The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-10-27

1
Jacko! He felt his bloody head and
bound it up.
Would you mind telling me, JACKIE,
he asked. why you spoke to me Sc
savagely ears ago when I advised you
to commit that theft?''
Sure, responded Jacko readily
I was a green kid. didn't know tn
world. I never had tn need Up to
then. But, You see, the bank broke,
father died-he was a mechanic and
lost most of his savings somewhere
and 1 had to do something. 1t was
misery, at first, fer I'd been taught
different, but [ soon learned how to
take it and spend it and not think
about it at ALL"
Thank you returned Rainor
quietly, and began to wait on a GUS
toner.
The purchase had been made. the
one dollar and thirty-nine cents turn
ed over, and the customer gone.
Rainor reached for checking-in slip.
marked his initial in the corner, then
stopped. The store q that end was
deserted. He reached up absently to
touch his head. All at once he felt
strangely weak. He thought of what
|
in. Then he marked "$1 90" on the
card, slipped thirty-nine cents in his
coat-pocket, put card and dollar into
the carrier and whirled the basket to
the cashier.
| Hours are sometimes ages. Rainor
had been sitting on an old soap-box
by a grimy cellar-window for CEN
| turtles. He looked out upon the dirty
SSd IL nd he irl
| ling by; he looked at the hard brick
red of saloon across the alley: he
looked at a stray sparrow that lit on
the cellar grating: and he looked into
vacancy. In his right hand he CLUTCH
ed a quarter, a dime, and four PEN
MES. One of the pennies was green
with verdigris. as if it had been hoard
| ed by some miser or buried in a dis
honest tomb. He touched the poison
Gus rust with gentle fingers and
chuckled foolishly.
| There are more of them like YOU
| he mumbled. Its easy-oh, but it's
| easy!''
And then he began to reckon. Five
here. ten there, fifteen again, twenty
| five after-awhile. He ought to be able
| to take a dollar a day without sus-
| picion-yes, a dollar and a half, even
two dollars. His wife and his daugh-
ters should have that which their
tender needs demanded. He himself
should have warm clothing. 1t was
all over. All he asked was to live.
To live-to live-that was all he
wanted. Honor? What an empty
word! He spoke it to the fungus
tainted walls. He cried it aloud in a
sort of frenzy and waited to hear the
echo.
1t was then that the Undertone be,
gan it's whisper. Alone in the dead
silence of the big cellar the Voice of
all his past right-living arose in grand
finality-in memorable objection-and
battIed with the darkness in his lower
mind. the while the neglected coins
tangled discordantly in his trembling
hand. And again the long ages swept
over him-centuries and centuries of
struggle, peopled with dead voices and |
forlorn hopes, shot through gloriously !
at the last by the Light that could not
die. and which must lift him upward |
to his real self again because it was
Almighty.
Rainor put up his head, and a smile |
flashed out on his face. He looked at |
the change in his hand, as if he did |
there was still dusky day in the cellar, |
the world whizzed round--and night |
fell
When Jacko had occasion to go to
the cellar upon some errand of minor
Importance, he found that the ex-
cashier had fallen face up on a heap
of rubbish just below the little half
window that looked upon the street
The blood was still flowing from the
scalp wound, and Rainor was very pale,
though the habitual wrinkles SEEM
ed to have been smoothed out of his
features by some great, internal peace.
When JACKIE had restored the fallen
man, Rainor walked staggeringly up
stairs, and behind the counter. His
eyes, still filled with emptiness, set
tied slowly to a checking-in slip. With
a slight shudder he wrote his initial
on the card, dropped a quarter, dime,
and four pennies into the carrier,
folded the slip down over them, and
flung the message to the desk.
AS he did so man leaned over the
counter, grabbed his hands and wag-
ged them joyfully.
Something for you, sir?" Rafnor
asked automatically.
Something for me, Ell? Well, that is
good" laughed Mr.. Claiborn.
Rainor laughed with him, unsteadily.
''Well, sir?'
They have made some startling
changes over at the Old National,
and I happen to be sufficient
ly influential to ask you to come over
to u.s.
This language of joy sounded like
Greek to Rainor, but he had once
known the tongue. He wet his lips.
II do not know he began. 81
am so old and tired. So many things
have passed since Il
ITO be sure" broke in Claiborn,
you are worn out with this dogs life.
[ know all about it-and I came to you ]
he first moment / could really do any
hing for you. Rest up a couple of I
weeks and iron out the wrinkles
You're a young man yet. What?
Forty-seven? That's young. There
ire two vacancies over there brought
lbout by some remarkable disclosures.
And we're looking for an honest man