Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1908-08-04
The Fortune Hunters.
fOricinal.1

most or WHO'LL, HdNlllS WOfU luelllSeiNeS out during the gay social season ill town, were endeavoring to put the roses back into their cheeks under the influence of ocean breeZes. Neverthe- less there was not one of them but could spare the time to secure "an es tablishment.
 Raymond Riggs was key to the wealth he possessed. All a girl had to do to unlock the door to it was to snare him. He had fought off a regiment of them during the previous season and had hoped for a rest at the seashore He was doomed to disappointment They attacked him by platoons and companies. To get rid of them he l went off one day several miles Up the beach and sat down on the sand. The waves rolled lazily in, broke on q bar and slid up on the sand with an effer vescing sound. The sky was blue ard cloudess. The ships cut at sea sailed on as silently as if they were painted instead of real It was all very restful and in marked contrast with being hunted down by a flock of-women he should have said, but he preferred the word harpies.
 A glass bottle was thrown up by the waves. rolled about on the sand and carried out. When it came up again Raymond noticed that it was corked. He seized it, took out the cork and with the blade of his knife managed 10 eXtricate through the narrow neck card. On it was written in pale ink. "Aline Eliot" The address was given at town hundred miles down the coast, then followed, Dear finder, am lonely"
 For heavens sake" exclaimed Ray mond, "are all the women in the world hunting lovers? I escape from a flock of them back on the shore only to be met by an advance from the ocean,
 But as he gaZed at this singular con- trivance for mating, as he regarded it, it seemed far different to him from the advances he had received from the fortune hunters. He fancied the writer to be some innocent girl who craved only to obey the instincts mother nature had planted in her pure bosom. Perhaps she had sat alone by the ocean as he was sitting, yielding 10 natural inclination to mate, and had sent out her message with blind confidence that it would fall into the hands of the man who was destined to be all in all to her. Was this the explanation, or was she, too, hunting for a fortune? He would open x1,;t1 Sl,., way he could find out what he wished to know
 He inclosed the card with bis own name and address and the words, "I, too, am lonely" In few days he re- ceived letter. There was nothing in it about love or marriage. It was an unsophisticated epistle from young girl about nothing. Raymond read be- tween the lines, Perhaps you are be for whom I intended my message" But it did not say, You may be some rascal who will take mean advan- tage of what I have done." What re- freshing innocence! Fancy one of the fortune hunters reposing such conf dence in the average man. Raymond was an imaginative fellow and would sit long on the dunes or on the beach mentally contemplating this innocence. If he could see her likeness he could judge of her motive with more cer- tainty.
 He thought he would send picture of some man about his own age and ask hers in return, but the girls guile lessness had affected him, and he shrank from such deception. Then, confident that he could not be mistaken, he in- closed his photograph. AS soon as he had done so the thought occurred 10 him that he was fool. The danger of a society fortune hunter was noth- ing beside one he had never seen pos sessinG letters from him and his photo graph.
 However, in exchange came a like ness It was the likeness of one a painter would seize upon as a model for a Madonna. There was innocence personifed. X pair of soft eyes looked out from an oval face The lips were sensitive. and Raymond considered them especially kissable. He thought of the faces of the fortune hunters. restored to their natural appearance by cosmetics. There was none of them who would not consider herself fagrantly immodest to thus advertise for a husband. Yet here was the Madonna-likc face looking at him with modesty that none of these could have assumed.
 Ore day Raymond was missed at the seashore. There was f1utter among the fortune hunters. for. though none of them had secured foothold. every one hoped for herself. not for the oth- CTS. Had he returned to the city? No. Inquiries elicited the fact that his bag gage. like our flag was "still there.' So they waited and watched ard hoped. But Raymond did not return. In time he directed that his baggage be sent to the city. and neither the waves nor the @ulls nor the ships nor tho fortune tupta"S him mOrp-of