Cast Adrift

hurried along the way they had come, and re-entered the restaurant by means of the gate opening into the yard. Through the back door they gained a smal

rd within, she rapped again, reversing the order-that is, giving one distinct rap, and then two in quick succession.

re also his full beard and moustache. A diamond pin of considerable value was in his shirt bosom. The room contained but few articles. There was a worn and faded carpet on the floo

key inside. Then his manner changed; his eyes lighted, and there was an

w it down, then a light shawl, a new barege dress, a pair of slippers, collars, cuffs, ribbons and a variety of underclothing, and last of al

hat, the boots and stockings and the collar and cuff

d Pinky, glancin

m the floor, examined it carefully and seemed to be making a close estimate of its value. The traveling-bag was new, and had cost probably five d

Pinky, an impatient

rs," repli

aimed Pinky, in a

old swindler!" ch

ed the man, with cool indifference. "Perhaps the p

aid Pinky: "that sacque i

wn. I can't offer it for sale in th

en dol

ix

in;" and she handed Jerkin, as he was called, the bits of jewelry she had taken fr

e you a dolla

ars for the who

not a cent more,

" returned the girl, fretfully. "It'

book and paid the money, giv

ubber, and no better than a robber. Three dollars and a quarter for all th

ill," said Jerkin, with a knowing twinkle in his eyes. He ga

here, Nell," speaking to Miss Peter, and drawing a piece of paper from her pocket, "I've got ten rows here. Fanny Bray gave me five dollar

the luckiest office I ever heard of. Two or three hits every day for a week past-got a lucky streak, somehow. If you go

r satisfying himself as to their value proceeded to put them out of sight. Lifting aside a screen that covered the fireplace, he removed from the chimney back, just

passing down to the lower story and another leading to the room above. A number of persons were going up and coming down-a forlorn set, for the most part, of all sexes, ages and colors. Those who were going up appeared eager and hopeful, while those who were coming down looked disappointed, sorrowful, angry or d

and keeping fast hold of her integrity, or a tender, innocent-looking girl, the messenger of a weak and shiftless mother, or a pale, bright-eyed boy whose much-worn but clean and well-kept garments gave sad evidence of a home out of which prop and stay had been removed. The strong and the weak, the pure and the defiled, were there. A poor washerwoman who in a moment of weakness has pawned the garments entrusted to her care, that she might venture upon a "row" of which she had dreamed, comes shrinking down with a pale, fr

ow so thronged with visitors? Every day she comes and goes, no one seeing her face, and every day, with rare exceptions, her step is slower and her form visibly more shrunken when she goes out than when she comes in. She is a broken-down gentlewoman, the widow of an officer, who left her at his death a moderate fortune, and quite sufficient for the comfortable maintenance of herself and two nearly grown-up daughters. But she had lived at the South, and there acquired a taste for lottery gambling. During her husband's l

over the smallness of her income. It was not sufficient to give her daughters the advantages she desired them to have, and she knew of but one way to increase it. That way was through the policy-shops. So she gave her whole mind to this business, with as much earnestness and self-absorption as a merchant gives himself to trade. She had a dream-book, gotten up especially for policy buyers, and consulted it as regularly as a merchant does his price-current or

of these was in a building on a principal street, the second story of which was occupied by a milliner. It was visited mostly by ladies, who could pass in from the street, no one suspecting their errand. Another was in the attic of a house in which were many offices and places of business, with people going in and coming out all the while, none but the initiated being in the secret; while a

ize. She began by putting down fifty cents. On the next day she put down a dollar upon the same combination, losing, of course, Two dollars were ventured on t

a state of intense nervous excitement, sometimes in a condition of high hope and confidence and sometimes haunted by demons of despair. She sold five shares of stock on which

able on the next morning, unable to take a mouthful of food.

the slip of paper containing the thirteen numbers out of seventy-five, which purported to have been drawn that morning somewhere in "Kentucky," and reported by telegraph-caught it up with hands that shoo

f excitement ran through her frame. She caught up the paper, but it shook as before, so that she could not see the figures. Dashing it back upon the counter, and holding it down almost violently, she bent over, with eyes starting from their sockets, and read the line of

to-day, 4, 10; tomorrow will be the lucky chance; 4, 10, 40 will surely be drawn. I never knew this order to fail. If it had b

ed an old man, ragged and bloated, who cam

s been doubling, and as the chances go, h

s the row?

es

in his pocket, and b

on the row. Gi

on it the date, the sum risked and the combinatio

om of the world doesn't drop out, you

time, eager to look over the list of

le-looking young woman, and she

ed. "How much? how much?" and they gathered to

her head. "I knew it would come-dreamed of them numbers three nights hand running!

" and after comparing it with the record

sure enough. You'

promptly paid down, and as she c

e going on, and it's to

row?" inquir

0," said

d she laid down five d

nd go ten," urged

do with more than five hundred dollar

per containing the selected numbers; loudly proclaiming her good luck, the girl then went away.

f the day among the policy-buyers at t

hat passed around her-listened and let the tempter get to her ear again. She went away, stooping in her gait as one bearing a heavy burden. Before an hour had passed hope had lifted her a

d another loss, swelling the aggregate in this wild and

lived with her daughters was sold, and the unhappy family shrunk into a single room in a third-rate boarding-house. But their income soon became insufficient to meet the weekly de

ied a man who broke her heart and buried her in less than two years. The other, a weak and sickly girl, got a situation as day governes

ion. She was more than half insane on the subject of poli

om the restaurant in faded mourning garments and closely veiled, she was

iends who pitied her, but did not know of the vice in which she indulged, paid her rent and made occasional contributions for her support. All of these contributions, beyond the amount required f