Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1920-02-19

DID, Them!"
sign. ID them /" he said finally, and,
turning up his coat collar, plodded
back through the soggy streets toward
"home."
The unitarian impudence Of the city |
authorities put a thought into his mind. |
A week earlier he had happened to
stroll into the large parlor Of the
apartment house. finding it empty, and
on the comfortable he noticed a large,
red-bound, gilt-edged book, newly
printed. bearing the title: "a Civic
History" and beneath the title, the
rubric, Biographies of the 500 Most
Prominent Citizens and Families in
the History Of the City," He had
glanced at it absently, merely noticing
the title and subtitle, and wandered
out Of the room, thinking Of other
things and feeling no curiosity about
the book. But he had thought Of it
several times since with a faint, vague
u~neasiness; and now when he entered
the lobby he walked directly into the
parlor where he had seen the book.
The room was empty, as it always was
on Sunday mornings, and the f1amboy-
ant volume was still upon the table
evidently a fixture as a sort Of local
Almanach de Gotha, or Burke, for the
enlightenment of tenants and boarders.
He turned to the index where the
names of the five hundred Most Promi-
nent Citizens and Families in the Ills
tory Of the City were arranged In al
phabetical order, and ran his finger
down the column of AS: Albeit, Alb
bott, Abrams, Adams, Adams, Adler,
Akers, Albertsmeyer, Alexander, Allen,
Ambrose, Ambuh1, Anderson, Andrews,
A%ppenbasch, Archer, Arszman, Ash
craft, Austin, Alvey.
Georges eyes remained for some
time fixed on the thin space between
the names "Allen" and "Ambrose."
Then he closed the book quietly, and
went up to his own room, agreeing
with the elevator boy, on the way,
that it was getting to be a mighty
nasty wet and windy day outside.
The elevator boy noticed nothing I'M
usual about him and neither did Fanny,
when she came in from church with
her hat ruined, an hour later. And yet
something had happened-a thing
which, years ago, had been the eager
est hope of many, many good citizens
of the town. They had thought Of it,
longed for it, hoping acutely that they
might live to see the day when it would
come to pass. And now it had hap.
pened at last: George Minafer had
got his come-upance.
He had got it three times filed and
running over. The city had rolled over
his heart, burying it under, as it rolled
over the Majors and buried it under.
The city had rolled over the Amber
sons and buried them under to the last
vestige; and it mattered little that
George guessed easily enough that
most of the five hundred Most Promi-
nent had paid something substantial
ITO defray the cost of steel engraving,
etc."-the Five Hundred had heaved
the final shovelful Of SCOT upon that
heap of obscurity wherein the Amber.
sons were lost forever from sight and
history. "Quicksilver in a nest Of
cracks"
George Minafer had got his come
upance, but the people who had so
longed for it were not there to see it,
and they never knew it. Those who
were still living had forgotten all
about it and all about him.
X
George had seen Eugene only once
since their calamitous encounter. They
had passed on opposite sides Of the
street, downtown; each had been
aware that the other was aware Of
him, and yet each kept his eyes
straight forward, and neither had
shown a p%erceptible alteration Of coun-
t%enance. It seemM to George that he
felt emanuting from the outwardly i'm
perturbuble person Of his mothers old
friend n hate that was like n hot wind.
At his mothers funeral and at the
Majors he had been conscious that
Eugene was there: though he had aft
erward no recollection Of seeing him,
and, while certain of his presence, was
uncertain how he knew of 1t. Fanny
had not told him, for she understood
George well enough not to speak to
him OF lsugcne OF Lucy. Nowadays
Fanny almost never saw either Of
them and seldom thought Of them--ao
sly Is the why Of time with HE. She
was passing middle nge, when old In.
tcrsities ana longlnga grow thin and