The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-10-23

it occurring on this particular date , said Trafford, sticking to his point. Did anything remarkable happen the first time. excepting. of course, the very remarkable thing of Canuck getting drunk when he hadn't ought to?" "No," replied Trafford, giving the question an amount of time that Fry began to fear was rather addressed to the tone in which it was asked than to its substance. Twas about a week after he'd been on a fine. regular drunk. He was working in the fields a stranger came along and offered him some brandy, just smuggled through from Canada. That caught him and disarranged his orbit most .confound- edly.'' a Your theory" began Fry, but Traf- ford interrupted him.
 s.I know. One swallow doesn't make a summer. ana a single observation isn't sufficient to determine an orbit, but here's the fact. On the afternoon before A1tenburg was killed man came through the woods. went into the Altenburg barn by the rear door, talked with David, who was at work there. and he and David had drink together out of a bottle. which the Malbon and Jack Reed. saw the drinking through a creek in the barn boarding. They ran away when the man started to leave and don't know which way he went"
 ..What sorter looking man was her
 
 extent of his wearing trousers. though not to the color of the article. Be- yond that he had whiskers and he hadn't: he was very tall and he was short; he was dressed in gray and he was dressing in black. and he weighed all the way from one-fifty to doubt that"
 .It's uueer,'' said Fry, interested in spite of himself. that people should be born with eyes when, as rule. they're of so little use to 'em.'
 Having eyes they see not" said Trafford, who had finished packing and now threw an overcoat over the chair on which he had placed his bag, stood his umbrella beside them, and came and seated himself at the table His care in little things and the utter absence of haste in all his movements had never ceased to impress Fry, as familiar as he was with these char acteristics. He waited. under a sense of absence of impatience. for Traf- ford's next remark.
 'Two-thirds, perhaps nine-tenths, of the things we spend out time trying to ferret out and piece together pass under the eyes of people who. if they only had the power to see. could save us an infinite amount of time and trouble"
 "Or the power to tell what they see," suggested Fry.
 Trafford nodded assent to the amend ment.
 There's nothing one must be more careful about than coincidences. Trafford went on. "They have a fas- cination of their own that often leads to our exaggerating their importance. Still, one can scarcely avoid asking, Could stranger know that drink would send David to the village that night?''
 "Why need it have been a stranger?"
 "Oh, the boys would have been quick enough to recognize him otherwise. One of the two must have known him. There's no man in this town who wouldn't be known to one of any two boys of the town that you could bring together. I'd trust lem quicker'n any two men,
 He went to town with the intention of getting drunk" said Fry, thought fully. t'That much I had out of him."
 "Yes. with that one drink aboard I take it that the drunk was sure. But would a stranger know that?''
 ''Still, I'm with you that it was a stranger. You can trust those kids to- have known and told if it wasn't. A drink taken in that way would at tract a Lanceboro youngster only a little less than a murder on the high, way or an open robbery. As to telling of it, they'd be less frightened and more delighted"
 .Im clearly of the opinion that it was stranger" said Trafford
 That settles it then" said Fry. wha