The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-12-11
LLOYD OSBOURNE

Copyright. 1911, by the Bobbs-MerrfIi Company
 ed by the possibilities of Manaswan- l yes, sir; very much impressed. Al l this Matt walked up and cultivated MT 1 Bates as potential dispenser of jobs
 grew very animated and friendly anC
 was more than pleased to learn thai
 Mir. Bates company maintained the
 principle of the 'Eopen shop
 Here was certainly a chance for Q
 nonunion man, or a shadowy chance
 anyhow, and Matt, with shoe factory | possibilities dancing in his head, ab
 sorbed himself in the conquest of MT
 Bates. After supper, over pipe and
 cigar, he continued the good work,
 even preaching the subject tentatively
 and receiving encouragement.
 With a feeling that he already had a bulldogish grip on the shoe busi-
 ness, Matt said good night and went up to his room, more than satisfied with his evenings work. As he lit a
 match, however, and touched. it to the
 gas, he was confronted by a sight that drove all these reflections from his
 head. The mattress was tumbled and
 bare; the bureau drawers were open;
 the room had been searched in his
 absence, and the moment he recovered
 from his astonishment he knew by
 whom. They had been there, seeking
 cIew, a scrap of paper, anything that
 might put them on John Mort's track Impelled by an unaccountable instinct he ran to the window and looked out
 There below him under the street lamp
 were two men fin close conversation. All atlonce they turned and gazed up ward,a revealing the faces of MT Bates and Mir. Kay, and then they passed on and were lost in the dim street
 The next morning Matt was scarcely surprised to learn that Bates had de parted. The representative of the shoe company was no more-in any boarder sense-and all that remained of him was a two-dollar bill on his dresser, and Miss Gibbs recollection of sundry creakings and tiptoeings in the middle of the night. Yes, he had vanished, that quiet 1eferential, gray haired per son with the gold tooth, and with him also vanished Matt's job in the my thicaI shoe factory. The marve1ing boarders would have marveled more could they have known of Matt's dev- astated room, but this he kept to him self, and professed to be as much in the dark about Mir Bates as any one else.
 Afterward he sallied forth in his best clothes, and as spruce and we'll groomed as he could make himself, to seek work. The first place he tried was. Mr. Beckles' bank, a small brick structure with plate glass windows and a red headed cashier in a cage. MT Beckles received Matt eRusively in an inner office, proffered a chair, and seemed readier than ever to talk about south sea maids, and the respective aI1urements of Manihikf and Uahfne. The stout old dreamer was frankly and unpleasantly gross. Matt, though far from sQueamish, was disagreeab:y eGected. The atrocious hypocrisy of the old fellow jared on him. He would have been wiser in his own interest had he pretended to a greater en- thusiasm Instead, he switched off to the subject of his job with sudden ness that made the great Turk cr1m- son to the ears and assume an expres- sion of detected guilt. I
 Matt left not only without a job but with the consciousness of an active ill will behind him. He was disquieted, too, to learn that in spite of his re iterated denials he was regarded as rich man, and, if not actually a Kanaka king, had the reputation of owning vast and far away estates in the south Pacific. MT. Beckles had been shocked | really shocked-and bitterly offended, | too, at the truth. He would have parted easily with $1 ,OOO to a swindler, but for the honest man in dire need of work he had nothing save a curt i good day.
 In Anderson's office Matt experience ed similar social tumble and a simi- l lar rejection. The engineer was at | first incredulous and then downright | rude, for he also had a shattered n- | fusion. As. Matt left, flushed with anger and in Anderson's eyes con vtcted cheat, he perceived that he had B better chance with strangers than with those he deemed his friends. The telephone superintendent, to whom he applied next, had no acquaintance with him, and in consequence was quite %civiI. Courtesy was about all he had to offer for the company wass full up'' and had linen to burn.' With this forcefuI colloquialism Matt was speeded on his way again to try for l spot where the fires of commerce burned less brightly.
 Of course he could have gone to Daggancourt, but at that his pride lrew the line The old mulatto, con ;idering himself deeply i'll used. had ,hrunk into his shell and adopted q nien of frozen reproach. He had even