The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-17
tcoutlnuea from Page 0ne.,

they looked down on other scenes like those he had witnessed.
 The Captain came out later. He had made d careful inspection of the sur roundinrs The old man had died of heart failure beyond doubt. There was nothing suspicious about his death except suddenness and that no doubt could be explained by the exami- nation of the physician. Stili the coroner would the next day hold the necessary inquest.
 Satterwhite rode home in the Police Captains buggy. 1e tried to frame up his story as he rode along. It was his first big assignment and he knew he had only gotten it by chance Stannard, the star man, was doing q performance of Mansfield at the theatre ana Ruffin the political man was tied ,ID in a big convention. The city edi- tor, by force of circumstances, had to send out the cub, but he loaded him down with a mass of suggestions ana instructions, that would cover the story, no matter in what phase 1t de- veloped. But he couldn't for hours get the vivid recollection of what he had seen out of his mind He had seen d whir1ing eddy in the stream or life, an eddy filled with sodden wreck age. rising and falling. but unpleasant from any point of view.
 It was a good story he wrote about the death of the mysterious old man Tn the saualid boarding house. He put the atmosphere of mystery in 1t and threw in some good descriptive work. The city editor was distinctly surprised at the story, but so was Satterwnite' surprised and immensely pleased too.
 The story was so good that, cub as he was. he was sent out to do the in- quest late in the afternoon. Satter- white acted as clerk for the coroner and transcribed all the testimony. There wasn't much to the case. The old man was only homeless wanderer with some folks living in Massachu- setts town. When 1t was all over he sat on the front steps in the gathering dusk waiting for his car It was warm for November Estelle and Ruther- ford sat on the steps talking. It was evidently Rutherfords wish to be out of the tcloseness of the house and into the fresh air.
 They talked about the old man and the pity of his death in the way he died. Rutherford was nervous and restless. He seemed to be free of whiskey but feverish in his need Of it. He learned that slippery" was some where about town ''panhandling" for stake.
 satterwhite rode away on the back platform of the car. He looked be- hind and saw Estelle one step below the large figure of Rutherford her el- bow on her knee, her chin in her hand' gazing intently at the pale and hand some face It was very like an at titude of devotion.
 The next day and the next day Sat terwhite had to take a turn out to the boarding house. There was still some mystery about the old mans past and antecedents. The city editor had Sat- terwhite to go out and see if the board ing house people had heard from the Massachusetts kin-people.
 On the first day the club learned that "Slippery' had taken the contract to build a board fence around man garden. Neither one of them knew anything about fence building. But what did that matter. They needed the money. The job was three days long. On the third day the cub made an unsuccessful trip to the boarding house for news from Massachusetts Estelle talked to him at the door and he saw she was nervous and wor- ried
 She came out with her trouble as he went to leave.
 "You ain't seen nothin' of Slippery an him. have you" she asked. appre- hensively. You see today was pay day with 'em. He ain't had nothin' tC drink in four days and he was tryin to quit it. He'd doin' his best to quit 1t. But they've got money today an I'm afraid he's gone wrong again. Tn jest goin' right on up town and see 'e l can't find him."
 They rode in on the same car, thu cub and the young woman on her res cue errand She was quite frank in heI interest, in her regard for the stanrg- CT who was no longer stranger to her and in whom she showed she felt a proprietary interest. It never occurred to her that there was tho slightest reason why she should con ceaI her regard or her affection, ol hold back from conferring upon hin any service within her power. Hel