His Last Invention.

North Otago Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 9779, 12 January 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

His Last Invention.

Y It Failed Liko the Beet to 2 a Do Ita Work. <|

Ralph Gardon strode moodily up and down his workshop, which was littered with the odds and ends of machinery which represented the ruins of a hundred castles in the air. He was always inventing, was Gardon; always spending days and nights over the manufacture of some wonderful machine or oilier which was to revolutionize the world and make hiin famous, only to find after all his labor somo Irremediable flaw in his plan which rendered tho completion of the machine an impossibility or prevented it working. He gazed around him on the gaunt skeleton in wood and brass of past hopes and clinched his baud fiercely. "A failure! Everything in my life is a miserable failure!" he cried aloud as he paced the floor. It was not the breakdown of an ordinary invention, however, that wrung the bitter words from him, He had grown accustomed to waking In (lie morning with an idea worth millions in his head and going to bed at night with the knowledge that it was not worth a million match slicks and had beconiQ quite philosophical over the failure of his plans for money making, But tills time it was a different arrangement that had broken down, an arrangement .by which the inventor hoped to make himself a home and children, and the mainspring, in tho shape of Deborah Dene, the woman lie loved, had failed him. Iu his clinched hand he held the letter she had sent him abruptly announcing that she wished to break off their engagement. There was a revolver lying on tho inventor's bench which had thrice had its bright barrel pointed toward hi's forehead, but three times the man's purpose had failed him at tho decisive moment. The fact of his cowardice added to j , the man's irritation against himself. "I fail in everything that would make life worth living and cannot even kill myself," he went 011 In his despairing soliloquy. "Must everything I try < prove a failure!" f He'took up the revolver ouce more ] Willi sudden determination and, hold- l ing the barrel between ids teeth, pulled I the trigger. There was a click, but I nothing more. lie had forgotten, after f all, to load the thing. 1 lie lintl failed once more to kill him- n self, and the nervous shock he had ex- I perienccd had made it impossible for ( ] him to repeat the attempt. 1-Ie musfc c think of something, he told himself, l which would make the last act easier y for him. He was determined on sui- ]] cide and had committed himself by in- t< forming Deborah of his intentions! but c when tho single movement of a finger was In a moment to make all the c. difference between life and death his tl physical courage dpserted him and his 0 linger became powerless. He must si prepare some plau for killing himself 'I n which the exact moment of his ii leath would be decided by chance or ei he action of machinery. . e i

! The idea pleased him by suggesting the need of Invention, a need which his mind was always ready to meet, and he set himself with a melancholy pleasure to think out the details of a killing machine whicii should fulfill all his requirements. Denth must bo painless and instantaneous, of course, but must act at a different moment from thai at which the victim took the decisive action which would make his fate certain and unchangeable. He drew out a plan rapidly, making rough sketches of the mechnnlcal details ou the back of Deborah Dene's fatal letter. Then lie went down to his forge on the floor below and worked hard attho manufacture of the instrument he had invented. It was finished by midnight, and in a grim sort of way Ralph Gar-

dim was proud of hjs work. The invention was in the form of a dyngjnlto bomb which would explode by the Blow aqtion of an acid eating through a barrier of cement. One of

his prist failures had left him with the dynamite on his hands. It was inclosed in a carefully welded iron ease joiui. Ed strongly, so that onco the case was closed It could only be opened by the exercise of considerable force. It was connected as strongly to an iron chain

which the inventor fastened around his waist, joining the two ends with a Yale padlock. When he had locked it, he laid the key on his anvil and with a stroke of his hammer beat It out of shape. • -

i To get away from his ajivll and tools, With the chafcce they still offered Mm of changing his mind and breaking the chain round his waist, as well as to s save tM empty house from needless Ini jtiry, the inventor put on his bat and walked out Into tho country road thai ! stretched in front of his lonely dwell--1 Ing. - ■ . ■ He walked along rapidly, anxious while his determination remained firm to place as great a. distance as possible between himself and any chauce of undoing Ills handiwork. There was not a soul qljioad, of course, at sucli an hour, . anij Gardoh had no fear of injuring but himself by the. explosion {gjt he Wis expecting every, inohe

to keep it outside tiie range of the dynamite bomb round his waist. With the same thoughtfulness for others ho stopped when after about haif an hour's Walk ho caught sight Of the figlire of a woman approaching him. He was like a man with tho plague, whom It was dangerous to approach, and Ralph was about to turn precipitately and get out of the woman's way when something In her figure struck Llm as familiar, The night wa& a moonlight ono, and in the middle of the road where she was walking It was ae clear as noonday. A second glance told him that his suspicion was fight. It was Deborah Dene hurrying along the road. •In the complete surprise of seeing her In such a spot at such an hour tho thought of his invention went clear out of his head. It was due to go off at any moment now, but Ralph was so astonished that he actually forgot its existence. He hurried forward. -

"Deb," ho said, "what arc you doing here?"

