The Springdale news., 1915-07-02
RIGHT IN SAME PLACE
By R. K. THOMPSON.
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At midnight,
 In this predicament Mir Googe found himself after a search, carried on as he stood in front of his dark ened and deserted residence. for his keys, which were nowhere upon his person.
 Even in the instant of discovery that they were missing. he knew where they were
 By the moekery of fate. the keys were even now safely reposing in the pocket of the trousers he had changed from that orning-hanging in his bedroom closet, inside the house be fore which he stood helpless to en- ter.
 Mir Googe's family were away for the summer The servants, too every one--so he was in a nice fix!
 Without enough cash in his pock- ct to pay for nights lodging in a decent hotel, And without the physi- cal ability to endure a night spent on park bench,
 He must get into the house without his keys, some way-somehow.
 Every window was impossible, from the ground up. The basement's were protected by shields of iron wire. Those on the first floor, near the top Of the stoop, were locked He knew, for he had locked them.
 Only the breaking of pane would hor Mr Googe disliked to think of smashing one of those eighteen-dellar panes of plate glass.
 Suddenly he started. under the in spirational slap on the back of his mind by an idea
 Mr Googe had remembered that the lock on kitchen window at the rear of the house was broken
 If he could surmount the high board fence which walled in his lot from the sidewalk go through the vacant ground, climb over his backyard of his kitchen, he could open the window with the providential lock of disrepair.
 In the excess of his impatience at the obstacle of the impassiye. wooden barrier in his path to his comfortable bed. Mir. Googe lifted his foot and kicked it viciously in the slats.
 Whereupon, to his wide-eyed sur prise. strip of board fell away, yard above the spot where the blow of his foot struck. forming a most excellent open step in the hitherto unassailable wall.
 Two minutes later, at the cost of all his resolutions, the hanging of every cigar in his pockets, the bark ing of one shin. the instantaneous growth of two water-blisters in his palms. and the loss of all his wind. the red-faced, disheveled, panting and puffing gentleman attained the top of the fence
 For a precarious moment he hud- dled there-slipped-and fell on all fours in the rank weeds inside the vacant lot,
 Instantly he rose and. brushing what mud and clinging burs from his now dilapidated clothes that he could he tramped over tin cans and coal.ashes, through the Stygian black ness of the lot. in the direction he thought would lead him to his own back yard.
 And then, finding the window with the broken lock, he lifted the sash and-was at last in his home.
 Fifteen minutes later. his strength partially recuperated after a much needed rest, he remembered some thing
 It was a letter from his family, which he had been expecting for two or three days.
 Had it come? he wondered If he hadn't been worried over not hearing from his wife and grown children for forty eight hours, it is doubtful if MT Googe would have been stirred to make the effort just then of going down to the basement mail-box to look for it.
 But he did go downstairs.
 And there through the peep-hole in the letter-b box fastened to the outside of the grille-work basement door which he opened, he saw that the let ter was there.
 Reaching down into the vestibule of the doorway, he took down the key. With it in his hand, he stepped out into the areaway to unfasten the box.
 The door under the pressure of the key in the lock of the letter-box on it's front, closed, the spring-lock catch ing-locking him out again as effectu- ally as before.
 There was nothing to do but repeat his acrobatic entrance of the house!
 He was still without his keys. There remained only that kitchen window with the faulty lock as means of getting into the dwelling. Between him and that window was the obstacle of the lots fence, the Uttered ground itself, and the backyard board wall.
 With weary sigh, MT. Googe