Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-01-08
CHAPTER III.
Billy CAMPER at Play.

CHAPTER III.
Billy capper at Play.
The night of July twenty-sixth.
The scene is the table-cluttered side
walk before the Cafe Pytheas, where
the Cours St. Louis filings its night
tide of idlers into the broader stream
of the Cannebiere, Marseilles' Broad
way-the white street of the great
Provencal port. Here at the crossing
OF these two streets summer nights
are incidents to stick in the travellers
mind long after he sees tho gray
walls Of the Chateau DIFF fade below
the steamers rail- The flower girls
in their pulpits pressing dewy VIC
lets and fragrant clusters of rosebuds
upon the strollers with persuasive elG
quence; the mystical eyes of hooded
Moors who see everything as they
pass, yet seem to see so little; jostling
Greeks, Levantines, burnoosed Jews
from Algiers and red-trousered Sene-
galese-all the color from the hot
lands Of the Mediterranean is there.
But on the night of July twenty
sixth the old spirit Of Incidence, Of
pleasure seeking, Irritation, Intriguing,
which was wont to make this heart
of arc-light life in Marseilles pulse
dangerously, was gone. Instead, an
electric tenseness was abroad, per
vading, infectious. About each side
walk table heads were clustered close
in conference, and eloquent hands aid
ed explosive argument. Around the
news kiosk at the Cafe Pytheas cor
ner a constant stream eddied. Men
snatched papers from the pile, spread
them before their faces and blunder-
ed into their fellow pedestrians as
they walked, buried in the ink col
umns. Now and again half-naked ur-
chins came charging down the Came
biere, waving shinplaster extras
above their heads-"L' Allemagne
s'arme! La guerre vient!" Up from
the Quai marched a dozen sailors
from a torpedo boat, arms linked so
that they almost spanned the Came
biere. Their red-tasseled caps were
pushed back at cocky angles on their
black heads and as they marched
they shouted in time: "A Berlin!
Hou-hou!"
The black shadow Of war-the- first
Authorizations Of the great Madness
g1pped Marseilles.
For Captain Woodhouse, just in
from Berlin that evening, all this
swirling excitement had but an incl
dental interest. He sat alone by one
of the little iron tables before the
Cafe Pytheas, slipping his boo, and
from time to time his eyes carelessly
followed the eddying of the swarm
about the news kiosk Always his at
tention would come back, however,
to center on the thin shoulders of q
man sitting fifteen or twenty feet
away with wine cooler by his side.
He could not see the face of the wine
drinker; he did not want to. All he
cared to do was to keep those thin
shoulders always In sight. Each time
the solicitous waiter renewed the
bottle In the wine cooler Captain
Woodhouse nodded grimly, as doc
tor might when he recognized the
symptoms of advancing fever in
patient. N
So for two days, from Berlin across
to Paris, and now on this third day
here in the Mediterranean port, Wood
house had kept ever in sight those
thin shoulders and that trembling
hand beyond the constantly crooking
elbow. Not a pleasant task; he had
come to loathe and abominate the
very wrinkles in the back of that
shiny coat. Not very necessary duty
It was for Captain Woodhouse to shad-
ow Mr.. Billy Capper until-the right
moment should arrive. They had
come down on the same express to-
gether from Parfs.M Woodhouse had
observed Capper when he checked his
baggage, single shoddy hand bag,
for La Vendee. the French line ship
sailing with the dawn next morning
for Alexandria and Port Said via Nal