Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-12-21

wand that magicians may use. the one
that IS engraved, and the response was as
immediate as it had been with the men
of the Hercules He walked aft and waved
his hat at the latter in farewell, and looked
down the sound. As if relentlessly pur-
suing him, he saw the regular boat again
racing toward them, and she seemed to
be going faster than ever; but now he
discovered that the Mary ID. was much
faster than the Hercules, and that the men
aboard her were intent on repaying him for
his brides. Again they were racing away
from the slow sound boat and again she was
dropped from sight The afternoon sun was
waning in glory of red haze, and the Olym-
pics were donning purple robe in prepare
ton for the night. Although Port Hatch
was no longer distant, he still had fighting
chance. That he might lose no time he went
back to the pilothouse and paid for the short
charter, after which he went down and pa
tiently waited for the high headland that
would tell him his race was over.
TT was sunset when he leaped to the wharf
and looked around him. He did not stop
to think of the changes that had come over
Port Hatch since he had first landed there.
The old temporary wharf had given way to
a substantial one, and other wharveS were
being put out, wharves of stone and con-
crete placed to stay through all time. Two
schooners were being unloaded on one hand,
and farther up squatty black tramp freight
er was hosting out her cargo to the accom-
paniment of grooming, pulling, steam
winch. Electric lights were beginning to
shine duly here and there, as they fought
for supremacy with the oncoming dusk. A
II
on the side of the cliff toward the lofty top
of the peninsula and everywhere that one
might look could be seen the skeletons of
buildings in course of erection, buildings
being painted, or buildings garish in their
new colors. He knew that already the town
boosted two taxicabs, run by a man whom
he had induced to see the advantages of
having the first cab line in a city; but neither
of them was in sight From wharf bulletin
board big bill stared him in the face an
nouncing that on the following day there
would be mass meeting of citizens to or
ganize Port Hatch into a city proper.
He pulled away up the street, climbing
the switchback road. He did not pause in
front of "The Banner" office, although
within he heard the clicking of linotype
machine grinding out Picks editorials and
flamboyant articles that he, Burmah Jones,
hid written under midnight incandescent.
He did not hesitate for an instant in front
of the building, built after the "arts and
crafts beautiful" style, wherein he knew was
to be located the Port Hatch Club. He
smiled grimly when he thought how he had
tried to prevent the Colonel from that ex-
travagance, and how the Colonel had as
sured him that he had always wanted to be
the founder of club, devoted to gentle
men, wherein kindly memories may be cher
ished long after the founder has passed to
his rest" People were moving homeward
through the debris of the streets; carpenters
and masons mostly, lured to this city of
promise by the certainty of work at boom
wages. He was glad that he met no one who
recognized him; for what he wanted most of
all was to reach the Colonel, talk with him,
and then to escape back to the rooms above
Hubbard's quarters, one of which was kept
for his own use.
Out toward the very point of the bluff he
made his laborious way, and the shadows
were growing more enveloping and the lights
more distinct as he advanced. The new
palace on the hill, the residence of the Colo
mel and Arabella, was in glow, and he Won
dered what it could mean. Away below him
he heard a steamer whistling, and stopped
to breathe and look downward and grin; for,
after all, he had beaten Conover's message.
The emissaries from Omaha would have to
pay full value when they arrived, that much