Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1909-07-16
Ghe
BLACK
BAG
BY Louis Joseph Vance
copyrish,. 1905. by the Bobb,.tI.nin c,
(Continued)

deliberation. advised him to try his
luck Mt the lost luggage room across
the station. lie accepted the advice
II was n foregone conclusion that hi3
effects had not been conveyed TO the
Tilbury dock They could not have
been loaded into the luggage van with
out his personal supervision. still. any.
thing was liable TO Happen when his
unlucky star was In the ascendant.
lie found them IN the lost luggage
room.
A clerk helped him identify the arti.
cles and ultimately clucked with per.
functory note, "Sixpence each. please"
"I-ah-pardoni
"Sixpence each. the fixed charge. sir.
For every twenty-four hours or frac.
ton thereof, siXpence per parcel"
"Oh, thank you so much" said Kirk.
wood sweetly. Il will call tomorrow"
Every good, sir. Thank you. sir"
"Five times sixpence Is two and SIX"
Ki;iwood computed, making his way
ha. lily out OF the station lest worse
thi. bcfall him. mo. bless your
he st-not while two and eight repre-.
se is the sum total of my fortune"
lie wandered out into the night. He
could not linger round the station till
dawn, and what profit to him II he
did, Even were he to ransom his
trunks one can scarcely change ones
clothing in a public waiting room.
Somewhere In the distance u great
clock chlmed single stroke frelghted
sore with melancholy. 1t knelled the
passing Of the half hour after mid
night, u witching hour when every
public shuts up tight and gentlemen
In top hats aud evening dress are
doomed to pace the pave till day
Daring they have homes or visible
means Of supporp-tlll day, when
pawnshops open and such personal ef.
fects as watches and hammered silver
cigar cases may be hypothecatcd. What
was he to do? An hour passed.
Through this long hour Klrkwood
walked without u pause.
Another clock somewhere changed
| resonantly twice. The world WIS very
still. And 80. wandering foot loose In
n wilderness of ways. turning nimless.
ly, now right, now left, he found him.
self In Frognall street.
Kirkwood 'identined 1t with start
and guilty tremor. He stopped stock
still In an unreasoning state of semi.
panic. arrested by silly impulse to
turn and fly. as II the bobby whom he
deserted approaching him with meas.
urcd stride. pausing now ana again to
| try door or fash his bullseye down
an area, were TO be expected to iden.
| tify the man responsible for that
racket raised ere midnight In vacant
| No. D.
| At the corner he swerved and cross.
cd. still possessed OF his devil OF In.
splration. II would be unfair to him
to say that he did not struggle to re
sist 1t. for he did, because It was fair
ly and cgregiously asinine; yet. strug
Cling. his feet trod the path to which
II tempted him.
why" he expostulated fecbfy, 81
might MS well turn back and beat that
bobby over the head with my cane."
But at the moment his hand was Il
his change pocket. feeling over that
same brass door key which earlier he
had been unable to account for. and
he was Informing himself how very
easy 1t would have been for the SOW
ercign purse to have dropped from his
waistcoat pocket while he was sliding
on his ear down the dark staircase
To recover it meant. at the least. shell