The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-02-26
Getting at
A Secret
By DWIGHT NORWOOD

Jim Hathaway and l were not only
chums. but occupied rooms In the same
bachelor apartment house. Jim was
u secretive chap and especially fond Of
making mystery Of what was an
ordinary happening l pokcd fun ut
him for doing 81. but this seemed to
have no effect In stopping him from
continually trying to Impress me with
his ability to do things without my
having any knowledge Of them. Then
when the denouelnent came he would
assume an air Of superiority ~ much
as to say. Il don't 70 about blabbing
Ut my affairs"
There came time when I believed
that Jim had an affair on hand with a
girl. The reason why ! came to this
conclusion was that he began to show
contempt for women. The best
thing a fellow can do with Q girl" he
would say. ''is to let her alone. BY
doing % he avoids the expense Of the
alter tickets and bowers. only to and
out later that she's encouraging some
other fellow" ! was not interested In
Jim's love affairs, but l saw no reason
why he should take pains to deceive
me In the matter. However, It did
not trouble me that be thought proper
to do So was very fond Of him
and considered his idiosyncrasy Of no
real importance. not doubling but that
! had others myself just a. absurd
Jim and ! occupied common living
room, and one evening when we were
about to 90 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 ad-
vertising some kind Of goods l no
ticed him looking at it or some part
OF 1t. with apparent interest: then he
tossed 1t In the ,wastebasket.
The next morning I happened to go
to that same wastebasket to recover q
bit Of paper ! had thrown in It con.
tanning IN address. l stumbled on the
envelope containing the advertisement
and noticed that 1t was addressed in q
feminine hand. thought nothing Of
this, since girls are usually employed
to address advertising matter. and was
hunting on for my paper when I raked
up the advertisement. 1t gave a list
Of articles that would alone interest q
woman. This set me to thinking why
1t should hive been addressed to a
man. While meditating ON this I no
tced some lead pencil marks on the
booklet. They were & 18. ~
Now, had 1t 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 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 woman and had
been used for cipher purposes by the
recipient. What better method for com.
munication could there BET Whether
the figures had q meaning or not, ~
solved that II ever got girl whose
parents would not permit me to visit
her I 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 bent Jim at hls
own game. What 4 10. ~ 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 10Th. Did not the fg-
ures contain an appointment? II 90. II
was for Aug. 10 at half past Z (proba-
bly, In the evening".
could not quite bring myself to
shadow my friend on that evening, but
during the next month or 40 | Noticed
that he received number Of adver.
tsements On which there were lead
pencil marks. did not try to de-
cipher any Of them. Indeed. had not
tried to decipher the frst
one. had come upon 1t by accident
1t bad got into my head and couldn':
get 1t out till ] had solved It What
did was to buy wedding present and
leave It where jim could see It He was
above asking me what 1t was, for, %
told him that 1t was for friend who
was about to be married, adding that
! could not name the person since the
engagement was . secret
The reason why I counted on Jim's
coming marriage was that II u dldlcult
Il not impossible for two men to live
together one Of whom Ia engaged with. |
out the other knowing It
Jim never told me Of bis engagement |
Ill couple Of weeks before the wed.
ling. There had been no reason what.
.ver for the secrecy attending the AZ |
'air except such as influences young
'ouples In similar cases and inns lido
'yncrasy. The girls parents were
much pleased with the match, and
inns parents were not living. Jim
'robably would have kept the secret
rom me longer. but he wished me to
'e his best man, and II was proper
hat he should give me timely notice.
The evening before the wedding
arried the wedding gift I had pro
ured to the brides home. Jim was
here. and when I opened the boz In
1hich II was contained Jim started as
be lind been shot. laughed, ex-
lained the Joke to the bride. and we
u laughed together. But I kept them
'ondering for many months before I
I'D them how I had got on to their
.cret
That cured my friend Of making mys-