The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-10-19
Was He a Coward?
By CARL JENKINS
Copyright, 1910. by Associated Literary Press

sociated Literary Press
I a hero or a coward. If a hero, 1t ID
forgotten in a day; If a coward, not
for years, If ever.
Mr.. Parker hurried straight to the
hotel. People who saw him In his
flight looked and wondered. Mrs. Par
ker had not come out. The son burst
into her room and flung himself down
and covered his face with his hands
and wept. {
What Is it," she asked as she
stood beside him with her hand on hia
head.
"A child fell off the wharf," he an
swered after a time.
"And you were there?"
II was the one to have Ieaped In
after him" ..-.,.
Poor boy! We should not have
come to the water"
With that she turned away and
commenced taking her garments down
off 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 carr
riage 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 DR.. HarJ
graves at lunch, when some one said
that "the coward. had Departed
He passes out Of our lives, OF
course"
And it 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 thd
Doctors residence inquired about him
in a careless way, and were as carel
lessly answered. Now and then the
father wondered If the daughter had
been Interested enough to al OF, 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
daughter were again bound for the
same hotel, but this time they were
motoring a part, Of the way, the car
being driven by a 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 mischiefl
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
daughter out. Such a one-sided COM
fict could not last long, and must
terminate in a victory for the attack
ers. They were pushing the advan-I
tage of numbers when q second auto
rolled up quietly behind them and q
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 1erce)y and silently. The
battle ragged up and down the road for
five minutes, and then the used-uu
men retreated to the woods. 7,
The doctor and his daughter had
watched it without a I'd. They
knew the attacker, and they saw blood
on his face and hands as he waved to
them. that the road was clear and
walked back to his own machine.
ut Is Mr.. Parker!" whispered Miss
May. .
Hanged If 1t isn't!" replied the
father. ~
But folks said he was a coward"
"Um! I was among those who said
so. Guess we made a mistake some4
where"
Il hope col"
"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.
II wrote to q friend Of mine in that
city and asked him to do me a favor
He had an interview with Mr.. Parker'A
mother. Say, dear, while the public
mas a notion that, your father is q
great doctor, I want to admit to you
that he is a great fool" :.
why, what is it?"
II ought to have suspected some1
thing of the kind from the first. When
Mr.. Parker was a child of two hisI
nurse let him fall into the water. Hell
had a close call from drowning. I'll
gave him a dread and a horror Of thel
water, and it will always be with him.
He's no coward. He simply fears thal
n thing. Plenty of cases like it,
I'm writing him a very abject letter.
this afternoon. Don't you want to inl
close something? If he'll be sensiblei
and forgive, I'll take him for a son-in1
law about a year hence. Eth? EhH
That makes you blush, doesn't It?
believe you've been his champion right
! along!"