The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-01-24

she amt "A straight woman either. Wat
som hut l want you to take this to her
when YOU get out mean will
you"
IL sure will, Pal" replied Watson, in
the kndest tone he had ever mustered
in his life.
The boyish man looked his gratitude
out of sunken blue eyes. and for "A time
was continually moistening his lips as
If about to speak, but finally he APP
peared to give up the idea.
He will go tonight" the doctor MUIR
INJURED to Watson as he made his last
round
Hour after hour Watson, busy with
his thoughts, stayed close, lowering low
and in silence over that marked bed in
the ghostly light of the old prison loft
with scores of other beds around. once
Dick dozed off for minute He was
awakened by cold hand cropping for his.
"Good-hy," whispered hoarse voice,
"good-by'"
There was a cough. a gasp and then
a long, deep sigh which Kissed YEARLY
up from the pillow, growing fainter and
fainter. The old prison blanket on the
cot stirred lazily for "A moment and then
its sagging folds grew still.
Watson stared about him in a startled
way with a sense that something had
just brushed past him and out over the
rows of prison beds. He bent over and
looked curiously at the motionless face
on the pillow. A great change had
taken place. The wasted features had
an empty, untenanted look. His Little
Pal had gone
There can be little doubt that Wat
sons affection for the Little Pal and his
solicitude for his reform reacted upon
his own nature, at least to the extent Of
changing it with a sentimental desire to
turn straight" The shock occasioncd
by his death stimulated this desire and
while in this moral state for seven
months, sleeping and waking. Dick car
ried in his clothes the Little Pals last
message. Every time Watson turned
this envelope in his hands he says he
thought about turning straight. but
couldn't summon resolution enough to
agree with himself to do So
There was but one name upon the
envelope-Helen, with "A number and
street in a large Eastern city. The day
he came out Watson went as straight
as steam and trolleys could take him to
the number given. He recognized the
character Of the house the moment he
was inside the door. 1t was a brothel
of the higher class, known profession
ally as a wine house"
Yes said the woman who admitted
him, Helen is here; | will call her"
In response to the call a very beauti-
ful woman, in a semi-diaphanous morn
ing robe, came down the stairs.
Now, | have seen some good looking
women in my time" says Watson en-
phat!cally but | want to tell you she
was some corker!"
but | have no friend who could be
sending me message" the woman pro-
/ tested bhnkly' and rather sadly, Wat
son thought.
Think" exclaimed sWatson, pro-
ducing the letter
Except one" she admitted. land he
is-hc is away"
Yes said Watson. che is away,
farther away than you think"
The woman's face paled at the tone,
She snatched the letter eagerly from
Watson's hand and as she read II burst
into tears.
heaving bosom in that gaudy gown,
the sound Of sobbing in that garsh
room, whore the very decorations were
hm2en and unfceling. both seemed
strangely out of place. Nor was Wat
son easily moved by woman's tears of
which he had seen a plenty; yet ne
could not but own "A very genuine SYM
pathy with any one who had loved his
Little Pal. Presently, too. he found
himself regarding the woman sympa-
thetically on her own account.
! In the first place her grief was real
and unaffected; in the second. she was
SO beautiful. hut so uncoarsened, so UNI
Scared by this mode OF life. so OBJ
vously unlike 1t that he, knowing the
women of that world intimately for
twenty years, and what IL makes of
| them, felt sense Of protest aFisinst