Evening star., 1923-05-27
| HE Probationer was entered in
the training school as N. Jane
Brown.


was sitting beside him.
&c lay quite still for a moment,
Then:
'.My right leg is off," he said.
I'm afarid it's broken. But you
still have it," She smiled.
The morphia did a curious thing to
him. 1t made him create. He lay
there and invented for Jane Brown
fictitious person, who was himself.
This person. he said, was newspaper
reporter, who had been sent to report
the warehouse fire. He had got too
close, and a wall had come down on
him.
After a time he felt that she was
not as really interested as she might
have been, so he introduced love
element Mabel, suppressing her
other name. tst
Mr. Middleton.-now officially
'Twerity-two," did not see Jane
Brown again. And at last he inquir-
ed for her.
'The first day l was In here" he said
to Miss Willoughby. there was lit
tie girl here without a cap. don't
hio" iSi DeS SSSfA
her since"
Migs Willoughby reflected.
Without cap? Then it was only
one of the probationers. Probably
Jane Brown"
~ !; !: <
DY the 9Th Of April twenty-five"
- had progressed from splints to
plaster cast, which he named Eliza
beth, and a roller chair.
Rolling back toward the elevator
and the terra incognita which lay be-
yond, he saw sign which interferred
considerably with plan he had in
mind. The sign was Of tin and 1t
said:
NO private patients allowed be-
yond here"
Twenty-Five sat in his chair and
stared at it. The plaster cast
stretched out in front of him, and
was covered with a grey blanket.
Far beyond down the corridor, was
somebody in blue dress and no cap.
IT might be anybody. but again
Twenty-Five looked around. Over
all the hospital brooded an after-lun-
cheon peace.
Followed in sequence these events:
(a) twenty-five wheeled back to the
parlor, where old Mr.. Simond's cane
leaned against a table, and, while en-
gaging that gentleman in conversa-
tion. possessed himself of the cane.
(b) Wheeled back to the elevator. (c)
Drew cane from beneath blanket. (d)
cio 1r;f and
cealed both under blanket. (e) Work
ed his way back along the forbidden
territory until he came to H ward.
Jane Brown was in H ward.
II came back on purpose to see
you," said Twenty-Five. Because,
that day / came in and you looked
after me, YOU know, must have
talked a lot of nonsense"
"Morphia makes some people talk"
she said, in frightfully professional
tone. .. -.y - - -. go. =.
But" said Twenty-Five, stirring
aneasily, IT said a lot that wasn't
true.
Now that about girl named Mabel
Cor instance"
He stirred again, because, after all,
what did it matter what he had said?
And as he stirred Mr.. Simonds cane
fell out. 1t was Immediately followed
by the tin sign, which gradually sub
sided, face up. on the bare floor in a
slowly diminishing series of crashes
Jane Brown stopped and picked
them both up and placed them on
his lap. Then, very stern, she
marched out of the ward into the
corridor, and there subsided into
quiet Mysteries of mirth. Twenty
two followed her in the chair.
II should think" she suggested,
that If you slipped it behind that
rediator, no one would ever know
about it, --,--. i
Soon afterward Twenty-Five squeak
ed back to his lonely room. He was
rId of Mabel, but was still a report
er, hurt in doing his duty. He had
let this go because he saw that duty
was a sort of fetish with the Pro-
bationer.
That evening Jane Brown heard an
unmistakable shuffiing of feet in the
corridor. She knew this sound, and
it filled her with terror. 1t was the
scuffling of four pairs of feet,
carefully instructed not to keep step.
1t meant. I'm other words, a stretcher.
Jane Brown feverishly tore the
spread off the emergency bed and
drew 1t somewhat apart from it's fell
lows. Then she stood back and
waited.
Came in four officers from the
police patrol. Came in the senior
surgical inferno. Came the stretcher,
containing a quiet figure under. a
gray blanket.
In a very short time the quiet
figure was on the bed, and the senior
surgical inferno was writing in the
order book: Prepare for operation"
Jane Brown read II.
But can't" she Quavered 81
don't know how. I won't touch him.
He's-he's bloody
Then she took another look at the
he'd and she saw-Johnny Fraser.
Now Johnny had, in his small way,
played a part in the Probationer's
life such as occasionally scrubbing
porches or borrowing a half-dollar or
being suspected of stealing the eggs
from the henhouse. But that Johnny
Fraser had been a wicked, smiling
imp.
Here lay another Johnny Fraser, a
quiet one "a Johnny Of closed eyes
and slow. noisy breathing.
why, Johnny" said the Proba-
timer in strancled voice