Lakeland Evening Telegram Newspaper, February 25, 1915, Page 6

L “Iss an architect lifs here?” Mr. Brandon Meade, deep in his con- tinuous plans for booming the live little city of Holden, stopped abruptly, jerked his black cigar from between his teeth, and surveyed the youthful stranger through the gently falling flakes. “Fellow here calls himself one; he's & contractor, and runs a planing mill besides,” he replied. The other made an indescribable Hlttle gesture with his hands and shoul- ders and head, not exactly of con- tempt, but more of pity and sorrow. “Then iss no chance,” he sald with weary resignation. “Are you an architect?” Meade in his turn. “What you call—draftsman,” replied the other. “Designer, to originate: ca- thedral, residence, anything; detalls, perspective, water-color, everything.” “Good,” approved Meade with awak- ening interest. “We need something like that in Holden. “What’s your name?” he demanded. “Conrad Hoehler.” “Well Conrad whatever-your-last- name-is—Hayler's as near as I can get to it—you ought to starve. I h: see a man in ten minutes.” He snapped open his watch, looked at it, snapped it shut, snapped it open once more, took a second look, and jammed it back into his pocket. “You can't expect me to miss a business engage- ment because you're too haughty to eat when you're hungry. Come along with me " . The boy—he was scarcely more than that—looked at him in solemn perplex- 1ty, but followed as he was told to do. Notwithstanding his announcement that he had no time to waste, Meade turned with his quick, nervous stride down the side street, at right angles to the direction in which he had been hurrying, and wheeled into the hall- way of an old, rickety, frame build- ing Up one flight of stairs he stalked into an office where, near the window, a big rough table, littered with paper and drawing materials, was tiited upon asked rude trestles. A cheerful wood fire was burning in an old-fashioned stove; per drawings uatil he found the ones for which he had been searching. They were the first and second story plans of a moderatesized house, arranged side by side upon one sheet; and this he spread upon the table in front of Conrad. “There,” he said; “see what you can do toward designing an outside for | that house; just a rough, free-hand sketch.” In spite of the draftsman’s apparent | delib-rateness, they had not long to wait: for presently he put pencil to the block of paper and, with deft, sure strokes, not one mark wasted, sketched, in perfect perspective, a house fitting the plans that he had seen; its roof simple to avoid snow- pockets, its eaves and porches wide to afford shade in summer, its lines simple and squat for the flat grounds. The ornamentation, massed against broad, plain surfaces, was exquisite in its suggested detail and placed with consummate art. Meade, as the last strokes were put down, could : scarcely wait. | “Look at that!” he exclaimed in 'triumph to his friends. “Harper couldn't make a drawing like that in two years!” As young Conrad added a chimney and lined in the wide porch-steps, Meade was for jerking the sketch ' from under his fingers, but the artist held up his right hand solemnly. “You shoult wait,” he calmly com- manded; and, with a few deft lines, suggested a sidewalk, a lawn, some trees and clouds; then, having drawn a waving line about it to circumscribe the plane of his picture, he detached the sheet from the block and handed it over, with the pencil upon it. The threé bent over it in profound respect. “That is certainly some house,” pro- nounced Hyde. “I don't know how to say lovely,” drawled Eastman, “but I'm willing to pronounce that, a mighty decent de- sign.” “Decent?” great!” repeated Meade. “It's IL Of course they called him “the Dutchman” after he had become an | intimate part of the life of Holden, for there was almost no foreign ele- ment in the town. Eight dollars a week and his board Harper paid Con- rad, and the boy was satisfied. “I am more worth,” he said, adding philosophically, “but it iss not here the money. If you have not profit of my work that I do, then I am--what you call it?—no goot.” Harper, with whom economy was a stern necessity, brought a cot into the office, and for a week Conrad slept upon this cot, taking his meals at & nearby restaurant. During that week Harper studied his draftsman closely, and Mrs. Harper made two unobtru- sive trips to the office for the same purpose. On Sunday Conrad was taken to the Harper home and formally in- stalled. i “He's simply a revelation, Sam,” , Mrs. Harper pronounced in surprise ,after the first week. “After you get used to the dialect you begin to dis ! cover that he's well educated; he’s | artistic to his fingertips, & poet in feeling, a lover of severely good | music; he sings divinely, and little ‘Ellla fairly loves him. She makes him rock her to sleep every noon be- fore he goes back to work.” It was the good-fellowship of this couple, together with their unwaver- ing affection, which made Conrad turn .his admiration of them to the same | degree of worship that he had already into the soil. bestowed upon four-year-old Elsie. His | per had left it the night before. lines were cast in pleasant places in- deed, and he thrust his roots deeply | of the situation, Conrad picked some At first he had to overcome the | pared entries. -.lu’iiliu i Ui | { Perched on a high stool, Harper read him the items one by one; that on such a date one workman had put in nine hours, another six, another two, and so on through the spring and the early summer. “That