The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-12

to eat. His craving for food had re- doubled since morning. Now 1t drove away caution and common sense. He must eat, though he go to prison for life. in payment for his meal.
 Eagan thrust out his head from the cave. He saw Mrs. Travis walking away with June and Mary. He saw just below him dapper little Jap engaged in set ting a picnic table. He saw--heavenly slsht!--a great basket of food just be- hind the busy Jap.
 No hale man who has gone hungry for 30 hours will blame the fugitive for laying aside his armor of prudence at sight and smell of the feast that filled the big lunch basket.
 Noiselessly he crept from his hiding place. On tiptoe he made his way for ward, arranging handful of silver at cne of the three plates.
 Sam leaned over him, and with light ming motion caught up the edges of the tablecloth and swathed the Jap $ meager body in them
 Knotting the cloth-ends firmly behind the back of the squealing and vainly struggling little butler, Sam made a rush for the food basket, snatched it up and bounded lumberingly off among the rocks, seeking a same place where he might hide and devour his fragrant prize.
 Eagan had sense en0Nxh not to go back to his scave with his plumber. That was much too near the scene of his theft. Possible searchers would see the cavern-mouth and explore it. He must get far enough away to dodge pursuit, before settling down to the delights of his stolen banquet.
 Ahead of him was hillock made up of broken powders in whose inches a man could elude whole cordon of police. And toward this hillock, Eagan ran.
 His way took him along rocky bit of beach, where he most needs jump from stone to stone. The tide was in. The water swirled thirstily among the rocks as he rushed onward
 He came to a place where he could not stride from powder to powder to powder. but must jump from one to the next. He gathered himself for the leap, and he made it in safety. But the rock on which his two hundred and forty pounds landed was slimy with yet sea moss.
 Sam's feet slipped. Instinctively, he threw out both arms to steady himself. The basket of food slipped from his out flung arms struck the rock and caromed off into three feet of water; where a mischievous wave promptly washed it out of sight.
 ed his treasure vanish. For a moment he was dumb. Then came a rusn of words. Up and down on the slippery rock, Sam Eagan danced. He threw his fists aloft. He cursed in a way that would have been liberal education to an audience of longshoremen and lum- berjacks and canal boat men.
 At last his vocabulary and his voice failed him. And he tried to remem- Der whether or not there had been more than one basket of food in that picnic lunch. On careful-and ravenous-reflec- ton, he rather thought there had been a second basket And he turned hun grily back toward the spot he had so nimbly quilted a few minutes earlier.
 Yama. meantime. had at last freed him. self of his tablecloth winding-sheet. clear ing away the last folds of 1t from his head and face. just as the three women returned. Loudly and dramatically. he told them what had befallen him. And, at discovery that the food basket was gone. his voluble indignation redoubled.
 Someone has played silly practical joke on you" decided Mrs. Travis. 1T am going to the coastguard station below