The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-06-24
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Copyright. 1909. by Beni. B. Hampton.

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 bia with passengers only. Even the directors decision for he had sent the word out to old Williams. the veteran chief clerk, scribbed out by p the W way yapei of his private entrance
 Williams read the note with rapidly rising in fun thirty minutes while he ragged about the room. alternately denouncing the superintendent, the luckless clerks for stopping work to listen to him.
 Why he cried. ''old R. D. would turn over in his grave if he knew how these boys running the company into the ground. It was bad enough when they commenced hllin' up empty cargo space furnin' the Columbia intos passenger boat! with sound legs and good 6igestions, but lot of consumptives, anaemics, and sick babies, raked up to the superintendent's note--on account of the New York Eagles Fresh Air Fund. Wish old R. D. added tor bad h haulin' of passengers and the companyn regret
 The R. D. Jones Go. fast freight line mak- ing weekly sailings to Mars from their his forefathers. had begun life as a clerk on a Martian oil boat. Being naturally a keen observer he soon discovered that while the people of Mars sheep failed to thrive that husky planet. Those were the days when concessions were being granted Earth. after this important discovery young Jones brought back such valuable iron-clad rights to certain trade privileges that fast freight line carrying outward-bound refrigerated meat and re- either M in Sasss OF wss | put old tramp tubs originally leased the Mutton Run"
 
 boats and leasing score more.
 But hard times come, even to corporations of the concessions were now expiring and the profits had been horribly mutilated Martians, too. meat and the R. B. Jones i Co. was now bidding for other classes of freight at ridiculous margins Princess Irene; two immense; brand new boats, neck, outward bound, had dashed, head on into an unpredicted meteoric shower and had gone to join the vast congregation of interstelar derelcts
 although mighty deDartuTo a policy now we1-nigh century old, the directors out sf her % h Eagle for at least one passenger run and notwith- standing old Williams, busy workmen were soon transferring her cargo compartments into dormi- tories and hospital wards.
 one Winston a clean-cut. steady.going man, just dicted by his friends, for nature had Endowed him with reasoning ability and genius for mathe- was a direct descendent of the great Sir Francis Winston who had first expounded and proved that acteristics peculiarly its own just as tain substances arrest certain colors of the spec magnetic nelds could be created which were inn though that Of others: thus rst ren dertng tnterplanetary passage possible.
 repo1ted ready and on the eighteenth Winston re- ceived his instruction from the traffic manager: launched about noon non on the aots inst for through run to Nekhoboh. planet Mars. Full speed from only.
 He was too busy that day to attend to the matter for the Chryse, an ancient Jones tub inward bound with a heavy cargo was having trouble with venus for her anxious skipper. who was keeping the ceivers hot with appeals for help, needed, to Keep that planet from adding another satellite to
 At last Winston slammed down the covers on his coat when the messenger handed him two seiapss One was ecdaf ts radi1gFa addressed tore 1t open and read: A
 Nationas Observatory 1J;ralava PeaEs
 To all Interplanetary Dispatchers:
 Captain Clarke of the Juno. U s. Mail and EI- Ss press Line. on October 7th. when fourteen days united. Exact data as to orbit will be sent out at ten o'clock tonight First trial calculations show from November 18th to 20th De saussure.
 ,.The devili. Winston sasped: Tt means cal However, that can be done tomorrow forenoon for the door opening the other envelope. which was addressed to him personally in womans
 There wasn't much in the note. Winston read it almost at glance. but the light suddenly died hunted look: his face turned ashy white; things seemed to whirl about him and then grow black. into the light ot the setting with unseeing
 It was the old story of those who love and are loved by woman. high-spirited girl. breeding hastily penned note ending all for ever.
 Just what he did that night Winston never knew. the club about ten o'clock Somebody had won on the aerial races that afternoon and buying champagne, and Winston drank, drank, drank, until friends knowing his usual temperate habits had put him to bed. They testified also that he had written a receipt for radiogram about eleven o'clock. giving the details of the comets orbit.
 All that night army of workmen swarmed in and over the hull of the Columbia giving her the finishing touches for her flight, and at daybreak their places were taken by another shift.
 At ten o'clock Winston came in and mechanically sat down at his desk. pale, heavy-eyed, his mind blank. His first assistant handed him the sailing orders and together they rechecked the calcula- tions- The computations balanced; and the in structions for laying the different courses were concise and clear.
 We haven't missed anything. have we?" he