The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-07-23
The Euening Story
An Even Divide.
(Bv ELLSWORTH Lewis }

slouching into the library and dropped
into a chair with a tired look
You wanted to see me, father"
"Humphi"
You wanted to go over the old
ground again?''
with some new ground added.
Philip. you don't amount to putty
Fright you are, father
II think of a fishworm every time
see you
And 1 feel like one
You are too Emphatic even to fal!
in love-
such is the case
Unfortunately, you have money of
your own If it depended on me you
would have to go to work for a dollar
a day.
II don't believe L could earn half of
that father
You may go. It's no use to talk to
a lay figure"
But there's another side to it, I
have money, and could have specu-
lated and lost it. i could have mar
ried, but the girl would have been
bigger fool that you think me to be-
L have taken life easy, but L have
swindled no one. If L had more enec-
gy L might have fallen in love with a
chorus girl. If L were not Emphatic 1
might have been unloading a bogus
gold mine on you and other captains
of industry. If L am a fiShWOrm am
a harmless one"
The father looked at the son in a
puzzled way, and after a minute the
latter continued:
81 have some good news for you,
father am going to make change"
''Humph.'
81 am going away"
Where to %
Il don't know"
That's like you!"
Not a bit like me, father. l can't
be anything else than dawdler and
fishworm so long as 1 stay in the
city. You see, the young women OF
my set are frivolous and the young
men spendthrifts and dawdlers. 1
what 1 shall go into, but L shall make
change"
The young man rose and took two
or three turns around the room, and
then halted to say:
Father, should L make five thou
sand dollars in the next year, besides
winning a good wife, what will the
bridal gift be?''
"A thirty thousand brownstone
front"
Thanks, in advance
When father came home to dinner
he was told that Philip had departed
with two trunks and that he had de-
clined to give his destination.
II didn't believe he had the energy
to get himself to the station" laughed
the old man.
When Philip left the city he rode a
hundred miles by rail and got off at
town of 1000 inhabitants. Why :?
He could not answer.
At the hotel they wondered who the
young man was and what had brought
him there, but he made no eXplana-
tions. He must make $4,000 and find
a bride within a year, and he realized
it would require a heap of thinking.
After a month, in which nothing had
accrued to his benefit, young Mr..
Philip Wallace was about ready to
admit his failure and do without the
bride and the brownstone. He had
got out of the rut however. and he
discovered to his surprise that he had
acquired a bit of pluck. Something
might turn up if he held on.
He was in the office of the hotel
one morning when the telephone rang
and the operator at Benton, ten miles
away, said: Tell the sheriff that the
bank was robbed last night
"Of how much?'' the young man
asked.
1.-The robbers got $4,000 of the
banks money and about the same
from the safe deposits vaults
And have the officers there got a
clew?''
bers and that they passed the house
of farmer three miles out an hour
after midnight"
Il see."
Inoy were IN a One-hOrSo buE2Y
and had driven so fast that the horse
dropped dead
amy reward ~
Yes, $1,000 for each of the robbers
and $4,000 for the return of the
money"
Young Wallace did not start for the
sheriff's office on the run. In fact he
did not start for any office, but sat
down in a bewilderec way. And when
the landlord came in and asked if the
n1Ona al
received no answer. Queerly enough
the young man was feeling the awak-
ening of an instinct that he did not
know he possessed. He had read of
crime and criminals for years, but
had never speculated for a moment
over a. case. Now he found himself
much interested in this one. 1t was
a fact, he said to himself, that a bank
had been robbed and the robbers had
got away, but the death of their horse
must have made a change in their
plans.
Would the robbers dare go back to
town and try to escape by the rail-
road? No. There was no train before
o'clock in the morning, and before
that time there would be a hue and
cry. Would they dare continue on foot
across the country with their plumber
with every farmer using the telephone
against them?
1t was laughable, even to himself
that young man who had been char
acteried by his father as a fishworm
and totally without energy should find
himself breathing like a runner as he
thought of pitting himself against
three desperate men. That was what
it might come to.
After having arrived at this deci-
sion, the putty man" went to the
livery stable and got a horse and
buggy and started for Benson. He
reached the town to find it seething
with excitement. Officers and anna