The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-05-08
The EVENING STORY
Love and Loneliness.
(By A. Howard Gunter.)

|
Alabama, and Willy Ben Bibb, who
| knew every man, woman child and
| dog in Bo1ogee, did not care for a
town that was chiefly made up of
strangers. He lived in one of those
elegant apartment houses where every
thing is done by magic. He pressed a
| button when he wanted anything and
another button when he did not want
anything. His laundry disappeared
and reappeared while he was at work.
Even his shoes were spirited away
while he slept and no matter how early
he rose never glimpse could he catch
of the bootblack. The elevator boy
| wore a mechanical highly glazed look,
the telephone girl was calm and re-
pelling. If he ventured salution, the
clerk at the desk gave him a reproying
impersonal bow. All of this was very
painful to the Willy Ben, who liked
human beings.
The truth is, he missed his mother
and his six pleasant sisters, but he
was capable and ambitious and as his
mothers cousins nephew had given
him a good position in his law office,
there seemed no excuse for a return
to Bologee. When he left home Willy
Ben had brought his bible, which he
did not read; his tennis racket, with
which he was making a reputation
among the athletic clubs, and-his
ideal. His mother had given him the
ideal when he was very tiny boy,
his sisters had fostered it, and strange
to say, it chung to him sturdily among
the temptations of the city. All this
partly explained his loneliness.
He was dressing for tennis one after
noon, suffering at the same time vio-
lent pangs of homesicknesS, when a
sharp tap sounded at the door. He
flung it open and found small mes
senger boy waving u telegram at him.
"Come at once" it commanded;
"Miss Walton seriously injured. Marie
lower east side. re
NOW who asked the puzzled Willy
Ben, sis Miss Walton? And who is
Marie Lorgey?' ' -
The messenger boy did not seem
to know; he did not seem to care, so
Willy Ben dismissed him and ponder
ed on the matter. There were his
name and address written clearly on
the envelope, yet he had never heard
of either of the women who were send
ing him this urgent call from the I'M
known. He concluded it was a plot to
trap him, though why he should be
trapped he could not imagine, for if
he had few friends in the city he had
to his knowledge no enemies. Obvious
ly, the thing to 10 w9S to ignore the
telegram, but Willy Ben was young
and hot-headed. ne stuffed his re-
volver into his pocket and decided to
walk into the trap.
The number given on the message
proved to be one of a row of vault
There was no one in sight, but when |
Willy Ben rang, the door flew open |
instantly and out of the blackness
within appeared two wild white eyes
and a row of cleaning teeth. Willy |
Ben recoiled, then realized that this |
negro was no apparition, but a ragged |
negro girl.
rs you Mr.. Bibb?" she questioned |
eagerly. 1--WE lowed you'd hurry.
Come this way. sub" She plunged |
back into the darkness. With some |
Willy Ben followed. Some |
where in the inky blackness they
up, up, up unfortunately they climbed, |
the ragged guide fitting on before.
At the top the girl stopped and
been kilt she whispered, in a scared
voice. Miss Marie's done gone for
the DOCTOR Before Willy Ben could |
stop her, she was gone tearing down
the steps and the blackness swal-
lowed her up.
Willy Ben walked into a small bare
room. In the center was a narrow
bed, with a figure thrown Imply across
it. He stole across the room and look
ed at her in wonder, She was a young
girl, no larger that his sister Bess,
and with beautiful hair like his sister
Evelyn's. 1t spread over the bed in dis
order and framed a sad, little lovely
neck and there were clotted blood on
her forehead. He asked himself in
horror, if she were dead.
If it were only a faint, mething
must be done for her, so he found a
basin and pouring some water into
it, knelt down by the bed and awk-
wardly began to battle the girls fore
head. So troubled was he that he
forgot to wonder why he had been
sent for, until his eyes fell on a pic
ture that hung by the bed. To his
utter establishment, Willy Ben found
his own image staring at him from
an ornate gilt frame. Then he looked
about the room and saw that he was
everywhere. When he won the big
tennis match from the champion of
the Enderby Athletic Association
every paper in New York had printed
his photograph and here they all were,
on walls and tables and dresser, the
only pictures in thc room.
His address was printed under one
of them and Willy Ben could now
easily understand why the landIady
had sent for him. But he had never
seen the girl on the bed, he was sure I
Of that, and why she had lined her
walls with his photograph? There
could be only one explanation, Willy
Ben was q strong, well-built SIX
footer, but he was not handsome, and
to find that his rough hewn, freckled
had appealed to one fem
mine heart was - wonderful thing. A /.
deep crimson dyed his tanned cheeks
The stairs began to creak and a
wheeling sounded regularly from be-
low. Mrs. Lorgey and the doctor, he
supposed it must be. They puffed intoI
the room large 0ilv U0uaan ,