The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-16
r 15 Words 15c Farmer Classified Ads Phone 12OS
had to help Cecile undress and put her

had to help Cecile undress and put her to bed.
 On the floor below her father had turned again to his desk, his head 2. bowed under his arms. And total breakdown was imminent for Dexter Allison when a hand touched awk- wardly his shoulder. He looked up heavily to. meet this time the eyes of Caleb Hunter. Caleb stuttered furi- ously at first for sentimentality shamed him. Then happy thought showed the way.
 Dexter, secured few sprigs of very superior mint yesterday" He made of 1t a ceremonial. "Do you think you would-care to join me, sir ?"
 They had been friends for close to forty years not because of common tastes, but in spite of innate dissimi- larity. Dexter came to his feet He reached out and crushed the other mans hand within his soft, white fin gers. Nor was his reply quite accord ing to formula.
 T don't mind if do, Cal" he ac- cepted fervidly; "Thank God. I don't mind if I doI'
 Arm in arm they recrossed to the white columleh house. And they kept close, each to the other, throughout the hours of suspense that followed, find ing potent though unconfessed reas- surance in such companionship. Delirium came again upon the sick man who lay in the room which Miss Sarah had always kept waiting for him. Fever strode upon him, while the girl who had brought him home slept in complete exhaustion. At times Steve lay quiescent, only mutterirg ft- fully; the next moment he called crisply for Fat Joe-he feared for his bridge ! and Joe had to exert every iron muscle to hold him down. And always he spoke Barbara's name, with a poignant gentleness that left Miss Sarah on the verge of collapse. But he continued to live, through that day and the next night, even when the doctor shook his head and Fat Joe rose to go for the girl, as he had promised he would, ih the last extremity. He continued to live, and with the coming of the second dawn suddenly hei was no longer, de- 1 lirious. Stephen O'Mara opened his eyes and gazed feebly but very under l standingly into the eyes of Fat Joe. who was watching at that moment Joe tried to hush him, but he would 1 talk little.
 q know he pronounced each word with calculated effort. T have been very aick, and I must not waHts my strength. But have to be clear, first 1 on one point. Have I dreamed it, Joe, orNor did she bring me home"
 With his voice alone, when all else seemed failing, Joe had kept his friend ! alive. The doctor believed 1t; Miss !! Sarah knew it to be so. And first of !! all Joe had to voice his thankfulness, 1 for 1t was an explosive thing. f. 1 Didn't tell her sop he demanded in lis whining tenor. ~Didn't say so, 1 all along? And let that doctor worry | me, just because he's got . diploma in l . frame, hanging on his wall!' | Then he answered Steve's question. ! "she found you" he said. "she :; brought you home"
 | A long time the sick man lay and 1 pondered. And finally he found it pos l sible to smile.
 i 'T have not cared whether lived ol l died" he said in little more than 6 1 whisper ''Au along have seemed 1 to know how near I was-to going :: across, and I have been near to quit i ting-at times. Tor-I was happier thar | I'd ever dared let myself be, before and then, with the first shot that dropped Big Louie, knew"- Ht shook his head. still smiling vaguely ~I have not wanted to live, but I an l looking at things-more like mar now. You need not worry any longer Joe. I'll sleep little, while, I think 1 and then I'll put my mind hard on get ting well, when I awake"
 That marked the end of delirium l and with sleep which came almos while he was talking the fever begaf
 to abate, He put his mind on get
 ting we'll" when he awOke twelv'
 hours later. Strength was flowing il steady tide back into his body lonl
 before Barbara's knees would agaiI bear her weight. For she had squan dered her endurance without counting l the cost, and she paid the full penalty
 She lay three days and three night
 railing at her weakness before sh
 could get up at all, and even the, I Cecile, her little maid, clucked dis
 creetly at the dark circles beneath he
 eyes. 1
 Joe was several days absent on tha
 errand which had all but emptied tn
 seething town of men. He returne' l the same day Barbara was abou
 again, forced to admit that Harrigal
 and Fallon and Shayne had won cleal
 And there was nothing left to the dis
 gruntled groups which struggled in be
 hind him, save tall and heated con
 lecture Some said that they mus
 have managed to cross the border, ott
 CTS maintained that theS had foun
 sanctuary in the lumber camps of tn
 lake country to the west, but no mat I ter which guess was right the net re
 suit stood unchanged. For it is upo
 the one who runs away that the blam
 is always laid, and Archibald Wicker
 sham knew fully as well as did Gale , and Allison and Fat Joe that, withou
 Harrigan, they could not hope to toucl
 him, Harrigan had disapepared fror
 the ken of men. and Wickersham 5<