New Britain herald., 1918-03-21
What Happened When Madec Reached the Meeting Place.

l conquered wild impulse to ahrick, to clutch at the sleeve of the taxicab driver as the man in the taxi opposite mine, which had also been stopped by the accident, stared at me with the light of startled recognition in his eyes. My nerves, already up set by the accident, needed only this touch to put them almost beyond my control.
 The mans appearance was totally strange to me. He was, as far as could judge from his sea ted posture in the taXica,b, tall and thin. His face was bronzed as if by exposure to sun and wind, and he wore a rather fOp- rish, foreign looking, carefully trained n1ustacho and goatee. They had 8, curiouslv inconGruOus look upon his face. His was countenance never meant for llirsute adornment
 I could have taken an oath l never had seen the man before save for one thing The eyes that had flashed sud den recognition into mine were hauntingly familiar--of steely gray. The conviction seized me unaccount- ably that more than once before had those eyes gazed at me, and that I had seen them with many varying ex- pressions in their usually inscrutable depths.
 Who could he be-this staring stranger whose eyes I knew? Before I had time to rack my brain for an answer a strange thing happened.
 The look of recognition faded from his eyes and in it's place flashed a dis tinct look of alarm. At the same time there was a movement from the person at his side, a figure so swath- ed and I1uffled despite the spring weather that I couldn't tell whether it was old or young, man or woman.
 The man with the goatee turned to the other and said som ething, which, of course, I couldn't catch. The shrouded figure made an i1apulsive movement as if to rise from the sea, and I distinctly saw the man whose eyes were haunting me, push it back with an outstretched sinewy hand Then he spoke again, rapidly, i'm pulsivel1-, almost angrilJ. could only catch the tones, but there was the same haunting familiarity about the mans voco that had seen in his eyes.
 He didn't turn his face again to-
 
 his back turned. and I saw him turn up the collar of the rather foreign looking topcoat he wore in ln evident attempt to conceal as much of his head and face as possible.
 Evidently the sight Of me had alarmed him as much as the recognf- ton of his eyes had frightened me. That he was as relieved as I when the blockade suddenly came to an end and our taxis drew away from each other I was very sure.
 But the memory of his eyes and his evident fear of my recognizing him accompanied me all the rest of my now uneventful journey to the Penn" syIyana station. Tn one way ft was 8 good thing fer me. In my puzzled wonder as to his identity of the stranger I forgot my nervous fears as to my possible failure to interpret MT Drake's directions, recalling them only as the taxicab drew up to the Long Island entrance of the Penn sylvania station. The driver held the door open for me.
 Into the Station.
 It's only 7:3O, miss" he said '*better luck than I thought" And then, in a lower tone, he added:
 
 You know where I'll be the rest or the evening if you should happen to need me- n1iss-don't forget, just across the street. My number is 4876 and you see my American flag Is h1eo LID here in front different than the l others, so you can't help but spot It 1 if you're in a hurry" He had spoken rapidly, monoton- | ously, his head inside the taxi door as if he were making change for me. ] gave fleeting tribute to the skhl with which he had managed to con- vey the things he wished to say With out attracting the attention of the hangers on of the station As l stepped from the machine I cast one glance toward the flag on his taxi, fixed Its position and the number he had given me in my mind, and without second look walked down the corridor until I came to the stairway which would lead me down 10 the lower corridor