The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1908-10-21
CHAPTER VI-Cortinued.

adorned or rat'.er diStigured the walls
Vulgar photographs and prints were to
be seen on all sides. Mingled with
these cheap creations were excellent
copies of famous Madonnas, quaint
Scriptural drawings. engravings of the
Saviour and an allegorical coored
print which emphasized the joys of
heaven. There WAS also a badly drawn
but ideaizel portrait Of broom. done
in crlyon ii the age Of twenty. This
portrait was enc of his priced posses
sions. Ee loved 1t best because it was
a bust and did not expose his longitu-
dinal defects. If broom ever had en-
terta!ned Il feminine visitor in his
apartments. there is no record of the
fact But few men had seen the inte-
rior of his home, and they had gone
away with distressed. perpleXed sensi-
bilities.
He cooked his own meals ON the oil
stove and. alone. ate them from the lit
tie table that stood near the heater
Occasionally he went out 20 a nearby
eating house for lonely feast. His
rooms usually reeked with the odor of
grease, pungent chemicals and long
suffering bed linen. OF his front
room it may be said that it was kitch-
en-. dining room. pa.lor, library. work
shop. laboratory ara conservatory
Four n0werp0ts. in which as many
geraniums existed with difficulty de-
spite Droom's constant ana unwaver-
ing care. occupied conspicuous place
on the window siils overlooking the
street. He watched over them with
ell the tender solicitude of lover. sur
prising as it may appear when one
pauses to consider the vicious exterior
of the man.
broom was frugal. lie was. in truth.
a miser. If any one had asked him
what he expected to do with the money
he was putting away in the bank. he
could not have answered. calculating
as he was by nature. lie had no rela-
tive to whom he would leave it, and
he had no Inclination to give up the
habit Of active employment. His salary
was small but he managed to save
more than half of it-for rainy day"
as he said He did his reading and OK
perimenting by kerosene light and
went to bed by candlelieht. saving Il
few pennies Il week in that way. The
windows in his apartment were wash
ed not oftener than once a year. He
was seldom obliged to look through
them during the day. and their only
duty at night was to provide ventila-
ton. ana cTen that was Characteristic
ally meager.
He was a man of habit. not habits.
a pipe at night was his only form of
dissipation. 1t was not too far for
him to walk home from the Office of
evenings, and he invariably did so I'M
less the weather was extremely I'M
pleasant. SO methodical was he that
he never had walked over any other
bridge than the one in Wells street.
coming and going.
Past sixty-6ve years Of age. Droom's
hair still was black and snaky, his
teeth were as yellow and Jagged as
they were in the seventies. and his
eyes were as blue and ugly us ever.
He had not aged with James Ban
semer Ii truth he looked but little
older than when we made his ac-
quaintance. The outside world knew
no more of Dro0m'a private transac-
tons than it knew of Bansemer'S. Up
in the horrid little apartment in Wells
street the queer Old man could do as
he willed unobServeu and unannOyed.
He could pursue his experiments with
strange chemicals he could construct
adj Il with n L, IF
he could LIT off an endless amount of
inventive energy that no one knew he
possessed
When he left Graydon Bansemer on
the sidewalk in front of the office
building he swung off with his long
strides toward the Wells street bridge.
His brain had laid aside everything
that had occupied its attention during
Office hours and had given itself over
to the project that FASTENED his steps
homeward. His supper that night was
small one and hurriedly eaten in or
der that he might get to work on his
new device. broom grinned and
cackled to himself all alone up there
In the lamplight. for he was perfecting
an Invention" by which the honest
citizen could successfully put to rout
the ''holdup" man that has made Chi
cago famous.
Elias Drooms inventive genius I'M
failingly led him toward devices that
could inflict pain and discontinue. His
plan to get the better of the wretched.
hard working holdup maii was unique,
II not entirely practical. Ne was con-
structlng the models for two little