Thus the program continued, and the right to sell liquor under respectability was sold at varying prices. Mr. World and Miss Church-Member left long before the auction was ended. They paused not at the other centers where Satan’s agents were selling their worthless and death-dealing merchandize to the children of men.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE DEVIL’S HOSPITAL.
1. Miss Church-Member, suddenly attacked with heart trouble, is hurried away to the Hospital.
2. She receives the attention of Satan’s fiendish surgical operators.
3. A visit through the various wings of the Hospital and sub-offices. The horrifying work described.
The travelers of the Broad Highway pushed onward by millions, seemingly unconscious of their end. Miss Church-Member had become so well accustomed to the ways of the world that she could now adapt herself with more ease to all the exigencies of the journey.
In the midst of her favorable circumstances she was nursing the germs of an insidious disease which rendered her heart weaker and weaker. At times short, but sharp pains were felt; and more than once her hand flew to her breast in evidence of the inward struggle.
Her disease reached a climax after she had gone not far beyond the Valley of Conviction. She was walking along in a happy mood, when she suddenly felt a pang in her heart and mentioned the circumstance to Mr. World who was still her faithful companion.
“What can it be that has been giving you this trouble for so long a time?” he asked.
“I know not,” she faintly replied as she stood still and pressed both hands to her heart.