Argosy and Railroad Man's Magazine, Vol. 107 No. 3 — page 62: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

404 seeing her in her office he had been so deliriously happy that he had _ insanely called himself by an ancient alias different than he was now using. He had even forgotten his quest for a moment or so, which was to locate the original of the typewriter on which that letter had been written, and which purport- ed to have been signed by Henry Phelps. And, moved by the exquisite thrill of her exquisite propinquity, desiring to be near her for a few moments to forget other things, he had dictated the absurd letter which he had no intention of mailing at all. He knew now that he was no intrepid Ulysses any more than Vivian was a Circe, in spite of the appeal she had made-to him. She was a-normal, sensible, lovable Ameri- can girl, and Jimmy was a boy of the same nationality; at times inclined to be face- tious, audacious, with a ready tongue, generally self-possessed, and, until recently, possessed of more golden fleece than he now was by some twenty-eight thousand dollars. CHAPTER VII. FILMS AND ACCOMPANIMENTS. fROM where he sat Jimmy could see the rear of the Olympian Theater, and it seemed Olympian chiefly in name. He could look past both sides of the building to the bright street beyond, on the opposite side of the block from the Mansion House. Cheap and abundant fuel served to give Coalport an abundance of light at night, if the sun was shy on illumination during the day. That street looked positively cheer- ful. Jimmy thought of the girl and her in- vitation. Even although the letter presented by a man calling himself Norman Baldwin had been used to cheat and defraud, Jimmy wanted to be entirely just to his sister. She may have known of the letter being written without knowing what uses it was to serve outside Coalport. From all the facts thus far gathered, it seemed very improbable that Vivian had ever seen much of that missing golden fleece. He conjured up her eager, wistful i el ie oe a eee ARGOSY AND RAILROAD MAN’S MAGAZINE. air when he came into her office; he re- called her reference to her own blues; that he was her “ first customer ” that day, and her thanks for ‘“ the business.” The thanks hit Jimmy hard. Her shy sympathy and tact in trying to dissipate his blues, because he had helped to drive hers away, hit him harder. Vivian, with her cheap serge dress and hat, was as genu- Ine and unspoiled as he had deemed her at first sight—no matter how seasoned and cold-blooded a scoundrel Norman had been or would be. He ceased vacillating and stepped to- ward the door. Then he stopped. If he went to the theater, he would have to pass Mr. Bugbee’s desk. And Bugbee, when Jimmy had come out from supper, had been talking to an individual whom Jimmy disliked instinctively; and _ the clerk’s bland but foxy face also revealed that the pair had been discussing Jimmy. Jimmy, on guard during all of the time that followed before coming back to his room, didn’t particularly fancy passing a prying, shrewd old Yankee in changed rai- ment and with a gun up his sleeve. The gun had been an afterthought. Jimmy remembered the shoes behind the world’s best literature; and the fact that the skulker had not come out at the time was no basis for supposing that he might not come out afterward and follow Vivian ain. Shoes of the caliber Jimmy had seen be- hind that bookcase argued that the man wearing them was at least Jimmy’s size; but would such a skulker “ fight fair” if confronted? Having failed in whatever purpose was in his mind when coming into her office owing to Jimmy’s subsequent arrival there, he might follow her home when she left the theater to do whatever was in his mind to do when he came into the office. Jimmy having decided to go to the the- ater, now decided to go, if possible, without allowing Mr. Bugbee to know he had gone. He withdrew the key from his lock so that he could come back in the regular way if he wished. He returned to the window and peered ee Se i ete @ OQ = 9) Gonmic (C(O) mM