Williams news., 1922-07-07
CHAPTER II
Who Is Alan conrad7


 Who Is Alan Conrad7
 The recipient of the letter which Benjamin Corvet had written and hter so excitedly attempted to re- rover, was asking himself question which was almost the. same as the question which Constance Sherrill had asked. He. was, the second morning later, waiting for the first of the two dafIy eastbound trains which stopped at the little Kansas town es Blue Rapids which ne called hom&. As long as he couI look back into hia life. the question who is thIS person they caI1 Alan Conrad, and what am to the man v-'~o writes from Chicago, had seen the paramount enigma of exist ence for him. Since he was now twenty-three. as nearly as he had been able to approximate it, and as distinct recollection of isolated. extraordinary events went back to the time when he was. five, it was quite eighteen years since he had first noticed the question put to the people who had him in charge: --So this is little Alan Con- rad Who is hep
 Following the arrival of certain letters, which were distinguished from most others arriving Tt the house by
 
 sut just a sort of purple or black printing like newspapers, Alan fn uariably received dollar o spend Just as ne liked To he sure. unless -papa'' took hir to town. there was nothing for hiIp to spend 1t upon; so. likely enough. t went into the square iron bank, of which the key was lost {; but quite often he did spend it ac cording to plans agreed upon among all his friends and, in memory of these occasions and in anticipation of the next. "AAan's dollar" became a com munity Institution among the children.
 "Who gives it to you, Alan?" was a question more often asked, as time went on. The only answer Alan could give was. "It comes from C4-lcago." The post-mark on the envelope. Alan noticed, was always Chicago; that was all he ever could find out about his dollar. He was about ten years old when, for a reason as inexplicable as the dollars coming, the letters with the typewriter addresses and the en- closed money ceased.
 Except for the loss of the dollar at the end of every second month-a loss much discussed by all the children and not accepted as permanent till more than two years had passed Alan felt no immediate results from the cessation of the letters from Chicago. Papa and mama felt them syhen the fe n had to be given up, and the family moved to the town, and papa went to work in the wooden mill beside the river.
 a Papa and mama, at first surprised And dismayed by the stopping of the letters. still clung to the hope of the eamflfar, typewriter-address en- vefope appearing again but when, after two years, no more money came, resentment which had: been steadily growing against the person who had sent the money began to turn against Alan; and his parents" told him all they knew about him.
 In 1896 they had noticed an adver- tfsement for persons to care for a. child; they had answered it to the office of the newspaper which printed if. In response -te the letter man called upon them and, after seeing them and going around to see their friends, had made arrangements with them to take boy of three, who was in good health and came of good people. He paid in advance board for a year and agreed to send a certain amount every two months after that time. The man brought the boy; whom he called Alan Conrad, and left him. For seven years the money agreed upon came; now it had ceased, and papa had no way of finding the man-the name given by him appeared to be fictitious. and he had left no address aexcept general delivery, Chi knew nothing more than that. Heghad advertised in the Chi -eago papers after the money stopped coming,e~ afd he had communicated with every one named Conrad in near Chicago. but he had learned noth- ing. Thus. at the age of thirteen. Alan definitely knew that what he already had guessed-the fact that he belonged somewhere else than in the little brown house-was aH that any one there could tell him, and the knowledge gave persistence to, m~ny kraferual a4seNttofin1s- Whore did he