Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1909-01-13
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is going to fetch him round to get MN
1ut of the reporters way sometime
this evening; maybe there's something
| can do"--this IN explanation of
his declining 70 dine with the colonel
AS the two entered the rooms, Win
ter was little In advance, and caught
the frst glimpse of man sitting in a
big miseic'; armchair, his head sunk
or Fl = sst SO absorbed was this
man in s. own distempered musings
itai " newcomers approach did
not arcesc hi He sat with knitted
brows and cenchad hands, staring
irto vacancy: his rigid and pallia
features set in ghastly intensity Of
bought. There was suffering in the
,J1l.; but there was more; the colonel,
,'ho had been living among the SER
ort Egssiens Of the orient, knew
,eaGly aas>r when he saw it; it was
branded on the face before him. In
Voluntarily he fell hack; he felt as II
he had blHndered IN on a naked soul
No.sele ssly he slippcl out of the range
OF vision. He spoke loudly, halting to
ask some question about the rooms;
this made moments pause.
1t was sg;7.cient; in the study they
found quiat, calS1. although rather
haagard-looFing man. who greeted
Winters companion courteously, with
a southern Secent and very good
manner. He was presented to the col
cnei as Mr. Greer. He would have
excused himself, protesting that he
was Just going. but the colonel took
the words ont of his mouth: Ralph,
here, has a cigar for rle-that is all |
came for; see you at the Touraine,
Ralph, tomorrow for luncheon. then. !"
He did not see the nan again; neither
did he see Ralph, although he made
good, SO far as in him lay, his fiction
OF an engagement at the Touraine.
But Ralph could not come; and Winter
had lunched, instead, with an old
friend at his club and had watched.
through a stately Georgian window
the shifting greenery of the common
in an east wind.
All through the luncheon the sol
dier's mind kept swerving from the
talk in hand to Cary MERGERS face.
Yet he never expected to see Il again.
Three years later he did see 1t; and
this second encounter, of which, by the
way, Mercer was unconscious, was the
beginning of an absorbing chapter in
his life. A short space of time that
,hapter occupied yet into it crowded
mystery, peril, wonderful and awful
spectacle, the keenest happiness and
the cruelest anxiety. Let his days be
ever so many, the series of events
which followed MERGERS temperance
will not be blurred by succeeding ex-
periences; their vivid and haunting
pictures will burn through commoner
and later happenings as an electric
torch fares through layers of mist.
Nothing, however, could promise
adventure less than the dull and chilly
late March evening when the chapter
began. Nor could anyone be less on
the lookout for adventure, or even in
terest, than was Rupert Winter In
truth, he was listless and depressed.
When he alighted from his cab in
the great court OF the Rock Island sta
tion he found Haley, his old orderly,
with hand on the door-hasp. Haley's
military stoicism of demeanor could
not quite conceal a certain agitation
at least not from the colonefs shrewd
eye, used to catch the moods of his
soldiers. He strangled a kind of
sigh. Doesn't like it much more than
l." thought Rupert Winter. This is
mighty kind of you Haley" be said.
"Yes, sor," answered Haley, salut-
ing. The colonel grinned feebly.
Haley, busy repelling youthful por-
ter, did not notice the grin; he strobe
ahead with the colonel's world-scarred
hand-luggage. found an empty settee
beside one of the square-tiled columns
Of the waiting room and disposed his
burden on the iron-railed seat next the |
corner one. which he reserved for the !
colonel.
THE train amt in yet. colonel" said
he. 'Tll be telling you"
mo. Haley" interrupted the col
onel, whose lip twitched little; and |
he looked aside; best say goodbye |
now; don't wait The fact is, I'm
thinking of too many things you and ]
have gone through together" He
held out bis hand; Haley, with stony !
expression. gazed past 1t and saluted.
while he repeated: Yes. sor; I'll be
back to take the bags whin the trains
made up" Whereupon he wheeled and
made OF with speed.
IL. Al. n.r.a Annanod s.hatir,ntn