The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1906-10-05

hang"
Did you hand the three checks to
three different women|
"Of course l did"
"Are you sure you kept them sepa-
rate?"
"Of course-that is-that is, you
know
Eyes. l know smiled the baggage
master You handed out any old
check. and rs a consequence there is
a mix. It's up to you to do some tele-
graphing and straighten things out"
Mr. Lee spent the whole day tele-
graphing and receiving collect mes
sages from Buffalo, Rochester and Syr-
acuse, but he made little Roadway.
His messages were inquiring and pa
ciic; his collects" were vigorous and
rather threatening. At the end of the
day he decided on making a personal
trip to strai&hten out the tangle. He
could remember the trunks and their
respective owners.
His first stop was at Syracuse. He
was sure that the girl in mourning
with a humble looking trunk had had 1t
checked there. Two kilograms had
passed and he had her address. In the
course of an hour he found her. She
hadn't quite so much mourning on now
and was better looking than he had
thought. She had received the plain
woman's trunk with the broken handle.
She was a refined, ladylike girl and in
mourning for an aunt who had left her
$4,000. but yet she used language
tinged with acid. Next time she went
travelling and had to appeal to a man
for help she would make sure that he
knew enough to check his own trunk,
and so forth. and so forth. A woman
may lose her sweetheart and say moth
ing, but let her lose her trunk while
travelling and it takes years to exhaust
the subject.
AIrI4ee got away with his ears burn
ing, and yet he admired Miss Strothers.
He arranged to have the trunk sent on
to Rochester and then took the train
for that city. The plain woman was
expecting him She had the trunk all
ready to point at, but it didn't happen
to lie Miss SUothers' trunk. 1t be-
longed 10 Miss Remington, Here was
another mXup.
The bachelor drew long breath
and started to explain but was cut
short after Il minute. lie was asked to
identify himself rs an honest man; he
was asked to prove that he was not a
baggage thief; he was asked to con
vince the plain looking woman, who
looked palmer than ever in her own
house and with her anger up, that his
grandfather had never been hung for
capital crime.
AT the end of half an hour the plain
woman soften on him bit She
softened enough to say that perhaps
after all it was his first crime and that
if he hustled around and got that one
handled trunk in Rochester inside of
two hours she would not call in the
police.
Bachelor Lee longed to return to New
York and find rest ana peace, but mex
orable fate drove him on to Buffalo.
There he found Miss Remington.
Il am not going 10 blame you at all, :"
she said as she met him. 1t was all
my fault in thinking That you knew
anything about the operation of rail-
roads. You could have loaded that
trunk into IN auto and had it into the
Staten Island ferry in half an hour.
MIR. Lee proceeded TO explain, but it
was not much of an explanation. How
ever, the more he explained and the
more he failed TO explain the more he
became interested in Miss Remington
1t was matter of four days before
the big trunk, the little trunk and the
one handled trunk reached their re-
spective owners.
The chapter was closed then and
there with the plain looking woman.
but not so with one of the others. Ever
since that date. and particularly during
the last three months, the bachelor
club man has found it necessary to go
up the road to talk trunk business. and
he finds that the most effective way to
remind Miss Remington of her duty to-
ward the diamond ring she wears is to
suggest that he take a trip to Syracuse
to see the other young woman about
her trunk.