The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1915-01-01
Bv DWIGHT NORWOOD

q contempt for women. 1.-The best
thing 4 fellow q. DO With a GIRL" he
would cay. ~ to let her alone. by
doing 20 be avoids the expense Of the
ater tickets and nowers. only to dpd
out later that she's encouraging some
other fellow" I was not interested In
Jim's love affairs, but I saw 10 reason
why be should take pains to deceive
me in the matter. However, Il DID
not trouble me that he thought proper
to do 30. ! was very fond Of him
and considered his id~iosyncrasy Of no
real importance, not doubling but that
l had others myself just AZ absurd
Jim and | 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 ID
vertising some kind Of goods. no
decd him looking at It, or some part
Of 1t, with apparent interest; then he
tossed It in the w~astebasket
The next morning l happened to 80
to that same w~astebasket to recover a
bit Of paper | had thrown In 1t con
tanning an address. stumbled on the
envelope containing the advertisement
and noticed that It was addressed In a
feminine hand. | 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. 1t gave q list
| Of articles that would alone interest a
woman. This set me to thinking Why
It should have been addressed to a
man. While meditating on this ] no
| ticed some lead pencil marks on the
booklet. They were =. 16. IA.
| Now, had It not been for what !
have said about Jim and his mysteries
1t would not have 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 a 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
r~eciDient. What better method for conf
munication could there be! Whether
the figures had a meaning or not, ! re-
solved that II l ever got a 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 af-
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 8. lG. ~ 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 fix.
mres contain an appointment? If SO. 1t
was for Aug. 1G at half past : (proba
bly, In the evening"
| could not quite bring myself to
during the next month or SO | noticed
that he received Il number Of adver-
tiSements on which there were lead
pencil marks. ! did not try to de.
cipher any Of them Indeed. ! had not
deliberately tried to decipllcr the first
one. had come upon i, by accident,
it had got into my head and ! couldn't
get 1t out till | had solved it. What !
did was to buy Il wedding present and
leave 1t where Jim could see it He was
above asking ME what it was for. 50 ]
old him hat it was for Il friend who
VAS about to be married, adding that
| could not name the person since the
engagement was a secret.
The reason why ! counted Oh Jim's
roming marriage was that it il diflcult
If not impossible for two men to live
together one Of whom is engaged with
out the other knowing 1t.
Jim never told me Of his, engagement
till a couple Of weeks before the wed
ding. There had been no reason what.
ever for the secrecy attending the at
fair except such as influences young
couples in similar cases and Jim's lido
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 1t was proper
that he should give me timely notice.
The evening before the wedding !
carried the wedding gift l had pro-
cured to the brides home. Jim was
there, and when l opened the box In
which it was contained Jim started as
II he had been shot. ! laughed, ex.
planned the joke 10 the bride, and we
all laughed together. But I kept them
wondering for many months before :
told them how I had got on to the +.
secret. =
That cured my friend Of making 2
terjes out Of very small things.
afterward be was frankness 10 p
ton Al for his wife, I doubt
had ever been % troubled.