The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1916-05-09
This is one OF The Times
Novel-a Week
series.
II will be finished In six
big installments.
{ CONTINUED From Our Last Issue. }

Everything throughout the
house was ultra-sanitary. No
shred nor thread made for dust
on the linOleum. no picture har-
bored in on the glazed paper.
Walls and floors were of the same
incorporating type upstairs and
down. Yet, when a peep was
taken through one OF the num-
bered doors above, dollhouse flow
ers bloomed in glass bowls on
glass tables, and the bedroom
ware was glass again. The very
books were bound in CLASSY vel
lum; there was pile of them
beside the bed, in which very
young man, swathed in bandages,
lay reading under the green glass
shade of an electric lamp.
The doctor expressed his sor-
row for the occurrence down
stairs; the. patient, scarcely look
ing up, said that since he could
not have moved to save his life,
he had gone on reading all the
time; and they left him at it,
That" whispered the doctor
on the landing, lis young fell
low who will one day be-well,
never mind, Until he came to me
he had never, of his own free will.
read anything but a bad novel or
newspaper: he is now deep in
the immortal work of another
weak young man who was swayed
by strength, and is himself for the
time being under Doctor John
sons salutary thumb"
What was his weakness"
"A passion for setting places on
fire. He started it as quite a
small boy; they licked it out of
him then. All his boyhood he
went in fear of the rod, and 1t
kept him straight. Only the other
day he goes up to Oxford, and
promptly sets fire to his rooms. y
Some form of atavism, l pre-
sume?"
"A very subtle case, IL | were
free to give you its whole his
tory"
Il should be even more inter-
ested in your treatment"
We'll, | needn't tell you that
he's bandaged up for burns; but
you might not guess that he has
come by this lot since I've had
him, If not almost at my hands. "
Nonsense, mani"
AT any rate, I'm responsible
for what happened, and it's going
to cure him. 1t was a case of
undisciplined imagination acting
on bonnet with just one bee in
1t. He had never realized what
hell let loose a fire really was;
now he knows through his own
skin"
The statesman's eyebrows were
like the backs of two mutually
displeased cats.
But surely that's an old wives
trick pushed beyond all bounds?"
Pushed further than / intend
ed" Mr.. Vinson, l must confess.
| only meant him to see a serious
fire. So l arranged with the bril-
gade to ring me up when there
was really bad one, and with
my man to take the boy out at
night for all his walks. There
was another good reason for that;
and altogether nothing can have
seemed more natural than the way
they both appeared on the scene
Of this CHASTITY riding school
affair"
IL know what's coming!" cried
the home secretary. This is the
fellow who dashed in to help save
the horses, and got away after
ward without giving his name!"
That's 1t. He says he'll hear
those horses till his dying hour!
Well, I can take no credit for the
very last thing l should have
dreamt of allowing; but l fancy
the odds are fairly along that
the tempting element will never,
never again tempt our young
friend upstairs!
They had drifted down again