Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-11-21
Chester Ken, shook his head.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Tho AstroIoger's Tale.
N RIDNIGHT found Kent in his
lNI hotel room. knock brought
him to the door.
ct .atter for vou ANNOUNCE
CHAPTER XVIII.

MI hotel room. A knock brought
him to the door.
Letter for you" anuounc-
ed the messenger boy
What Preston Jax had to say was,
first. in the form of a very brief note:
xecond. I'm the shape of a formida BILE
looking document. The note began
Esteemed sir" concluded Yours re-
morsefully'' and set forth in somewhat
exotic language that the writer. fear
ing a lapse OF courage that might con-
fuse his narrative when he should
come to give IL, had taken pen in
hand to commit il to writing and
would the recipient kindly pardon
hasteT' Herewith twenty-one typed
pages.
"Qlite enough" said Chester Kent.
and dived into the turbid flood of
words. And behold, AS he turned so
TO speak, the corner OF the narrative
the current became suddenly clear.
The reader ran through it with in
creasing absorption. Preston Jax,
whose real name was John Preston,
had, after a rebellious boyhood run
away to sea, lived two years before
the mast. picked up a smattering of
education. been assistant and capper
for a magnetic healer and had finally
formulated a system of astrological
prophecy that won him a slow but in
creasing renown.
This Astraea affair looked good
from the first So began Preston
JaN's confession, as beheaded and
stripped down by its editor 1T looked
like one of the best. You could smell
money in il with half a nose. Her first
letter came in on a Monday, recollect.
Irene, my assistant, had put the red
pencil on il when she sorted out the
mail TO show it was something special.
But don't get her into this, Professor
Kent If you do it's all off, jewels and
all. Irene has always been for the
straight star business and forecast
game and no extras or side lines. Be
sides. we were married last week.
"She quoted poetry. swell poetry.
First off she signed herself An Adept
/ gave her the Personal No. and fol-
lowed it up with the Special Friendly
No. 3. Irene never liked that No. 3.
She says It's spOony. Just the same.
IL fetches them-but not this one She
began to get personal and warm heart
ed, all right. and answered up with
the kindred soul racket But come TO
Boston? Not a move, Said she
couldn't. There were reasons. Ii look
ed like the old game-fiitter headed
wife and jealous husband. Nothing in
that game unless you go in for the
straight holdup. And blackmail was
always too strong for my taste. So l
did the natural thing-gave her special
readings and doubled on the price.
She paid like n lamb.
Then. blame If it didn't slip out
she wasn't married at all, Host that
letter. 1t. was kind of endearing.
Irene put up n howl. 1t was getting
too personal for her taste. 1 told her
j would cut it out. Then / gave my
swell lady another address and wrote
her for picture. Nothing doing. But
she began to hint around at a meeting.
One day n letter came with a hundred
dollar bill i'm IL. Loose. too. just like
you or ME might send a two cent
stamp. For expenses she wrote. and
/ was to come Mt once. Our souls had
returned TO recognize and join each
other. she said. Here is the only part
of the letter / could dig up from the
wastebasket.'
Here a page was pasted upon the
document.
You have pointed out to me that
our stars. swinging in mighty circles,
are rushing on to a joint climax. To
gether we may force open the doors
to the past and sway the world as we
sought to do in bygone days
And so on and cetera,' continued
the narrative. We'll, of course, she
was nutty-that is, about the star bust
ness. But that don't prove anything.
The dippiest star chaser / ever worked
was the head of a department in one
of the big stores, and the fiercest little
business woman in business hours you
ever knew. That was the letter she
first called me Hermann in and signed
Astraea to. Said there was no use pre-
tending to conceal her identity any |
longer from me. Seemed to think /
knew all about it That Jared me
some And with the change of writ |
ing in the signature, it all looked pref /
ty queer. You remember the last let