Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1929-03-28

door. He took hold Of the handle, and turned it. The
door did not open.
He pulled it hard, and pushed it hard. No good. 1t
was locked. All he could do was to fall back upon his
stock device, "Oi!' This time, there wasn't even an echo.
Ted returned to his armchair thoughtfully. He was
not seriously disturbed. All the same, a tiny grain of
comfort was dissipated by that locked door. Locked doors
are all right when you have locked them yourself. There
is always something sinister about them when somebody
else has turned the key.
The delayed chunk Of cheese completed its journey.
Other similar Journeys followed. The rain continued to
rattle on the windows, the wind blew fitfully, and the
faint boom of the breakers sounded occasionally in the
distance. When the bread and cheese had all gone, Ted
fingered his old pipe, and tried to be constructive in his
thoughts, to offset the dangerous Incidence that was set
Ting upon him. Perhaps ease induces this r~eatcion. Many
thought Of Newcastle, to which he was ~trudging, and Won
dered whether he would find a job there, and, if not, what
he drew nearer and nearer to his Moment.
And while a clerk ladled up a refractory portion Of a
poached egg three hundred miles away.
Suddenly an odd though came into Ted's mind. He
did not know how it came, or why.
"S!pose they are breakers?" he wondered.
He did not trouble to proceed with the inquiry. 1t
bore no special significance. Boom! Boom! Probably
they were breakers. What did it matter, anyway? It
mattered much more to get his old pipe to pull ~proberly,
Looks a sf I'm 'ere for keeps" he murmured pre-
sently, discovering with interest that he was not moving,
and that he felt no disposition to move.
Well-he wouldn't mind! One night spend quite a
pleasant day or two here, if one could meet enough kind
a bad idea, that! All, but what about Newcastieg A
day lost might mean a job lost. On the other hand, to-
morrow he might be dead. Thus argue some men on the
verge of fifty.
"'Allo-wot's that?" he muttered, all at once.
The next instant he stiffened, and his body became
"BOOMw
The sound came with a roar. The house shook. A
brass candlestick slid off the maintelpiece onto the floor.
While the laborer's eyes bulged in the empty house
in Byford Moor, Northumberland the clerks eyes were
even, than the poached egg he had just eaten.
If he had not eaten the egg, if merely a quarter Of
it had remained to engage his whole attention, he would
have missed the momentous remark that set his whole be-
ipm of1on1o Put dooc Eoto dnhbIo in 1872 IF hod dociUn-
ed that the egg should be eaten, just as it had designed
that the laborer should have been passing the empty house
in Byford Moor when the rain came on.
The momentuous remark was made in a nundertone,
by a big man to a little man. They were passing Browns
table, on their way out, and perhaps they did not notice
Brown because, as a personality, he was inconspicuous.
But, added to this, Browns table was in a dark corner Of
the room, and the two men were momentarly engrossed in
their own equally dark business.
after her!' whispered the big man. "And-if she's
troublesome-don't be particular what you do to her!"
Browns brain was not ordinarily rapid. Otherwise
he would have been earning more than fifteen dollars a