Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1909-09-30
CHAPTER XIV.
I[coNTINUED.l

~ SAoAa was pullluS SlOW1y 1ulO
the station when he reluctantly aban-
doned his latest u%nfeasible scheme for
shaking off the little Englishman and
concluded that their salvation was
only to be worked out through ever
lasting vigilance, incessant movement
and the favor of the blind goddess
Fortune.
He saw nothing of Hobbs as they
alighted and fastened from the sta
ton and hardly had time to waste
looking for him since their train had
failed to make up the precious ten
minutes. Consequently he dismissed
h fellow from his thoughts until
with Brussels lingering in their men,
cries a garish vision of brilliant
streets and glowing cafes, glimpsed
furtively from their cab windows dur
ing it's wild dash over the broad mid
city boulevards-at midnight they set
tied themselves in a carriage of the
Bruges express. They We're speeding
along through the open country With
a noisy %clatter; then a minutes inves-
tigation sufficed to discover the mate
of the Alethea serenely %ensconced in
the coach behind.
The little MAJ seemed rarely COM
placent and %impudently greeted Kirk
woods scoWling visage as the latter
peered through the window in the
coach door, with a smirk and a wag-
giSh of his hand. The American
by main strength of will power mas
tered an impulse to enter and wiring
his neck and returned to the girl more
disturbed than he cared to let her
know.
There resulted from his review Of
the case but n plan for outwitting
MI. Hobbs, and that lay in trusting to
his confidence that Kirkwood and Dor
othy Calendar would proceed as far
: toward Ostend as the train would take
them-namely, to the limit Of the run,
Bruges.
Thus inspired, Kirkwood took coun-
sci with the girl, and when the train
paused at Client they made an unos-
tentatious exit from their coach, find
ing themselves when the express had
rolled on into the west upon a station
platform in a foreign city at nine min
utes past 1 o'clock In the morning, but
at length without their shadow. Mr..
Hobbs had gone on to Bruges.
Kirkwood sped his journeyings with
an unspoken malediction and collected
himself to cope with a situation which
was to prove hardly more happy for
them than the espionage they had just
.eluded. The primal flush of triumph
w6ioh h0d c0t1Jrotod tho Arnrioop mo-
humor on this signal success proved
but fictive and transitory when in
quiry of the station attendants educed
the information that the two earliest
trains to be obtained were the 500 for
Dunkerque and the 5:37 for Ostend. A
minimum delay Of four hours was to
be endured in the face of many con-
tingent features s%ingularly unpleasant
to contemplate. The station waiting
room was on the point Of closing for
the night. and Kirkwood, alarmed by
the rapid ebb of the money he had
taken from Calendar, dared not subject
his finances to the strain of a nights
lodging at osae Of Clients hotels. He
found himself forced to be cruel to he
AAAAAA ~ lhS S1l liA bOioll1s . SASEl-
full acquiescence to their sole alterna-
tive of tramping the street until day
break did nothing to alleviate Kirk
woods evaporation.
1t was permitted them to occupy Il
bench outside the station. There the
girl, her head pillowed on the treas
ure bag, mapped uM~asily, while Kirk
wood plodded rcstlessly to and fro,
up and down the platform, adding his
poor, weary wits with the problem of
the future-not so much his own as
the future of the unhappy child for
whose welfare he had assumed re-
s~ponsibility. Dark for both of them,
in his understanding tomorrow doomed
darkest for her.
Not until the gray, formless light of
the dawn dusk was wavering over the
land did he cease his perambulations.
Then a gradual stir of life in the city
streets, together with the appearance
- of a station porter or two, opening the
waiting rooms and preparing them
against the traffic of the day, warned
him that he must rouse his charge.
He paused and stood over her, reluc.
tant to disturb her rest, such as it was,
his heart torn with compassion for
her, his soul imbittered by the cruel
irony Of their estate.
If what he understood were true, a
kings ransom was secreted within the
cheap imitation leather satchel which
served her for a pillow. But it awaited
her nothing for her comfort. If what
he believed were true, she was abso-
lutte mistress of that treasure of jew
els, yet that night she had been forced
to sleep on a hard, uncushioned bench
In the open air, and this morning he
must waken her to the life of a hunt
ed thing. \ week ago she had had at
her command every luxury known to
the civilized world; today she was
friendless but for his inefficient, worth
less self and in q strange land. A
week ago, had he known her then, he
had been free to tell her of his love.