Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-07-20


Don't you dare. you she devil. Just make
up your mind to drop these new-fangIed
airs. and mighty quick. l tell you you'll
come with me cause l need you and l want
you. and 1 want you now. And I'll keep
you when once get you again. Wen hang
together. No more O. this one-sded lay
out for me. where you get all the soft and
It's me for the hard. You belong to me. Yes.
you do Just think back a bit, Nance
Olden. and remember the kind of customer
l am. If you've forgot just let
mind you that what know would put you
behind bars. my lady, and it shall. swear,
II I've got to go to the chair for it,
Tom! 1t was Tom talking that way to
me 1 couldn't bear it. 1 made rush for
the door.
He got there. too. and catching me by the
shoulder he lifted his fist.
But 1t never fell. Mag. think I could
kill man who struck me But just as l
shut my eyes and shivered away from him.
while waited for the blow. a knock came
at the door and Fred ObermulIer walked in.
Eth? Oh! Excuse me. l didn't know
there was anybody else. Nance, your face
Is CHASTITY. What's up?' he said
sharply.
Ing OF there ready to spring on him. to
dart past him, to fly out of the window
ready for anything: only waiting to know
what the thing was to be.
My senses came back to me then. The
sight OF ObeImuller, with those keen. quick
eyes beh. nd his glasses, his strong. square
chin, and the whole poise of his head and
body that makes men wait to hear what
he has to say: the knowledge that that
man was my friend. mine-Nancy Oldens
lifted me out of the mud I'd sunk back in
and put my feet again on level with his.
"Tom." l said slowly, Mr.. Obermuller is
a friend of mine. No-listen. What we've
been talking about Is settled. Don't bring
1t up again. 1t doesn't interest him and
it can't change me; 1 swear to you. 1t can't;
nothing can. I'm going to ask Mr.. ODER
muller n helm Won wi telling him in
what the scrape is. and-and I'm going to
be sure that he'll do 1t just because
he"
Because you've taken up with him. have
your Tom shouted savagely. Because
she's your
TOM cried.
"Tom-oh. yes. now I remember" Ober
muller got between us as he spoke "Your
friend up-in the country that you went to
see and couldn't. Not a very good locker.
your friend. Nance. But-farming I sup
pose. Mr-Tom? plays the deuce with ones
looks And another thing it does: 1t makes
a man forget sometimes just how to behave
in town. I'll be charmed Mr.. Tom, to
oblige a friend Of Miss Olden's; but | must
insist that he does not talk like "a
farmer
He was quite close to Tom when he fin
ished and Tom was glaring up at him.
And, Mag. didn't know which one / was
most afraid for. Don't you look at me
that way, Mag Monahan, and don't you
dare to guess anything!
If you Think grOwled Tom. that I'm
gong to let you get of with the girl, you're
mighty"
Now. I've told you not to say that. The
reason I'll do the thing she's going to ask
of me-if it's what think it isis because
this girls plucky little creature with
soul big enough to lift her out Of the muck
you probably helped her into. It's because
she's got brains, talent and a heart It's
because-well, It's because | feel like 1t,
and she deserves a friend"
You don't know what she is. 1t was
snarl from Tom. "You don't"
oh yes, do: you cur! I know what she
was, too. And 1 even know what she will
be; but that doesn't concern you
THE h 1t don't"
Obermuller turned his back on him.
was dumb and still Tom Dorgan had struck
me after all.
Obermuller asked
Get him away on a steamer-uuick. l
murmured-I couldn't look him in the face
without asking why. what his
name is
He turned to Tom. "WelI?"
Il won't go-not without her."
Because you're so fond of her eho So
fond. your first thought quitting the
country was to come here to get her in
trouble If you've been traced
"Ah! You wouldn't like that. eh?" sheer
ed Tom.
would you?"
Well. I've had my share of it And she
am otlll-l Just what would 1t
be worth to you to have me out of the
way?"
"Oh, Tom-Tom--" I cried
But Obermuller got in front of me.
1t would be worth exactly one dollar
ana seventy-five cents. L think it will
amount to about that for cab hire l guess
the cars aren't any too safe for YOU or IL
might be less 1t may amount to something
more before l get you shipped before the
mast on the first foreign bound boat. But
what more important" he added, bring
ing ms INST down with a mighty thump on
the table. you have just ten seconds to
make up your mind. At the end of that
time II. ring for the police
went down to the boat to see it sail.
Mag. at this morning. No, not to say
there 1t was to say goodbye to my old
Tommy the one l loved. Truly | did
love him, Mag, though he never cared for
me- No, he didn't. Men don't pull down
the women they love; l know that now II
Tom Dorgan had ever cared for me he
wouldn't have made thief of me. II he'd
cared, the last place on earth he'd have
come to, when he knew the detectives
would be on his track, would have been
just the first place he made for. If he'd
cared. he
But it's done. Mag. It's all over. Cheap
that's what he is, this Tom Dorgan.
Cheaply bad-a cheap bully. cheap-brained.
Remember my wishing he'd have been a
ventriloauist? Why. that man that tried to
sell me to Obermuler hasn't sense enough
to be a good scene-shifter. Oh
The firm of Dorgan & Olden is dissolved.
Mag. The retiring partner has gone into
the theatrical business. AS for Dorgan-
the the real one poor fel9w; Jolly handsome
Maggie, and was buried up there in the
prison graveyard. A hard lot for boy:
but it's not the worst thing that can hap
pen to him. He might become a man;
such man that fellow that sailed away
before the mast this morning