The Haunted Bookshop

Movies, and Wishes

in a flat-armed chair. Aubrey got a bowl of soup, a cup of coffee, beef stew, and bran muffins, and took them to an empty seat by the window. He ate with one eye on the street. From his plac

bright and orderly in its Saturday evening bustle. Certainly it was grotesque to imagine melodrama hanging about a second-hand bookshop in Brooklyn. The revolver felt absurdly lumpy and uncomfortable in his hip pocket. What a different aspect a little hot supper gives to affairs! The most resolute idealist or assassin had better write his poems or plan his atrocities before the evening meal. After

him more "attention-compelling" than any ten-point Caslon type-arrangement he had ever seen. He admired the layout of her face from the standpoint of his cherished technique. "Just enough 'white space,'" he thought, "to set off her eyes as the 'centre of interest.'

seized hat and coat, and

lked down the eastern pavement. In this way he would meet them as though he were coming from the subway. He felt rather more excited than King Albert re-entering Brussels. He saw them coming, chatter

hem with an admirable

Gilbert. Were you coming to see Roger?" she ad

tyle italics with the desperate intensity of a proof-reade

was coming to see you all. I-I wo

k after the shop," she said. "He's busy with some of his old

s Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew, y

ted. Pleasure coincided with duty in that the ou

ou like booksel

learn about all the books. People ask such questions! A woman came in this afterno

. Mifflin. "Just a minute, people,

he druggist eyed him rather queerly. And being of a noticing habit, he also observed that when Weintraub had occ

ront of the theatre Aubrey i

said Titania as they entered, "s

n trying to shelter Titania from buffets and pushings. Unknown to her, his arm extended behind her like an iron rod to absorb the onward impulses of the eager throng. A rustling groan ran through these enthusiasts as they saw the preliminary footage of the gre

phone call from Philadelphia asking him to go over on Monday to make an estimate on a libra

in Brooklyn on Monday, on business. Maybe Mrs. Miffl

ys welcome," sa

book," said Aubrey. "What do you su

s afternoon and wanted to buy it, but Mr. Mifflin wouldn't part with it.

ively-a poor Tarzan of the advertising jungle, lost among the elephants and alligators of commerce, and sighing for this dainty and unattainable vision of girlhood that had burst upon his burning gaze! He stole a perilous side-glan

glad it's over! I was quite afraid one of those el

really good books-think of Frank Stockton's stuff, how delightful that

's mentioned a book that I've read. Yes-do you remember when Pomona and Jonas visit an insane asy

ervice of the arc light and the lens. Aubrey felt a serene and intimate pleasure in watching them from a seat beside Titania. He knew that the breakfast table scene shadowed before them was only a makeshift section of lath propped up in some barnlike motion picture studio; yet his rocketing fancy imagined it as some arcadian suburb where he and Titania, by a jugglery of

rew's face through the magnifying lenses. They were disappointed in the result, however, as the pictures, when so enlarged, revealed all t

makes his lovely nose look

ve these in your pocket?" asked Mr

rompt and reasonable fib, but a

he advertising sky-signs. I'm a little short sighted. You see, it'

they reached the door of the bookshop. Aubrey was eager enough to accept, but feared to overplay his hand. "I'm sorry," he said, "but I think I'd better not

oor closed behind them, and Aubrey fell into a profound melancholy. Depriv

led alley ran through to Wordsworth Avenue, passing between the back yards of Gissing Street and Whittier Street. The alley was totally dark, but by counting off the correct number of houses Aubrey identified the rear entrance of the bookshop. He tried the yard gate cautiously, and found it unlocked. Glancing in he could

ath her casement! The idea was just fantastic enough to appeal to him. Then, as he stood in the open gateway, he heard distant footfalls coming down the alley, and a grumble of voices. Perhaps two policemen on

rkness. He stood still against the back fence. To his amazement the me

the gate is locked. We must f

e last word. There was no mistaking-this was the voic

ing studied that language in college, Aubrey caught only tw

l right, but we must act to-night. The damned thing

Aubrey's grasp. The latch of the alley gate clicked once more, and his han

d said "We must find some other way." Besides, Aubrey remembered something having been said about the old terrier sleeping in the kitchen. He felt sure Bock would not let any German in at night without raising the roof. Probably the best way would be to watch the front of the shop. In miserable perplexity he waited several minutes until the two Germans would be well out of earshot. Then he unbolted the gate and stole up the alley on tiptoe, in the opposite direction. It led into Wordsworth Avenue just behind Weintraub's drug store, over the rear of which hung the great girders and trestles of the "L" station, a kind of Swiss chalet straddli

the little sunken area before the door. With his opera glasses he could see from his bedroom whatever went on. As he crossed the street he cast his eyes upward at the facade of Mrs. Schiller's house. Two windows in the fourth storey were lit, and the gas burned minutely in the downstairs

r or one of his gang. He had suspected the other man in the alley of being Weintraub, but he could not be sure. A cautious glance through the window of the drug store revealed Weintraub at his prescription counter. Aubrey determined to get even with the guttural gen

ich was just closing. He entered and bought a dozen white carnatio

re that is sometimes used to nip the buds of expensiv

ubrey. "I need some to-night and I gue

out of sight from the upstairs windows. He climbed the steps and unlatched the door with bated breath.

where he could find them again in a hurry. Then, choosing a banister about six feet from the bottom of the stairs he attached one end of the wire tightly to its base and spread the slack in a large loop over two of th

in the dark, and muttered upstairs. He twitched his noose out of the way just in time. Presently, however, his patience was rewarded. He heard a door squeak above, and then the groaning of the staircase as someone descended s

a gigantic tug. The man fell like a safe, crashing against the banisters and landing in a spra

delight, and laid his carnations on the head of the stricken one. Then, hearing stirrings in the basement, he gathered up his wire and shoes and fled upstairs. He gained his room roaring with inward mirth, but entered cautiously, fearing some trap. Save for a strong tincture of cigar smoke, everything seemed correct. Listening at his door he heard Mrs. Schiller exclaiming shrilly in the hall, assisted by ya

o himself. He locked his door, and sat d