Branded

d Sam

y had one, I still sought office work. There was little difficulty in finding such employment-at humble wages; the unattainable thing was the keeping of it. Though I could never succeed in running it down and bringing it to bay, a pitiless Nemesis seemed to dog me from

tted" area, doing a bit of extra bookkeeping here and another there. The result was always the same. Work of that kind

ceeding failure, and the decision to drop into the ranks of the unidentified was finally reached in a small city in the agricultural section of the State where I had been employed for a few day

od service for small pay, and there was no reason why I should have furnished you with an autobiography when you didn't ask it. In the circums

and two distinct sets of manners; one for his customers and another

his coat-sleeve. "It is enough to say that my source of information is entirely reliable. By your own act you have placed

ere due from me I hav

Society still has its claims and they must be met;

ccuse him, even mentally, of conscious hypocrisy. What I said, upon leaving him, was that I hoped he'd never have to pay any of the penalties himself. I did not k

e railroad station I saw a sight, commoner at that time in my native State than it is now, I am glad to be able to say; a young, farmer-looking fellow overcome by liquor, reeling and stumbling and finding the sidewalk far too

is head on the curbstone and rolling into the gutter. It was a case for the Good Samaritan, and, as it happened, that time-honored personage was at hand. Be

. "Don't turn your back that way on a

e count. Since Springville wasn't citified enough to have a hospital or an ambulance, I supposed we would carry the wounded man to the nearest drug store. But my Good Samaritan wasn't built that way. Hastily commandeering a pa

te bed, muddy boots, sodden clothes, bloody head and all. I asked if I should go for a doctor, but the Samaritan shoo

t of the seminary-strip off his coat and roll up his sleeves and go to it like a veteran surgeon. In a few minutes, with such help as I co

f the hurt and the whiskey," he said, when the job was finished; and

him I w

im while I go and find out who he is and where he belon

spirit which had been conspicuously absent in my later experiences of the world and its peopling. Apparently the milk of human kindness had not become entirely a figure of speech.

but exquisitely neat and home-like. There were books everywhere, and an atmosphere about as much of the place as I could see to make me decide that it was a man's house-I mean that

riting-table and a general air of man-comfort. Among the pictures on the walls was one of a stately group of college

had had an accident and was in the hands of his friends; and at that he dropped off to sleep, and was still sleeping when a farm wagon stopped at the cottage gate and the Good Samaritan came in. His search had been success

g ended-or I supposed it was ended. But as a matter of fact, it was merely transferring itself to me. As I was moving off to re

adding: "I haven't had time t

ing town, and this brought the que

And then: "It is nearly six now: if you haven't anything better to do, why not stay and

y. I looked my potential host squarely in the ey

r what Mr. Haddon considers to be good and sufficient c

eshing as a cool bree

said or done to you. If you can't

terposed. "I am a

't speak again until he had planted me in the easiest of the big chairs before the grate fire in t

plenty of trouble; your face says that much. Begin back a bit a

I unloaded it all; the whole bitter burden of it. Whitley heard me through pati

d not use the bank's money for your own ac

ed by hard experience not to s

" he

will all tell you that they were innocent o

ute or two and then said: "You

the present time-whatever

ld so hard-hearted. It isn't hard-hearted as a whole, you know; on the contrary, it is kind and helpful and chari

shook

ng on to say more, but at that moment a white-haired old negro in a spotless serving jacket came

ecessity of further talk about my own wretched experiences. He was Southern born and bred-which accounted for the old negro serving man-and Springville w

untries and the men who wrote about them was a revelation to such a dabbler as I had been. Book after book was taken from the shelves and dipped into, and before I realized it the evening-so different from any I had enjoyed for months and years-had

s and I want you to stay-as my guest. Beyond that, you are not going to leave Springville mer

l follow me wherever I go-doubtless with Mr. Haddon'

a little legacy of common justice due you, and I shall take it upon myself to see that you get it. As for Zadoc Haddon, you needn't worry about him. I am ashamed to say that he is a

so ready to champion my cause, and it seemed only decent to spare him if I cou

the fight may just as well be made here in Springville as anywhere. Sit down again and let's dig a little

trying his best to find a place for me; and I knew, too, that he was meeting with no success. He was such a fine, upstanding fellow, and so full of holy zeal and enthusiasm, that it was hard

ire into a roaring blaze, "don't you know, these last three days have come mi

f you had been willing to

ere to shadow forth the spirit and teachings of Christ, or it isn't-one of the two. If it falls in its mission it is a hollow mockery; a thing beneath contempt. I go to my fellow Christians with a simple plea for justice

f the gods,"

d the thing for which you were punished-and I don't believe you did-is that any reason why we should stultify ourselves absolutely and deny the very first

s not yours," I

as the case, your story is known all over town; though how it has got such a wide publication in so short a time is more than I can fathom. Men whom I would bank on; men to whom I have felt that I could go in any co

bruising himself for me, I said what I could to lighten his burden. B

hing that may throw a good bit of light on this thing. You sit r

and basking in its home-like warmth; making the most of the comfort of it all before I should again go forth to face an incle

ver harbored; and yet, in decent justice to you, it must be told. Have you ever suspected th

times; yes," I returned.

object in view. At Haddon's house the doorman told me that Haddon had an appointment with an out-of-town customer and had gone to the hotel to keep it; and rather than wait, I went over to the Hamilton House to try to find my man. I didn't find him; but in the lobby of the hotel somebody found me. As I was turning away from the desk after asking for Haddon, a heavy-set young man,

st humble effort; the memorandum Chief Callahan had consulted; the "outfit" that was to be notified when my next destination was known; the second appearance of the "salesman" on the train at the capital, and his dis

as craftier, and I hope I may be forgiven for yielding to it. By leading him on I got the entire brutal story. It seems that the two old men upon whose complaint you were indicted knew when you were to be paroled. They profess to believe that you are a menace to s

cause of most of my misfortunes, but there is a point beyond which the beaten man cannot rise to

Whitley. Their motive is strictly selfish and personal. They are either afraid that I may go back to Glendale and try to exp

n that case they would hardly take a course whi

or keeping track of me, ever since I left the penitentiary. I have seen him twice, and I took him to be a traveling salesman-as he doubtless intended I should. You can see how it was designed to work out.

that was

in my home town. You see, I've summered and wintered them. The only thing I can't understa

ery sense of right and justice; to all the prompti

vengeance of a man whose life they have ruined, or else the transaction in which they involved me, and in

y into the fire. Then he said, very gently: "

ool in the hands of the master workmen. I bear him no malice of the blood-letting sort. But really, Whitley, I

se, and then: "Well,

d rather

taken out of me, Whitley. That i

yourself to do it. Maybe, in the heat of passion ... but to go deliberately: no, Weyburn; if you thi

enough to hint at. I'm a broken man, Whitley; what I have gone through in the past few months has smashed my nerve. You can't understand that

ill you do?

, more than I'

ilence in

at length. "If there were only some way in whi

o the prison authorities. The one thing I can do is to relieve you of my th

tion. It was a rough night outside, and I tried to dissuade him, but he wouldn't have it that way. "No," he said; "it's my privilege to speed the parting guest, if I can

low the town that Whitley asked me again what I intende

field where a man is merely a number on the pay-roll-or

You are not going to take the oth

hope I shan't

t a criminal; you were not a criminal when you were

can keep body and soul together, with a pick and shovel, or any other implement that comes to hand, I'll stick. I owe you that much, if only for the reason that you

ow tones. "And when the pinch comes again and you are tempted to the limit, just remember that there is a fellow back here in Springville wh