The Veiled Lady

janitor. The Tampico had come and gone, and had come again. Its arrivals, and departures were, as usual, always commented upon by Mawkum, generally in connection with "That Bunch

kum's room. He brought no letters of introduction, nor did he confine himself to his mother tongue, although his nationality was as apparent as that of his predecessor. N

as shiny; dark-skinned, with a pair of heavy eyebrows that met over a stub of a nose ending in a knob; two keen rat eyes, a mouth hidden by a lump of a mustache b

ted out with hardly an accent. "I arrived this morning by the Tampico. My name is

of always guarding plans and estimates from outsiders-a custom which was really one of the fundamental laws of the office. The indiscretion was no doubt helped by the discovery

ach the inquirer's side and be properly introduced-I did not want to interfere too abruptly-Mawkum had not

, fished up a pair of glasses, stuck them on the knob end of his nose, and began devouring the plans i

three months. The time, as you will note, has expired. Do you now ask for an additional sum,

been no advance in the cost of the

your judgment, should be add

or kind of labor, or the bottom of the reef-may be

, exposed to the rake of the sea; bottom coral, I understand; labor cheap and good for nothing, a

harge of the

or be responsible for it after it leav

arched his eyebrows and loo

tronizing strain through it. "I'll do that. What I want to know is

he waters; certainly not on the ripples washing the shores of Moccador. If there were any business in sight

ing of your firm prevented my doing so. This is business, and I want to get back home as quick as possible. Our coast is a dangerous one and the loss of life increases every year. Do you want this matter hung up for six weeks until we can com

red and had then sent Onativia in his place. This wiped out the past and made a new deal necessary-one whi

here in the plans. Well, if it was to be put on our Florida coast, where I think the conditions are somewhat simil

gain the smile wo

weather. We have warnings of our coast storms and can provide aga

e roofs and the natives hugging the cocoanut trees." With this he turned to the plans again. "Better add an

sum on the memorandum wh

r your signature. I'll call to-morro

eally until we heard the down-chug of the elev

at Bunch of Garlic is working some funny busines

r of the globe, had asked either Mawkum or myself to add one penny to the cost of anything. The effort heretofore had been to cut down each item to the last cent. Was the ivory-tinted gentleman going to build the lighthouse at his own expense out of

bobbed to Mawkum, drew a chair to my desk and sq

not necessary for you to know. The ironwork-all you will have to furnish-will also be shipped in my name. With the order will be sent a letter introducing my bankers, who will call upon you at your convenience, and who will pay the amounts in the way you desi

my head

nsider to be a fair price for both the lighthouse itse

se. When did you last see Mr. Lawton? He's our agent, you know, and you must have met him i

ecognized the hidden meaning of the inq

its renewal, and so far as this deal is concerned he does not count. I am here, as I told you, to keep the affair alive. I would have come sooner, but I have been away from the cit

do

do thousands o

ht your former president, Paramba, a tyrant. As for Presiden

, the smile of contempt wr

it from my desk. "Ah, yes: forty thousand dollars for the ironwork; one hundred and twenty thousand for the erection on the Lobo Reef; one hundred and sixty thousand

age which Mawkum had handed the "Bunch of Dried Garlic" months before, together with a document stamped, restamped and stamped again, containing an order

his arm), a reputable concern within a stone's throw of my

ankers; its dismemberment and final coat of red lead-each tie-rod and beam red as sticks of sealing-wax-its delive

nsaction, so far as

y every mail. These would generally refer to the dissatisfaction felt by many of the Moccadorians over the present government, one editorial, as near as I could make out, going so far as to hint that a secret movement was on foot to oust the "Usurper" Alvarez and restore the old government under Paramba. No reference

ntered in the erection of the structure in the open sea. One part of the transaction we could never understand, and that was why Garlicho had allowed the

one fine morning by the arrival of a sunburned gentleman

he Tampico, did you? Oh, but I am glad to see you! Here, draw up a chair.

hman broke out i

l me, why didn't Garlicho go on with the w

his chair and closed

e saved his neck by turning over the lighthouse papers to Onativia. As to Carlos Onativia, he is a product of the soil. Started life as a coolie boss in a copper mine, became manager and owner, built the bridge over the Quitos River and the

d. "Is it up? You must have passed

people eat ice-cream on the first platform and the band plays Sundays in the balcony under the boat d

ffice rang with

RDOCK,-

her blocking in the background around a photograph, a third pasting clippings on sheets of brown paper. Every few minutes a bare-headed boy in a dirty apron, with smudged face and ink-stained fingers

relief his pale, flabby cheeks, hard, straight mouth, and coarse chin. Only when he lifts his head to give some order, or holds the receiver of the telephone to his ear, can his eyes be exactly located. Then they shine like a cat's in a cellar,-gray, white, gray again, with a glint of metallic green,-always the same distance apart, never wavering, never blinking. Over

