of our lives.
Theodore Cook was graduated with
honor at the scientific school and en-
tered upon his profession of civil engi-
neer with high hopes. He at once
found employment as n of the sub
ordinate engineers constructing a sys-
tenn OF water supply for a great city.
A valley was being damned, reservoirs
constructed and aqueducts built.
Cook rose rapidly. He was not only
competent, but ambitious. 1t was his
determination to make his every act
count for his advancement not only in
his present position, but through bis
whole life. Before his graduation at
college he had formed the acquaint-
ance of Evelyn Knight, the daughter
of a wealthy capitalist, with whom he
contemplated marriage. She was as
pleasing to him as most of the girls of
his acquaintance, and he believed the
alliance would be of great advantage
to him. The young engineers promi-
nence among shis fellows and In his
profession caused Miss Knight to look
upon him as a desirable parti.
All this was very well, very sensible
and very desirable for both parties.
When asked by a chum If he was much
in love, Cook replied that he did not
consider an emotion a fit reason for
taking so important a step as mar
riage; that he was fond of Miss
Knight, but was a practical sort of a
fellow, and IL there was any good rea-
son why he shouldn't marry her he
would forbear.
While he was engaged on the water
system there was nothing more than a
hypothetical understanding between
him and the daughter of the capitalist.
Notwithstanding his practical nature
he came very near doing what he
would have considered a very imprac-
tical thing. A telephone system was In
operation from one end of the water
system to the other, and he was
thrown of his balance by n of its
'shello girls" Madeleine Travers pos
sessed only a fine name. She was not
pretty nor stylish nor carefully dress
ed. She had a pair of large black eyes
and an intellectual face, on which was
blhbIDCA bOllCihih6WNaA ~ liz
or what you will-that impressed itself
very sensibly on Cook. Since the CEN
trail office of the telephone and that of
the engineers were In the same build
ing he saw more or less of her. There
was a sterling worth In her that show
ed itself Notwithstanding her common
place vocation that attracted Cook to
her. The girl was equally attracted to
Cook.
One evening after a conversation
with her on other subjects than practt-
Scaf topics Cook went TO his room
tempted to yield to an emotion and
ask Miss Travers to fight the battle of
life with him. Indeed, SO moved was
he that he walked the ioor all night
celebrating between her and Miss
Knight. The result was In favor Of
Miss Knight. He wrote her a PROPOSE
ton, and as soon as the work on
which he was engaged was finished he
married her.
Cooks next professional engagement
was as chief engineer on a work own
ed principally by his capitalist father
in-law. This was a step upward, but
he paid a large price for 1t. In this
age of the big fish eating up the little
fish how could he fail to be absorbed
by the Knight family? He was so abb
sorbed. When his second work was
finished the next offered was located
several thousand miles away The
Knight family would not consent to
his accepting 1t. Instead they took him
to Europe.
The rest of his life was a miserable
failure. Within a few years of his
marriage his wife inherited a large
fortune and used 1t to make her hus-
band feel uncomfortable. He could not
get away from 1t, and he could not
master 1t. 1t swallowed him.
One morning after a "scrap" with
his wife he took up n paper and saw
large headlines announcing that the
dam of the water system on which he
had found his first employment had
given way in the night, the water had
swept down the valley, and many peo-
pie had been borne away In their sleep
to an awful death.
But far above the siekening details,
like a bell ringing soft and melodious
above a storm, was an act of heroic
sacrifice. A telephone girl while en-
gagged at her duties got word of the
breaking of the dam. She was in the
path of the food and not so far below
its advance wave, swallowing trees,
houses. cattle, human beings, but that
1t must Don engulf her. That brief
period she spent in calling up such
families as she was connected with by
wire and was still calling the oft re-
peated words, 1.-THE dam has broken;
the flood is coming" when 1t dashed
against the house she was In, leaped
over 1t. and she was whirled away.
That telephone girl was Madeline
Travers.
Cook was still sitting. with the paper