Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1910-10-14
Was He a Coward?
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Copyright 1910. by Associated Literary Press

oclated Literary Press
Il was the one to have leaped in
after him."
Poor boy! We should not have
come 10 the water"
With that she turned away and
commenced taking her garments down
of the hooks and folding and packing
them.
When the son could control his
voice he stepped to the telephone and
asked for his bill and ordered a ear
rage for the depot Two hours later
mother and son were on their way
home. When they talked it was not
of what had happened ON the wharf.
Don't you see he couldn't have
done anything else?" queried Or. Har
graves at lunch. when some one said
that "the coward" had departed
He passes out OF our lives, of
course"
And 1t so comes about. When the
doctor again visited the safe deposit
company he saw young Mr.. Parker
but neither bowed. Some one else
waited on the patron. People who had
met the young man socially at the
doctors residence inquired about him
in careless way, and were as care.
lessly answered. Now and then the
father wondered If the daughter had
been interested enough to care or be
disappointed, but he could not make
up his mind The affair had never
been referred to again after the first
day.
a whole year passed Father and
daaghter were again bound for the
same hotel, but this time they were
motoring a part of the way, the car
being driven by chauffeur.
In the middle of the afternoon, on
broad highway, four foreigners who
had struck work in a quarry not far
| away and were ripe for mischief,
halted the auto TO commit highway
| robbery. The chauffeur was a pol.
| troon. He could have run them down
but he halted the machine.
The doctor was not armed but he
, refused to leave the car, and struck
at the fellows who sought TO pull the
tiict could not last long, and must
| terminate in a victory for the attack.
| ers. They were pushing the advan-
| tage of numbers when a second auto
| rolled up quietly behind them and a
| young man leaped out Without any
weapons but his bare fists he sailed
into the four. They drew knives on
him. but he struck one after another
and fought fiercely and silently. The
| battle ragged up and down the road for
| five minutes, and then the used-uI
men retreated to the woods.
The doctor and his daughter had
watched 1t without word. They
knew the attacker, and they saw blood
| on his face and hands as he waved &c
them that the road was clear and
walked back TO his own machine.
1T Is MIR. Parker!" whispered Miss
| May
Hanged it 1t isn't" replied the
| father.
But folks sail he was a coward"
! I'm! l was among those who said
| so. Guess we mace a mistake some.
| where
IL hope co.,
"Eh? Eth? You hope what?"
| The words were not repeated
| A week later. at the Harbor hotel
| the doctor called his daughter into
/ his room to say.
Il wrote TO a friend Of mine in the
city and asked him to do me a favor
He had an interview with Mr.. Parkers
mother. Say, dear. while the public
has a notion that your father is a
great doctor, l want to admit to you
that he is a great fool"
why, what Is it,"
q ought to have suspected some
thing of the kind from the first. When
! Mr. Parker was a child of two his
nurse let him fall into the water. He
had close call from drowning. II
gave him a dread and a horror OF the
water and 1t will always be with him
He's no coward. He simply fears the
one thing Plenty Of cases like it.
I'm writing him a very abiect letter
this afternoon. Don't you want to in
close something? If hen be sensible
and forgive, I'll take him for a son-ln
law about a year hence Eh? Eth;
That makes you blush, doesn't Il?
believe you've been his champion right
{ al.