Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1909-08-06

"SiXpence each, the fixed charge. sir
For every twenty four hours or frac-
ton thereof. siXpence per parcel"
'Oh. thank you 50 much" said Kirk
wood sweetly. 81 will call tomorrow"
Very good, sir. Thank you. sir"
Five times sixpence is two and six"
Kirkwood computed, making his way
hastily out of the station lest worse
thing befall him. mo, bless your
heart-not while two and eight repre-
sents the sum total of my fortune"
He wandered out into the night. He
could not linger round the station till
dawn. and what profit to him if he
! did, Even We're he to ransom his
trunks one can scarcely change ones
clothing in public waiting room
Somewhere i'll the distance Il great
clock chimed single stroke freighted
sore with melancholy. 1t knelled the
passing of the half hour after mid
night. witching hour when every
public shuts up tight and gentlemen
in top hats and evening dress are
doomed to pace the pave till day
! ibarring they have homes or visible
means of support)-till day, wheL
pawnshops open and such personal eff
/ fects as watches and hammered silver
cigar cases may be hypothetical. What
was he to do? An hour passed.
Through this long hour Kirkwood
walked without pause
Another clock somewhere changed
reSonantly twice. The world was very
still. And so. wandering foot loose in
wilderness Of ways. turning aimless-
ly, now right, now left. he found him
self in Frognall street.
kirkwood identined it with a start
and u guilty tremor. He stopped stock
still in an unreasoning state of semi
panic. arrested by a silly impulse to
turn and fly. as if the bobby whom he
deserted approaching him with meas
ured stride, pausing now and 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. 8.
At the corner he swerved and cross
ed, still possessed of his devil of in
spiration. 1t would be unfair to him
to say that he did not struggle to re-
sist it, for he did, because it was fair
! ly and egregiously asinine; yet, strug-
Cling. his feet trod the path to which
it tempted him.
/ Why he expostulated feebly, 81
might as well turn back and beat that
bobby over the head with my cane."
But at the moment his hand was in
his change pocket. feeling over that
same brass door key which earlier he
had been unable to a'runt for. and
he was Informing hint.lf how very
easy 1t would have been for the SOW
ereign purse to have dropped from his
waistcoat pocket while lie was sliding
ON his ear down the dark staircase.
10 recover 1t meant. at the least, shell
ter for the night followed by decent.
/ comfortable and sustaining morning
meal. Fortified by both he could re-
deem his luggage. change to clothing
more suitable for daylight travelling.
pawn his valuables and enter into nego-
tiations with the steamship company
for permission to exchange his pas
sage. with Il sum to boot. for trans
portation on another liner-a most
feasible project. a temptation all but
| irresistible!
But then--the risk. Surprising, for
the sake of argument the customary
night Waterman to have taken up a
transient residence in No. Q. sup
posing the police to have entered with
him and found the stunned man on
the second floor. would the Waterman
not be vigilant for another nocturnal
maraudcr-w would not the police now,
more than ever. be keeping wary eye
OH that house of suspicious happen
ings?
Decidedly to re-enter it would be to
incur deadly risk. And yet undoubt-
edly. beyond question. his sovereign
purse was waiting for him somewhere
on the second flight of stairs, while
his means Of clandestine entry lay
warm In his tingers-the key to the
dark entry, which he had by force of
habit pocketed after locking the door
on leaving the house with Dorothy
He came to the Hog Pound.
Its windows We're dim with low
turned gasights. Down the covered
alleyway Quadrant news slept in
dusk. but titfully relieved by a lamp
or two round which the friendly mist
chung close and thick.
! There would be none to see.
Skullling. throat swollen with fear.
| heart beating like n snare drum Kirk
| wood took his chance Buttoning his
overcoat collar up to his chin and ours
ing the fact that his hat must stand
out like chimney pot on a detached
house. he sped on tiptoe down the cob
blcd way and close beneath the house
walls of Quadrant news: but. half
way in. he stopped COMPOUNDED by an
unforeseen difficulty. How was he to
identify the narrow entry of No. 8,
whose counterparts doubtless commu-
nicated with the news from every res
idence Oh four sides of the city block?
He almost lost his head when he
realized that escape was already cut
off by the way he had come. Some
one or. rather. some two men were
entering the alley. He could hear the
tramping and shuttle of clumsy feet
and voices that muttered indstinctly.
One seemed to trip over something and
cursed The other laughed The voices
grew more loud. They were coming
his way. He dared no longer vacillate.
| He dived into the nearest black hole
of passageway and in sheer despera-