The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1925-04-24
Breaking Their
Engagement
By c. MARRIOTT

he really wanted TO believe, there was
little doubt that he either did, or soon
would, believe that-which was the
next thing to being actually In love
with her. AT any rate, he wanted to
marry her, despite the fact that he
knew perfectly well everybody would
say that he had married her for her
money.
Nevertheless he was troubled. 1t
would not be easy to get Nellie Blair
to break their engagement, and he was
firmly resolved never to be mean
enough TO break 1t himself.
| Lets see,' he remarked to himself,
! finally. when wanted to get Nellie
to engage herself to me / did every
thing could to make her think that
was the best ever. Now that want
her to disengage herself, the obvious
thing is to show her my bad points"
Finally an idea dawned. 81 didn't
think up my good points and tell them
| to Nellie by rote," he muttered. THAT
would have been too raw. just hung
about her and when sheer circum-
stances-gave me a lead, I-er-took
advantage of it. The thing to do now
Is to hang about her and to take adj
vantage of the speeding moment to do
the other thing"
| A week later Frank Morton was
dressing to join Nellie for a walk.
Lets see," he observed. I've con-
WINGED her that / am a tight-wad; a
red-or at any rate, a pink; good
deal of fool; bore on certain sub
jects; and a bootlegger. If can brush
up one more bad point and trot it out
this afternoon, I bet she'll can me
ter and pop the question to Maud.
Gee! How love that girl"
Half an hour later Frank and Nellie
were walking down a shady street that
ended at the railway tracks perhaps
half mile away. Frank was feeling
saken him-or Nellie had been making
up her mind to stick to him. Almost
hopelessly he relapsed into silence.
Then, out. of clear sky, Nellie gave
him his chance. Intensely romantic,
she turned to something she had read
in the morning paper.
"Oh, Frank I" she exclaimed. did
| you read that wonderful story about
the girl no older than l am, who res
cued three babies from a burning
house one after the other? The last
time she came out her clothes were on
| she ho
to death if somebody hadn't run up
and wrapped a, blanket around her
and put out the fire. She's a perfect
heroine"
| Frank saw his chance and grabbed
at it. Heroine, nothing" he grunted.
''Talk to me about your heroines and
heroes! They're all bunk She didn't
go into that building after things got
really dangerous.
"Why, Frank"
"All these yarns are bunk! The
papers had story recently about a
hero that jumped off the dock and
saved a man from drowning, after a
frightful struggle, and all that.
knew that man. He makes business
of Ioafing about the docks and rescu-
ing people"
"But-"
"There's no but about it! There's
another chap that l know about He's
stopped two runaways and saved two
girls-'at the peril of his life. Bosh!
Nobody says anything about the times
he's flinched-tripped and fell just be-
fore he got to the horse-when he
didn't like its looks"
| "Frank! 1 won't listen"
"And there's another fellow" went
on Frank, unheedingly. "He was in
jewelry store when two bandits held
up him and the clerks. They backed
him into the vault and shut the door.
They didn't know that the vault was
being rebuilt and had had one of its
sides taken out. He got through the
hole, found pistol, and went back to
the store and shot the two men dead
shot 'em in the back. Didn't give
them a chance. That's the way with
these heroes; they don't take any
chances; but give 'em a sure thing
and-bingr"
Nellie Blair stopped. "Mr. Norton"
she said, quietly. "Fve been thinking
for some days that we had made
mistake; this afternoon I've become
certain of it." She slipped off her
ring and dropped it into Franks hand.
sim sorry" she said. but"
Frank frowned. "Oh, WE'LL" he said,
Sulkily: IF that's how you feel about
it"
81 do Good Heavens! Look
yonder!" Waiting no reply, Nellie
started to run down the slope toward
the railway track, now near at hand.
| Frank looked. A baby was toddling
serenely up the railway track; train
was whistling for the station.
Instantly he sprang away. He passed
| Nellie as if she were standing still.
He saw the train coming closer and
closer. He heard the singing Of the
rails. He heard Nellie scream, but
her yfoce was drowned in the roar Of
the train. The baby faced toward
him. He saw that 1t was black. In
! his desperate effort to reach the child
at that instant his foot slipped on
stone. He fell heavily across the rails,
but his outstretched arms pushed the
baby to safety.
His last thought, as he lay helpless,
was that Nellie would think that he
had purposely tried to fall short, and
had failed.
Marvellous Voice
| The English word stentorian Is de-