The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1900-06-02
The Second Chapter
By Frederick J. Burnett.

Michigan Central, were just click.
ing over the last switch out of Kala-
mazoo. as l leaned back in the corner
of the smoking o to enjoy my after
dinner cigar and mediate upon the
ease and comfort of my journey across
the state, and the sharp contrast it
presented to the jo~urneyings of Mar
.guette and Cadillac.
The only other occupant of the
room. a slight nan with a sandy mus
tache. sat close to the window, using
the last CLEANS of daylight to read
something that appeared to interest
him greatly in one of the small maya
zines.
After a little he closed his magazine
and looked out of the window; then,
turning to me. said:
Il wish people who write stories
wouldn't stop in the middle of 'em, as
if the first half was all a person would
want to know"
another of THE Lady of the Tiger
brandt" / asked.
Not this time; one of those yarns
-aDottt a III ~ - NN"S 'fA'
ing some hidden treasure hat makes
him a regular Croesus. This is the
third I've read in a couple of days. and
they all stop at the find.
"Now. / want to know the whole bust
ness: how he turned his diamonds into
.ducats; how he felt dropping from his
old ways into new ones: if he had any
trouble proving the right to his find. If
it was something hat had belonged to
some one else at some time or other, or
on land that wasn't his. seems to me
there'd be somebody trying to claim it.
I want to know how he worked it to
hang on to what he found"
Some one had been at the washstand
while he was speaking. and as he con-
-cluded Il tall, slender man appeared at
the door.
"If you will have a fresh cigar with
me. and would care to hear it, T will
tell you a story Of that kind. for the
truth of which | can vouch. and give
YOU the second chapter. too: though
in this ease it was ducats and not dia-
EonGs.
Il once knew a young man who was
n clerk in Il coal office in Omaha. He
didn't get a very large salary. but. as he
was the only. clerk. and had to give
more or less time and attention to af-
fairs that were personal 10 the two
members of the firm and not connected
with the coal business. he was kept
pretty busy, and pretty closely tied to
the Office.
"He was an ambitious chap. and
something of n dreamer besides. end
each of these characteristics made him
a biz dissatisfied with his lot. Econo-
mize as he might. he would save but
little. In the three years since he came
from the eastern village that couldn't
even offer him what he was getting
now. he hadn't been able to accumulate
500.
lone Sunday afternoon this man
tramPed from Omaha TO Florence. Il
little town just north. and was am
bling about among the hills that sur
round it. Walking was his principal
r~ecreation; it was cheap and he en-
joyed it.
HE had wandered away from roads
and paths into a wood that was tan
gled with vines and underbrush. II
was September. and warm. and when
he came out into the open. being hot
and tired, he threw himself down under
a walnut tree to rest.
Before him was n little glade which
the woods bordered on all sides; part
of it was covered with a ragged growth
of Indian corn and part was planted
with miIiet; besides this there was
nothing TO show that Il human being
had been there before. The ragged,
poorly tended corn suggested to him an
aboriginal maize field. and it seemed
to him as if The spirits of Mondamin
and Hiawatha brooded over that peace
full little valley.
And he lay there thinking of the red
men and maidens who used to dwell
the hills over which he had just
been wandering. and who perhaps had
planted maize in that very spot, from
ND in the woods behind him came he
tap, tap. tap of a woodpecker. which
was answered by another tap, tap. tap
from the woods on the other side. He
knew the taps TO be woodpecker rap
pings. but it seemed as if they were
Indian signals. / told you he was a
dreamer.
Presently a walnut fell from the tree
above him and rolled into a little gully
that the water coming down the hill
behind him had washed nearby. He
followed it with his eyes, and where it
stopped, noticed what looked like a bit
dirty canvas sticking out of the
ground. Not a little scrap, but appar-