cannot be,” objected Conrad at one point, raising his head; “Wright hat not work nine hours by the 29th. That day he haf been hurt.” “That's so,” admitted Harper, con- fused. “I'm looking at the wrong line. It was on the 28th he worked nine hours.” “Ja, but on the 28th you haf read it seven hours.” “That was a mistake, too,” said Harper impatiently. “Make it nine.” Conrad looked troubled. The whole time-list had an unfamiliar look to him, and it bothered him that his usu- ally photographic memory should be | confused. It did mot occur to him | for an instant to suspect that Harper | was reading the items willfully wrong; i"‘“ he was deliberately adding sev- | eras dollars a day to Meade's account. . When they were through, after three solid hours of toil, Harper sent Conrad home, ahead of him while he counted up the new record. As re- | vised, the book showed over a thou- 1 sand dollars still due him from Meade . —-enough to tide him over this desper- { ate pinch in which he found himself. Musing in pallid-faced self-loathing over this, his first departure from rec- titude, he did a thing inexplicable even in one of his careless habits. He de- stroyed the old book, abstractedly | tearing it up page by page and drop- ping it in the wastebasket. In the morning came Conrad, and recognized those scraps at once. On the table lay the new book where Har- Me- i chanically obeying the inexorable logic of the scraps from the basket and com- Every legible word Sketched, in Perfect Perspective, a House Fitting the Plans He Had Seen. ,now he drew from his pocket the; quandary. Was Totable That, Though Enowing no German, she pronounced his name with & perfect mastery of the difficult ‘sound of the modulated vowel. Harper shook his head and glanced | at Meade with a miserable sense of | “He is gone,” he faltered. “He left about half an hour ago.” “I got such a curious note from him,” she explained. “He met my brother on the street and gave it to, him. Why did he go?” “It was a—a point of honor,” Har- per lamely told her. It was splendid to see the way the girl squared her shoulders, and how her eyes flashed, though she grew T ‘||I paler still. o ' “He has done nothing wrong,” she ‘“ declared. “I know!" I | “Bless your heart, no!" exploded Meade. “He couldn’t it he tried. Now don’t you worry about Conrad, because his friends are not going to let him get away,” and he bustled outside with his usual spluttering energy. Bewildered, not able to understand | any of it, the girl went out upon the street, scarcely reflecting that she was going with them. Walking at the side of Harper, with Meade forging nerv- : ously on ahead, during the next four ! blocks she lost herself in the knowl- | edge of how much, how very much.| . she cared! | As they turned the corner toward . the station Meade, who was in ad- vance, gave an exclamation of sur- prise, for there, but half a block ahead | of them, and going in the same direc- , tion, was Conrad. He was walking | slowly along the shady street, his head ! . down, his shoulders drooped, his pock- | ets bulging with his portable posses- | sions. Blanche, all thought for con- | ventions swept away in this over- wrought moment, flew swiftly after him. | “Oh, Conrad!™ she cclled, as shz) overtook him and put her hand o wig arm. he started toward the door. “Goot-by,” i He whirled, and a passing teamster, | he said brokenly. i with a jovial cast of countenance, Harper was ash-white under the ac- | stopped his horses and looked back- cusation that he could not resent. ward with a grin, for it was quite un- “Where are you going?” he stam- | usual in the streets of Holden to see mered. ' a young man sob and clasp a young “I do not know. Away like I came,” | lady in his arms. answered Conrad. “I forgif you,” and | “Ach, ich sterbe fuer dich!—I die for he was gone. ! you!” cried the young man, stopping Harper was still sitting rigidly upon even then, in his consideration of her, | the stool when Meade came bustling ' to translate; but when Meade and Har- | in five minutes later. | per came up he drew her arm within “Got a new job for you, Sam,” he his own and turned his back upon | sald. “I've made Parsons consent to them and walked away. She was/ tear down the rickety old buildings on going with him quite contentedly. She his corner and put up a good business did not know what these men had block. Say, what's the matter with done, but if Conrac held them in con- you, anyhow ?" tempt she scorned them! Harper had not moved. He had been! “Wait a minute!” commanded gazing at Meade with fixed eyes, like ' Meade, and caught Conrad by the one in a horror-stricken trance; but: shoulder, instantly understanding his “Everything's all right my Harper told me all about it. as 1T T were an uncléan thing> | “No, no!” he cried. ‘That money, I want it not! It is not goot money. I caw in the basket this morning the book where you tore it up. You hat! been a t'ief; I am part t'ief;” and slip- | ping his instruments into his pockets check that Meade had given him but boy. an hour before and proffered it. “I stole it,” he numbly confessed. rad's eyes the check that Harper had “I falsified the time.” “Oh, climb down from your perch!” | man. So are you; so am I; so's Miss Meade whipped out with no abatement | Reynolds. Let's all whatever of his crisp manner. “Now, what's all this about? Tell me like & | office and talk it over. By the way, sane man. { Conrad, what are you doing here? We | “You say you falsified those time . expected to find you four miles down entries,” he went