Evening star., 1922-02-26


Y of prospectors. So is luck.
SO is the one woman. RAN
dolps knew because, In his day. ne
had found all three.
He found the gold. and other men
had reaped it. He had found the luck.
and under his grip 1t invariably
turned sour. He had found the one
woman-a slim, gold-crowned girl
with pure eyes. who had looked once
into his soul and had turned away
from him. shivering.
Randolph tramped down the world
alone, unloving and unloved. He
went from bad to worse. thieving.
drinking, lusting and lending himself
to any crime or vice for the means
of support Out on the borders OF
China. where the dregs Of the world
foregather, he became one OF the
white harpies who prey upon white
and yellow and brown alike, and ne
learned terrible things.
In Shanghai he neared the end
serving here as tout for a Chinese
gambling house and smuggling
opium out of the Japanese quarter to
his master In the native city. But
Randolph went even a step lower
than this when he murdered his mas
ter one night, got away uncaught'
and took passage for home with
big suit case crammed full Of gold
and banknotes. He never read the
papers, and he skunk away from every
one else on the ship: thus he knew
nothing of war or the draft until
the customs men In San Francisco
demanded his draft card.
DANDOLPH tried to lie. and fell
IN into hot water that grew hotter
all the time. So he threw up the
sponge, and after depositing his
blood-stained money in local bank
let himself be inducted into the
army. The army unanimously agreed
that he was one of the worst men
ever whelped, and instead of being
sent to France he was shipped down
to the Mexican border.
There Randolph kept company with
three hundrede other men. lost in a
tion, during month after month Of
nothing but blue sky and white des-
ert, until he was whipped into lean
hardness Of body and mind. Much of
the evil was blown out Of him by
the desert winds and bleached out
Of him by the blazing sunlight, and
shamed out of him by the lean brown
strength of the men around him.
Much of the crafty sin Of Asia was
wiped from his eyes; but it festered
within him like a maggot.
Thus. Randolph became much like
the man he had been three years pre-
viously. Put a man in monastery.
give him no chance whatever to sin;
or set him on a pillar in the desert.
and you have a saint in the making;
this Is the theory on which peniten-
tiaries stand. Like all theories. 1t rs
very fine, but in practice it works
out only about once in ten thousand
cases.
Following these things, Randolph
contracted influenza and pneumonia
and was in hospital for month,
where he remained later as orderly.
Then, when the epidemic became
General, he was of so much use that
he was transferred to New Orleans.
He was . valuable man. more Haiu-
able by reason of having an educa-
tion His bad reputation was Tor
gotten. A quiet, slender man with
reddish hair. regular features, and
a pair Of steady blue eyes, he be-
came liked. Only his eyes never
matched his lips in a smile: they
were unsmiling, those eyes. and very
keen,
Oddly enough, in these days his
thoughts turned much toward the
slim, gold-crowned girl with pure
eyes. In all his life she had been
the one flaming desire, the one un-
ouenched passion. quiescent for long
intervals, but certain sooner or later
to awaken and torture him anew
After the armistice, foreseeing dis
charge, Randolph drew on his bank
account in San Francisco and Kept
the draft on his person. Those army
men who knew his record-What
there was to know Of it--said that
here was a man reborn, made anew.
turned from scoundrel into a credit,
and all by means of the draft and
the army. The chaplain who had at
tended him in hospital said that here
WAS a man drawn to the Lord. who
had seen the error Of his ways and
had found salvation, and ali by means
of lying sick unto death.
= X =
himself said nothing
~ at all, but took his honorable
bought himself the habiif-
ments of civilian life. and, with the
calm, pure eyes of girl burning into
hia soul. disappeared.
A great university town is, in
many ways. a place of paradoxes.
IL has its little ironbound cliques.
ye( is open to all the world. 1t Is.
usually. a sleepy little place. yet
more au courant with the world than
most cities. Its entire attention Is
aptly riveted upon collegiate life and
that little cosmos OF
undergraduate life which gives the
town it's raison d'etre.
In such a. town a man may hide
himself admirably from the world or
he may expose himself to all the
world, according to his desire.
Randolph, well aware that in all
this town there was not one person
who knew him. came using his own
name, deposited a large sum OF money
in the bank and rented furnished
room. 1t was late summer; within
short while the college activities
would spring into full being.
Seeming to know his way around.
Randolph walked down the hill past
the railroad station to the river and
rented a canoe at the boathouse.