The Jersey City news., 1903-01-23
CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER III.
Hillars hadn't been down to the Of
fee in two days, so the assistant said.
'1s he ill?" asked, as carried a
chair to the window.
"Ill?' The young man coughed af-
fectedly.
do you believe it possible for him
to come in this afternoong'
1T is quite possible. One does not
use the word impossible in regard to
Hillars. 1t is possible that he may be
in st. Petersburg by this time, for all I
know. You see," with an explanatory
wave of the hand, "he's very uncertain
in his movements. For the last six
months he has been playing all over
the table, to use the parlance of the
roulette player. l have had to do most
Of the work and take care of him into
the bargain. If I may take you into
my confidence with some hesitancy.
Certainly" said I. Il want you to
tell me all about him. He was my
roommate at college Perhaps I can
straighten him up
'"The truth is. the trouble began last
September. He came back from the
continent, where he had been on an
errand, changed man. Hillars al
ways drank, but never to an alarming
extent. On his return, however, he
was in bad shape. 1t was nearly
up, and then he went under on an
average of three times week. asked
him bluntly what he meant by it, and
he frankly replied that if he wanted
to drink himself to death that was his
business. When he isn't half seas
over, he is gloomy and morose. From
the first I knew that something had
gone wrong on the mainland, but l
couldn't trap him for farthing. No
man at his age drinks himself to death
without cause; told him SO, but he
only laughed at me. I'd give good
deal to know what the truth is; not
from curiosity, mind you, but to find
the disease in order to apply rem
edy. Dams father died of drink"
NO" said / coldly; "he was shot,"
ooh, I know that was the reply,
'.but give conditioned man the same
wound and he will recover nine times
out of ten. The elder Hillars was So
enervated by drink that he had no
strength to fight the fever which came
on top of the bullet hole Something
happened over there, and it's pounds
to pence there's woman back of the
curtain. 1t IS some one worth while.
Hillars is not man to fall in love
with a barmaid."
l began to respect the young mans
wisdom.
so you believe it to be woman?"
''Yes; the wind blows from one point
at time. There are four points to
the yane of destiny-there is ambition
for glory, ambition for power, ambition
for wealth and ambition for love. In
Hillars' case, since the wind does not
blow from the first three, it must nee
essarily blow from the fourth. You
know him better than do. so you
must certainly know that Hillars is not
a man to drink because glory or power
or wealth refused to visit HIM"
"You are a very discerning young
man." said /. whereat he laughed.
ibid he get my cable?''
mo; / thought that it was some or
der from headquarters and opened it
myself. put it in his desk. spoke
to him, but he was too drunk to pay
any heed to what said. Well, must
be going. am getting out a->sympo-
sium of editorials from the morning
papers on the possibility of a Franco
Russian alliance. 1t must be at the
cable office in half an hour. If you are
going to wait. you'll find the Berlin
and Paris files in the next room. I'll
see you later, Z and he departed.
It was 5 Of the clock. The Strand