The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-08-04
MARK FLAMINGO'S
IVA REAPPEARANCr l..
An Unexpected Guest at the Dinner
That Was to Be Gentleman
Georges Last.

Mark Flamingo druv on with me in the
pony cart TO pay due respect tn the sooper-
stitus remains Of his wife. Miss Bruno
had been var OF the party at the Inn, Of
which MIR. and Mrs. Flamingo and Gentle
man George Ringgold were the odder
cores onGint parts the wan, indeed. to
whose i~ntr,gooin' inhooance were mainly
duo Mr.. F~larnipsc's inFateratun and death.
the disappearance Of Mrs. F1amingo with
her fummer lover and the flight Of large
and mo t'roo the black dark 70 kiver from
the avinger OF blood. ..
1t might be supposed hat AFTER such a
obearin' OF the stage the cuttun wud have
been runR down for bad and all on Miss
bruno. but the ilemint Of surprise KEN
into the worrold whin woman did, and IL
has stayed by her liver since.
Whin money talks summise KEEPS silent.
The safest hidin' place Is where a in
advance is tile invar'able rule, for the i'm
Piled contact goes with il that no q~uestuns
win be asst.
Actin on these truisms Of trouble Jarse
and me sneaked back to town. and before
the tragedy at tho old Brick Church oud
DO cried in the marnin' papers a TUX
refuge In a quiet house on tho waterfront,
there to abide till the CLUBS rolled by.
The papers KEN out, marnin'. extry and
e~venin'. but niver a wud In anny Of thin
Of the stiffened corps with a knife cut
t'roo the heart which var had been
Mark Flamingo..
Il don't understand II, Smithers." COM
plaiped large. THE pony cart under
the shed must have attracted %attentun.
to say nawthin' OF the busted vistry 6ure. "
@No news is good news says I. revertun
for comfort TO me Scriptooral trainun.
Not whin wan 10 m'rooned On a oussed
desert island like this. he srowled. walking
restlessly to the winder.
Acrost the way was an ocean pier. from
which a Greyhound was jest about to slip
out with the favorin' tide.
This case may be held up be the aut'ori-
ties" unused large. There are plain
clothes men and plinty over there; CAD. but
I cud call the roster Of Headquarters.
Mebbe they are watchin' for Mrs. F1amingo
and her man. But. no--did you iver see
the like Of that, Smithers3 Right t'roo the
midst Of thimi'
Even as large talked a cab had drawn
up at the ind Of the pier. Out stepped the
good natered. portly chap we had seen
with Mrs. Flamingo the night before at
Brookside House. He assisted 20 alight
a yelled Teddy Of familiar farm.
AFTER a wud or two as to their luggage
they whit aboard. In a few minutes the
steamship put out. As her stern swung
into the stream we cud see the portly chap
on the upper deck ~sillywetted in the waning
light.
Clus be his side stud the Teddy. Her
veil was raised. 1t was Mrs. Famingo. and
no mistake. And they wore wavin' their
native and a long farewell.
THAT beats putin salt on a buds tall
chuckled large.
The beaks wasn't AFTER thin: they
know nawthin' aginst thim." I said deci-
sively. But that fellow with his arm
about the post is in different case. large"
by Jove. he is." agreed large, squintin'
hard t'roo his glasses. Hes onto thin;
he's watchin' ithim: he's glad they've gone.
There's somethin' in his interest wuth
KNOWN. Confound the cuss. where have
l seen him before?'
AT Cadiz Inn.- I answered quiJe.--.
That's Shartell. the landlord And even
as I spoke the big dark complicated fellow
with a contented shrug strobe away.
A lump Of n Shartell; slow, de-
liberate. niver excited: he nevertheless
advanced to his objict some'at after an
elephants fashun. brushin' aside with
contempt obstacles that might destrain
wan less forceful and headstrong. Oh. yis.
he knew what no was up to livery time.
and he med for IL, too, In his cold, sober
way. u~nhindered by scruples or drains.
sven 40 he had PROGRESSED from hostler to
proprietor Of q roadside inn.
.Trut, rises often like the sun; its light
glimmerin' t'roo q mist before il shines full
and free. At fust you see objicts distarted
and strange. but little by little they become
manifest. and thin you wonders why you
fell down so often in getting to thin and
onto thin.
AFTER clus discussun. large and I decided
that in some mysterus way Shartell had
learned Of the murder Of Mark Flsmingo
in the old brick church and was keeping it
secrit for purposes Of his own. How and
why. We materially Thin asst.
Well. for wan ting. there was the pony
cart hitched under the church shed, and for
gotten by US all in the panic Of discovery.
The pony might "a slipped the hitching
strap and trotted back to the inn.
Shartsll might have follered back his
tracks, entered the church and found tho
corpse. II he chose. he wud have had no
difficulty, in tuckin' II away out Of sight
and mind in the old idifice long since given
over to rats and ghosts.
II he choseF Shartell's reason wud be a
practical reason. No matter about the
means II the ind in view was bright and
yeller and jingled in the hand.
In the Gurus knowledge picked up in his
trade he wud know Flamingo as q man
who had been a. warm as he now was cold;
wan, who though marret had lived In his
own snug little box. de,aoEcd, and wisely
so. too; who had cut OH Business cares and
connectuns. who had no children or rela-
tives; whose frinds were fellows easily met
and easily shaken.
Suppose now he had SUSPECTED that Mrs.
Flamingo was about to lose hersilf for love.
might he not have banked upon the posi-
bilities enough to have hid the body tenn
porarily: might he not. after the confum-
matun Of havin' seen her soil be the light Of
the moon to the odder sice Of the worrold
and not alone. in some WY have put hisseIf