Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-09-16
The Daily Story
An Embarrassing Mistakenly Oscar Cox =
Copyrighted. 1914, by Literary Bureau

to the call and the shaking he received
| simultaneously. He had been playing
/ right tackle with his team I'm cham
pionship game of football the day be
fore and was ready for twenty-four
! hour sleep. He had taken six or the
twenty-four when his sister entered his
room and tried to awaken him.
"Cuthbert, get upi You're wanted
| to go on an errand.
whats the matterT
| sour next door neighbor is dying.
| They want you to go for a clergyman
There was something sufficiently Inn
pressive In this to awaken Cuthbert-
! He lay for moment gathering his fac
uIties. then sprang out of bed, put on
his clothes and while passing out
| asked:
what clergyman shall go forT
"Any one Make haste"
Cuthbert Brown, now thoroughly In
possession of his faculties, hurried
along the street till he came to st.
Marks church, with the name of Da-
vid Hathaway, pastor, on a board on
| the wall. He stopped at the rectory
beside it. rang the doorbell and was
| Immediately admitted by some one
whose figure he could barely distin-
/ guish to be that of a woman, for the
| light was turned low. He was usher
ed into a parlor without an inquiry as
| to whom he wished to see or any other
question for that matter and was left
| alone in a room still. darker than the
hall.
That's queer" he remarked to him
,r,<ztex ofd and
knows that no one would call at
clergyman's house at this time of night
unless he wanted to see the parson
himself"
The maid went upstairs and in a
few moments came down again and
said that the doctor would be down
soon.
Cuthbert settled himself in an easy
chair and sat wondering what it all
meant Presently he fell asleep.
Then he dreamed that some one
shook him; that he stood upon his feet
He heard words mumbled that sound
ed like parts of the marriage service;
he felt a delicate hand ih his; some one
thrust a ring upon him and a finger
was slipped into it; he dimly saw the
figure of a woman leaving the room.
Was this a dream or a reality? He
remembered nothing more of it or how
he got out of the house. home and into
his bed. He did not awaken till noon
the next day, when the events of the
night were much blurred in his mind.
His sister awaking him, the walk to
the. rectory and his admission to the |
house he remembered with tolerable |
IL 80 =
very misty.
He called his sister, took round |
about course to find out from her what |
he had done and discovered that some |
one else had procured a minister for
the dying man. The rector of st. |
Marks church had not responded. |
There remained that singular dream
of a marriage, or whatever it might !
be, of which his sister was not sup
posed to be cognizant, and Cuthbert
said nothing to her about it. If he
had been sure that it was a dream
he might have told her of 1t, but he
had feeling that 1t was not a dream;
that while sitting in the rectory some
thing like it had happened, that some
body had been married, and he could
not divest himself of consciousness
that he had been mixed up in 1t.
That day was Sunday, and Cuthbert,
having nothing to do. thought continu-
ously of his singular experience. A
dozen times he resolved to put it out
of his mind. It would not stay out.
Then he thought that he would go to
DR.. Hathaway and ask him for an ex-
PLANTATION. But the matter seemed too
70 iyn Ash
n clergyman if he had taken part in a
when half asleep? absurd!
There is nothing so worrying as that
which needs an explanation. Cuthbert
Brown fretted over the matter for
three days: then one afternoon he called
on DR.. Hathaway. He was received
in the doctors study, and. being un-
known to the clergyman, the latter
waited for him to speak.
Doctor" he began, 81 have come to
isk''- He stopped short. He was go.
ing to ask if the doctor had married
him, but, not caring to be taken for a
unatic, he desisted. He began again:
Last Saturday night about II o'clock
came here to ask you to go to the
house of a dying man. I was left in
7our parlor by a maid and, being very
ired, fell asleep"
From the start the doctor pricked up
lis ears. When Cuthbert got this far
lie interrupted him:
$50, you are the party!'
'Partyi What party'y'
''Why the party that came instead
f the right party. What object had
'ou in stepping in between a bride
nd a groom in that despicable way?
lou have rendered yourself liable TO
riminal prosecution"
"Will you kindly tell me what have
one?"
Done! Why, you married a young
ldy who came here to marry some
ne else"
"Great Scottr'
Didn't you know what you were 90
np2''