New-York tribune., 1921-02-20

aL the uoOr.
won't you come in?" she asked.
'I'd like to, butt can't-to-
night. I've got to take the mid
night to Detroit, and I haven't
packed my bag, and I've got a re-
port to make out before CO."
why, Bill" said Glare. "You
didn't tell me you were going
away"
81 thought I could get out Of it
until this afternoon" Bill mumbled.
How long will you be gomez"
"a week-ten days at most. /
am going to Detroit for two days,
to Chicago for two or three more, to
Indianapolis-and then home"
"I'm awfully disappointed"
$50 am t. said Bill, still avoid
ing her eyes, "but it can't be
helped"
"Of course not. But, Bill
there's something the matter. Why
can't you come in for five minutes
and tell me about it. I'd like to
help"
There's nothing the matter"
Bills innocence was the inno-
cence of any man with the woman
he loves-perfectly transparent and
perfectly impenetrable. Clare gave
up gracefully.
Good night-then," she said,
and held out her hand.
PILL took it and pressed it and
hated himself for letting it 60.
In another minute he was walking
fast down Park Avenue, trying to
forget what he had remembered, and
remembering more Of it at every
step. His mind was busy with those
memories of fifteen years back while
he packed his bag; it was so busy
with them when he paused at the
ticket window that he forgot his
change until the man who followed
him yelled at him to come back and
get it. But it was only after the
train had started and he had en-
sconced himself by the window in
the washroom Of the sleeper, where
one may smoke, that he permitted
himself to remember freely and
gave himself up to disturbing rem
iniscences.
Bill sat looking duly out over the
gloom of the Jersey meadows and
vividly picturing in his mind the
map of the Middle States, 1t oc-
Cured to him that if you drew a
line from Detroit to Chicago and a
line from Chicago to Indianapolis
and line from Indianapolis to De-
troit you would describe a triangle,
and the center of the triangle would
fall with almost mathematical &C
curacy on the spot that marked ST.
loam. He got up and took rail
way folder from the rack in the
vestibule and opened it to the map.
Sloan was not marked, but he
; knew the bend of the Wabash River
where it stood. 1t was a few miles
off the center he had imagined. His
tip would take him around it; his
,, trips had always taken him around
it.
Bill Torrance had joined the
River Gang the spring he was fifteen
He had rescued Snick Tiedeman
who sat in front of him in the high
school, from the perils of final ex.
animation in algebra. Snick hao
taken him, on the following Satur-
1 day, to the abandoned boatholse that
was the gangs hang-out. Bill haG
been thoroughly aware that the rest
did not regard him as an addition te
the gang. He overheard Red Weldon
telling Snick what he, Red, thought
= about it. Red had referred to Bill
1 as a "goody-good." But Snick hac
the sort of mind that is incapable OF
entertaining more than one idea at 8
s time; he knew that Bill had fur,
e nished him with satisfactory an.
swers to eight of the ten questions n
8 the algebra examination, and this
8 was eight more than he could have
4 furnished himself. He swore by Bill
G and at Red. In the end Butch Har,
e ris had taken Bill aside and sworr
0 him to eternal fealty. What Butch
f; said went; Butch was the unques.
t toned leader of the River Gang.
The day had passed innocently
enough, in fishing. They had cleaned
/ the half dozen fish they caught, ano
fried them in a rusty iron skillet
and eaten them. Bill had smoked
his first cigarette, with such gravity
/, that no one knew it was not his hun
$ dredth.
} They stole nothing but green corr
and apples and watermelons thai
5 summer. Most Of the gang worked
: ! Rufch Havria 5yoyo q rrrosarSu 5a1Sx,