Evening star., 1924-07-27
Former Partner.


wholly senseless.
after that I shall lift him from
the car, take of his coat and vest,
haul out the machines kit OF t.ois
and lay them at his side with a
wrench or an oil can in his hand. l
shall then start the engine and go
out. shutting the garage door tight
ly behind me. In the morning. when
hear Of his death, 1 shall tell how
he and I drove out from the city to-
gether and that 1 left him tinker
ing with his car in an EFFORT to dis.
cover the cause of n knock in 1t
and that walked on to my own house.
The slung-shot / shall drop in the
creek on my way homo from the
garage"
Having written all this Roke let
the ink dry without the use OF a
tell-tale blotter. Next he read 1t
over, phrase by phrase, until he had
committed to memory its every
word. Then he applied match to
the long sheet OF paper and watch
ed it burn to ashes. He rubbed the
then washed his hands in the basin
of his bathroom.
His plan was thus craven on hts
retentive memory.
0N the following Friday evening
Eoke was waiting in the shadow
Al F,,Il
hour before Give was due to appear.
He wished to take no chances at
missing his man in case the latter
should decide to leave his mothers
apartment earlier than usual
The night was murky and chill.
A slither Of snow-flecked rain was
falling. Nobody was likely to be
hanging around the ferry slip, for
pleasure or for laziness on such an
evening. The few people who
boarded the boats at that hour made
their way as fast as possible from
trolley or taxicab to the warm
shelter OF the ferry house Yet, to
make sure no Fastening acqualnt-
ance from Paignton should recognize
him, Roke wormed his way into a
black angle of gate and wall, be-
yond the farthest radius OF electric
light There he was safe from
recognition and reasonably shelter
ed from the snowy rain.
Roke was as calm as though he
were waiting for a casual lift home.
Always analytical, he decided that he
r IS, q
and we'll equipped personality and
not that of a criminal with its odd
twist of mind and of nerve He was
about to follow out a carefully plan
ned and simple program-a program
which could not fail. There was no
need for excitement. And that was
why he felt in no way excited.
Yet his wire nerves were beginning
to fray, ever SO little, when
Boss" whined a voice at his ell
bow, couldn't you give a dime to a
to eat all day."
Roke was guilty of something like
start, as the beggar's whine broke
in on his vigil. He wheeled about.
There, crouching, like himself, in the
narrow angle, was a thin and under
sized man, badly in need of a shave,
and more in need of wash.
The outcast's misery and his air of
chronic terror touched queer chord
in Roke's nature. Also it reused in
him a dormant feeling Of supersti-
ton. He recalled a scapegrafe chum
of college days who had made it a
rule, before entering upon gam
bling session, to hunt out some beg
gar and give him a coin. The gambler
always insisted that such an act of
kindness, before a game, had the
effect Of softening Dame Fortunes
heart.
Back in Roke's memory flashed this
superstition now. He, himself was
about to embark on a life-and-death
gamble. Into trouser pocket went
one of his chilled hands. Out he drew
a thin roll of bills with a five as it's
wrapper.
Detaching the five from the rest,
he handed it to the rapturously CRATE
full beggar, growing roughly as he
did SO:
Now beat it,"
The mendicant fairly writhed with
gratitude. Mouthing toothless bene-
dictions, he wiggIed out of the angle
and from the waiting mans sight.
x X x x
THE deed Of foolish generosity had
l. a strange effect on Roke. In
stantly his growing nervousness van
tel n he n
by a sweet calm. He knew, some