Lakeland Evening Telegram Newspaper, December 14, 1914, Page 7

‘~hl‘i5“- l’ ¢ famy ble to Come *‘Any Day ssss »w about your supply of 1? Are you ready for you wait too long to }WBS have your ¢1 'r. m may regret it ’D.. I1LLSON DWARE CO. l Christmas Turkeys Place order now with me so you will know Alsofor Pound Cake " Fruit Cake and Raisin Cake pre and Truckers will please remember I am head. { EED POTGTOES and all other Seeds. JOIN THE SOCIETY FOR PREVENTION OF USELESS GIVING ALSO TH& G SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION = OF USEFUL GIVING ric Irons, Toaster Stov.s, Percula- Flashlights, and Table Lamps, are ng the most desirable and useful you can select for CHRISTMAS BIDA ELECTRIC AND MACHINERY CO. m 'HE ELECTRIC STORE 307 E. Main St. BGPOTOEOFOEOEOIOER 00 OO 1O 10OSOTOHO COPSSHSSSISIPISIFLIONS By B. L. lAOON. Before leaving his desk to start on his annyal two weeks' vacation, Lan- { yon stuffed twenty-one thousand dol- i |lll in bills into the inside pocket of Three thousand dollars more wen M stowed away in another pocket, and, as he intended to take both rofls wu.h him, he was pretty, I well equipped for such a short period of rest. , It must not be inferred, however, that he was a spendthrift or a mil- lionsire. He was very far from being either. tinguishing characteristic. A modest ! glass of beer, a cigar now and then, | an occasional shot at the races—even | ,l\loh small vices never entered into. his sphere of life. For ten years he had lived in an ' unpretentious boarding-house across the bridge. For ten years he had gone to bed at ten o’clock sharp with ma- chine-like regularity, with the excep- tion of Saturday nights, when invari- ably he allowed himself the luxury of taking his landlady’s pretty daughter’ to the theater. That, so far as any- body knew, had been his only indul- gence. Yet he felt that for the vacation he was about to take he needed every penny of the large amount with which he had provided himself. He needed all this money to live on during his vacation in his usual thrifty fashion in a town where living was considerably cheaper than in New York, and where the opportunities for' a spendthrift would have been exceedingly meager. The fact of the matter was that Lanyon had made up his mind to pro- long this particular vacation indef- initely. He had kept this resolution a strict secret. Not even his landlady had received 80 much as a hint of it. What was stranger still, he had breathed not a word of it to Dwyer, his employer, and he did not intend to. The fact would have to dawn upon Dwyer gradually, and the longer the truth took to penetrate to the old gen- tleman’s understanding, the more would Lanyon be pleased. For the roll he had stuffed into his inside pocket was Dwyer's money. The smaller amount represented his own savings of ten years of hard and faithful work. It might have been a good deal more if he had not sent & tidy sum each month to his old moth- er, who lived alone in a sleepy little village on the Maine coast. After stowing the money away, he arranged the things in his desk very neatly, brushed it off with a little broom that he kept for the purpose, and gently closed the roll-top. He took a last look at it as he went out of the door. On the way down-town he stopped at a wholesale house in lower Broad- way where his friend Berrian was employed, to say good-by. “You look run @®wn,” observed Ber- rlan. “Old Dwyer's been working you too hard. But never mind. Maine will fix you up, all right.” “It's not going to be Maine this time, Freddle,” returned Lanyon with a serlous air. “It's going to be Tru- Jillo.” “What! Trujillo! s Trujillo?” “Nice little town in Bonduras. Sea air, beautiful tropical scenery—an ideal place for a vacation if the fever don’t get you.” Berrian merely stared, his mouth hanging open in astonishment. Look- ing cautiously around to make sure Where the deuce that nobody was within ear-shot, Lan- | yon continued: “Fred, you're the only real friend I've got in the world. You're the only man in this city I've told about my having been in prison. 1 can trust _you. “Now, perhaps you'll understand when I tell you that, in the noble words of its constitution, ‘the repub- lic of Honduras is a sacred asylum to every person fleeing to its terri- | tory.’* Berrian drew back with a gasp. “You mean—you mean—you've gone wrong again?” he demanded. “Just that,” admitted Lanyon grave- ly. TI've come to tell you because I don't want you to have any worse opinfon of me than you can help hav-, ing under the circumstances. “I don't suppose & man ever can have a good excuse for turning crook- ed, but mine is as good a one as there ever was, I guess. I've got an old mother up in Maine dependent on me. It my reputation were the best in the world, I'd rather lose it than see her starve.” “But—I don’t understand,” stam- mered Berrian. “You've managed to look after her all right, haven't you?” “I wouldn't, though, if I were out of a job, with a prison record keep- ing me from getting another. And if I don’t go now, Dwyer would see that I did next week, even if I hadn't taken a cent from him. “An old enemy of mine drifted into town last week. He's going to send Dwyer my history in a day or two. “l know Dwyer well enough to know what that