The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1911-02-07
Short Stories by the Best Writers

tOftlOnS. ltearlng me enter, ne AROSE
ana faced ne. never saw greater
agony on any face. He looked from
me TO the maid and pointed to the
door. / told her TO leave us and closed
the door behind her. Then l turned
TO my visitor.
How did you get on 10 III" he asked,
his eyes starting out of his head.
"Get on TO whatT
"My making up that prescription
wrong"
"What prescription?
"That killed the man in your story"
"Killed the man in my story" / re-
peated, my eyes bullying with astonish-
ment. / had been writing of an mag
mary lunatic, and my first impression
was that / had a real one before me.
you called him Chesterton."
"Well?"
"Oh, my Cod He was Middleton.
You might as well have given the real
name as one so like IT,"
stood staring at the man for awhile,
then said to him:
NY Nbh IulhOn iht LII
excusing myself. but / have no time to
devote to cranks. 1 am putting the
finishing touches to the serial you
speak of, and the copy must be ready
this afternoon. The hero has been ex.
ecuted, the girl who loved him has
gone mad, and
/ didn't finish the sentence, for the
fellow fell in n fit true enough. ] pick
ed HIM up and laid him on the lounge.
AS soon as he quieted down a bit he
started up and began TO talk in a
hoarse whisper just as people on the
dramatic stage do when they have
something narrowing to communicate.
I'm a drug clerk. One day a pre-
scrlption came in and 1 put it up.
Hours after IL had gone out found
small vial Of deadly poison standing
on the board where / had mixed the
medicine. l had taken it up by mis-
take and put enough to kill any one
into the mixture. l darted out TO stop
the patient from taking it. A boy
rushed past me selling newspapers
and crying, Sudden death of Banker
Nidd'nt0nr That was the name Civ
en whom The medicine was called for.
Il went back to the store, told my
employer that my mother was dying
and left town within an hour. My
secret has preyed on me, but / never
dreamed it would involve another
life"
The man had given the key to the
circumstances that had convicted an
innocent man as L had concocted ii
for my novel. l saw at once that it
was fate and not / who had been writ
ing n detective story, the parts of
which fate had evolved in its way,
not mine.
In n distant town the drug clerk
had picked up n copy of our paper
containing that installment of my sto-
ry which gave my concocted key, 1t
being identical with his own act.
Later his eye met newspaper item
that the man who had poisoned Mid
dleton for his money would be exc
cuted I'm three weeks. He had come
TO me as the author of the story, sup
posing that had his secret.
In this sequel TO the product of my
brain l saw what the story itself
would not produce. / am newspaper
man, and my newspaper instincts
came TO the front.
"You come with me-" / said. "Put
yourself in the hands of our paper
and We'll give you the best outcome
to your fatal mistake one can secure
for you"
He assented, and, taking him to the
office, told the story to Heaton.
"Shake" he said, thrustlng out his
hand and grasping mine in an iron
grip. "The papers NADER
Then l. called the drug clerk in and
introduced him TO the managing editor.
Heaton give him what money he
wanted and told him to go where he
liked-leaving his address, of course
and keep his mouth shut. The next
morning out came scare heads an
nouncing that a remarkable combina-
ton detective-fiction exploit had led to
the discovery that George Barton, the
man who had been convicted Of the
murder of Banker Middleton, was in.
nocent. This set everybody agog for
the next issue
In the morning we announced that
the paper had produced a drug clerk
whose mistake had caused the poison
ing of Middleton. A hint was thrown
out that an author-detective who wrote
exclusively for the paper had built a
theory OF his own as to the cause of
Middleton's death and had written the
story with the intent Of bringing out
the real culprit.
And so 1t came about that an inno-
cent man was saved from hanging
because people like to read about such
tragedies and because l was instruc-
ed to hang an imaginary character.
But after all, did II not come about ON |
the principal of an ad.?
We got the drug clerk off with light
punishment and had Barton up in our
editorial rooms, where l was intro
duced to him as the man who had
saved him from a felon's death. He
asked me If l had really written the
story on the theory that Middleton had |
been poisoned by the mistake of n |
drug clerk. The look of noncommittal
N laa n