Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-07-13
II-Continued.

ton of it's motors pulsing, to the auto
mobile on mis- right. He lifted his chin
sharply, narrowing his eyes. whistled
low and thereafter had eyes for nothing
else.
The car, he saw with the experienced
eye of a connoisseur, was a recent model
of one of the most expensive and popular
foreign makes; built on lines that prom
Used a deal in the way of speed, and
furnished with engines that were preg-
nant with multiplied horsepower; all in
all not the style of car one would expect
to find controlled by a solitary woman,
especially after ten of a summers night.
| Nevertheless the lone occupant of this
car was a woman And there was that
in her bearing, an indefinable omething
whether it lay in the carriage of her
head. which impressed one as both spir-
certain but less tangible air of self-confi-
dence and refanca-to set Mad Maitiand's
pulses drumming with excitement For,
unless. indeed. he labored gravely under
| misrepresentation, he was observing her
for the second time within the past few
hours.
| Could he be mistaken. or was this in
truth the same woman who had (as he
belfeved) made herself free of his rooms
that evening? ...
In confirmation of such suspicion he re-
marked her costume. which was alto
gether worked out in soft shades of gray.
Gray was the misty veil. drawn in and
daintily knotted beneath her chin, which
| lent her head and face such thorough
protection against prying glances: of gray
suede were the light gauntlets that hid
| all save the slenderness of her small
| hands: and the wrap that, cut upon full
and flowing lines. cloaked her figure be-
yond suggestion. was gray. Yet even its
ample drapery could not dissemble me
| fact that she was quite small. girlishly
| slight, like the woman in the doorway;
nor did aught temper her impersonal and
detached composure, which had also been
an attribute Of the woman in the door
way. And, again, she was alone, I'M
chaperoned. unprotected.
Yes? Or no? And If yes. what to do?
Was he to alight and accost her. accuse
her of forcing an entrance to his rooms
for the sole purpose (aS far as ascertain
able) of presenting him with the outline
of her hand in the dust of his desks top?
Oh. hardly. 1t was all very we'll
to be daringly eccentric and careless of
the worlds censure, but one scarcely
cared to lay ones self open either to an
unknown girls derision or to sound
pummeling at the hands of fellow pas
sengers. enraged by the insult offered
to an unescOrted woman. -
The young man was still bordering
ways and means when dull bump ap-
prised him that the ferry boat was en-
devil" he exclaimed, in mingled disgust
and dismay, realizing that his distraction
had been so thorough as to permit the
voyage to take place almost without his
realizing it. So that now-worse luck!-
| it was too late to take any one of the
hundred fantastic steps he had contem-
plated half seriously. In another two
minutes his charming mystery. SO be-
witchingly incarnated. would have slip
| ped out of his life. finally and beyond
recall. And he could do naught to hinder
| such a finale to the adventure.
| Sulkly he resigned himself to the in
| evtabe, waiting and watching. while the
! boat slid and blundered clumsiIy paddle
wheels churning the filthy waters over
side. to the floating bridge: while the
winches ratified, and the woman, sitting
up briskly in the drivers seat of the
motor car. bent forward and advanced
the spark; while the chain fell clanking
and the car shot out, over the bridge,
through the gates, and away, at a very
considerable, even If lawful, rate of
speed
| chapter of romance, voting the world a
dull place and life a treadmill anathe-
matizing in no uncertain terms his lack
of resource and address, Maitland paid
of his cabby. alighted. and to that
worthys boundless wonder. walked into
the waiting room of the railway terminus
! without deviating a hairs breadth from
the straight and circumscribed path of
the sober in mind and body.
The ten-twenty had departed by bare
| two minutes The next and last train
for Greenfields was to leave at ten-fifty-
nine Maitland, with assumed non
| chalance. composed himself upon a
bench in the waiting room to endure the
| thirty-seven- minute interval. Five min
utes later an able-bodied washerwoman
with six children in quarter Sizes de-
| scended upon the same bench. and the
young man in desperation allowed him
self to be dispossessed. The news stand
| next attracting him. he garnered fugi-
| tive amusement and two dozen copper
cents by the simple process of purchas-
ing six might extras which he did not
want and paying for each with five
| cent piece. Compromising, at length,
that he had irritated the newsdealer. he
Imeandered off, juggling his copper fortune
in one hand. Juggling his newspapers In
! the other. and made determined on
| slaught upon a slot machine. The latter
| having reluctantly disgorged twenty-four
assorted samples of chewing gum and
| stale sweetmeatS. Maitland returned to
! the washerwoman, and sewed disseniOn
in her brood by presenting the treasure
horde to the eldest girl with instructions
to share it with her brothers and sisters.
/ 1t is difficult to imagine what folly
might next have been recorded against
him had not, at that moment. a ferocious
and inarticulate howl from the train
starter announced the fact that the ten
| fifty-nine was in waiting.
Boarding the train in thankful spirit
| Maitland settled himself as comfort a bly,
/ as he might in the smoker and en-
| deavored to find surcease of ennui in his
| collection of extras. In vain; even a two
| column portrait of Mr.. Dan Anisty,
cracksman, accompanied by a vivac GUS
catalogue of that notoriety's achieve
ments in the field of polite burglary.
hardly stirred his interest. An elusive
resemblance which he traced in the fea-
| lures of Mr.. Anisty, presented by the
| sketch artist-on-th e-spOt, to some one
whom he. Maitland, had known in the
dark backward and abysm Of time. mere
| Iy drew from him the comment, Home
ly brute!" And he laid the papers aside,
grading his chin in the palm Of one
hand and staring for weary while out
of the car window at a Keeling and
moon -smitten landscape. He yawned ex-
haustively, his thoughts astray between
a girl CARRIED all in gray. Bannerman's
earnest and thoughtful face. and the per-
nicious activities of Mr.. Daniel Anisty,
at whose door Maitland laid the respon-
sibility for this most fatiguing err
rand -
The brakeman's wolflike yelp-"Green-
fields!"-was ringing in his ears when he
awoke and stumbled down aisle and car
steps just in the nick Of time. The train.
whisking round a curve cloaked by a belt
of somber pines, left him quite alone in
the world. cast ruthlessly upon his own
resources.
An hour had elapsed: 1t was now mid
night; the moon rode high cold white