on. “I glanced the track by this time.” them over while you were at my of-| Conrad smiled through his tears. fice. They were all in Conrad’s writ-! “I could not go, and I could not ing.” | stay!” he exclaimed. “Four, five, six “Gad!” exclaimed Harper. “For the | i moment I had forgotten him. 1 read | times I have walked from that corner off those items to him from the old to the station and back." i book last night, changing them as }' Tears were in Blanche's eyes, too; went along. He found out this morn- | but now she, too. laughed. ing what I'd had him do and he called | *And now none of us, not even your. me a thief and left. God knows what self, will ever know whether you | it cost him. There’s a girl here that— | would really have gone away or come ! well, after he went away I had to re- | back,” she said with the faintest trace | nege.” {of jealousy, which, however, was lost i B BB CEOPOPOE0PPOPOTOPOPOL GPOPOT, SAEPEFFEI0I0E0O0E0OHOSSOFTIOPC ey i Look here,” and he thrust before Con- | . returned to him. “Harper's an honest | b shake hands. | Now we're all four going back to the | iy P Ty same contemptuous prejudice that had | was damning. Here, on the 16th, was | bestowed upon him the title of “the Dutchman.” Mrs. Harper introduced him to some nice girls, but secretly they laughed at his broken English: and Blanche Reynolds, by whom he was at once speechlessly smitten, | openly flouted him; whereat Mrs. Har- per wanted to shake her. With the | young men he was in somewhat less ;cnnstrnlnt. though even here he was i still an alien until one evening when, | in passing the library, one of a group of young men made some laughing re. mark, loud enough to be overheard, bout “the Dutchman.” Conrad wheeled immediately and came back “Not Dutchman—German!" he de clared, marching directly up to the one who had spoken. It was Price Reynolds, her brother. “It iss not dis- | grace to be Dutchman, either, but it | is disgrace the way you say it. I am Dutchman no more! and you hear it!" The other laughed. ‘Keep your collar on, Dutchy,” he admonished with amused tolerance. | “I am not Dutchman, I have said!™ | insisted Conrad. “I challench you!" | They repaired to Hyde's barn. Here- i tofore fights in Holden had been swift, unexpected, spontaneous affairs, and they had beea fought out with great vigor in an entirely impromptu mwn- ) ner; but this was a decided novelty, but there was no one in the room, and | at which even the sworn officers of the Meade plunged into the next office | peace winked complacently. When the th;:mh.h the communicating door.| battle was waged, an hour later, which was open. Hyde's barn was full to overflowing This was a lawyer's office, it one | vi’lh enthusiastic spectators. (‘l:ndpr might judge from the yellow-backed | compels the admission that Conrad :Wh which filled (lh;'eh l“:"‘!- and | was worsted in the encounter, but that ere sat two men with their feet on | was not the point. He had fought oppol|lu\e"fldel of a flat-top desk, chat- i gamely from I:’;innlng to end ting y. “Where's Harper?” Meade briskly | d.:h;:w‘::ahl:d:::“u::o?‘; :‘.m :‘ ::: demanded. among men, without any regard what- “He's out of town, Brandy,” drawled ever to nationality or habit of the l:an-faced man at the far side of , speech; and where the boys led, fol- the desk. “;llrlarper"n 50116‘:0 mortgage | lJowed the girls. Through them he pa- his immo soul for another new ma- | tiently plddded to Blanche Reynolds, chine, and I'm keeping up his fire 50 | and having secured her frank favor this room won't be so beastly cold | there was nothing more in this world | that he wanted. He was the acknowl- edged suitor of the handsomest, the most brilliant, the most wonderfully endowed girl in all the world; he lived e B oted. und et b | ina ht?me almosnher:e that to him was fnto l:h:nnrchi"fl'u office %] :::;T: :In‘sw:sor:h“l.i:e n:::do‘:f- ceol:< He found Conrad, his hands clasped | ployers—precious thing to this vivid behind him, inspecting the materials | emotionalist—trusted him implicitly. upon the table with greedy eyes .| Both to save expense and to con- N‘C'l:.‘c::' {T“‘;;S: :n;."fle“’(- centrate energy, the office had bc::\ fussed 0| moved down to the mill, where I stand around now till you earn your| rad became not only designer and “Are You an Architect?” when he opens our door tomorrow morning.” | “Harper's an ass; tell him 1 said breakfast; and my time's worth| draftsman, but timekeeper. ur.q, Where are my plans, I won-| One evening Harper asked for his der ‘With a ruthless hand he began to 9DaR ARd. scatter aboyt the office sev- { Turner, on the old book three hours, ! in the new book nine. Wright was in i the new book for nine hours on that | date, and in the old one his name was | not written down at all, for he had | been at work on another job. Then Harper came in, strangely | shaken, though trying to preserve an air of easy nonchalance. “I have just had a settlement with Meade,” he began in a voice irtended to be quiet and cheery, “and what do you think the fellow did? Offered me a fivehundred-dollar bonus for the good work we have done! “Here’s your back pay, Conrad,” he said. “I'm sorry to have kept you waiting so long.” Conrad backed away from the check you mean by ‘away? Not that he's; ! going to leave Holden?" | | “Just that,” affirmed Harper. “He said he couldn’t look my wife and me in the face and tell on me, and couldn’t look you in the face and not | tell.” 1 “Put away your books! We've got! to stop Conrad. 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