The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1904-12-21

street lamp threw into relief the high
lights of violin and head. The face
upturned to him was thin and white
and wolfish under broad white brow.
Dark eyes cleaned at him with the
expression of a fierce animal. Across
the forehead ran long but shallow
cut from which blood dripped. The
creature clasped both arms around a
violin. He crouched there and stared
up at Thorpe. who stared down at him.
whats the matterY' asked the lat
ter finally.
The creature made no reply, but
drew his arms closer about his instru-
ment. Thorpe made sign to the I'M
known to rise.
"Come with me-" said he, land I'll
have your forehead attended to-"
The eyes cleaned into his with a
sudden savage concentration. Then
their owner obediently arose.
Thorpe now saw that the body be-
fore him was of cripple, short legged,
hunchbacked, long armed, pigeon
breasted The large head sat strangely
top heavy between even the broad
shoulders. 1t confirmed the hopeless
but sullen despair that brooded on the
white countenance.
At the hotel Thorpe, examining the
cut, found it more serious in appear
ance than in reality. With few
pieces of sticking plaster he drew its
edges together.
/ Then he attempted to interrogate his
find
what is your name?' he asked.
"Phil."
"Phil what?''
| Silence.
'How did you get hurt?"
| No reply.
'Were you playing your fiddle in one
of those housesY'
The cripple nodded slowly.
"Are you hungry" asked Thorpe,
with a sudden thoughtfulness.
EYES," replied the cripple, with a
lightning CLEAN in his wolf eyes.
Thorpe rang the bell. To the boy
who answered it he said:
Bring me half a dozen beef sand
witches and a glass Of milk, and be
quick about It,"
"Do you play the fiddle much?" con-
tinued Thorpe.
The cripple nodded again.
Lets hear what you can do"
'They cut my stringsy' cried Phil,
with a passionate wall.
The cry came from the heart, and
Thorpe was touched by it. The price
of strings was evidently a big sum-
"I'll get you more in the morning"
said he. would you like to leave Bay
City,"
| ''Yesv' cried the boy, with passion.
you would have to work. You
would have to be chore boy in lum-
Der camp and play fiddle for the men
when they wanted you to-
''I'll do it," said the cripple.
"All right; then I'll take you," re-
piled Thorpe.
The cripple said nothing nor moved
a muscle of his face, but the CLEAN of
the wolf faded to give place to the soft,
affectionate glow seen in the eyes of a
setter dog. Thorpe was startled at the
change.
A knock announced the sandwiches
and milk. The cripple fell upon them
with both hands in a sudden ecstasy
of hunger. When he had finished, he
looked again at Thorpe, and this time
there were tears in his eyes.
A little later Thorpe interviewed the
proprietor of the hotel
Il wish you'd give this boy a good
cheap room and charge his keep to
me-" said he. Hes going north with
me-"
Thorpe lay awake for some time aft
er retiring. Phil claimed share of his
thought. In an hour or so he dozed
He dreamed that the cripple had grown
to enormous proportions and was over
shadowing his life. A slight noise out
side his bedroom door brought him t.
his feet.
He opened the door and found that
in the stiffness of the night the poor
deformed creature had taken the blan
kets from his bed and had spread then
across the doorsill of the man who ha6
befriended him.