Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-11-06

nothing new. He had already heard it
several times before that night 1t was
Mr. Challoners step, and every time IT
| passed, he had rustled his papers or
scratched vigorously with his pen. He is
keeping watch for Oswald" was his
| thought "They fear a sudden end to
| this. No one, not the son Of my mother
knows me. Do know myself?"
Four o'clock! The light was still burn
ing, the pile of letters he was writing in
creasing.
Five o'clock! A rafting shade betrays
an open window. No other sound disturbs
the quiet of the room 1t is empty now;
but Mr.. Challoner, long since satisfied
that all was well, goes by no more. ST.
lence has settled upon the hotel-that
heavy silence which precedes the dawn.
There was silence in the streets also.
The few who were abroad, crept quietly
along. An electric storm was in the air
and the surcharged clouds hung heavy
and low, biding the moment of outbreak
man who had left a place of many
shadows for the more open road paused
and looked up at these clouds; then went
calmly on.
Suddenly the Shrek of an approaching
train tears through the valley. Has II
a call for this man? No. Yet he pauses
In the midst of the street he Is crossing
and watches, as a child might watch,
for the flash OF its lights at the end OF
the darkened vista. 1t comes-filing the
empty space at which he stares with
moving life-engine, baggage car and a
long string of Pullmans. Then all is dark
again and only the noise of its slacken-
ing wheels comes to him through the
night. 1t has stopped at the station. A
To-, Il, .
and the quickly lessening rumble of it's
departure is all that remains OF this vision
Of mans activity and ceaseless expect
ancy. When II is quite gone and all is
quiet, a sigh falls from the mans lips
and he moves on, but this time. for some
unexplaintable reason. in the direction OF
the station. With lowered head he passes
along. noting little TIL he arrives within
sight of the depot where some freight Is
being handled, and a trunk or two
wheeled down the platform. No sight
could be more ordinary or unsuggestive,
but it has its attraction for him, for he
looks up as he goes by and follows the
passage of that truck down the platform
till it has reached the corner and disap-
peared. Then he signs again and again
moves on.
A cluster Of houses. one of them open
and lighted. was all which lay between
him now and the country road. He was
hurryng past for his step had uncon-
sciously quickened as he turned his back
upon the station, when he was seized
again by that mood of curiosity and
stepped up to the door from which light
issued and looked In. a common eating
room lay before him. with rudely spread
tables and one very sleepy waiter taking
orders from a new arrival who sat with
his back to the door. Why did the lonely
man on the sidewalk start as his eye fell
on the latter's commonplace figure, a
hungry man demanding breakfast in a
cheap. country restaurant? His own
physique was powerful while that of the
other looked slim and frail But fear
was in the air, and the brooding of
tempest anects some tenperaments in q
totally unexpected manner. AS the man
inside turns slightly and looks up, the
master figure on the sidewalk vanishes
and his step, II any one had been inter-
ested enough to listen, rings with a new
note as II turns into the country road It
has at last reached. n
But no one Needed The new arrival
munches his roll and waits impatiently
Tor his cotfee while without, the clouds
pile. soundlessly in the sky one Of them
taking the form of huge hand with
clutching fingers reaching down into the
hollow void beneath.
To Be Concluded Tomorrow.