would mean. So, you see how it is. If T had only myself SOFOBOFOHOHOHD T OHOGOEOROSN L & to look after, I wouldn’t care much— | and I'd get out with clean hands. As it Is, I'd rather turn thief than face the alternative.” The next moment he was in the street running for a car. Berrian had ! started to follow; but, seeing the futil- | ity of pursuit, stood staring after his retreating figure. “To think that he's come to this THE EVENING TALBGRAM, LAKELAND, FLA, DEC. 14, 1914, Frugality was his most dis-' xlner all those years of living ma!sht"' he muttered. Two hours later Lanyon arrived in ,Jerley City with a good half-hour to {spare before his train was due to start. He sat down in a corner of the waliting-room and pulled out his time-tables. But, instead of poring over them as he had intended, he gave himself up to his thoughts. Somehow, he could net get his land- lady’s pretty daughter out of his mind. He had tried hard to forget her, but his thoughts always came around to her again before long, and every now and then he would ask himself how she would regard him after she had heard the news. He glanced up at the line of people sitting facing him on the opposite benches, and over their heads to the big clock on the wall. It seemed to him that the minutes were dragging ! terribly. He was getting nervous. He gave a startled look over his shoulder toward the entrance. He could feel his heart thumping against his ribs, and as he looked down again at the time-tables he saw that his hands were trembling. And then a vision of the gray, bleak prison came before him. He heard the clanging of the grent steel doors. the sharp orders of the keepers. He straightened up with a frightened gasp and looked about in alarm. It was reassuring to find that no one was watching him. But would his train never be called? How he wished he was safe across the Honduran border! What a relief it would be to feel that he need have no fear of capture! Again his eyes wandered about the room, keenly observant of the crowd this time. He glanced from one to another of the long row of travelers in front of him, slowly turned his gaze to the doors where the passengers were filing in from the ferries, and then— “Dwyer!” He choked back the cry that rose to his lips and sank back in his seat, white and trembling. Far down at the other end of the room was the man he had robbed. For a moment Lanyon’s nerve de- serted him completely. He felt that he was lost, that Dwyer would surely search the room until he had discov- ered him, and that escape was im- possible. Probably Dwyer had not come alone. At any rate, there were always policemen near at hand in such a place. Dwyer came forward very leasurely. I'or a man on the trail of a thief who had relieved him of a fortune, he ceemed to be singularly unperturbed. He even stopped to laugh at a crow- ing baby on one of the benches. Still, it was just like the old man never to betray his true feelings. Never before had Lanyon been through such agonizing moments of suspense. He felt that the strain was more than he could bear, that his nerves would give way, and he would cry out if he had to endure it much longer. At last Dwyer saw him. “I've been looking for you, Lanyon,” he called, as he stepped up to the bench. The old man seated himself by Lan- yon's side, and, lounging back, chewed thoughtfully at an unlighted cigar. Apparently, he was dividing his at- tention between the cigar and the clock on the wall, but Lanyon knew that the tail of his eye was upon him all the time. At last, he said slowly: “I know all about that prison rec- ord, Lanyon. Your friend Berrian has just given me the whole story.” “Berrian! He told you!” cried Lan- ! yon, and in that moment the remnants of his faith in human nature van- | ished. “Yes, he told me,” Dwyer conti- nued. “And, I've come here to let you know I won't hold it up against you. You've done good, faithful work for me for ten years, and I believe I can trust you. “You weren’t much more than a boy when that happened. You've learned a good deal since then, I guess.” Lanyon felt as if he were in a dream—a dream that had brought one fleeting glimpse of hope, and then had plunged him in despair. A mist came into his eyes. At last his hand went into his pock- et, and he pulled out a roll of bills. “Mr. Dwyer,” he sald, “this money is yours. Even though I am a thief, 'l couldn’t rob a man that's treated me as you have. But, you see, you nmads a mistake about wanting me back.” Without the least show of surprise, Dwyer took the bills and counted them very slowly. Then he put them care- fully away in his pocket. “I guess when a man goes wrong more than once there isn’t one person in a hundred who'd be willing to trust him again,” he said. “I don’t belleve there is,” Lanyon assented, leaning forward and cover- ing his face with his hands. “Unless it's somebody that’'s gone wrong himself and knows what it is to live it down,” sald Dwyer. He laid a hand on Lanyon’s shoul- der. “I was in Trujillo myself thirty | years ago. But they got me at last. I did my turn behind the bars. And if Berrian’s father hadn't given me a chance, I'd have been behind 'em again before very long, like as not. “Go up to Maine, my boy. That old mother of yours will want to see | you. And then