Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-05-15
CHAPTER Nv.
The Ways Of Wayne Craighill.

Four days passed. Wayne Craighill
ceased twirling and knotting the curtain
cord and held his right hand against the
strong light Of the office window to test
his nerves. The fingers twitched and
trembled. and he turned away impatient
ly and flung himself into a chair by his
desk. hidRg his hands and their telltale
testimony deep in his pockets. Half a
dozen times he shook himself petulantly
and attacked his work with frenzied
eagerness. as though to be rid of IT I'm a
single squirt: but after an hour thus flu
tilely spent he threw himself back and
glared at a large etching, depicting a
storm-driven galleon riding wildly under
a frightened moon. that hung against the
dark-olive cartridge paper on the wall
above his desk. Shadows appeared now
and then on the ground-glass outer door
and fingered several times, testifying to
their physical embodiment by violently
Selling and rafting the knob. Craighill
scowled at every assault. and presently
when some importunate visitor had both
shaken and kicked the door, he yswned
and sought the window again, looking
moOdily down. as from a hilltop, upon
the city of his birth, where practically
all his life had been spent. the City of
the Iron Heart, lying like wedge at
the confluence of the two broad rivers.
Wayne had used himself hard. as the
lines in his smooth-shaven face testifiea !:
but the vigor Of the Scotch-Irish stock
survived in him. and even today he car
ried his tall frame erectly. His head,
covered with brown hair in which there
was a reddish CLINT was really fine, and
his blue eyes. not just now at their clear
est had in them the least hint of the
dreamer. His suit of brown-a solid color
became him: he was dressed with an
added scrupulousness. as though in con-
fornity to an inner contritiOn and re-
Mobilization. He was in his thirtieth
year. but appeared older today AS his
gaze lay upon the drifting, shifting
smoke-cloud that hung above the greater
city.
The son of Col. Roger Craighill was in
evitably conspicuous person In his ma
tive city. and his dissipated habits had
long been the subject of despairing COM
of occasional lightly yelled sermons in
press and pulpit. Dick Wingfeld had
once remarked that 1t was too bad that
there were only Ten Commandments. as
Wayne Craighills possible infractions.
1t was Wingfield who named Wayne
Craighill the Blotter. in appreciation of
Wayne'S amazing capacity for drink; and
were merely an expression of the law of
compensation and were thrown into the
scale to Offset Col. Craighilrs nobility
and virtue. Whatever truth may lie i'm
this it is indisputabie that the elder
Craighilrs rectitude tended to heighten
the color of his sons iniquities.
The BIotter had been drunk again. This
is what would be said all over the
greater city. At the clubs it would be
remarked that he had also had a fight
with two policemen. and that he had
been put in pickle at the Country Club
and then smuggled to his Office to await
the arrival of Col. Craighin. who had
been to Cleveland to address something
or other. The nobler his fathers err
rands abroad. the wickeder were the
Blotter's diversions in his absences. The
last time that Roger Craighill had at
tended the General Assembly of the Pres
self by violating all the city ordinances
that interposed the slightest barriers to
the enjoyment Of life as he understood it.
But the Blotter. it is only just to say.
was still capable OF shame. His physical
and moral reaction today We're acute;