Metropolis weekly gazette., 1915-02-05
UNDER THE WILLOW
Story About the Man a Girl Fen
in Love With.
By CLARA lNEz DEACON.


the smoking room for five minutes
without making wager. This state
ment is probably exaggerated, but
when a clubman refuses to make
little wager that a camel with one
hump has more sentiment in his soul
than a camel with two he is spoken
of as a back number.
In the jefferson club it was ac-
knowledged that Victor Winters was
the. most reckless among the bettors.
He bet $1,000 even that he could
climb q certain church steeple, and
he climbed 1t. He was arrested for
breaking the peace OF about i've
thousand people who gathered to see
him fall, but didn't see it. and the.
fudge called him fool and fined him
$50.
He got odds OF three to one that he
couldn't bluff a well-known prize
fighter, and he not only worked the
blum successfully, but gave the fighter
a black eye.
He laid a wager OF $1,000 that he
would kill wild tiger within year,
and he posted off to the jungles of
India and killed an extra one for
good measure.
A score of other incidents could be
related of what was termed Winters
mania. but these will suffice to show
that a good fellow may be very reck-
less fellow. Everybody liked him,
and everybody said there was no
harm in him.
There was Just one thing that the
Young man refused to bet on, and that
was matrimony as personally applied
He would bet that So-and-So would be
married within a specified time, but
when challenged on his own account
he shook his head. No one could un-
derstand him In that regard.
See here, Winters" said Captain
Frayne to him as they met at the
club, that man whom they call the
country Rallies is cutting very. very
wide swath."
"Yes?"
81 am told that at least thirty OFF,
GERS of the law are on his trail"
"Wel?"
How do you want to bet-will
they get him or not?"
Captain, | have been reading
about him, and what they say of him
makes me tired They haven't caught
him, and yet he is bunglerl'
rs burglar who can rob twelve
houses and not create single alarm
bungler?"
81 could do as well. and have had
no experience"
The captain did not want to en-
courage such talk and the results
that might come from it, and sought
TO change the conversation Young
Winters carelessly replied TO two or
three of his questions and then said:
This Raffies gets into house and
takes whatever he comes to and gets
out. He even carries off plaster of
paris ornaments. and he is shy of
searching rooms where anyone Is
sleeping"
But he's got rich jewelry among
his plunder."
"Yes, it was left for him on the
dresser. He didn't have to pull out
drawer to get it, and ! can't find
that he has entered a house where a
dog was kept. He's longshoreman
trying his hand at a new job. Cap
tain"
But the captain feared what was
coming, and said he had an engage
ment
Let it wait" was the reply. Cap
tain, I'll wager you thousand dol
lars even up that"
81 won't do iti" was the interrupt
ton.
Hold on. I'm going to out-raf-
fle Rallies"
~You win do nothing SO foolish as
to attempt it!"
mot with criminal intent, of
course, but Just to prove to you that
burglary is a fine art, or should be
made SO, and that our country
Raffies ought to be driving truck
Name a country residence that you'd
like to try my hand on"
And get shot?"
NOT even De uTeu at.
But If arrested?"
That's one of the arts--to escape
arrest"
winters" said the captain after
a long look at him, give up any fool
ish idea you may have in that direc-
tion. We will all agree that you
could beat Raffles' work, but don't try
it,"
There are plenty of men, young and
old, who will get an idea into their
heads that they know is foolish, and
yet they will cling to IL as il it were
full of sense and wisdom. Young
Winters common sense warned him
of the risks of burglary, but the
adventure of 1t appealed to him just
as strongly. He did not talk with
any Of the other members OF the club.
but there were those who said: