The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-01-25
Getting at
A Secret
By DWIGHT NORWOOD

chums, but occupied rooms In the same
bachelor apartment house. Jim was
a secretive chap and especially fond Of
making a mystery Of what was an
ordinary happening. l poked fun At
him for doing 90. but this seemed to
have no effect In stopping him from
continually trying to impress me with
bis ability to do things without my
having any knowledge Of them. Then
when the denouement came he would
assume an air Of superiority a much
q 70 say. Il don't 60 about blabbing
Of my affairs"
There came q time when I believed
that Jim had an affair On hand with a
girl The reason why I came to this
conclusion was that he began to show
a contempt for women. 'sThe best
thing a fellow can do with Q GIRL" he
would say. rs to let her alone. By
doing 20 he avoids the expense of the.
alter tickets and flowers. only to find
out later that she's encouraging some
other fellow" was not interested in
Jim's love affairs, but I 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
I had others myself just as absurd.
Jim and ! occupied a common living
room, and one evening when We were
about to go out to dinner together Jim
picked up an envelope that had been
left by the p0stman during the day.
unsealed, and took out booklet ad.
vertising some kind Of goods. l no.
ticed him looking at It, or some part
Of II. with apparent interest; then he
tossed 1t in the wastebasket
The next morning happened to 90
to that same wastebasket to recover q
bit Of paper I bad thrown In It con-
tanning an address. stumbled on the
envelope containing the advertisement
and noticed that u was addressed In
feminine hand. thought nothing Of
this, since girls are usually employed
to address advertising matter. and was
hunting on for my paper when raked
up the advertisement 1t gave q list
of articles that would alone interest q
woman. This set me to thinking why
It should have been addressed to q
man. While meditating on this I no
ticed some lead pencil marks on the
booklet They were & 16 ~
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 a cipher. First, ad.
yertisements of especial interest to VIC
men are not usually mailed to men.
This suggested that the booklet had
been received by a 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, re-
solved that II ever got a girl whose
parents would not permit me to visit
her I would use this plan OF communi-
cation.
ktried hard not to pry into Jim's ar
fairs, but the puzzle was too fascinat
ing for me to let alone. Besides, there
was the temptation to beat Jim at his
own game What s. 1a ~ meant
haunted ne 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 30, II
was for Aug. 16 at half past Z Qroba-
bly, In the evening".
l could not quite bring myself TO
shadow my friend on that evening, but
during the next month or 30 l noticed
that be received a number Of adver-
tisements on which there were Lead
pencil marks. l did not try to de-
cipher any OF them. Indeed, / had not
deliberately tried to decipher the nrst
one. / had come upon it BY accident
It had got into my head and ] couldn't
get It out till had solved It what 1
did was to buy a wedding present and
leaye It where Jim could see It He wa
above asking me what 1t was for. 20
told him that 1t was for friend who
was about to be married, adding that
I could not name the person since the
cura enment was q secret