Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1903-02-05
A Man Of Mystery.
BY JOSEPH
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

pect tragedy breathing behind the
curtain. None of the ever-changing
occupants of Archer's tenement had
time to pose as the students of the
psychological. There was a ripple OF
dull excitement as the dark, set-lipped
young man from nowhere, carrying
a small trunk and a puzzling air of
refinement, was seen going conscious
ly up the common staircase; but 1t
fixed out the first time he was heard
to drop his voice when the landlords
agent called. Down on his luck, ask,
ing for a few days grace, a sympa-
thetic chord was struck at once.
After that only one person troubled
about him and his fugitive ways, and
that was Gyp, the delicate, deformed
girl in the lowest room, who vas paid
to keep the stair and landings re-
spectacle, and who was at the beck
and call Of anyone in the tenement
wanting an odd job dore cheaply.
He had the sky parlor, SO high up
that the invalid who rented it before
him had been known tn pause for
breath on the staircase 20 times. Gyp,
with the keen intelligence Of her kind,
was bound to note what a farcical
amount of furniture had b~een'carried
up, and how solemn the scent of cook
ing found it's way through the door
chinks. She knew his nam must be
Frank Meredith, because letters-a
rarity in the tenement-came fire.
quently for him. They were mostly
in long envelopes, and once or twice,
when she carried them up, she had
been struck by the twitch of his lips
as he took them and hastily closed
his door again. Strangest of all, he
was q man who could live without
work and without friends. Regularly,
at dusk, he went out for about an
hour; for the rest of the day he fol-
lowed the lead Ut the invalid and sat
alone in the quiet room. Doing
what? Heaven alone had an mixing.
Twice u week she washed the stair
case down; and She often paused over
that top landing and wrung out her
flannel half a dozen times unneces-
sarily, in hopes of hearing something.
Once he had opened his door softly
and caught her at it.
"Oh, l beg your pardon!" he whis-
pered. Fancy that language!l Il
wondered what the scrubbing noise
was"
Gyp didn't scrub that bit again.
Finally her feelings took the form Of
a vast wonder and pity; because.
with her woman's intuition, she di-
vined many little things that only a
woman would notice. He was not
mad; he was not a criminal in hid
ing-his face told that. He could
only be a man with a mystery.
One night she saw him step sharply
out as usual. AS it happened, she
was Just about to run on one Of her
own furtive errands. Gyp had no
notion of weighing impulses. She
followed him at a little distance. He
put two or three long envelopes care
fully into the pillar box and then
vanished through q doorway. 1t was
a branch of the public library, and
no place for Gyp. There were two
Anshed rooms. She yentured uncer-
tainly in. Ostensibly ~engrossed by a
medical directory, she watched
through the glass partition. He had
turned to a certain corner of a news
paper and was staring as If fasci-
mated. Just as he made to tear him
self away the lights blazed up discon-
certingly. Both noticed something
she that he was two shades whittier
than usual, and he that she had been
watching him. He ficked back the
sheets and walked out, with a pink
spot on either cheek. Again tn. i'm
pulse was open to criticism, but a
minute or so later she found herself
scanning that printed corner. Her
lips began to work-as they always
did when she read. There it was
something that helped to solve the
mystery, and at the same time thick
cned it:
If Frank Meredith will only com
municate with known addresses he
will learn that bygones + bygones
in the fullest sense. Ethel heart
broken" 4
That next morning, as she set her
pail steadily down on the top land
ing, his door clicked; he looked out.
1t made her jump. She had been
picturing the face Of ETHEL" in her
soapsuds, and her lip curled.
II hope as you didn't think '
she began, and stopped, glowing with
strange confusion. Ten to one he
had forgotten all about it.
whats that?" he asked, absently.
In her trepidation she stopped the
water all around his feet. She was
used to men who would have nailed
down her clumsiness with an oath;
but this one only stepped back.
II was going to say all along" she
stammered, IF you'd like your room
Just swept out I could do it all under
one. It's no trouble, and-and 1t must
want IT.
Under one? You're kind" lie said.
III don't know--perhaps it does. Did
you mean now?'
'Just as you like. I mean it's no
trouble" she repeated.
He threw back the door She stu
diously avoided looking pointedly
round, but she could not help seeing
something that brushed away another
slice Of the mystery-4a table in the
orner by the window covered with
writing paper. That's what he did