Evening times-Republican., 1920-10-01
The Gift
Supreme
BY
George Allan England
Author of
Darkness and Dawn"
"The Alibi." etc.

|
very Grim under the electric light
HAD he carried the TRANSMISSION too
far? In the hope of saving one life,
mad he by some harsh irony of fate
destroyed another? Sylvia's condi-
Htion was grave. She lay perfectly
inert, unconscious. lowering now on
the tenebrous confines Of that SUI
! preme and august myStery that
marks the end of all existence.
With noiseless skill the nurse gath
cred the crimson stained lancets.
canulae and apparatus on a tray, and
departed in silence
Tell the young manls parents Mey
can come in now," bade Tressor, as
she reached tho door.
"Yes, sir"
and caution them particularly not
to make scene" he added sternly.
The nurse nodded comprehension,
and wfn gone.
Some few minutes later the door
opened hesitantly. Looking up, Tres
sor held the old shipmaster and his
wife, pale. agonized and pleading
Vinton's face was beaded with the
sweat OF agony; the eyes Of Martha,
reddened with much weeping. could
hardly see the doctor as he beckoned
them to advance.
Tell me--tell me-" began Eliot;
but Tressor held UP silencing hand.
"shhh!" he cautioned. The trans
fusion is over And"
You mean-?" whispered the
shipmaster, amazed and filled with
sudden, passinate hope. "You-you
found somebody after all?"
'Yes. You seer Tressor gestured
at Sylvia, white and still upon the
beds
Dazed, the old man came forward
tremblingly.
"He wiil-wi,l 90 he stammered
They both lie in the hand Of Cod"
answered Tressor. anietly.
What do you mean, Doctor?'
-s'I need not explain"
''But--if all goes as 1t should 2"
persisted the father eagerly, while
Martha clntched his arm in anguish
ed silence.
Yes, believe he will live. He will
be a long time recovering from his
wound, but I believe he will live"
THANK Cod" sobbed the mother,
and would have flung herself on her
knees at her sons bedside, but the
doctor restrained her.
F"You must be ,calm,'' commanded
he. "or shall have to asls you both
to leave the room again.
With strong effort the mother
held herself in check, For silent
moment she and the old shipmaster
stood at the foot of the bed. looking
with terrible eagernesst at their son.
Then Martha's dyes wandered to the
other bed. Her woman's heart first
understood the subIimity OF the sac
rifice first yearned toward this 9TH
er, unknown woman who had from
the brink of death called back her
only son.
"And-and she9" querfsd Martha.
almost 1naudibly. "Will she live,
too?"
II hope So believe So"
.6hc must. You can't let her dia
Who Is she, doctor? And why-why
-?'
Zone Of our nurses" answered the
physician. "As to her motives, am
not at liberty to speak.
Martha noiselessly moved to Syl-
i Was bed. The girls left hand lay
white and limp on the spread. Mar
tha bent, and. taking 1t IN both her
own, kissed 1t tenderly.
| II never thought" she whispered,
| there could be such a woman In the
world.N There aren't any like this,
in-in the world I've known! If only
Bradford could have known her, and
| land"
| She paused, fixing strange eyes on
the girls face. The father still had
sight for nothing but his son.
why" she exclaimed as Eliot,
trembling and wan. still peered down
at Bradford, why, this is Miss Pen
| nell-the nurse who was In attends
ance here! Eliot. Eliot, listen. You
blamed her for not coming back to
us with news. This is the reason!" ("
'Eh?"
The old man turned his gaze to-
ward Sylvia.
"WhaFs that yer say, Martha ?"
Suddenly his eyes grew staring.
The veins in his forehead began to
swell, His hands went out, Quentr
ingly, With tremulous, strange mo-
tions Speechless. he took step to-
ward the girl, stood there staring a
moment, then. catching at his throat
with shaking fingers. cried in a
hoarse voice.
The light, drenching down on Syl-
Was bloodless face, struck it at just
the angle whence II had been illum-
ined that other day, so long ago. as
crushed, Knocked, spurned by him
she had lain fainting on the floor Of
her little Dar1or. Tha face he now
beheld, as in q vision at this terrible
hour of grief and stress, of hope and
fear, was the same face tilat-desp1te
all his hard eynseism- had SO often
risen up before him in the past
months with white and silent accll-
sation,
The girls attitude, her paller, the
mute appeal of her abandonment to
-engulfing weakness, all were now
again the same as then, Suddenly
the old man comprehended every
thingi he grasped the magnitude OF
this supreme sacrHce-the price of
his sons life--and Dlumbed the
depths Of his own monstrous cruelty.
He knew now, with terrible clear
ness, that this woman whose name
he had dragged thru the dustheaps
of black infamy, this woman whom
he had prosecuted with unrelenting
bitterness. this woman whose blood
he had denounced as base, low, vile,
had given that same blood to bring
back life to the all but extinguished
name of Ninton.