The Washington herald., 1914-04-08
THE DRUG
TRAFFIC

TIE boy sat up in bed and listened.
A. he bent forward. his ears caught the
sounds Of a door opening and cautious
footsteps ecbolng weirdly in the stiffness
OF the great house. He struck g match
and glanced at the clock above the foot
OF the bed; Il was past midnight and
Ralph could not understand why any one
should prowi about the house at that
hour
Then q sieh. euavering. trembling
Eroau wrung from aching depths. q mere
1ntter Of choking emotions that vibrat-
ed strangely in the darkness Some one
had passed lis room, and Ralph felt a
queer dread and tormenting suspicion
creep over him
He dressed hurriedly. descended the
stairway. and glanced down the street
In the ehadowy light OF a waning moon
he saw q slender figure Fastening away.
ssLuciiieF' he cried. For an instant
the Girl turned her head slightly, then
resumed hsr flight with greater speed.
The boy, as he ran in pursuit knew dimly
there were anguish, torment. and some
thing of the terror Of the haunted in her
motions. For many blocks he followed
the feeing figure, then she stopped In
front of q hoveI far removed from the
fashionable street they had left behind
them, hesitzfed for an instant, and van
ished IN Q dark alley. Something about
the place seemed strangely familiar TO
Ralph as he followed her cautiously.
Three raps sounded somewhere In the
darkness, and after few minutes
light typinkIed in the house and mans
voice demanded impatiently who was
there and what was wanted The girl
replied IN enguished begging tones and
q beam Of lignt revealed q mans face
as the door was opened to admit her.
Ralph quickly lodged. Into the thick
shadows beside the wall and peered
into the room.
Suddenly he remembered. The cold
sneer IN the face Of the man within the
hovel brought back to him the memory
Of another night when his mother, groan-
ing in agony on the tumbled bed, had
begged him 10 get her fresh supply Of
the cursed stun the man was now hand
ing TO Lucille. He could still hear the
sick woman's cracked. hollow voice: he
could still see her sunken eyes with their
wild unearthly luster. She had clutched
at her throat and torn franticaIly her
clotted strands of hair, and he had been
frightened. There was not a penny in the
house and he had gone to this same how
el and begged the man for a trifie of the
stun that would have meant few more
months, perhaps years, Of life for his
mother. He had been refused and de-
nounced as a dirty little beggar. and dur
ing the long night that followed his
mother had groaned out her life.
The boy heart in him ached as he saw
Lucille sniff at the stuff. As he looked
on with mist in his eyes. the scene within
seemed to embody all the tears, all the
groans. all the agonies of life He felt
a wild impulse to rush in and fling him
self at the drug dealers thoat. But just
then the door opened and Lucille stepped
ont. He snatched at her coat and cried
her name as she rushed past him, but
with a little frightened scream she tore
herself away and fed.
He walked home slowly, a shivering
,2itif1i thing. Now that he knew, he
ust help. Lucille had been kind TO him
pee that day when she and her sweet
heart had caught the druggist in the sct
OF handing him the little white envelope