Evening star., 1919-08-17

neck white with powder, DetraylnS
hasty dusting by the barber, and ac-
companied by his associate. Even
the porter, reaching for his grip. rec
ognized him, for he had undoubtedly
seen him in St. Louis before, while
the traveller acknowledged the Good
morning, sir" with wink and climbed
aboard. The train was not crowded,
being made up there. and they walk
ed into the smoker of car seven, in
which a seat had been reserved for
me, perhaps by the same ticket agent
in Kansas City.
Having my reserved seat" and not
wishing to enter the sultry train be-
fore the scheduled hour Of departure
/ stood on the platform by the steps
at the stage entrance" with the con-
ductor and porter. watching the
actors" step aboard. Following
Frank" whom l shall now name
permanently "Mr. Frank Boomerang"
because he always came back, there,
appeared an excited lady. carrying
dog and accompanied by two boys,
to whom she issued so many instruc-
tions they did not know whether to
get into the car or stand on their
heads. She was typical of all ami
mated travellers She had been hur-
rying, so that her hairpins Were COM
ing out. her hat was awry, her coat
was dragging on the boardwalk and,
although she had already told the
story of her difficulties to every por-
ter and train official she encountered,
she was still able to unburden her
self, first to the train porter and then
to the conductor before entering car
five, which was the adjoining Pull
man.
A group Of five was next to board
the stage" There was a whitehaired,
solemn, cool gentleman, dressed in
black and so confident of himself, so
sure of everything he did that he
merely asked the porter for 'car
seven, east" handed his bag and
stepped aboard. Although one of
group which faced the conductor at
the same time he was apparently
travelling alone, for he did not wait
with the others. who had no reserva-
III &C VI tuCSc. luCluOlIS d
naval officer. asked for seats in the
smoker. The other wanted a berth to
Washington and explained that he
was a special agent of one of the
departments who had just been or
dered by telegraph to take the first
train east to report
Take seat in the smoker and I'll
see what l can do later" the conduc-
tor told him as he turned to examine
the tickets of other passengers, who
were now arriving in increasing
numbers, followed by two women
bound for Atlantic City and several
commercial travellers who were going
to Terre Haute to a travellers con-
vention, in session in that city.
With the repeated jerks of the en-
gine. which are now the regular ac-
compartment to the start of the train,
causing the Pullmans to bang against
each other like tanks in collision at
the front. the express train was on it's
way. l was in the smoking compart-
ment with seven others. The stock
breeder had fresh cigar and was
telling one of the commercial men
how much money he could make by
raising fancy stock.
The train was crossing the steel
bridge above the muddy Mississippi
Along the waters edge the sun was
shining, turning the color of the river
to copper brown, a color tone SO
familiar to those who have sailed
from Bordeaux out Of the mouth of the
Gironde during the war. The slow
movement Of the train and the dark.
ness Of the car brought lull in the
conversation which was broken by
Frank" the Hoosier.
We'll, III tell you what I'll do" he
said. in loud voice, calculated to
draw the attention of all the men in
the compartment. you've bought
farm, you say, where you are going to
retire whenever you can afford to quie
travelling. l know you're not a gam
bling man or you'd have all your
money in stocks instead of a farm.
But I'll make you proposition. You
can take 1t or leave it. / don't give a
damn which. I've made money ac-
cepting just what I'm Offering you.
I'll sell you carload of Hereford
heifers for thousand dollars head,