The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-07-24
CHAPTER I.
At Chaudiere's.

Lou CdtCu uio Va OnhhooS IA
Crescent city, and it was at Chau-
diere's again that he was sharing a
farewell supper with cambridge Of the
Louisianian. Six weeks lay between
that and this; forty-odd days of dis
couragement and failure superadded
upon other similar days and weeks
and months
Without meaning to. cambridge had
been strewing the path with fresh
thorns for the defeated one, He had
Just been billeted to write up the ba-
mana trade for his paper. Boyishly ju-
biiant over the assignment. he had
dragged the New Yorker around to
Chaudiere's to a small parting feast.
Not that it had required much per-
suasion. Griswold had tasted for "a
hours. and if cambridge were not
friend in purist's definition of the
term. he was at least a friendly &C
quaintance.
The burden of the table talk fell
upon cambridge, and it occurred to
the host that his guest was less than
usually responsive, a fault not to be
lightly condoned under the joyous cir
cumstances Wherefore he protested.
What's the matter with you to-
night, Kenneth, old man? You're more
than commonly grumpy, 1t seems to
me; and that's needless"
Griswold looked up with smile
that was almost ill-natured, and quot.
ed cynically: Unto everyone that
hath shall be given, and he shall have
abundance; but from him that hath
not, shall be taken away even that
which he hath
Bainbridge's laugh was tolerant
enough to take the edge from his re-
tort.
That's a pretty thing to fling at .
man who never knitted you or pistoled
you or tried to poison you! An limo
cent bystander might say you envted
me-"
Il do" rejoined Griswold gravely.
II envy any man who can earn enough
money to pay for three meals a day
and a place to sleep in"
"Oh, cats foot!-anybody can do
that" asserted cambridge, with the
air of one to whom the struggle for
existence has been a mere athletes
practice run.
Il know; that is your theory. But
the facts disprove it. l can't, for one."
Griswold was a fair man. with red
dish hair and beard and the quick and
sensitive skin of the type. A red flush
of anger crept up under the closely
cropped beard. and his eyes were
bright
cambridge scoffed openly; but he
was good-natured enough to make
amends when he saw that Griswold
was moved.
Il take it all back" he said. 81 sup.
pose the book-chicken has come home
again to roost, and a returned manu-
script accounts for anything. But
seriously, Kenneth, you ought to get
down to bedrock facts. Nobody but
crazy phenomenon can find a pub
Usher for his first book, nowadays
unless he has had some sort of an
introduction in the magazines or the
newspapers. You haven't had. that;
so far as know. you haven't tried
It,"
"Oh, yes, l have--tried and failed
1t isn't in me to do the salable thing
and there isn't magazine editor IL
the country who doesn't know it b!
this time. tell you. cambridge. thu
conditions are all wrong when a mai
with a vital message to his kind can
get to deliver it to the people VIII,
want to hear it."
cambridge ordered the small COT
fees and found his cigar case.
THAT is about what l suspected,
he commented impatiently. "Yo,
couldn't keep your peculiar view
muzzled even when you were writin
a bit of a pot boiler on sugar plant
ing You drop your fool socialist
fad and write book that reputabl
publisher can bring out without con
hitting commercial suicide, and you
stand some show"
Call it what you please; name
don't change facts. Listen"-Griswol
leaned upon the table; his eyes gre
hard and the blue in them became M
tallic-"For more than a month
have tramped the streets of th
cursed city begging-yes. that Is tn
word-begging for work of any kin
that would suffice to keep body an
soul together. and for more than ha
Of that time have lived on one me
day. That Ia what we have con
to; we of the submerged majorit
And that isn't all. The wage work.
himself, when he is fortunate enout
to find a chance to earn his crust.
but a serf; q chattel among the 9th
possessions of some fellow man wi
has acquired him in the plutocrat
redistribution of the earth and Il
fullness thereof"
cambridge glanced at his watch.
81 must be going" he said. "Tl
Adelantado drops down the river
eleven. How are you fixed for Il
present, and what are you going to
for the future?."
Griswold's smile was not pleasa
to look at.
II am fixed to run twenty-fo
hours longer, thanks to your hospit
ity. For that length Of time ! pl
sumo l shall continue to conform
what we have been taught to belle
is the immutable order Of thinf
After that"
He paused. and cambridge put Z
question. "welf after that; VIII