Branded

p of T

ers not only a man from my home town of Glendale, but also the deputy warden of the penitentiary, is one of those mysteries of coincidenc

not see and recognize me at once. I could have sworn that he was looking straight at me while the s

ught to be kicked around the block for loading you up with a big dining-car breakfast when you had just told me that

esman away from home, made it possible. Snapping his fingers for a waiter he paid for the breakfasts before we left our seats, and then quickly led the way forward. At the pause in the vestibule, while Barton was an

insistence, again made me welcome. Every moment I expected to see the door curtain flung aside to admit the burly figure of William Cummings. True, there were a number of Pullmans i

uspense. Let it be sufficient to say that the torments ended for me at Decatur, Illinois, when, at the train stop, I saw Cumm

e'll go and try it on the dog-see if a second meal in the diner will come as near to upsetting you as the first one did. Say, don't you know, I'm bully glad we met up in the smoker this morning? I was rawhiding myself to b

ere distant relatives on my mother's side of the family

, and here's hoping. I have a horrible suspicion that our St. Louis general agent wants me to chase

oppingly for a mere traveling salesman; also that he dressed better, smoked bett

ped out," I said. "Have I been doing you an injustice by n

yes, Bert; I've blossomed out some since you knew me. I've actually got a little chunk of sto

comfortably large. There was something instantly suggestive in the bit of braggadocio; a feeling that I had seen somebody do that same thing in exactly that s

o-but if a couple of these yellow-backs would come in handy to you just now, they'

enver ticket hadn't left me much of a balance out of the black pocketbook'

ake me turn sick and panicky. Afterward, I made another attempt to return to my place in the forward end of the t

ld Judge Haskins, of Jefferson-the man who had sentenced me. If all the world loves a lover, certainly no considerable part of it cares to pay strict attention while he descants at lengt

as he burbled on about Peggy Haskins was whether I might dare give him the one cautionary word which would reveal the true state of affairs. In the end I decided that it would be most imprudent, not to say disastrous. He would have sympathized with me instantly and heartily, but the knowledge would have been as fire to tow when he got back where he could talk.

and bags. As he ran down the steps and gave his two suit cases to the nearest red-cap, the links in a vague chain of recognition snapped themselves suddenly into a complete whole, and I knew instantly why the thumbing of the pocket-roll in my friend's generous offer to lend me money had struck the chord of familiarity. The two hand-bags tur

'll wait here to take your Sedalla train. Maybe we'll get together again in a day or so. If we shouldn't,

ed-cap. "You said you were at the Marlborough last night. I

nny experience-or have

tell me," I co

cab I saw a sort of hobo-ish looking fellow standing at the curb with his hands in his pockets and all doubled

he cab stand, and I suggested that we walk along. I had learned all I needed

and one of the finest. I was hunting for a half-dollar to pay the cabby, and I could have sworn that that 'dip' never got within six feet of me. And yet h

ur loss to the p

me; and then there wasn't time. But I shouldn't have done it anyway. Any fellow fly enough to do me that way when I'm wide awake and 'at' myself is welcome to

it for my Denver ticket. But, since honesty, like all other human attributes, dies hard in any soil where it has once taken root, I turned aw

I could purchase a cheap suit to go with the clean shirt and collar given me by the free-handed sales manager. The purchase left me with less than ten dollars in my pocket, but it made a new man o

afternoon was drawing to its close when I had my first glimpse of Kansas City, high-perched on its hills from my glimpsing view-point on the oppo

g me, I found the evening Union Pacific train waiting at another platform. A short half-hour later the tangle of railroad

e quickly and decently forgotten. There should be a new life in the new world, and the humiliation and disgrace of the past should be so deeply burled that it could never be resurrected. I was still under twenty-nine, it must be