The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-06-15
CONTINUED from last sunday,

scene OF literary carna8e WIN ono
brief paragraph In hand and the
paees strewing the floor. That one
paragraph stated that Preston Jax,
whose real name was John Preston.
had. after q rebellious boyhood, run
away to ID lived two years before
the mast, picked up a smattering OF
education, been assistant n capper
for q magnetic healer. and had finally
formulated a system OF astrological
prophecy that o him a slow but
system was to assign some particular
and often imaginary star to every sub
1ect, and, by q natural aptitude for
worming put secrets from the credu-
lOus, lead them along the celestial
paths Of mysticism to q point where he
could reach thedr pocketbooks. He
had been specially s~uccessful with wo-
men. Ono bit Of his philosophy Kent
had preserved unaitered.
when they do take hold, they swallow
the hook 70 deep that you're lucky to
It back at ali"
An hours work with q pencil that
should hAv0 been blue resolved the
document under Kent's skilful and
remorSeless edttorship. into its salient
elements. Obviously It was impossible
10 put It into alien hands for copy
Ing. Kent ordered up q typewriter
and ccptsd Il himself. the duplicate
ne enclosed In his letter to Hedgwick.
The original he put aside to sleep
upon. Thus II ran:
'~This Astraea affair looked good
froxn tho arat," 80 began Preston Jax's
confession. a. beheaded and stripped
down By IN editor. TT looked like
ono. OF tas best You could smell
money In 4 with half . nose Sho oit
0rst on one Of the occult ads-the
number four Of The OLD series, a u
ble-coluynn with display In heavy
faced italics and loaded out strong
That I'd always was q good woman
fetched. Her nrst letter came In on a
Monday, ! recollect. It was q big
mail. - There were q lot OF Curfositys
and q couple Of G~uspiciousea, and this
was ono Of half q dozen ! n the True
BeiieverH pile. Irene, my assistant.
had put the rod pencil on II. when
she sorted out the mail. to show II
was something special. But don't get
Aer into this, Professor Kent. II you
do. it's all on, jewels and all Irene
has always been for the straight star
business ana forecast game. and no
extras or side lines Besides, we were
married last week.
what attracted Irene's red pencil
and caught me right away was the
style OF the thing. He handwriting
wassclassy. The paper was elegant.
There was something rich about It all.
The was no Biddy. pinching out the
missis' stationery TO make q play with.
She quoted poetry. swell poetry. First
on she signed herself An Adept !
gave her the Personal. No. ), and FOL
lowed IL up with the Special Friendly.
No. 5. Irene never liked tnat NO. o.
She says it's spoony. Just the same.
II fetches them. But not this one.
She began 70 get PERSONA and warm
hearted all right and answered up
with the kindrsd-sou racKeI hus
ON to Bcstonf Not a mover said
she couldn't There were II
looked like the old ~gane-nikIer-
headed wife and Jealous husband
Nothing in that game, unless you 90
In for the straight holdup. And black
mall was always strong Tor my
taste. So ] did the natural thing:
gave her special readings n douoleo
on the price. h paid q lamb. :
Then. blame 7 dlunI sup OUT
she wasn't married a. AL. ! lost that
letter. II was ! OF
Irene put up . howl. II was getting
too personal Tor her taste. l told her
] would cut It out Then J gave my
sweal lady another ADDRESS n wrote
her for q picture. Nothing doing. But
she began TO hint around at q meeting.
One day q letter came with q nundred-
dollar bill In It Loose. too, just hke
you or me might send a two-csn.
stamp. For expenses she wrote, n
! was to come at ono Our SOU had
returned to recognize and Join each
other. she said. Here - tho only part
OF the letter ] could dig up rom the
waste basket;