The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1897-10-16

ing my name William Po0Ipy TO IL /
took the name of William Treakell. nv
mothers name afore her marriage.
partly because l reckoned that as Will
liam Pooley I'd had all the innings I
was going to get, while TreakeIl was
like starting on a fresh voyage, and
partly because l didn't want my name
to meet the eye of the lying party.
And now I'm a-going to tell you
what, | dare say, you'll not believe, but
if it amt true then my eyes aren't
twins. Two days after the piece had an
peared l returned to Stepney from a
cruise to Regent street. When | walks
in, Mrs. Gumble called out from her
back room, lis that you, Mr.. Pooley?"
"Pooley it is, says l. stopping at
the foot of the steps.
She comes out, and, looking hard at
me, says, There's been a party, with
a boy, inquiring arter you"
Female party?" says l.
yes. she says.
what does she want?"
"She says that her husband left her
when her child was 6 months old. He
was a seafaring man. His name was
AOolCy, says silC, lOOhluS db luc very
hard. "He didn't always used to sign
on under that name, and sometimes
shipped himself as William Treakell."
l breathed short. "It was her mothers
maiden name," said Mrs. Gumble.
What brought her to this house?''
says l, talking as if I'd just had a tooth
drawed.
she's always on the lookout for her
husband and reads the advertisements
in the papers. She saw the name of
Treakell and says you're her man. She
described you," says Mrs. Gumble, be-
ginning to talk with a sort of snarl
(there's a burned sight too much of fell
low feeling among people of Mrs. Gum
ble's sort. "She gave me your likeness
!, in words as though she talked with your
picture in her and. She says you
lodged at Mrs. Boomers, down out of
the Commercial road, and left that
house because she discovered you"
"Well?" says [.
WELL" says she, shell be here
tomorrow morning at 10 O'Clock and
hopes it'll be convenient to you to see
r her"
It'll be convenient for me to see her
in but stopped myself. The bloom
ing joke was past beyond all cusses
, "How in flames did she know" says l,
3 that l called myself TreAkell?"
'She asked if the Treakell as lodged
: here answered to the description she
gave of you. No Treakell lodges here.
E says |, but I've a party stopping in
the house as is the same as you de-
scribe. Then his names Pooley,' says
a she. 'Pooley it is, says l, the surprise
making me answer quick. Then she
D tells me you married her at Deal and
z desarted her when your infant babe was
6 months old"
+ IN not see the hedgehog" burst
out. 'She's ten stun O. lie from hat to
heel Don't let me be troubled by her
She's no wife of mine"
You won't see her, d'you say?"
Look here. Is there any letter for
me?"
Mary letter. You won't see her,
d'you say?"
Mary letter." 1 says. "It cost me 4
bob, and who the blooming blazes is
a-going to see it where they've gone
and stuck it, right amidships of a whole
smother of like notices? If they takes
yer money, why don't they find yer in
answers? Damn me if it amt worse
than picking your pocket to entice {
man into spending 4 bob and never 6
one withered reply in two days!'
$50 you won't see her, then?" sayt
Mrs. Gumble. lifting of her eyebrows
and sourly spreading of her lips till
saw the red of her false teeth at the
back of her jaw
l l just wished deep down in me tina
\ she'd been Gumble instead of his wild
y der and passed up stairs.
A went to a coffee house for breakfas
\ rarly next morning and was messing
shout all day looking after a job, bu
'ould get nothing to do, not even dow
1T the docks, though | remember think
J. .ng, when it came to my turning m,
d aye in that direction, that if l was tt
CO knock about ships for a living I'd bette
go to sea for good. There was no coun
Is try fancies in the isle of Dogs, no smell
y. of the haystaok, no scent of the milk
~ maid in the breezes there. | went bacl
" home to my lodgings in the evening
u wore out. Mrs. Gumble told me tina
70 the party had called at 10 O'Clock alonl
10 with the boy, but 1 wouldn't hear tel
70 of her and went straight to my bedroom
- and lay down OH my bed to smoke a pip
and to consider whether this sort O
seeking for a job wasn't like asking tn
" way to the work'us.
:. l lay late next morning, being, as
;! have said, wore ont. Sides, what wa
there to get up for? Of course it woul
as be the old joke over again, ways of re
fusing of a man that was the same a
is punching his Lead, loafing about all da
long, coming home and no letters an
J" wondering if drowning was as quick
1 hanging.
t: I was getting out of bed at noon
t. when comes a knock upon the dool
m and Mrs. Gumble's voice says, your
,e wanted"
"Who wants me?" says L.
"An officer of the court" she an
Q, swers.
s. l opened the door to her, and, putin
my head out, says, "What court?'
a "The police court" says she.
By "What does he want?"
ut "You come down and he'll tell you.
e. I dressed and went down stairs. Mr.
Gumble, hearing my footsteps, beckor