The evening world. Newspaper, June 24, 1905, Page 11

} : ' Price 1 Cent, Including { Fiction Supplement No SINECURE. By E. W. HORNUNG. (COPYRIGHT, 1809, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONB.) 1 AM still uncertain which surprised me more, the telegram calling my attention to the advertise- ment or the advertisement Itself, The teleeram is before me as I write. It would appear to have been handed In at Vere atreet at 8 o'clock in the morning of May 11, 1897, and received before half- past at Holloway B, 0, And in the drab region tt duly 7ound me, unwashed but at work before tho day grew hot and my attic insupportable, See Mr. Maturin's advertisement Dally Mall might sult you var nestly beg try will speak 1¢ necesuary, I transcribe the thing as I see it before me, all in one breath that took away mine; but [ leave out the initials at the end, which completed the surprise, They stood very obviously for the knighted specialist whose consulting room is within a cab whistle of Vere street, and who once called me kinsman for his sins. More recently he had called me other names, I was a dis- grace, qualifie®? by an adjective which seemed to me another. I had made my bed, and I could go and lie and die in it. If I ever again had the Insolence to show my nose in that house I should go out quicker than T came in. ‘All this and more my least distant relative could tell a poor devil to his face; could ring for his man and give him his brutal tnstruc- tons on the spot, and then relent to the tune of, this telegram! Ihave po ; my eyes. Yet their SA Ml a NS ae kA a Rea y FICTION SUPPLEMENT, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 24 1905. more characteristic of its sender. Meanly elliptical, ludicrously precise, saving half-pence at the expense of sense, yet paying like a man for “Mr.” ‘Maturin, that was my distinguished relative from his bald patch to his corns, Nor was all the rest unlike him, upon second thoughts. He had a reputation for charity; he was going to live up to it after all, Elther that or it was the sudden impulse of which tha most calculating are capable at times; the morning papers with the early cup of tea, this advertisement seen by chance and the rest upon the sour of a guilty conscience, Well, I must see it for myself, 2nd the soouver the hetter, though work pressed. I was writing a series of articles upon prison Ife and had my nib into the whole System; a literary and philanthropical dally was pa- rading my “charges,” the graver ones with the more gusto; and the terms, if unhandsome for creative work, were temporary wealth to me, It 80 happened that my first check had just arrived by the 8 o'clock post; and my posttion should be appreciated when I say that I had to cash It to obtain a Daily Mail, Of the advertisement itself what is to be said? It should speak for {self if I could find it, but I cannot, and only remember that ft was a “male nurse and constant attendant” that was "wanted for an elderly gentleman in feeble health.” A male nurse! An absurd tag was appended offering “Itberal salary to university or public-school man;" and of a sudden T saw that I should get this thing if IT applied for it. What other “university or public-school man" would dream of doing 80? Was any other In such’ And then my relentless relative; he not only promised to speak for mo, but was the very man to do so. Could any recommendation compete with his in the matter of a male nurse? And need the duties of such be necessarily loathsome and repellent? Certainly the surroundings would be better than those of my common lodging-house and own pare tloular garret, and the food and every other condition of fe that I could think of on my way back to that unsavory asylum. So I dived Into a pawn~ hraker's shop, where 1 was a stranger only upon my present errand, and within the hour was airing a decent if antiquated suit, but little corrupted by the pawnbroker'’s moth, and a new straw hat, on the top of a tram, The address given in the advertisement wae that of a fiat at Earl's ‘Court, which ost me a cross-country journey, finishing with the District Vigil cheettae ad ‘ i straits as 1? (Copyright 1905. by the Prevy Publishing Company.) Railway and a seven minutes’ walk. It was now past midday, and the tarry wood pavément was good to smell ag I strode up the Barl's Court road. It was great to walk the civilized world again. Here were men with coats on their backs and ladies in gloves. My only fear was lest I might run up against one or other whom 1 had known of old, But it was my lucky day, I felt it in my bones. I was going to get this berth; and some- times I should be able to smell the wood pavement on the old boy's er- rands; perhaps ‘he would insist on skimming over it In his bath chair, with me behind, I felt quite nervous when I reached the flats, They were a small pile in a side street, and I pitied the doctor whose plate 1 saw upon the palings before the ground-floor windows; he must be In a very small way, I thought. } rather pitied myself as well, 1 had indulged in visions of better flats than these. There were no balconies. The porter was out of livery. There was no lift, and my invalid on the third floor! 1 trudged up, wishing I had never lived in Mount street, and brushed against a dejected individual coming down, A full-blooded young fellow In a frock coat flung the right door open at my summons. “Does Mr. Maturin live here?” [ inquired, “That's right,” sald the full-blooded young man, grinning all over a convivial countenance. “I—1've come about his advertisement In the Datly Mail.” “You're the thirty-ninth,” cried the blood; “that was the thirty-elghth you met upon the stairs, and the day's still young. Excuse my staring at you, Yes, you pass your prelim. and can come inside; you're one of the few. We had most just after breakfast, but now the porter's heading oft the worst cases, and that last chap was the first for twenty minutes, Come in here." And I was ushered {nto an empty room with a good bay window, which enabled my full-blooded friend to inspect me yet more critically in a good light, This he did without the least false delicacy. Then his questions began, “'Varelty man?” “No.” “Public school?" The Adventures of RAFFLES. No. 7. “Yes,” “Which one?” I told him, and he sighed relief. “At last! \ is and what ts not a public school. Expelled?’ “No,” I sald after a moment's hesitation; ‘no, I was not expelled. And) T hope you won't expel me if I ask a question In my turn?” “Certainly not.” “Are you Mr, Maturin'’s son?” “No, my name's Theobald, You may have seen {t down below.” “The doctor?” I sald. “His doctor,” said Theobald with a satisfled eye, ‘Mr, Maturin’s dot» He {s having a male nurse and attendant by my advice, and he wanta I rather think he'll see you, though he’s There are certain questions which he pres tor. a gentleman {f he can get one. only seen two or three all day. fers to ask himsalf, and it's no good going over the same ground twice, perhaps T had better tell him about you before we go any further.” And he withdrew to a room still nearer the entrance, as I could hear for it was a very small flat indeed. But now two doors were shut between and I had to rest content with murmurs through the wall until the doce Yer returned to summon me, “IT have persuaded my patient to see you,” he whispered, “but I confess, T am not sanguine of the result. He {is very difficult to please, You must prepare yourself for a querulous inyalid, and for no sinecure If you get the billet.” “May I ask what's the matter with him?” “By all means—when you've got the billet.” Dr, Theobald then led the way, his professional dignity so thoroughly | intact that 1 could not but smile as I followed his swinging coat-tails to the sick-room, I carried no smile acnoya the threshold of a darkened chamher which reeked of drugs and twinkled with medicine bottles, and in the midad dle of which a gaunt figure lay abed in the half-light. “Take him to the window, take him to the window,” a thin vo snapped, “and let's have a look at him, Open the blind a bit, Not as as that, damn you, not as much as that!” You're. the very first I’ve not had to argue with as to whaty ti Hy ) H