The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1899-04-28

ever, amused nefSt'l1 at my expense
upon several occasions. ! ate haggis
in Scotland. and some blutwurst in Ber.
lin; but. thanks to her, | listened to
Tannhauser at Bayrcuth, saw the moon
rise out of the Adratic at Venice, float
ed down the Danube from Vienna to Bu-
charest-an enchanting voyage-trav-
eled across Norway in cariole, and
skated through Holland. Finally set
tied down in London to is months hard
work as journalist.
But the tramp fever was In my veins,
and the daughters of Themis had tan
gled skcin to unravel. Thus it came to
pass that in the spring of 81 l regis
tered my name at the Acropolis hotel
of San Francisco. / had passed leisure
ly from state to state, and my small
capital had assumed microscopical pro-
portions. With the exception of half a
dozen magazine articles-some of them
not paid for-I had done no work. But
carried good letters of Introduction,
had accumulated plenty of material,
and confronted the future with a grin
upon my face.
LII hlJoAs loofNAhSo CIV oAAS wa ~
through rose-colored goggles, / sat
down to breakfast upon the morning
succeeding my arrival at the Acropolis,
and picked up the morning paper. l
was carelessly scanning it's columns,
when the following advertisement met
my eye:
'Wanted-A young, strong, healthy
man, graduate of a university preferred.
who must be an athlete, a scholar, and
gentleman. Large salary to right
man. Apply Omega, between the
hours of ten and eleven. at the Consoli-
dated savings bank"
Reading these lines. I speculated
in regard to the number Of young men
in California who would consider them
selves eligible candidates for the large
salary" and, pursuing this train OF
thought, reflected that it might be
amusing to present myself between the
hours of ten and eleven at the Consoli-
dated savings bank.
Accordingly l did so.
1t was the qualification of an absurd
whim (unless we take into considera-
ton the daughters of Themis), but it
involved me in an amazing adventure.
To my infinite surprise, the bank was
not surrounded by crowd of athletes;
and the cashier informed me, with a
silky smile, that Omega was within and
alone.
"The San Francisco YOUTH" said l.
'must be singularly modest"
admirable Crichtons," he rejoined.
'sare scarce as black tulips. Do under
stand, sir, that you are an applicant%'
Up to this moment l had not consid-
cred this very obvious question. None
the less 1 replied promptly: "Yes."
He looked me up and down. queer
smile curling his lips. Then he held
out his hand for my card.
"My name," replied lightly, "is-Al-
pha." I.
The cashier nodded pleasantly, and
| disappeared. When he returned, after
an absence of ten minutes, his smile
| was still more accentuated.
"Omega," he murmured, sis in the
| presidents private room. Kindly fol-
low me-"
| 1 obliged him, and found myself in
fating my chest and squaring my
shoulders. Upon such occasions man
wishes to cut as fine figure as pos
s.ble, and I'll confess that the enigmatic
smile of. the cashier piqued me not a
little. Feeling that'I had embarked
upon a fools errand, / followed my
| guide down a corridor and into hand
some room.
| At a large desk was a small man,
out of whose dried-up, wrinkled, pock-
marked face cleaned a remarkable
pair of eyes. The owner of these
waved me to chair. l bowed and sat
| down.
| "Mr.-"
"Alpha."
"Mr. Alpha, let me give you my
card"
Upon It was engraved a we'll
known name-Marl Gerard. has
tened to return the compliment
"Ah-Livingston. Yes, yes; son of
Hugo Livingstone"
| 81 am"
university man?"
"Yale."
San athlete?'
~ played right tackle on the foot
ball team, and / hold the amateur rec
ord for putting the shot"
The man of millions lay back in his
padded chair and half shut his eyes.
From beneath puffy lids he scrutinized
ME sharply, stroking the while an i'm
perial which sprouted sparsely upon a
pointed chin.
"And your scholarship. sirP"
II must refer you to the faculty"
He grunted approval.
"How are you fxed-financially?"
1.-TWO hundred and fifteen dollars and
thirty-fve cents makes up the sum
total of my capital"
"Ahem! and a stranger to our city.
Well, Mr.. Livingston" he chucklcd
softly. "I'll strain a point and be per-
fectly frank with you. 1t happens
that can use young man like your
self tiff he be prepared to encounter
danger-I say danger-ln my service.
Does the word danger daunt you?"
Not particularly"
I'm willing to pay the right man
$4,000 year."
"And the nature of the service, Mr..
Gerard?"
He held I'M a lean hand. "pardon me-