The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1911-03-06

agraph even when they burn down.
1t was smelly. The Kitchen Joined the
dining room, and the dining room the
office, which was half bar room,
with few boxes of saWdust mathe-
matlcally arranged along the walls.
There were many like IT up and down
the coast. There were pictures on
the walls of terrible wrecks at sea.
naval battles and race horse or
two.
The landlord himself lifted Fitzger-
aids bag to the counter.
"a room for the night and supper,
right away"
Here, jimmy called the landlord
to a growing, numbering boy, take
this satchel UP to number five"
The boy went his way. eying the
labels respectfully and with some awe
This was the third of its kind he had
ported upstairs in the past twenty
four hours.
Fitzgerald cast an idle glance al
the longers. There we're half dozen
OF them, some of them playing cards
and some displaying talent on pool
table. badly worn and beer stained.
There was nothing distinctive about
any of them, excepting the little man
who was reading an evening paper
him was pair OF bright eyes. Be-
hind their goid-rimrned spectacles
they did not waver under Fitzgerald's
scrutiny; so the latter dismissed the
room and its company from his mind
and proceeded into dinner. AS he
was late. he dined alone on mildly
warm chicken, greasy potatoes and
muddy coffee. He was used often to
worse fare than this, and no COM
plant was even thought of. After
he had changed his linen he took the
road to the house at the top of the
hill. Now. then, what sort of an af-
fair was this going to me. such as
would bend q girl OF her bearing to
speak to him on the street? More
over, at n moment when he was play
ing a grown-up child's game? She had
known that he was prevaricating
when he had stated that he repre-
sented charitable organizations; and
he knew that she knew he knew 1t.
What, then? 1t could not be a Joke;
women never rise to such extravagant
heights. Pirates and treasures; he
wouldn't have been surprised at all
had Old Long John Silver hobbled
out from behind any one of those
vine grown fences and demanded his
purse.
once he stumbled over loose board
In the wooden walk. II the admiral
had been the right kind OF. philanthro-
pist he would have furnished stone.
But then. it was one thing to give n
country town something and another
to force the town council into ac-
cepting it. The lamp posts, also of
wood, stood irregularly apart, often
less than a hundred feet and some
times more. lighting nothing but their
immediate vicinity. Fitzgerald could
see the lamps plainly but could sep
arate none OF the objects round or
beneath. That liz why nc did not see
the face of q man who passed him In
a hurry. He never forgot n face, If 1t
were a mans; his only difficulty was
In placing it at once. Up to this
time one woman resenbled another:
feminine faces made no particular
impression on his memory. He would
have remembered the face of the man
who had just passed. for the very
fact that he had thought of ii often.
The man had come into the dim ra-
dance of the far light. then had melt
ed into the biaekness of the night
again. leaving as sign Of his pres
ence the ereak Of his shoes and the
aroma of a cigarette, .-.......
ITO Be Continued.1