Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-02-28
DAILY. STORY
THE TWO OVERCOATS.
copyright, 1906. by Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate.1


Right after that along came n man of
my acquaintance, and we had talk
lasting half an hour. Then | went to
the desk, paid my bill. handed in the
check for my coat, put it on, and, going
upstairs for my grip, l proceeded to
the depot. | saw that it was my coat
all right and took particular notice of
the papers in the pocket. l left them
there that | might look them over after
getting on the train. You are prepared
to hear that when l got ready to
glance over those papers | made a dis
covery. In the first place. it was not
my OvercOat. The strap bore the name
of n tailor in Cincinnati, while mine
had been made in Baltimore. In the
next, the package of papers proved to
be letters written by a woman to Il
man. In brief, they were love letters
and twelve in number, and on the en-
VelOpeS were notes, evidently made by
q lawyer. The two garments were
made of the same material, trimmed
alike, and it would have been impOssi-
BILE to tell them apart. The check boy
had made q mistake.
| was thirty miles out of Chicago
when | woke up to the fact that a
blunder had been made, and left the
train as soon as possible and took my
way back. The check boy denied hav-
ing made any mistake, but finally ad
mitted that it was just possible he had
passed my coat out to some one else.
But who was that some one else?
There We're over 800 guests in the hO-
tel. Perhaps not one of them would
have checked his coat for couple of
hours, as had been the case with me.
1t was more likely to he some one who
had simply entered the dining room
for n meal.
The letters were addressed to a man.
old or young. in village in Iowa and
were signed "Gussie." The latest of
them was six months old. Each one of
them proved that the girl was in love
with the recipient, and so | took ii that
he was a young man. Obviously the
thing to do was to write to him. l was
so anxious about my own papers that
| did not wait to write. but telegraph
ed. An answer was returned that
James Fairfield was no longer Il resi-
dent of the place. Then | made Il jour
ney to the village to discover that
James, after being engaged to the girl
| for Il year or more, had skipped out
rather than marry her and that she had
| threatened him with n suit for breach
of promise. Where he had gone no one
| but his widowed mother knew, and no
information could be got from her
l then advertised in the Chicago and
| New York papers every day for n
week. but the result was nil. | watch
ed the papers for the next two weeks.
| hoping that the other party would ad-
vertiSe. but he did not. | had to go
over the ground again and get as much
information as | could. Meanwhile the
suit had TO be adjourned. and some OF
the parties 1 had seen before could not
| be found the second time. The evi.
denCe | had at first gathered would
have won the suit right off the reel
but now the matter was very doubtful
| had finished up in Chicago and six
weeks had elapsed when | brought III
in Detroit on the same business. | had
only to see one person there and there
fore did not take a room at the hotel
had arrived in the morning. and
handed my coat to the check boy anG
was seated at the table with another
man. We were both inclined for con
versation and talked as we ate.
learned that he was n lawyer from ;
| IL.
breakfast passed off very agreeably
When we went out of the dining room
both of us walked to the window o
/, the cloak room and presented on
checks. l received my overcoat first
As he received his he invited me t
take n cigar, and it was after we hat
lighted up that l rammed my hand II
my pocket for my gloves, pulled out
pair not belonging to me and said:
We'll. this beats the Dutch! TIL
boy has given me some one else
overcoat. This is the second time thi
winter that the mistake has occurred.
e The stranger instinctively put hi
hands in the pockets of his overcoat
and out came pair of gloves that
instantly recognized rs my own.
You have got on my coat" he sal
as he looked at the gloves in my han(
"Then you have got on miner
That proved to be the case. We turn
2 ed to the boy, but he stoutly denie
+ that he had changed the checks.
! fact, the western man checked his Goa
/ fifteen minutes before did. and ha
taken my coat out first. and it wa
Q hard to see how mixup could hav
h taken place.
+ Have you been in Chicago this VIII
: ter" I asked the stranger as we stoo
O staring at each other.
{ 81 was there about six weeks ago,
he replied.
|, did you stop at the Blank House?
81 did,
''Did you get another mans overcos
by mistaken"
81 did. and some one got mine. an
l have been made a lot of trouble O
that account"
s. OF course the thing was soon mad