The Haunted Bookshop

Way Home-and Rides

homeward. Without making a very conscious choice, he felt instinctively that it would be agreeable to walk

outwardly decent and managed to preserve his aquarium, but inside he was impromptu and full of unexpectedness." To say that he was thinking of Miss Chapman would imply too much power of ratiocination and abstract scrutiny on his part. He was not thinking: he was being thought. Down the accustomed channels

corner of Gissing Street and Wordsworth Avenue, to buy

ong ago by the Tabard Inn Library. The shop was empty, but as he opened the door a bell buzzed sharply. In a back chamber he could hear voices. As he waited idly for the druggist to appear, Aubrey cast a tolerant eye over the dusty volumes in the twirling case. There were the usual copies of Harold MacGrath's The Man on the Box, A Girl of the Limberlost, and The Houseboat on the Styx. The Divine Fire, much grimed, leaned ag

RL

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he slipped the book cove

was that of one anxious to please. Aubrey indicated the brand of cigarettes he wanted. Having himself coined the advertising catchword for them-They're mild-but they sati

as he opened the packet and lit one of the paper tubes at a litt

w did not seem to fit his surly face. "I must have steady nerves i

get your hands s

moved his hands

ed. "Prescriptions-al

heir talk. The doorway at the back of the shop was veiled by a portiere of beads and thin bamboo sections threaded on strings. He heard them

he said, and stepped

air whose horsehair stuffing was bulging out, that blue-eyed vision of careless girlhood! Happily he had been so seated that he could study her without seeming to do so. The line of her ankle where the firelight danced upon it put Coles Phillips to shame, he averred. Extraordinary, how these creatures are made to torment us with their intolerable comeliness! Against the background of dusky bindings her head shone with

wake;[2] his burly bosom echoed with incoherent oratory. In the darker stretches of Fulton Street that lead up to the Brooklyn Bridge he fiercely exclaimed: "By God, it's not such a bad world." As he ascended the slope of that vast airy span, a black midget against

rase was unconsciously lifted from R. L. S.

the East Indian elevator-boy presents to apartment-house tenants about Hallowe'en. A fume of golden light eddied over uptown merriment: he could see the ruby beacon on the Metropolitan Tower signal three quarters. Underneath the airy decking of the bridge a tug went puffing by, her port and starboard lamps trailing red and green threads over the tideway. Some great ar

tion-compelling" copy and lay-out and type-face, in a corner of the Grey-Matter office, contributed to the triumphant prosperity and grace of this unconscious beneficiary? Indeed she seemed to him, fiercely tormenting himself with her loveliness, a symbol of the mysterious and subtle power of publicity. It was Advertising that had done this-that had enabled Mr. Chapman, a shy and droll little person, to surround this girl with all the fructifying glories of civilization-to foster and cherish her until she shone

the assault, he fell sideways against the barrier and had the good fortune to seize his enemy by the leg. Muffled in the sacking, it was vain to cry out; but he held furiously to the limb he had grasped and he and his attacker rolled together on the footway. Aubrey was a powerful man, and even despite the surprise could probably have got the better of the situation; but as he wrestled desperately and tried to rid himself of his hood, a crashing blow fell upon his hea

id the latter anxiously. "Ge

f it had been caved in. Putting up his hand, feebly, he was surprised to find the contours of his skull much the

d sympathetically. "I seen those fellows jump you

; against the star-speckled sky he could see the Woolworth Building

you," he stammered. "I'll

nd ring up a nambulanc

lung to the rail of the bridge, trying to collect his wits. One phrase ran

ing?" said the oth

nue and Thir

citizen approached afoot, "Give this fellow a hand. Someone be

fter a few moments the first Samaritan succeeded in stopping a touring car which was speeding over from Brooklyn. The driver

otorist genially. "Two fellows tried to hold me up coming in from Rockville Centre the ot

of sacking might have helped

run bac

Aubrey. "I've got a

it is? Maybe you'r

rding house. He thanked his convoy heartily, and refused further assistance. After several false shots he got his latch key in the lock, climbed four c