Bisbee daily review., 1911-11-24
ing. after a good sleep, he would gsse ik cDHgiderziIWs.
CHAPTER XIX.

pitcher beside his bed. and gathered
 up the train of thought. where he had
 left it the night before He reviewed
 the easement of the financial strain.
 Things were mending at last While the going was stiu rough. the greatest dangers were already past.
 His mind moved on to the incident at the corner of the bar of the Par thenon, when the young athlete had turned his hand down. He was no longer stunned by the event, but be vas shocked and grieved, as only strong man can be. at this passing of his strength. He had always looked upon this strength of his as permau- ent and here. for years. it had been steadily oozing from him. As he had diagnosed it. he had come in from un- der the stars to roost in the coops of cities He had almost forgotten how 10 walk. He had lifted up his feet and been ridden around in automo- hiles, cabs and carriages. and electricl cars. He had not exercised and hel had dry-rotted his muscles with aleo-I hol. And was 1t worth it? What did all his money mean after all9 Dede was right 1t could buy him no moroI than one bed at a time, and at theI same time it had made him the abiect- est of slaves. It tied him fast. Which
 was better? he asked himself. All this was Dede's own thought It was what she had meant when she prayed he would go broke. He held up his offending right arm. It wasn't the
 same old arm. Of course she could
 not love that arm and that body as she bad loved the strong clean arm and body of years before. He didn't
 like that arm and body himself. A young whippersnapper had been able to take liberties with it. it had gone
 back on him. He sat np suddenly.
 No. he had gone back on it, He had
 gone back on himself He had gone
 back on Dede. She was right. a thou
 sand times right, and she had sense
 enough 10 know 1t. sense enough to
 refuse to marry a money-slave with a
 vhisky-rotted carcass.
 He got out of bed and looked at
 himself in the long mirrcr on tho wardrobe door He wasn't pretty The old-time lean cheeks were gone. These were heavy. seeming to hang down by their own weight. He looked for the lines of cruelty Dede had spoken of, and he found them. and he found tbe harshness in the eyes as we'll, the eyes that were muddy now after all the cocktails of the night before, and of the months and years before. He looked at the clearly defined pouches that showed under his eyes, and they shocked him. He rolled up the sleeve of his pajamss No wonder the ham. mer-thrower had put his hand down. Those weren't muscles. A rising tide of fat had submerged them. He stripped off the pajama coat. Again he was shocked, this time by the bulk of his body. It wasn't pretty Tho lean stomach had become a paunch The rigid muscles of chest and shoul- ders and abdomen had broken down into rolls of flesh. And this was age. Then there drifted across the field of vision of his minds eye the old man he had encountered at Glen Ellen. coming up the hillside through the fires of sunset. white-headed and eighty-four, in his hand the pail of foaming milk and in bis face all the warm glow and content of the passing summer day. That had been age Yes siree. eighty-four, and spryer than most he could hear thea old man say
 Next he remembered Ferguson, thes little man who had scuttIed into the road like a rabbit. the one-time man aging editor of a great newspaper, who was content to live in the chapar- ral along with his spring Of mountain water and his hand-reared and mani cured fruit trees Ferguson had solved I a problem. A weakllng and an alco- I holic, he had run away from the doc tors and the chicken-coop of a city. and soaked up health like a thirsty sponge. He sat down suddenly on the led, startled by the greatness Of the idea that had come 10 him He did not sit long His mind working in ifs customary way, like steel trap can vassed the idea in all ifs bearings. it Has big bigger than anything he had laced before. And he faced it square Iy. picked it up in his two hands and turned it over and around and looked at it The simplicity. of it delighted him Nc chuckled over it. reached his decision. aud began to dress. Midway Ia tho dressing he stopped in order to Ise the telephone.
 Dede was the first he called mp.
 Don't come 10 the office this morn. ug be said "Fm coming out to scs gou for a moment"
 He called up others He ordered bis motorear. To Jones he gave in strucgions for the forwarding Of Bob and Wolf to Glen Ellen Hogan be surprised by asking him Co look un he deed of the Glen Ellen ranch and make out a new one in Deds MasoD's name "Who?7- Hogan demanded.
 Dede Mason" Daylight replied im- perturbably phone must be iu- distinct this morning. D-e-d-e Ma son. a Got it?"
 Half an hour late1 he was flying out To Berkeley. And for the first time he big red car halted directly before he house. Dedo offered to receive him in the parlor. but he shook his head and nodded toward her rooms.