Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1913-06-07

! l DdQ even Dee0 dDle 10 tell VIVA
their best girls looked like. Blu
here"
Miss Clement shrugged her shout
ders, pursed her lips and spread forth
her hands to the drizzling rain.
turned a pair of inquiring eyes. to her
What was the troubie?" asked.
Simply this: that mans face might
as well have been dough, as far as any
expression was concerned. There did
not seem to be single bit of express
sion to the eyes, and his face did not
change once. 1t interested me, that
countenance, l studied it and studied
it, yet | could derive nothing from it.
| determined that as soon as the mas
sage was over. ] would get my hair
| combed for about the 900th time and
see if conversation would do any good
And for half hour talked, trying
to draw him out, endeav0ring to learn
whether or not he knew anything of
| literature; but his answers were al
most invariably in monosyllables.
gave up the attempt and left the shop
THAT night as I was returning to
my apartment, 1 CHANGED, in changing
cars, to again pass the little shop
| where | had wasted so much OF my
| good time. ] was tired, more than
| that, l was weary, ready almost to go
to the captain and tell him that had
made failure of everything and that
my great clue had been nothing more
than the wild dream of a woman's
brain, intangible, impractical 1t Was
just about at that moment that ]
noticed my shoe string had become
united. ] stopped to retie it, and as
rose, figure approached and passed
me. That figure | knew, there was
something about the general bearing
of the man that was familiar, mighty
had never seen the face before. True,
the contour was similar, the color of
the hair and the eyes was the same as
that of the man in the barbershop.
But that was all Almost involuntarily
turned and followed him a few steps.
Then | gasped. l heard him begin to
whistle the first few bars of The
Melody in F.
And then | understood | was on
the right track after all. Putting two
and two together, Judging from the va
rious descriptions of the men who had
been fieeced, here was a man who had
the power, seemingly, of not only
changing his face, but his whole
bearing whenever it suited his pur-
pose. / had studied his appearance in
the barbershOp, | had taken in every
detail of his clothing, and had it not
been for that and for that fact, too,
that | had seen him leaving the shop,
l never would have been able to rec
ognize him. But now l was sure!
"A great feeling of relief surged
through me; l knew now that l could !
go to the captain and tell him a diff !
ferent stbry from the one had been !
planning a short time before. More !
than that, l would be the means of |
bringing in a criminal who was dan
gerous in the extreme, who would rep |
resent all the finer arts of trickery |
and whom it would be a triumph to |
put behind the bars of penitentiary. |
Hurriedly | started toward my car, |
that l might hasten to police head
quarters and arrange for the arrest |
the next morning.
Then, just as suddenly. I halted, |
and although queer fear ran through |
me, could not help laughing at the
funny possibilities of the situation.
Just suppose" Miss Clement began
to chuckle as she thought of it, "just
suppose that this man should have
still another face which had never
been used, so to speak, and no one
could identify him? And that iden-
tity would be all upon which | could
have my case. had none of his para
phernalia, not witness had been able
to tell where he was taken when the
money machine did it's work and
ground out the supposed fortunes, and
so all | would have to show to a
court would be a group of disgruntIed
men who would swear that they had
been robbed but in a place they could
not point out and by a man they could
not identify. l decided all at once
that this was not time for making
arrests. There must be evidence and
it was up to little Alice to get it."
She smiled as she said that, and
for few moments we walked along
in the mist, l whistling, she taking
in the bright freshness of the trees
and the grass and shrubbery with her
liquid eyes. BY and by she
took up the thread OF her narrative.
Il resolved that if it took ME a
month, would get that man to talk to
me. And the next day | began my
campaign by walking into the barber
shop and climbing into his chair.
81 believe you are a wizard I said
to him.
WHY
. 'Why?' laughed. For three months
have been suffering from afternoon
headaches. Yesterday / came in here
and had you comb my hair. And when
walked out, my headache was gone.
I'm back for another dose of the same
"Oh, fiattery!" laughed Miss Gle {
ment, your power is greater than
even gold! My little speech pleased
him. He laughed and there came a
bit of the light to his eyes that had
,aop in tha,,, ~, tbo .trzox :