San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-04-27
BY ALMA and PAUL ELLERBE
Illustrated by HUBERT MATTHEW

| "'S DAS"A anu Shi uuhcu duQ Irlgl
ened.
ltd never have hapuened, hone
If somebody hadn't stuck a glass
whiskey at me. In the anteroom
the lodge, when / was going in (
the medal. There was n lot of co
fusion-everybody grabbing me al
talking at once. And l was rattle
swallowed the stuff before 1 kne
what / was doing
He explained-pitifully, inadequat
ly, over and over again; making /.
sorts of promises about the futur
planning to run the farm and get
job too; filling the quiet little roo
with a Tapping of words.
| You know it'd never have happe
ed if hadn't been drunk. You kno
that, Ell, don't you? Nothing cou
have made me touch a card. Y,
know it wasn't me. but the whiske
don't your"
Yes, she said soothingly. Il kno'
Sam. Wen get along somehow"
Presently, WAS Tunck Pear
there? He passed by on his vay
town, and ] thought maybe
| 1T was Uearse got the money
Sam said bitterly, and yet with an O,
note of conceit in his voice. "Y(
don't think anybody but professio
al could have trimmed me like thu
do you?"
A hand seemed to reach down o|
of the dark and clutch her by Il
throat.
"Pro-professional what?-
THAT'S so: l never told you, Il
1! Pearse used to gamble for q II
ing. There's just two or three of |
that know it. He got into some|
well, some trouble once on account
it, and promised to quit, and wei
been keeping it dark SOS to give ii
a. chance to start over. He had
played for ten years, l guess, till !
night. OH" he added with bit
and weary usefulness; elf he'd o}
waited one night longer!"
| Long after Sam slept she lay awe
facing the knowledge that proba
if she hadn't told Pearse about
money and aroused his old dormi
instincts, he wouldn't have play
and Sam mightn't have lost.
bitter conviction seeped in that
was as much to blame as Sam "
Her mind went over and over
over it. And then fell at last to nj
| ing plans that were no plans. Thu
was nothing to plan with. She stN
ed into the cool, sweet smelling ds
ness, past Sam and the children
the little prairie house, down q vi
of hopeless, empty years. With
money, his manhood might have
vived the loss of his arm--but
without it. She saw him slipping /
untidy crippled desuetude. And
self loving him on to the end. \
| she knew that he'd always love
| Beyond that she expected moth
Her heart was full of the quietis
of despair.
But towards morning she erie
little, quietly, into the pillow,
that eased her and she slept a WI
When the first keen white
flashed at her level out of the {
she got up and pulled down
shades, so that Sam and the chile
could still sleep, and turned to
her life. The waste of it, stretc
ahead of her, on and on and on,
palled her.
She took her clothes and wa
YEARLY into the sitting room to d
She was dressing YEARLY when
sun found Sans medal where it
OH the floor and lit it to a CLEAR
light. She stood still for a long
and stared at it. Slowly it lit ur
dark places of her soul. Sam L;
had flung his life into the DO
| river on the chance-everyone
knew about it agreed that it W
| slight one-on the chance thai
could save his friends pinned in
engine cab. And then forlornly.
nificently, almost hopelessly, brl
| armed and spent and giddy with
took the chance that he could
across and stop the train. He d.
think he could; he thought it
death: but there was a chance,
he took it and jumped.
Sam never looked ahead. n
he couldn't. 1t was the same
who had drunk the whiskey whe
friends stuck it into his hand, an
all his money and lost it wheI
friends wanted him to play. Peg
| il he had been wise enough to
away from the whiskey and the q
! he'd have turned away from the
ing rivcr-all the other men did
his friends in the engine cab NJ
! have drowned and the whole
hurting passenger train from the
would have piled itself in on
| them-if Sam had been wise
was the fools sometimes, the gar
unquenchable fools who couldn't
| .Lo,l ,,-ko ua,aI auarrfhinU
She picked up Sans medal
kissed it and laid ii gently. OF
table. He was hers, not as he
have been. but as he was, and
see him through.
She finished dressing and wen
the kitchen and caught up theit
pail TO 20 out and milk the cow4
saw something sticking underit
kitchen door, as if it had been
| in from outside. 1t was long.
envelope. She picked it up. ,
| addressed to Mrs. Samuel PavH
a hand she didn't know.
She looked swiftly around
where it could have come from.
side, through the window,
object caught her eve. She pull
back door open quickly. A MAJ
walking rapidly towards the roo
got quickly into diminutive a
! bile and drove away.
She had no conscious thous
| all. She sank into chair ar
at the envelope. Things fell
/ it.; folded papers and a Httlei
One sheet of paper was signed
Pearse.- She read 1t fev'N
though the words bobbing y
down like birds feeding.
DEAR MRS. PAVITT:
| .Sam the same as saved
fifteen years ago when some
caught me cheating un at Cripfl
has noSaspoke about it becR
was willing to give me another
He is the whitest man in this
but no good at cards. l "
money to keep somebody elsf
getting it. l bought the mortE
| he Land uara n IL md here