hard as a plank. Joe's duty was to keep his eyes peeled, his ears open, and his legs in working order. If a reporter wanted a fresh pad, a cup of water, or a file of papers, Joe brought them; sometimes he foraged for sandwiches and beer,-down four pair of stair

n with the half-moon shade over his eyes he was "Say" or "That Damned Kid." High-strun

had been known as "Jonathan's boy," Jonathan being the name his father went by, the l

from the rude stone chimney, catch a current of air from the valley, and stretch its blue arms toward the tall hemlocks covering the slope of the mountain. Winter mornings it lay flat, buffeted by the winds, hiding itself later on among the

tor's bell, or his gruff "Say, you!" his mind kept reverting to their bigness and wide, all embracing, protecting arms

hev cleared off purty nigh every tree clean from the big windslash down to the East Branch. It ain't going into building stuff; they're sending it down to Plymouth to a pulp mill and grinding it up to print newspapers on, so the head man told me. Guess you kn

himself. And, as to being human, he could recall a dozen that he had talked to and that had talked back to him ever since he could remember. His father had taught him their language on the long days when

eart's all right and he's alive and peart, too. You'll find him fust tree out in the spring,-sometimes 'fore the sugar sap's done runnin'. Purty soon, if you watch him same's me, ye'll see him begin to shake all over,-kind o' shivery with some inside fun; then comes the buds and, fust thing ye know, he gives a little see-saw or two in the warm air and out busts the leaves, and h

s what they come for. Bald Top and White Face was all right, but it was the trees that knocked 'em silly. That's what you kin read in the book school-teacher has, and that's true. And see how they treat their brothers that git toppled over,-by a windslash, maybe, or lightnin' or a landslide, or some such cussed thing, givin' 'em a shoulder to lean on same

eat, but it's a durned sight meaner to cut down a tree that took so long to grow and th

eft him. It was these dear old friends more than anything else that had kept him at home, under plea of helping his fat

what he considered at the time a lucky chance-(Katie Murdock, from his own town, and now a reporter in the same newspap

beak. He had frightened him away many a time. And there was a hole where two big trout lived. He remembered the willows, too, and the bunch of logs piled as high as the mill. These would be rolled down and cant-hooked under its saw when the spring opened, but Baker never ground any one of them up into wood pulp. It went into clapb

p alongside of each other. He wondered how long it was to July, when he was promised a week,-and so was Katie. He knew just what they'd do; he could get two passes to Plymouth,-his old friend the freight boss had promised him that,-then about daylight, the time the train arrived, he'd find Marvin, who drove the stage up the valley and past his old home, and help him curry his team and hitch up, and Marvin would give them a ride free. He could feel the fresh air on his cheeks as he rattled out of the village, across the railroad tra

s been hollering at you

s eyes. The fresh air of

feet now, alert as a terri

here on the run. Tell her to get her hat and cloak and show up in two minutes. I've got an assign

ore the minutes were up he was back again, Katie Murdock with him. S

t eyes had full play. "Girl overboard from one of the ferry boats,-lives at 117.-Drowned, they say,-some

new department of "Special." Her chief knew it, too, or he wouldn't have sent her at that hour. There was time-pl

hurried past him. "We'll go up town

car when some fellow tried to be familiar,-but he didn't like her to go, all the same. Nobody who looked into her face and then down into her blue eyes would ever make any mistake, but then some men mi

g to the night city editor's curse, or pound, or shout, whichever had come handiest, but he had also been twice to the corner

on her way downtown. Joe absorbed her with a look, and slid to her side. Something in her face told him of her errand; something of the suffering, and perhaps

unning his cat eyes over the girl's notes as he spoke,-taking in at

sir

ll you I mus

y and the two little children would have broken your

working in the slums,-you can keep that gush for some other place. You had your camera and flash,-I saw you go out with them. I wanted everything: corpse of girl, the m

ht the night city editor under his chin and slammed his head against the wall. He knew what would

one it, sir," Katie pleaded. "There are some thi

his chair, brushed the pile of not

damned boy, somebody,

up and faced him,-stepped so quickly tha

,-if she isn't downstairs she may be at Cobb's getting

you're way off. Miss Parker'll get what we want,-she isn't so

e,-and harder; a woman of thirty-five, whose experience had ranged from nurse in a reformatory to a night reporter on a "Yellow." The two women passed each other without even a nod. Joe turned an

the street lamp. Her eyes were running tears,-at the man's cruelty and

as bo

ch him, if you'll let

,-both of us would ge

't no place for any decent girl nor man.

