The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-07-02
CHAPTER xvIII.


 --
 CRATER XVIII.
 The AstroIogar's Tale.
 R MIDNIGHT found Kent in his NH hotel room A knock brought lV him to the door
 Letter for you announc- ed the messenger boy
 What Preston Jax had to say was, first in the form of a very brief note; second. in the shape of formidable looking document The note began s'Esteenaed sir" concluded Yours re- norsefully'' and set forth in Somewhat exotic language that the writer, fear ing q lapse of courage that might con fuse his narrative when he should come to give 1t, had taken pen ip hand's to commit it to writing and would the recipient kindly pardon hastBT' Herewith twenty-one typed pages
 @Qute enough said Chester Kent. nmd d1ved Into the hrbid flood of words. And beholds As he turned. so to speak, the corner of the narrative the current became suddenly clear.
 The reader ran through it with in creasdng absorption Preston Jax, whose real name was John Preston,
 
 away to sea, lived two years before the mast picked up smattering of education, been assistant and capper for a magnetic healer and had finally formulated a system of astrological prophecy that won him slow but i'm creasfng renown-
 -eThas Astraea affair looked good from the frst.n So began Preston Jaxss confession, as beheaded and stripped down by its editor. s.It looked like one of the best You could smell money in it with half nose. Her first letter came in on a Monday, recoI1 act- Irene. my assistane. had put the red pencil on it when she sorted out the mail to show 1t was something special. But don't get her into this, Professor Kent If you do It's all of, 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.
 ssShe quoted poetry, swell poetry. 1 First of she signed herself An Adept. : I gave her the Personal No. and fol- lowed 1t up with the Special Friendly No. g.. Irene never liked that No 8 She says it's spOony. Just tho same, it fetches them-but not this one She began to get personal and warm heart | cQr | the kindred soul racket. But come to Boston? Not 3 noveI Said she l couldn't. There were reasons It look ed like the old game-ditter headed wife and Jealous husband. Nothing in that game unless you go in for the l straight holdup And blackman was 1 always too strong for my taste So I l did the natural thing-gaye her special readings and doubled on the price. She paid like lamb.
 ."Then, blame if it didn't slip out she wasn't married at all! I lost that letter. It was kind of endearing. Irene put up howl. It was getting too personal for her taste. I told her would cut 1t out. Then I gave my swell lady another address and wrote her for picture. Nothing doing But she began to hint around at meeting. One day letter came with a hundred dollar bill in 1t. Loose, too, just like 1 you or me might send a two cent stamp. For expenses she wrote, and | to come at 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 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,p continued the narrative. ''We1l, of course, she was nutty-that is, about the star busi ness. But that don't prove anything The dippiest star chaser ever worked was the head of department in one of the big stores, and the dercest 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 pret ty queer. You remember the last let ter with the copperplate writing name at the bottom? Well, they all cam, that way after this; the body of tn. letter very bold and careless; signature written in an entirely different hand.
 But hundred dollar bills loose in let ters mean a big stake I wrote her would come, and I signed it Her mann,' just to play up to her lead Irene got on and threw fit She sait her woman's intuition told her ther' was danger in it. Truth is, she wal stuck on me herself, and I was on her but we did not find it out until aftel the crash. So was all for pry1na Astraea loose from her money if I haf to marry her to do it She wrote som. slush about the one desperate pIung, f