Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-01-04

dreamily wishing that another sale would be
made because his bank balance was down
to three thousand dollars, Arabela was tax
ing horseback ride with Lester, and Bur-
nah Jones, with few more gray hairs in his
head, was standing in the overhanging win
dow above the Port Hatch Land offices and
staring moodily up the street. Gay with
flower boxes were the shop buildings, due
to the Hatch Cup for which everyone
We'd, it being offered by the Colonel as an
annual prize for the best business floral dis
play. Gay with flowers were the electric
| light pillars, on each of which was an orna-
mental steel flower box, high above the
street, respondent with poisoning flowers
and dropping vines.
A half-dozen boats now stopped at Port
Hatch on their daily rounds; for it was a
show city of Puget Sound, and the believing
of their arrival no longer stirred the little
city to a state of curious excitement. Boats
came and went regularly, and not infre-
quently excursion steamers deposited chat
| tering crowds to view the much advertised
model city of the world. The keepers of
curio shops were the only ones that kept the
schedules; for whoever came carried away
the Indian souvenirs, the miniature totem
poles, the glass paper weights with pictures
of Colonel Hatch on the fire engine, and the
beautiful views of the "quaintest city on the
American continent
RURMAH, standing at the window, and
- worried over the Colonels latest an
nouncement, heard the whistle of an incom
| ing boat, and wondered if it would bring more
| investors. A short time later he shifted his
| head as does a warhorse seeming battle,
and screwed his eyebrows into a penetrating
stare as he saw group OF men slowly walk
|
| ties. Then, when they were almost beneath
his window, one of the men looked up, and
Burmah with start hastily drew back into
| the room and out of sight, and his face sud
denly lost color and expressed fear.
"Thornton!" he exclaimed. "Old man
| Thornton that l bunkoed out of thirty thou
sand on a fake reclamation scheme back
in Florida. And with him is Carleton
that l got for ten thousand in the Chicago
title game! And Sprague that trimmed on
the Pawnee reservation sale! All here IN
Port Hatch! It's the finish! l must duck!'
With surprising agility he stepped to the
private telephone that led to the offices be-
low and called UP Little Billy.
"If anyone asks for me today, say that
I'm not here he ordered. @And tell 'em
that I've gone to Seattle for three or four
days. Understand? All right Remember
three or four days
Then he slipped back to the window, and
was relieved when he saw the group of men
who had so disturbed him still sauntering
nonchalantly up the street and staring at
the beauty of the buildings that Hubbard
had created. He jumped to his dresser and
took from it three or four photographs, the
silver toilet set that Arabella had given
him as Christmas present, his bankbooks,
and few other little personal belongings.
Next he hurried into his luxurious bathroom
and took what he wanted from there, and
| then paused in front of his clothes closet.
One suit he took and threw into suitcase,
and looked regretfully at the Others.
Il can buy more, he muttered, and
closed the door. mo time to lose if | want
to catch the down boat on its return trip.
| Got to hustle now The games fnished!'
| IN five minutes more he was walking down
the street with his suitcase in his hand,
apparently the same busy little man that
was so familiar to everyone in Port Hatch.
And as he walked he looked neither to right
nor left, but kept his eyes straight ahead
and his lips tightly shut for even in his panic
he had time to regret this catastrophe of
blackened past lifting itself to confront him
in his prosperity. He dared not look at the
street he had come to admire and love. He
Sc +1,+ WOULD tn