The Bell Tone | Page 3

all the insistence of African tom-toms. Hour by hour ... the tone
becomes more penetrating. I cannot sleep, and can eat but little.
As a last resort, I destroyed my ant colony. I even went so far as to pour
boiling water on the four ant hills in my yard.
Still ... the bell tone persists. I can stand it no longer!
Perhaps if I were to dig ... again in the yard ... in the soothing earth, I
could forget....
* * * * *
(News Clipping: From Philadelphia Banner)
RADIO COMMUNICATIONS ENGINEER DEAD

Howard E. Edwards, Suicide
Philadelphia, Feb. 18. The body of Howard E. Edwards, B.S., PhD.,
Member I. R. E., eminent authority on Radio Communications, aged 56,
was found this morning in the back yard of his residence, 1427 Raines
Avenue. The body was almost completely buried in a long narrow hole
in the ground.
At first, foul-play was suspected, but later it appeared that Edwards had
dug himself into the ground and died of suffocation, as his nostrils and
mouth were filled with dirt.
Dr. P. A. Hofner, who examined the body, found no wounds, stated that
Edwards had been dead for about two days, and pronounced the death
as a clear case of suicide, the strange means employed probably due to
an unbalanced mental condition.
Elaborate radio apparatus upon which Edwards had been working had
been smashed to bits.

Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from Comet July 1941. Extensive research did
not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication
was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been
corrected without note.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bell Tone, by Edmund H.
Leftwich
*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BELL
TONE ***
***** This file should be named 22470.txt or 22470.zip ***** This
and all associated files of various formats will be found in:

http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/4/7/22470/
Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be
renamed.
Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set
forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying
and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the
PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you charge
for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you do not
charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the rules is
very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as
creation of derivative works, reports, performances and research. They
may be modified and printed and given away--you may do practically
ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is subject to
the trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.

*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE PLEASE READ
THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work (or
any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
http://gutenberg.org/license).
Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project

Gutenberg-tm electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all the
terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy all
copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. If
you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be used
on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.
See paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with
Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this
agreement and help preserve