f overboard. The room was full when I got there,-policemen,-one or two other reporters,-no woman but me. They had brought her in dripping wet and I found her on the floor,-just a child, Joe,-hardly sixteen,-her hair filled with dirt from the water,-the old mother wringing her hands. Oh, it was pitiful! I could have flashed a pict

ht, as he stood for a moment looking them over,-his mind going back to his father's letter. One roll of wood pulp had already been jacked up and was now feeding the mighty press. The world would be devouring it in the morning; the drowned girl would have her place in its columns,-so would every o

now. Got to make sumpin' out o' the timber once they're cut down, but it gits me hot all the same when I think what t

ture of the girl in a sailor hat,-she had found the original on the mantel and had slipped it in her pocket. Then followed a flash photo of the dead girl lying on the floor,-her poor, thin, battered and bruised body straight out, the knee

are beat," one man said, at which

wered with a nod of her head

s place for the day-he reached out and caught her hand. Then he drew her insid

" one of the younger me

lines under her eyes and the reddened lids,-as if she had passed a sleepless

ouse this morning there was a patrol wagon at the door and all the neighbors outside. A woman told me she was all right until somebody showed her the morning paper with the picture

ak,-everybody was around and he didn't want to appear green and countrified. Then again,

of Katie, called her by name, and, with a "Like to see you about a

as out again, a blue

e from the city editor," she said. Her voi

ed y

s I'm too th

me into his face,-the same firm lines about his mouth that his father had when he crawled under the

o the city editor's office, a swing in his movement an

een his teeth. "What fur?" He was standing over the night

ve you to ask?" g

g in the boy's face that made the ma

r work!-ain't a dog would a-done it, let alone a man. Do you know what's happened? That girl's mother went crazy when she saw that picture!

prang to

f outside that doo

out when you eat yer words,-and

s chin, his head flattened against the wooden partition.

it!-MORE-MORE-all

lips, one hand forcing open his teeth, the

he turned, and facing the crowd of reporters

unt over there done last night, and ain't one o' ye wouldn't take pay fur it. Katie Murdock's fired? Yes,-two of us is fired,-me and her. We'll go back whar we come from. We mayn't be so almighty smart as some o' you city folks be, bu

LING OF P

ighth Street really-in one of those houses with a past-of mahogany, open wood fires,

ld horse, and as yellow; the iron railings were bent and cankered by rust; the front door was in blisters; th

d a merchant tailor-much pressing and repairing, with now and then a whole suit; the second floor front was given over to a wig-maker and the second s

stand why if yo

tinct personalities-one of the past and the other o

invoices), he was just plain Mr. Griggs-a short, crisp, "Yes and so" little man-e

ars fastened to a high stool facing his desk bespoke neither political influence nor the backing of rich friends. Nobody, really, had ever wanted his place. If they did they never dared ask for it-not above their breath. They would as soon have thought of ousting the old clock from its perch in the rotun

f an inch below the surface, left its mark on the man beneath as a liv

rld he hated. The spark part-cheery, warm, enthusiastic, full of dreams, of imaginings, with an absorbing love for little bits of beauty, s

urios and the mantel covered with miniatures and ivories. I invariably do this to discover his newest "find" before he calls my attention to it. As he has not yet moved or given me any other sign of recognition than a gruff "Draw

se behind me, and the sound of still another f

ting for Marly's ghost, whenever I come upon him thus unobserved. To-night he not only wears his calico dressing-gown-unheard-of garment in thes

an enlarged hickory-nut than any other object I can think of. It is of the same texture, too, and almost as devoid of hair. Except on his temples, and close down where his coll

eatures, no decided bumps, no decided hollows; the nose is only an enlarged ridge, the cheeks and eye-sockets only seams. But th

ighthouse goes to smash. Here the eyes set so far back in his head that they look for all the world like two wary foxes peeping out of a hole, losing nothing of what is going on outside-never being fooled, never being wheedled or coaxed out of their retreat. "Can't fool Mr. Griggs," some broker

e had not yet lifted his head or v

ay down where a man lives-I'm sick unto death. Take a look at

the C

the Co

ole

ead in the papers something like it, but that I should have been-oh, I can't get over it! It haunts me lik

ring with wide-opened eyes at his tone of voice, his dismal expression, and especially at the

up to see me! I waited and waited; I knew most of you would be off somewhere eating your Thanksgiving t

an to make excuses, but

y two men and a woman. I looked at them and they looked at me. I saw they were from out of town, and right away came the thought, they must be lonely, too. Everybody is lonesome on Thanksgiving if he's away from home, or, like me, has no place to go to. The Large Man stopped and nudged the Small Ma

uldn't find a better. All this time the Large Man held me by the arm in a friendly sort of way, as if he were afraid I would stub my toe and fall if he didn't help me over the gutters; telling me all the time that he didn't know the ropes around New York and how much o

and I lifted my hat to the

arm. 'You've been white and decent to us; we're all stranded

e Man kept on squeezing my arm in a friendly sort of way, so I finally said I didn't care if I did, and in we all went. When we got inside the place was practically empty-only one guest, really-and he was over by the wall in a corner. T

