Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1910-10-27


til they are turned Off by a lever,
Motif thought he had set if for 5
o'clock, but he must have been dream
ing of Irene at the time and so made
a mistake, for now the clock was
whirring somewhere in the middle
OF the night in pitch darkness!
AS he grabbed for the clock he was
full of the recollection of how Irene's
mother had said the evening before
that she had a bad headache and hoped
that she could sleep it off. He also
recalled how Irenes father had said
almost boastfully that when he went
he slept well unless something woke
him up, but that if anything woke him
up he never slept another wink all
night. He was a choleric-looking
man, too. In these circumstances the
densest person can understand why
Motif made lunge for his alarm
clock. In doing so he knocked 1t off
on the floor
Something snapped metallically, but
the alarm still kept on ringing. So
Motif fell bodily upon the clock with
all the bedclothes dragging after him
and clasped it in his arms
He stumbled across the room.
switched on the light and looked for
the lever. Evidently it had been the
lever breaking off which had made the
metallic sound for now there wasn't
any lever!
Motif blinked in horror, then shook
the little clock wildly, but it steadily
continued it's chief business life. He
grabbed a shoe with the mad thought
of breaking the clock to pieces, but
he quickly realized that the assault
would only increase the noise eman-
ating from his room. Thrusting his
fingers desperately over and around
the clock, he found a small hole where
the lever had been and discovered
that by inserting niger he pressed
a spring which stopped the alarm.
Thank heaven!" Motif breathed.
1t was $3.50 by the face of the clock.
Motif, staring at 1t in growing con-
sternation, figured that he would have
to sit there holding his finger on the
spring a number Of hours. The pros
pect was not pleasant. Possibly a
match would do as well as his finger
but the room was lighted by cleo
tricity! Still tightly clutching the
clock. which clucked threateningly in
side it whenever he relaxed in the
least the pressure Of his finger.
Motif hunted up his vest The matches
he found therein were the small safe
ty kind which were useless for his
purpose.
He found buttonhook on the dress
er and the clock let out thrill peal as
he withdrew his finger and inserted
the bit of metal, which bobbed about
a bit and then fell out with clang,
letting the alarm ring forth in all its
glory. Thereupon he fell upon the
CLOCK again and put his finger UPON
the spring. He realized that he was
terribly, horribly sleepy!
Once he considered hurting the
thing from the window-but there
was an immovable screen there and
he had but one hand at liberty. He
opened bureau drawers, hoping to
find something with which to smother
the clock, but the guestroom bureau
was empty. He thrust the clock un-
der his pillow with quick jump and
tried sleeping on 1t, but 1t sounded
like huge humble bee.
Then he put his finger In the CLOCK
again and dragged It out and sat and
held his head. Birds were beginning
to cheep outside and there was
faint rustic of dawn. Suddenly 1t oc-
Cured to him to remove the extra
pillow case, throttle the clock In its
folds, thrust the bundle into his suit
case and shut the suitcase in the
closet.
Having thus disposed OF the clock
Mofit went back to bed. At any rate.
he had protected the slumbers OF
Irene's parents, which was the main
thing He never could have faced