Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-01-14

turned to the waiting cab, fumbled for
change.
"Pll walk" he told the cabby, pay.
ing him off.
The hanson swept away to tune
of hammering hoofs; and quiet rested
upon the street as Kirllwood turned
the nearest corner, in an unpleasant
seemed hardly fair that he should
have been dragged into so promising
an adventure, by his ears $50 to put
it,, only to be thus summarily called
upon to write "Finis" beneath the
incident.
He rounded the corner and walked
halfway to the next corner, coming to
an abrupt and rebellious pause by the
entrance to covered alleyway, of
two minds as to his proper course OF
action.
In the background of his thoughts
Number 8, Frognall street, reared its
five-story facade, sinister and forbid
ding. He reminded himself of its I'M
lighted windows; of its sign, ITO be
let:'' of the effluvia of desolation that
had saluted him when the door swung
wide. A deserted house; and the girl
alone in it.--was it right for him 10
leave her SO?
CHAPTER ".
The covered alleyway gave upon
Quadrant News; OF SO declared a no.
tice painted on the dead wall of the
passage.
Overhead. complaining as it swayed
in the wind. hung the smirched and
weather-worn sign-board of the Hog
in-the-Pound public house; where
from escaped sounds of such reveiry
by night as is INDUCED in by the
British working-man in hours of ease.
At the curb In front of the house OF
entertainment, detected animals
dropping between their shafts, two
hansoms stood in waiting, until such
time as the lords of their destines
should SEQ fit to sally forth and in
flict themselves upon a cab-hungrey
populace AS kirkwood turned, a
third vehicle rumbled up out of the
news.
Kirkwood can close his eyes, even
at this late day, and both see and
hear it all again-even as he can see
the unbroken row of dingy dwellings
that lined his way back from Quadrant
News to Frognall street corner: all
drab and unkempt, all sporting in
their fan-lights the legend and lure,
rtp tic
For. between his curiosity about
and his concern for the girl, he was
being led back to Number 8, by the
nose, as it were-hardly willingly, at
best. Profoundly stupefied by the
contemplation of mis- own temerity, he
yet returned unfaltering. He who
had for so long plumed himself upon
his strict supervision of his personal
affairs and equally steadfast yuncon-
seriousness of his neighbours businesses
now found himself in the very act Of
pushing in where he was not wanted:
as he had been advised in well-nigh
as many words. He experienced an
effect of standing TO one side, a wit.
ness of his own folly, with rising won
der, unable to credit the strength of
the infatuation which was placing him
so conspicuously in the way of a
'snubbing.
If perchance he were to meet the
girl again as she was leaving Number
9-w1at then? The contingency dis
mayed him incredibly, In view of the
fact that it did not avail to make him
pause. To the contrary he disregard
ed it resolutely; mad, impertinent,
justified Of his unnamed apprehension,
or simply addled-he held on his way.
He turned flp Frognall street with
the manner of one out for leisurely
evening stroll Simultaneously, from
the farther corner. another pedestrian
dehouched into the thoroughfare-a
mere moving shadow at the distance,
brother to blacker shadows that
skulked in the fenced areas and I'M
lively entries of that poorly lighted
block. The hush was something be-
yond belief, when one remembered
the nearness of blatant Tottenham
Court road.
Kirkwood conceived wholly sense
less curiosity about the other way
farer The man was walleing rapidly
heels ringing with uncouth loudness,
cane tapping the tagging at brief in
tervals. Both sounds ceased abrupt
ly as their cause turned in beneath
one of the porticos. In the emphatic
and unnatural quiet that followed,
Kirkwood, stepping more lightly, fan
cied that another shadow followed the
first. noiselessly and with furtive
stealth.
Could it be Number ;ilto which
they had passed? The Americans
heart beat livelier tempo 1T the
suggestion If it had not :.oen Mum
Der 9--he was still TOO for away TO
tell-it was certainly one Of The
dwellings adjacent thereunto. The i'm
probable possibility (But WIZ improb-
able?) that the girl was being joined
by her father. or by friends, annoyed
him with illogical intensity. He mend
ed his own pace, designing ito pass
whichever house it might be before
the door should he closed; thought
better of this and slowed up again.
matchmaking himself with much ex-
cuse for being the inquisitive dolt
that he was.
Approaching Number 9 with laggard
4. e.. =. 4 l.. 4