The Argosy, March 1907 — page 143: what you’re looking at

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

DOWN straits, being down to exactly one dollar and forty-five cents. It was imperative that I make a raise somehow within thirty days, and therefore, my dear. brother grafter, 1 hope you will pardon my putting my ingenuity and_ brush- AND OUT. wielding ability into play to win that game. I had to win it, Mr. Nolan.” ‘If you were broke at the time, where did you get that one-hundred-dollar bill you used to bet with?” inquired Nolan. ‘‘T painted it,” answered Uly. DOWN AND OUT: By LAWRENCE G. BYRD. The appalling consequences of a misunderstanding in the matter of table-legs; being the tale of-an unhappy aspirant to high living. SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTERS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED. “Wis” Harris, twenty-two, extravagant, and salesman for the furniture house of McCann & Lowther, falls into debt, especially to his tailor, Lomark. He expects to recoup on the strength of the sale of a made-to-order table to Mr. Peter Ware, eccentric mil- lionaire; but because of an alleged mistake in the construction of the table. Ware refuses to accept it, throws it back on the firm, and Wib is told that he must stand the loss. His endeavors to prove this unjust are vain, since Adrian Lowther, nephew of the junior pee in bad odor, who is the only man who might help him, has mysteriously dis- appeared. re Wib’s trouble is increased by Lomark’s threatening suit. He feels himself in extreme disgrace and jeopardy. The only one who gives him sympathy is a little lunch-counter waitress whose brother has been ‘‘sent up” for “making a touch.” That day Wib re- ceives a communication from Crosscup & Fysher, lawyers, saying that unless payment of his debt to Lomark is made within three days execution will be issued to the sheriff. Wib fears the disgrace of imprisonment, and endeavoring to straighten out his troubles, succeeds only in making an enemy of Mr. Ware and in losing his job, by disobeying Mr. Lowther, who told him he must not attempt to find out the whereabouts of Adrian, who has so mysteriously disappeared. Wib finds, however, that Adrian is at some town named Colfax, and writes numerous letters, getting no reply from six of them. He has to change his boarding-place, and though he finally gets a new job, his hopes are killed through his arrest by a drunken deputy sheriff, who takes him to the county jail. Here, while on a visit of inspection with a party, Peter Ware finds him, and later sends Wib a letter in which occurs the mysterous sentence: “If you wish to have Adrian Low- ther’s testimony, you will not have to look far afield for him.” CHAPTER XVI. THE DRAGGING rible. The nervous little man was French Peter, and all day long he and the Jew walked the garden paths as though for a wager. Wib jotted down HOURS. UNDAY came—a “ day of rest.”’ To Wib, naturally of an energetic tem- perament, the idle days he had endured already had strained his nerves near to the breaking-point.. This was infinitely worse than the week-days. In the first place, the men were not allowed to rise until an hour later than usual. The debtors marched out to breakfast at eight o’clock. The prisoners in the jail, and the convicts on the State side, remained in their cells. The long, dragging hours were _ hor- Peter’s continual complaint: ‘De feed not pad; de tr-reatment not pad; but de nights so lo-ong! so-o lo-ong! I no can sleep. ‘T’ink of de wife—t’ink of de bébé; t’ink, t’ink, t’ink! Ah-h! eet ees one pad place.” Barney Field and Angelo, both being Catholics, prepared to attend mass at nine o'clock. Billy Grist, who was con- veniently liberal in his religious ideas, told Wib that fe attended both that and the Protestant service which followed. * This story began in the December, 1906, issue of THE ArGosy. The three back numbers will be mailed to any address on receipt of 30 cents. (E00) 0)(0)(0) <SEGO MUL :