Large Man. 'You know wh

I or

people-no foolishness about them-no pretension. They were not our kind of people, of course-couldn't find them in New York if you looked everywhere-not born and brought up here. The Woman was gentle and kindly, saying very little, but the Large Man was a hearty, breezy sort of fellow-even if his language at times was rough

if they but thought about it, they must see after all that the West was the only thing that kept the country aliv

as I could make out he only had one dish and a small bottle of wine. Pr

it? And every man Jack of t

spirit-just as an aside, as if to keep

t it before all the word

is words, gentlemen. 'My father came from B

man looking at him ove

t you eatin' your turkey

f them, but I was

ot up and went over t

now bring that bottle over here and chip in with us.' Then

ly quoting their language so that you can get a better idea of what sort of peop

n bringing over his plate without a word except 'Than

ery well, and the Woman laughed in the right place, and when the cigars were brought and the coffee and the cognac, I was sorry it was all over. T

-no I WILL go on, for the most interesting part is to come. When the coffee was served, I say, the Large Man asked the waiter where he could send a telephone message to his hotel-wanted the porter to get his trunks down. The Iris

an looked at his watch, jumped up and called out to th

ide of that dure; ye kin see

his telephoning' said the Small Man. 'Hold

fice, so he told me, and was promised a place the following week, and I was ver

wouldn't want me to see it, of course, and so I didn't look at it. The Bostonian craned his

ow appr

'before any more o' ye skip. It

te,' I said. 'Wait till they co

boss is out and I'm in ch

now and was looking at me as if I'd ju

invited guest

he order the stuff? Let's see yer wad. No more o' ye's goin' to l'ave this room 'till I gits nine dollars and sixty cints. Here, Ma

don't want to play anything on you. You may be right in your views th

yer wad out, or I'l

e near here. Lived there for twenty years. You can find out all about me from any o

think how coarse he was. Then he walked deliberately

onian now

your dinner, especially on holidays, and yet I can't see how anybody would pick you out as a greenhorn. I'd divide th

me. Will you go to my room with me, Mike?' I called him M

?' he asked, so

o bl

'll pay

. Do I look like a man

ight, c

tonian good-by,

to the station-house; I've passed them many times in the street, and I've often wondered what was passing

with me, to my washerwoman the night before. The bill was not due, but Mrs. Jones wanted it for Thanksgiving and so I let her have it. And yet, gentlemen-would you believe it!-I walked on, trying to think if there might

common, low, vulgar waiter to sit down in my room. He didn't sit down-he just kept walking round and round, peering into the bookcases, hand

left the restaurant. 'The boss likes these jimcracks; he's got a lot o' thim up where he lives. I

s nothing in the drawer. The only money I had was the two-dollar bill which had been left over after paying Mrs. Jones. I

I have no money. I have paid away every cent except these two dollar

'll take this and call it square.' Then he put my precious Coswa

t back to you when you we

s chair and drummed on

k them. And every day I intended going and paying them the money, and every day I shun th

them since?" inquired a

up to me while I was having my

said. 'The pass was good. I used it

ter's third visitor, "just fooli

of somebody else," sugg

ut he still thinks me a cheat. He let me down as easy as he could, being a gentleman, but I can never forget that he saw m

p showed above the back of his easy chair. For some minutes he d

people to

, to go myself to Foscari's, redeem the miniature and explain the circumstances, and let them

you are,

is chair now and had

ome over here before you

paid the bill a

cost me

to you, then,

self down on that chair by the fire. I've got the most extraor

the same warmth in his manner, foxes out frolic

EAVY-TREAD-ON-THE-STAIRS, getting louder and louder as it reached my door. Then came a knock strong enough to crack the panels. I got up at once and turned the knob. In the corridor stood the Large Man. He

in astonishment. 'Been up and down everywhere inquiring. Only got

now regained its

ly intended to strike him if he advanced too close or tried to help himself to any of my things. He never to

took a turn around Washington Square so I could have my laugh out on Sam, and when we got back you were gone and so was the fellow from Boston who chipped in, and so was that red-headed Irish waiter. That knocked us silly-wife gave us rats, and I felt like a yellow dog. Been a-feeling so ever since. The Dago couldn't or wouldn't understand. Said w

oker now and was mot

ve for Chicago. Well, we had a lot of fun out of it, anyhow, only I didn't intend

s still in the dark

fun, and we HAD it. You're white, old man all the way through-white as cotton and our kind-never flunked once, or turned a hair. Sally took an awful shine to you. Shake! Next time I'

n, and broke into one of his infectious laughs. I reached

. MU

Travelli