For answer the girl (lung her arms round his neck and burst into tears. She had hurried as fast as tho train could bring her to him Immediately ou receiving his letter with its hlut of suicide and had walked from the nearest station, three miles farther up tho road, expecting to reach his house only in time to find him a corpse. She sobbod for five minutes ou his breast without being able to speak a word iu the relief of finding him alive. Tiie letter which lie had received and which sho was supposed to have written she had never heard of except through his reproaches. It was a forgery, no doubt, concocted by some spiteful acquaintance of ills or hers to ruin their happiness. Sho loved him with her whole heart nnd soul, sho sobbed, and could never dream of giy< Ing him up. It seemed to poor Ralph Gardon, who loved her more than his life, that the gates of paradise had opened. To find that nil the mental agony through which he had passed had beeu without cause or basis mado him feel the happiest man in the world,

It was actually not until ho clasped his sweetheart in his arms with every doubt and suspicion removed that the consequent pressure of (he bouib against his flesh reminded him how in a few minutes at most it would blow him to atoms.

» * « * * * * This story was told to me as true by it fslond of mine who kuew the interest 1 take In tho subject of suicide. Ho stopped when he had reached this point in his narrative, as If it was concluded, "And were they both killed?" I asked with interest.

"Oh, no. They were married shortly afterward. Gardon gave up trying to Invent from that night and became pretty successful when bo found liis real forte-tale writing." "But the bomb?" I asked. I was not interested In the man's subsequent career. My friend pretended to look surprised, •

"My dear fellow, you don't think a machine could possibly work when Ralph Gardon had invented and made it!"-Cliicngo News,

A&'ntmlz nt ilie Snrnnnc. The whole Saranac community wag ou the qui vive, says W. J. Stillman in The Atlantic, not. to see Emerson or Lowell, of whom they knew nothing, but Agassi!!, who had become famous lu the commonplace world through having refused not long before an offer from the emperor of the French of the keepershlp of the Jardln des Plantes and a senatorsliip if lie would come to Paris and live. Such an Incredible and disinterested love for America and science In our hemisphere had lifted Agassiz Into an elevation of popularity which was beyond all scientific or political dignity, and the selectmen of the town appointed a deputation to welcome him and his friends to the region. A reception was accorded, and they came, having taken care to provide themselves with an engraved portrait of the scientist to guard against a personation and waste of their respects. The head of the deputation, after haviug carefully compared Agassiz to tho engraving, turned gravely to his followers and said, "Yes, it's him," afii 6itiey proceeded with the satno graf% to shake hands in their order, lgnofiig all, the other luminaries.

When a Dnoliclor Pays CnltV, An unmarried man, in calling at a house whero there are a mother and daughter or nny married woman and other tfoiiien relatives, leaves one card for the host and hostess, one for the daughters and one for any guest who may be staying with them. No matter how many there may be In the family, he should leave no more than three cards. Whatever the terms on which he may stand with the brothers or other masculine members of the family, he leaves no cards for them at the tlmo of making his geriefal call on the family. Tile exception is the head of tho house, and ho leaves a card for him after he has had a eali from him or its social equivalent, an Invitation,-Leah Lahcefo'rfl in Woman's Home Compaii ion.

Of Course, i Miles—l want to purcMso a tboroughbred cow, but I don't know Low to look up the pedigree, Giles-Why don't you look in a cat tie log ?—Chicago News. An Able Defense. " Why did Josephine dismiss her suit for damages?" proved that heron into her —(Jiiioago Reoord,

ncinark.. He etraiucd her to his manly bosom "Strained ho, Meanwhile tjip olouds acrosß the moon went a-sctid.—lndianapolis Jotirual.

A Vnlnnble Bird

Friend—How wbb yonr Thanksgiving tnrkoy? Scribbler—Final Had 27 jokes about it accepted I—Brooklyn Life.

Bonnd to Tejl. \ She-gjie .pospepes ptold wealth I Tfi never yet