Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1903-01-22
Short STORY
Of the DAY
A MAN OF MYSTERY.
By Joseph Reynolds.

Gyp, maybe because of her op
portunities, was the only one to sus
pect tragedy breathing behind the
curtain. None of the ever changing
occupants of Archer's tenement haL
time to pose as students of the
psychological, There was a ripple OF
dull excitement as the da k, set
iped young man from nowhere, car
rying a small trunk and a puzzling
air of refinement, was seen COINS
consciously up the common stircase;
but it fixed out the first time he was
heard to drop his voice when the
landlords agent called. Down on his
luck, asking for a few days grace
a sympathetic chord was truck al
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 was paid to keep the stair and
landings respectable, and who was at
the beck and call of any one in the
tenment wanting an odd job done
cheaply.
He had the sky parlor, SO high up
that the invalid who rented it before
him had been known to pause for
breath on the staircase twenty times.
Gyp, with the keen intelligence of
her kind, was bound to note what a
farcical amount of furniture had
been carried up, and how seldom the
scent of cooking found its way through
the door chinks. She knew his name
1etters-a rarity in the tenement
came frequently 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 a 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 followed the lead of the in
valid and sat alone in the quiet room.
Doing what? Heaven alone had an
inkling. Twice a week she washed
paused over that top landing and
Wrung out her flannel half a dozen
times unnecessarily in hopes OF
hearing something. Once he had
opened his door softly and caught her
at it.
90, beg your pardon!" he
whispered. (Fancy that language!)
l. IL, @Sr
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
OWNED many little things that only
a woman would notice. He was not
mad; he was not a criminal in
hiding-his face told that. He could
only be man with a mystery.
One night she saw him step sharp
ly 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 lac pillar box and then
vanished through a doorway. 1t was
a branch of the puLnc library, and
no place for Gyp. There were two
hushed rooms. She ventured 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 fascinat
ed. Just as he made to tear himself
away the lights blazed up dis
concertingly Both noticed some.
thlng-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
the impulse was open to criticism
but a minute or so later she found
herself scanning that printed corner
Her lips began to work-as they al
ways did when she read There it
something that helped to solve
the mystery, and at the same time
thickened it:
If Frank Meredith will only com
municate with known address he will
learn that bygones are bygones in the
fullest sense. Ethel heartbroken."
That next morning, as she set her
pail stealthily 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 had curled.
Il 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 round his feet. She was
used to men who would have nailed
down her clumsiness with an oath
but tlls one only stepped back.
Il was going to say all along" she
stammered, eff you'd like your room
just swept out l could do it all under
one. It's no trouble, and-and Il
must want it"
Under one? You're kind" he said
81 don't know-perhaps it does. Die
you mean now?'