Felix O'Day

in her hand, she was ready to pass them back to him if the full payment at all embarrassed him. Indeed, she had never had a more quiet and decent lodger,

n would be here at six. She would know it by the white horse which the man was driving. When his trunks were finished he would put

ng the box to the brim-some tied with red tape, others in big envelopes. In a corner lay some photographs-one in a gilt frame, the edge showing clear of the tissue-paper in which it was wrapped. This he took out and studied long and earnestly, his lips tightly pressed together. Retying the pape

? Oh, another flight! Begorra, it's as dark as a coal-hole and about as dir

ng up the stairs until his red face was level with the landing. "By the way, mind you don't lo

bet ye niver bought that down on th

, Mi

s,

Cleary that I may not be in t

twelve, or after, she'd be up." Then he bent forward and whispered:

ance of his luggage-the tin box on one shoulder, the coat over the other, the hat-case in the free hand-and then walked back to his empty room. Here he made a thoughtful survey of th

sir?" remarked the landlady,

me, one nev

are alway

you-g

nd's out or he would li

utinize the passing crowd, each person intent on his or her special business. By the time he had reached Broadway the upper floors of the business buildings were dark, but the windows of the restaurants, cigar shops, and saloons had begun to

ere at this hour, he entered the open gate and, making his way among the shadows sat down, on a flat tomb. The gradual transition from the glare and rush of the up-town streets to the sombre stillness of this ancient graveyard always seemed to him like the shifting of films upon a screen, a replacement of the city of

s memory: the insolent demands of his landlady; the guarded questions of Kling when he inspected the dressing-case; the look of doubt on both their faces and the

it. And if money were so necessary, how long could he earn it? Kling would soon discover how useless he w

reached the limit of his resources. To hope for much from Kling was idle. Such a situation could not last, nor could he count for long either on the friendship or the sympathy of the big-hearted expressman's wife.

recalled him to himself. He waited until all was dark again, rose to his feet, passed throug

sombre stillness of the ancient graveyard seemed to have followed him. Save for a private watchman slowly tramping his round and an isolated foot-passenger hurrying to the ferry, no soul

he turned his steps in the direction of the docks, wheeled sharply to the left, a

tern shed their light over piles of old cordage an

an inside office, where, beside a kerosene lamp placed on a small desk littered with papers, sat a man in shirt-sleev

ld still be up. I stopped on the way d

Mr. Felix? I been a-wonderin' where you been a-keepin' yourself. Take this chair; it's more comfortable. I was thinkin' somehow you might come in to-nigh

have

swered the ship-

ou might have had a

by a sidewise movement of the gray head, as if its o

k anything i

' on to Toronto with that sick man she nursed on the steamer.

" There was a ring of anxiety now

kes to be her own boss and earn her own living. I've often 'eard her say it before I left 'ome, and she HAS earned it

e as the mere s

u can work on?" The speaker felt assured there was not, b

the sligh

time. Be worse maybe when you do come up agin it." The s

companion. "That is not my way, Carlin, nor is

in' to keep it

know the end o

God's help

mp-until he reached Dover Street. He had still some work to do up-town, and Dover Street would furn

Now and then he would pause, following with his eyes the curve of the great steel highway, carried on the stone shoulders of successive arches, the sweep of its lines marked by a procession of lights, its outstretched, interlocked palms gripped close. The me

smelling street, its distant outlet a blaze of electric lights. It was now the dead hour of the twenty-four-the

, a figure detached itself from a deserted doorway. Felix cau

to give me the

d on the stick. The wor

ou to beg. Step out whe

he width of O'Day's shoulders and the lengt

and down the blackthorn. "Move on, I tell you

got that out of a ash-barrel. I'm up agin it hard. Can't you see I ain't lyin'? You ain't never starved or you'd know.

h a twist of his fingers in the tramp's neck-cloth, slammed him flat against the wall, where

alkin' the streets for two weeks lookin' for work. Last night I slep' in a coal-bunker down by the docks, under the bridge, and I was goin' there agin when you come along. I never tried to rob nobody before. Don

ting the drawn, haggard face, the staring eyes and dry, fevered l

the one and the well-brushed garments of the other, the fact that one skulked with his misery in dark alleys while the other bore his on the open highways-counted as nothing. He and this outcast were bound toge

tramp's abject misery. "Out here where the full light can fall on it-th

ged himself

he question had calmed him. T

ork did

lumber's

stop

wouldn't quit, a

appened

went

went

wi

he

a month

ou bea

e was ano

er tha

es

ld was

ght

rl, t

it that way. Sh

u seen h

I don't

pid succession, Felix searching for the truth

ou can see it plain as day how long it takes to make a bum of a man when he's up agin things like that. You-" He paused, listened intently,

st. "Pull yourself to

ship along his lonely beat, stopped short. "Any trouble, sir?

iend of mine who needs a little lo

nd he passed on dow

him by his trembling shoulders. "Now, brace up. The first thing you need

on't le

ke care

hat is there hot this t

ers and be

cof

ur

ut a chair. "Here's a man who has missed his dinner. Is that e

nts chang

is another dollar to keep you going," and with a shift of his stick to his lef

rivileged and, guided by the glow of the kerosene lamp, turned the knob of her kitchen door. She was close

eary. You had my message by Mike, did y

u. As to my bein' up-I'm always up, and I got to be. John and Mike is over to Weehawken, and Bobby's been to the circus and just gone to bed, and I've been

I will go to bed,

ee will put new l

it OUT of me if it kept me awake. Can I re

, as she mounted the steps and threw wide his room door. "Not much of a place, is it? But ye can get plenty of fresh air, and the bed's not bad. Ye can see for yourself," and her stout fist sunk into its middle. "And the

s simple, straightforward way, and, closi

o flight by the suffering of the man who had tried to rob him. There were depths, then, to which human suffering might drive a man, depths he himself had

es of glass. In the same absent-minded way he drew out one of the trunks, unlocked it, paused now and then with some garment in his hand only to awake again to conscious

distinctions. With it, too, there came suddenly another sense-that of an

of his own sorrows while keeping up the fight, and this with renewed vigor. He would earn money, too, sinc