Evening star., 1924-06-23

RIPPING RUBY
A Thrilling Mystery Story
By ]. S. FLETCHER



az that which he had gathered about
him; the place was a scrap-heap.
dumping ground of all sorts of rub
bish, from once gaily-colored figure
heads to rusty nails.
The only thing that looked at all
modern was freshly-painted placard
hung on the window of sort of
office: ii announced that orders for
coal were taken there, and gave
list OF current prices. But just then
there was no one in this Office, nor
in the giaam of the shedlike, much
numbered place, and ] had waited
and raped for some minutes before
a man came out Of the shadows and
approached me-a short, fattist. fur
tive-eyed man, in his shirt sleeves
who obviously wondered what l was
after.
/ pulled out the note.
Mr. Holliment?" / asked.
That's me, SIR replied the man.
"A gentleman whom ] met on the
Clarence pier. who was in a hurry
to catch the boat, asked me TO give
this to you" / continued. II came
straight to you with it: he seemed
anxious that you should have 1t at
once"
I placed the note IN his very dirty
hands and stood by watching him
narrowly as he somewhat clumsily
opened it. l should say that he was
ordinarily a man who could keep
compressed countenapce, concealing
his feelings very well, but on this
occasion he was obviously taken too
sharply to hide anything. His puffy
face turned the color of a dead thing
it made me think for the instant
of those calves heads that lie on
the butchers stalls-and when
shade of life came back to it, 1t was
gray. dull shade. His hands shook
10 hol a ar
an exclamation. And at that ! af-
fected to see nothing. turning away.
But suddenly 1 felt tnat he was re-
garding me.
"Do you know him who gave you
this?' he asked quickly.
to me-and ! to him. The fact is.
was looking for a job, and ] saw he
wanted that taken somewhere, so l
offered to take it."
He give you anything" he in
quired, looking me over. pretty much
as the other man had done.
IF you want to know" l answered,
he did He gave me a sovereign.
No surprise came into his face. In
stead. he suddenly made a movement
toward his coat, which hung on
nail close by. He began shuffling
into it.
Look here." he said. I've got to
go out-business! over that" He
pointed to the scrap of paper. which
he had crumpled up and flung away
on the floor. Some hours I'VE got
to be out-can't help it. You say
you were looking for job? Stop
here and give an eye to things till
come back-tonight it'll be. I'll
give you another quid-and there's
nothing to do
what is there to dor asked.
Can I do it?'
There's nothing to debut stick
here" he responded quickly. Keep
ing an eye on things. If anybody
comes for any of this old stun, let
'em have what they want and take
their names and what they've got. If
anybody orders coal, write it down in
or seven, and you shall have your
money"
I hesitated a bare second-after all.
the extra sovereign was worth few
hours of that sort of thing.
"All right" 1 said I'll stop till
you come back. But there's one
thing
'Well?" said he. edging away to-
ward the door in his obvious impa-
Dinner" said I. Il shall want it,"
that. You'll find it'll do you. Well.
then. till this evening"
"TIl see to things" / assured him.
He made for the door without an
other word-but before he went
it and into the street he
posts, up and down. there was that
in his action which assured me that
he was keenly anxious Then he shot
off. and l, too, looked out to see
whittier he went. 1t was not raining,
but he skunk rapidly along the side
nf hn n q q
been coming down cats and-dogs, and
with his head bent, his slouch hat
pulled over his eyes and his whole
attitude that of man who is run
ming away.
Suddenly he shot into one of those
narrow alleys of which there are so
many whereabouts, and so / saw him
no longer. But l had seen enough to
convince me that if the sender of the
mysterious message was in a state
of high nervousness it's recipient was
in another Of something very like
fright, and l wondered why.
What had happened that morning
in the affairs of these two men to
make both hasten off somewhere in
hurried fashion? Some
thing. evidently-but all the specu-
lation in the world would not tell
me what. Meanwhile there 1 was in
charge of an ancient rubbish store,
the afternoon to get over and another
to anticipate That, any
way, odd as the adventure seemed,
was preferable to hanging about
wondering what 1 was to
do when my first sovereign was spent.
1t was now past noon. and between
then and 1 o'clock nothing whatever
happened. / sat down in the little
office and read the newspaper. No
customers came-nobody came. But
at precisely l O'Clock in walked an
potman of some adjacent hostelry.
He carried a tray. whereon, beneath
a cloth, were sundry dishes, covered
with tin plates. a half loaf of crusty
bread. and jug of foaming ale.
good smell came from his tray, and l
silently blessed 1t and him He stared
at me in surprise, and l hastened to
relieve his anxietles.
Mr.. Holliment's away for this aft
ernoon," ] said. Hes left me in
charge. and I'm 10 have his dinner"
That's all right" he answered, and
set his tray on neighboring table,
"and good un it is, and here's wisn-
ing you a proper appetite"
Same to YOU" i responded politely.
He grinned understandingly and
went off. and 1 had the cloth and the
tin cover whipped away before the
sound Of his big feet had died out on
Mr.. HoIliment had a very comfort
able notion of homely dinner.
There was roast loin of pork, with
apple sauce, potatoes and greens;
there was plum pie and custard;
there was a mighty wedge of good
cheese. And there was the ale-a
whole jug OF prime stuff with a head
on 1t.
I felt like a new man when / had
made an end of Holliment's dinner.
After all, the adventure was turn
ing out well for me. l had not Jared
SO sumptuous1y for many a day. and
had sovereign in my pocket and
another in prospect. / should be able
to sleep in a decent lodging that
night, and next day to journey on
ward to London by rail Instead Of
tramping the highway. Everything,
in fact, looked quite rosy just then,
and. finding q box Of very decent