Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-01-30

THE BL ACK BAG|
! By LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE,
Ecopwigh-By Bobbs, Merrill Co.


- - . " y . G.
ground an. acute disappointment await
ed MN; there, likewise, he learned
something about London A sympa-
thetlc bobby informed him that no
tralns would be running until after
fiye-thirty, and that, furthermore, NJ
busses would begin to ply until half
after seven
IT tramp it or cab it, them musei
the young man mournfully, his longing
gaze seeking a nearby cab-rank-just
| then occupied by solitary hanson
driver somnolent on the box. off
GER" he again addressed the police
man, mindful of the English axiom:
| when in doubt, ask a bobby. '-"Offi-
GER, when's high tide this morning ~
The bobby produced a well-worn
pocketalmanac, moistened a massive
thumb and rippled the pages.
London bridge, Ugh tide twenty
minutes arter six, sir" he announced
with a glow Of satisfaction wholly par
donable in one who combines the fun
tons Of perambulating almanac, guide
book, encyclopedia, and conserver of
| the peace
Kirkwood said something beneath
his breath--a word in itself com.
Portable mouthful ana wholesome and
emphatic He glanced again at the
cab and sroaned: 20 Lord, just das-
sent With which, thanking the bu-
reau of information, he set off at =
quick step down Greys inn road.
The day had closed down in bril-
lance upon the city-and the voice of
the milkman was to be heard in the
land-when, he trudged, still briskly i
tritie YEARLY, into Holborn, and held
On eastward across the viaduct and
down NeWgate street; the while add
ling his weary wits with leart-sicken.
ing computations of minutes, all going
hopelessly to prove that he would be
late, far too late even presupposing
the unlikely. The unlikely, be it
known, was that the Aletha would not
attempt to sail before the turn of the
tide.
For this was his mission to find
the Aletha before she sailed. Incred.
lble as it may appear, at five O'Clock.
Or maybe earlier, on the morning Of
the tWenty-second of April 1906, A.
D., Philip Kirkwood, normally a com.
monplace but likable young American
IN full possession of his senses, might
nave been seen (and by some was
seem plodding manfully through
Cheapside, London, England engaged
upon a quest as mad, forlorn and gal
lant as any whose chronicle ever in
splred the pen of Mallory or a Frois-
sart. IN brief he proposed to lend his
arm and courage to be the shield AMI
buckler of one who might or might
not be q damsel in distress: accord.
| Ing as to whether Mrs Hsllam hal
! spoken soothly of Dcrot' Calendar
or klrkwood's own adnliraue faith IN
the girl were justified of itself.
Proceeding upon the working by
rothesls that Mrs Hallam was a pol
lshed liar in most respects, but had
told the truth, SO far as con cerned her
statement to the effect that the glad
stone bag contained valuable real
property (whose ownership remained
q moot question, though kirlzwood was
definitely committed to the belief that
It was none of Mrs Hallam's or her
son's) he reasoned that the two ad.
| yenturers, with Dorothy and their
booty, would attempt to leave London
by water route, in the ship, Aletha,
at Bermondsey Old Stairs
kirkwoods initial task, then, would
be to find the needle in the haystack-
the metaphor is poor; more properly,
to sort out from the hundreds of YES.
sells, of all descriptions, at anchor IN
mldstream, moored to the wharves OF
long shore warehouses, or in the 81
gantic docks that line the Thames, that
one called Alethea, Of which he was
so deeply mired in ignorance that he
could not say whether she were tram o.
steamer. coastwise passenger boat,
one of the liners that My between Til.
bury and all the world, channel ferry.
boat, private yacht (steam or sain
schooner, four-master, square.rigger
barque Or brigantine.
| A task to stagger the optimism OF
any but one equipped with the sublime
impudence Of youth! Even kirkwood
was disturbed by some little awe when
he contemplated the vast proportions
of his undertaking None the less
| doggedly he plugged ahead, and tried
to keep his mind from vain surmises
as to what would be his portion when
eventually he should find himself 2
passenger, unlimited and unwelcome
upon the Alethea.
London had turned over once nr
twice, and was pulling the bedclothes
over its head and grumpling about get
ting up, but the city was still sound
asleep when at length he paused for
q minutes rest in front of the Man
sion house, and realized with pans
of despair that he was completely tuck: