Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1902-12-03
CHAPTER II.

|
The fruit steamer "Adelantado,"
outward bound, fell away from her
mornings; forged slowly ahead, until
| the current caught and swung her
| prov riverward; and, circling males
| tically in midstream, began't % pass the
| lights of the city as she steamed at
half speed down the river.
cambridge was on deck when the
| steamer left her berth, and, remem-
| bering the stuffy little stateroom he
| had inspected earlier in the day, was
| minded to go aft and finish his cigar in
the open air. Accordingly he found
settee on the portquarter and sat
down to watch the lights wheel past in
| orderly procession as the Adelantado
swept around the great crescent
which gives the city it's unofficial name
| While the comfortable feeling of Ella
ton, born of his unexpected bit of good
fortune, was still uppermost to lend
complacency to his reflections, he yet
| found time to be honestly sorry for
| the man from whom he had just part
! ed. Sorry, but not greatly apprehen-
| sive. He had known Griswold in New
| York, and was not unused to his So
cialistic vagaries. To be sure, his theo-
ries were incendiary and subversive of
all civilized dogma; but at bottom.
Griswold the man WAS nothing worse
than an impressionable enthusiast
who had tormented himself into fan
cied condition of utter ruthlessness by
dwelling overmuch upon the wrongs of
| others.
So cambridge thought; and he knew
his opinion was shared with frank
unanimity by all of Griswold's friends,
who agreed in calling him Utopian, al
truistic, visionary. What milder cpl
thets could be applied to man who,
with sufficient literary talent-not to
say genius-to make himself a work
ing name in the ordinary way, must
| needs run amuck and write a novel
with purpose!-a novel, moreover, in
which the purpose so overshadowed
| the story as to make the book mere
| preachment.
AS matter of course, the publishers
would have nothing to do with the
book. cambridge remembered with
considerable satisfaction that he had
prophesied it's failure, and had given
|
was in the process of writing. But
Griswold. being to the full as obstinate
as he was impressionable,h had refused
to be cOunseled, and now the conse-
4uences of his stubbornness were upon
him. He had said truly that his liter
airy gift was novelistic and nothing
else; and here he was, pennilesss and
desperate, with a dead book on his
hands, and with no chance to write
another, even if he were so minded
since one cannot write fasting.
Thus cambridge reflected, and was
sorry that Griswold's invincible pride
had kept him from accepting a friendly
stop-gap in his extremity. Yet he
smiled in spite of his sympathy. 1t
was amusing to think of Griswold,
who. as long as his slender patrimony
had lasted, had been emphatically a
man not of the people, posing as an an
archist, and up in arms against the
world. None the less, he was to be
pitied.
Poor devil! he is in the doldrums
now, and isn't quite responsible for
what he says or thinks-or for what he
thinks he thinks" said the journalist
to himself. Just the same, / wish l
had made him take that-Why, how
are you, Griffin? Where in the mis-
chief did you drop from?"
1t was the inevitable steamer ac-
quaintance who is always at hand to
prove the exceeding narrowness of the
world, and cambridge made room for
him on the settee.
II didn't drop, walked in. More
than that. kept step with you all the
way down from Chaudiere's to the
levee. You'd be dead easy game for an
amateur
"Confound you!" said cambridge.
laughing. Cant you ever forget that
you're in the shadowing business?"
"Yes; just as often and just as long
J as you can forget that you are a news
hunter"
The Swallowed one laughed again,
and they smoked in silence until the
Adelantado doubled the bend in the
river and the last outposts of the city's
lights disappeared in the blackness
Then Griffin said:
"Who was the fellow you were talk.
ing to in front of Chaudiere's? His
face is familiar enough, but / can't
place him."
i The question fell in with the report