come back.” Real Sarcasm. A Tewas court has decided that money is not baggage. Those who pack | their bank notes in a trunk when they travel will therefore remember that the do so at their own risk. Money is such a bother! e e e e l l | 1 | kings, and risked their skins no more, BILLETING AND BARBARA By HARMONY WELLER. Copyright, 1914, by the McClure News- paper Syndicate. Even after war had been declared and the troops were actually on the march, Barbara Heathcote failed to realize the gravity of the situation. Comfortably ensconced in her great country bungalow, surrounded by ser- vants and every luxury, she did not see the mnecessity of worrying about a war which would not upset her own well ordered existence. Barbara had not stopped to realize that the little village in Bedfordshire was right on the line of march, It was with great surprise that she found herself watching an officer retreating from her door having bil- leted a score of soldiers on her. “Where will these troops sleep?” she asked of her old servant. “On the veranda, Miss Barbara, and in the garden,” replied Jenkins, more excited than the soldiers themselves. “We will feed them in the servants’ hall.” In the evening whon a score or more of tired but laughing soldiers in khalii ecame trooping through the great hedge gate Barbara watched them with quickly 'beating heart. Somehow and without warning a sharp emotion gripped her. She tried to stifle a desire to cry, and wondered why she should feel so helpless all of a sudden. The men were big and brave and were going off happily to fight for their country and their womenfolk. She looked again at the men, now going toward the back of the house, and their war kits brought fresh emo- tion to Barbara’s heart. They were going to battle for perhaps months and maybe years with that small pro- vision of comfort. She turned from the window and to the telephone. “Jenkins,” she called down to her old servant, “see that the cook pro- vides the best of everything for these men. Spare no expense or trouble to make them comfortable.” When she had hung up the receiver Barbara felt a trifle more like her- self. After all, she was regretting the entrance into her life of that score of brave men. Barbara felt the sting of her own weakness and the utter uselessness of her life. “Even my scrv2-t3 are doing some- thing for those mcn,” she told her- | self when she heard a burst of laugh- ter from the direction of the lower dining hall. So long did she sit in the darkness that before she knew it the troops billeted on her had ceased their laughter and flung themselves down on veranda and garden lawn to woo sleep as best they might. Bar- bara jumped up and went swiftly into the moonlight 'among the soldiers. They arose as one man at her coming and stood looking at the slim white figure. “I can’t stand it to have you sleep- ing out here,” she said hrcnthless]y.i “You must all come inside. I will have all the room necessary.” She smiled when they demurred, and commanded in a most adorable manner. ‘“Please let me have my way,” she said. “I have never done anything in my whole ! life for any one save myself. Pleuse| let me do what I can now.” And' because she was crying Barbara hast- ened to help Jenkins make up thoi many beds in the great house. The troops remained only until the morning of the third day, and when they had marched off with their bands playing and a smile on their | lips Barbara wept as if her henrt.l would break. | Bedfordshire was impossible to her after that. The life of ease and lux- ury was not to be borne. She could not sit idly by ‘and wait for news from the front; she must go and be a part of that working contingent and do her mite. Barbara knew that somewhere, some day, after the great war was over she would again stand beside the young lieutenant commander who had slept beneath her roof on the way to battle. His eyes had told her that he would come back to her, and Barbara was living only for that day and for the good she might do to be worthy of him. “I am glad,” thought Barbara, “that 1 lived on the line of march- ing. Otherwise I might never have known Lieutenant Commander Blake- ly.” She smiled softly and added, “And yet—I must surely have met him some day.” The Sport of Kings. In very early times some kings, hav- ing made war, went forth in person to fight the battles, ignorantly sup- posing there was no other way. But they had not proceeded far till they were swept aside by a great mul- titude rushing to the front. “Who are you?” asked the kings, in no small curiosity. “We? Why, we're the precious fools who are always ready to make somebody else’s quarrel our own—pa- triots, in short!” replied the multi- tude. “Precious, indeed!” chuckled the —New York Evening Post. Origin of Playing Cards. The origin of playing cards is un- certain, although it is probable that they appeared tn Europe in the year 350. A duty was first placed on them in England in 1615. It is esti- mated that from 14,000,000 to 15,000, 000 packs are manufactured annually in the United States. mmmomomommmamm SANITARY PRESSING CLUB CLEANING, PRESSING. REPAIRING and DYEING. Ladies Work a Specialty. Satisfaction Guaranteed. GIVE US A TRIAL Kibler Hotel Basement. 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