River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1915-12-16
CHAPTER xxvII-continued.


tressed, and generally consumed with
the mad passion of restraint, that
there was scarcely a fngernail left in
the profession, and frightened-eyed
copy boys hid behind doors. Sud
denly dozen telegraph operators, in
Is many Offices, jumped from their
desks, as II they had been touched at
lho same instant by powerful cur
rent from their instruments, and shout
ed varying phrases, a composite Of
which would be nearest expressed by:
Let 'er go!"
1t had been eight o'clock in the eve
ming In New York when Gerald Eos
land had first given out his informa-
zion, and at that moment it was l a. m
IN Berlin. At 3 a. M, Berlin time,
which was 10 p. m. in New York, the
Baron Won Slachten, who had been de-
tained by an unusual stress of diplo-
matte business strolled to his favorite
cafe. At 3:05 the Baron Won Slach-
ten became the most thought about
man in his city, but the metropolitan
press Of Berlin is slightly fettered and
more or less curbed, and there are
certain formalities to be observed. It
IS probable, therefore, that the baron
might have gone about his peaceful
way for two Or three days, had not a
FOOL American, In the advertising
branch OF one OF the New York pa
pers, in an entire ignorance Of decent
Tormalities, walked straight out Inter
den Linden, to Baron Won Slachten g
favorite cafe, and, picking out the
baron at a table with four bushy-
faced friends, made this cheerful re,
mark, in the manner and custom of
journalists in his native land:
Wen, baron, the International
Transportation company has con-
fessed. Could you give me a few
words on the subject?"
The baron, who had been about to
drink stein Of beer, set down his half
liter and stared at the young man
blankly. His face turned slowly vel
low, and he rose.
Lass bleiben," the baron ordered
the handy persons who were about to
remove the cheerful advertising repre-
sentative and incarcerate him for
life, and then the baron walked stol-
idly out Of the cafe, and rode home
and wrote for an hour or SO, and ate
heavy early breakfast, and returned
td his study and obligingly shot him.
self.
This was at seven a. m, Berlin time,
which was two a. m. in New York;
and owing to the nervousness of an
cid woman servant, the news reached
New York at three a. m, and the big
wheels began to go around.
Where was Edward E. Allison?
There was nothing the free and entire
iy uncurbed wanted to know SO much
as that; but the +. and e. u was
doomed to disappointment in that one
desire of its heart Even as he had
stumbled down the steps of the Sar-
gent house, Allison was aware OF the
hideous thing he had done; aware, too,
that Jim Sargent was as violent as
good-natured men are apt to be. This
thought, 1t must be said in justice to
Allison, came last and went away
first. 1t was from himself that he
tried to run away, when he shot his
runabout UP through the park and
into the north country, and, by devious
roads, to a place which had come to
him as If by inspiration; the Willow
club, which was only open in the sum-
mertime, and employed a feeble old
caretaker in the winter To this haven
bleak and cold as his own numbed
soul, Allison drove in mechanical
firmness, and walked around to the
kitchen, where he found old Peabody
smoking a corncob pipe, and labori-
0usly mending a pair of breeches.
Allison went into the office and
closed the door after him. 1t was
damp and chill in there, but he did not
notice it. He sat down in the swivel
chair behind the fiat top desk and
rested his chin in his hands, and
stared out of the window at the bleak
and dreary landscape. Just within his
range of vision was lonely little
creek, Swallowed by a mournful droop-
Ing willow which had given the club
Its name, and in the wintry breeze it
waved its long tendrils against the
aesden gray sky. Allison fixed his eyes
on that oddly reckoning tree and
strove to think. Old Peabody came
pottering in, and with many a clang
and clatter builded a fire in the capa
cious Dutch stove; with a longing
glance at Allison, for he was starved
with the hunger of talk, he went out
again.
At dusk he once more opened the
door. Allison had not moved. He
still sat with his chin in his hands,
looking out at that weirdly waving
willow. Old Peabody thought that he
must be asleep, until he tiptoed up at
the side. Allison's gray eyes, unblink-
ing, were staring straight ahead, with
no expression in them. 1t was as If
they had turned to glass.
"Exclsse me, Mr.. Allison. Chicken
or steak? ] got 'em both, one for sup