The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-03-01
Getting at
A Secret
By DWIGHT NORWOOD

Jim Hathaway and I We're not only
chuins but occupied rooms IN the same
bachelor apartment house. Jim was
u secretive chap and especially fond Of
making a mystery Of what was an
ordinary happening. pOked fun at
him for doing &c. but this seemed to |
have no effect In stopping him from
continually trying to impress me with |
his ability to do things without my i
having any knowledge OF them. Then |
when the denouement came he would |
assume an air Ut superiority as much |
~ to say, Il don't 60 about blabbtng |
Of my affairs."
There came dime when believed
that Jim had an affair on hand with q |
girl. The reason why ! came to this
conclusion was that he began to show
contempt for women. The best
thing a fellow can do with q girl" he
would say. lis to let her alone. By
doing % be avoids the expense Of the
alter tickets and lowers. ouly to hnd
out later that she's encouraging some
other fellow" l was not interested In
Jim's love affairs, but l saw no reason
why he should take pains to deceive
me In the matter. However. 1t did
not trouble me that he thought proper
to do SO. was very fond Of him
and considered his idiOsyncrasy Of no
real importance. not doubling but that
| had others myself Just rs absurd.
Jim and I occupied a common living
room. and one evening when we were
about to go out to dinner together Jim
picked up an envelope that had been
left by the pOstman during the day.
unsealed, and took out a booklet ad-
vertising some kind OF goods. l no
ticed him looking ut 1t, or some part
Of 1t, with apparent interest; then he
| tossed II In the wastebasket
The next morning | happened to go
to that same wastebasket to recover a
bit of paper | had thrown In 1t con-
tanning an address | stumbled on the
envelope containing the advertisement
and noticed that 1t was addressed In a
feminine hand. l thought nothing Of
this. since girls are usually employed
to address advertising matter. and was
hunting on for my paper when ! raked
up the advertisement. II gave a list
Of articles that would alone interest q
woman. This set me to thinking why
1t should have been addressed to
man. While meditating on this no.
ticed some lead pencil marks on the
booklet They were =. 10. ~.
| hoA hmm fnR WhQf 1
have said about Jim and his mysteries
It would not hive occurred to me that
these figures were not merely some
thing put there by some unknown per
son for some very ordinary purpose.
but intended for q cipher. First. ad'
vertisements Of especial interest to wo-
men are not usually mailed to men.
This suggested that the booklet had
been received by q woman and had
been used for cipher purposes BY the
recipient What better method for com
munication could there be? Whether
the figures had meaning or not. 70.
solved that II ever got girl whose
parents would not permit me to visit
her ! would use this plan Of cOmmuni-
cation.
| tried hard not to pry into Jim's AZ
fairs. but the puzzle was too fascinat.
Ing for me to let alone. Besides, there
was the temptation to beat Jim at his
own game. What 4 16 ~ meant
haunted me till hit upon the fact that
the present month was August, the
eighth month In the year. The present
day was the 18th. Did not the fig.
ures contain an appointment? II 90, II
was for Aug. 10 at half past (proba.
bly, In the evening".
could not quite bring myself to
shadow my friend on that evening. but
during the next month or 30 l noticed
that he received number Of adver
usements Oh which there were lead
pencil marks. did not try to de-
cipher any Of them. Indeed. had not
deliberately tried to decipher the drst
one. | had come upon 1t by accident
1t had got into my head and ! couldn';
get It out till l had solved it. What
did was to buy wedding present and
leave 1t where Jim could see It he wa
above asking me what It was for, 20 !
told him that 1t was for q friend who
was about to be married, adding that
could not name the person since The
engagement waa q 4ecret
The reason why I counted ON Jim's
coming marriage was that It u dimcult
II not impossible for two men to live
together one Of whom n engaged with.
out the other knowing It
jim never todd me Of his engagement
till Q couple Of weeks before the wed
ding. There had been no reason what
ever for the secrecy attending the A.
fair except such a. influences young
couples in similar cases and Jim's HiO-
syncrasy. The girls parents were
much pleased with the match, and
Jim's parents were not living. Jim
probably would have kept The secret
from me Longer. but he wished me to
be his best man. and II was pCopoE
that be should give me timely not1ca
The evening before the wedding I
carried the wedding gift l had pro
cured to the brides homo. Jim was
there. and when I opened the box In
which II was contained Jim started a.
II he had been shot. laughed, ex-
planned the Joke to the bride. and We
all laughed together. But kept them
wondering for many months before !
told them how I had got on to their
secret.