Show 11 Jo v- v T TODA TODAY'S YS Y'S SHORT STORY I IF F Fiction i ion by Americas America's Greatest Writers 1 by th the lh Frank Franc A A A. Co Ca THE HAGGARD MAN i o 0 By Marie Belden James Marshall Sha Shane was was old but nobody would h have ve guess guessed d it Age had not dulled his hio dark eyes eyes nor silvered his dark h hair ir nor bent his broad ders It had only softened the the theline line of his lips into an almost youthful smile and and given to his eyes a glint of human tenderness He had watched the world for seventy seventy sev sev- I ent enty years and he knew it so well that he was not afraid to love it Karl Kraft the art critic was was one one of the many to whom Marshall Shane's w word rd was law and light Studying the world as it chanced to come b before fore himin him himin himin in little colored bits he often went to Shane for confirmation or advice It was thus that he walked into I Shane's study one warm late May aft aft- I 3 A strange thing sir he said sit sitting sitting sitting sit sit- ting down by the table and gazing out of the window at the fading sunlight a v very ry strange thing Marshall Shane looked at him keen keen- ly Youre in trouble he said Well not exactly returned Kraft Ive been through a strange experience experience experience ence but if it really was the way it it seemed it was worth the price I paid for it it itA A large price inquired Shane Rather Rather as as the world considers things good Lets Let's hear about it So Kraft let him hear I went to the bank this morning to cash my check for that series of articles I did for the Kaleidoscope The teller gave me eight one-hundred one dollar bills there there were eight articles you know know- and I put them into my vest pocket and went out I started to walk home and andI I had gone some distance before I noticed noticed noticed no no- that a man was following me When I did discover it I looked around at him and I saw that he was wasa a haggard weary-looking weary man Whether er he was one of the several haggard weary-looking weary men who were in the bank at the time I was I haven't the faintest idea I didn't pay much attention to him even though I was carrying eight hundred hundred hundred hun hun- dred for I didn't think it would be easy to hold up a man on Counter street inthe in inthe inthe the middle of the morning but as we came the Lefevre that Lefevre-that that big studio building you know know know-I I heard his steps quicken and he laid a haggard hand on my shoulder I turned around and faced him sharply but it did not seem to abash him in the least He smiled at me quite frankly out of a pair of eyes that looked honest even though they were hollow and violet You are Kraft he said It was more like a simple statement than a question and I told him he was ri ht I have the impertinence he said to ask you rou to look took at a picture My terms are very high and in advance advance ad ad- vance ance I answered briefly enough for tor forI torI I thought if he were trying to put up up some game on me that would settle him I 1 have only five dollars he s said id calmly But youre you're welcome to that thai here and now if you'll look at my picture pic pic- ture And And as he handed me the crisp note I think he added something ab about ut having having hav hav- in ing just closed his account at the bank I think so but Im I'm not sure I took a good look at him and again he strongly impressed m me as all right right right- h honest nest and earnest Wheres Where's your studio I asked him He pointed to the Lefevre and that tha decided me Ive I've been in the building many times and I have lots of friends in it I knew that a struggle or an outcry there would not be allowed to pass unnoticed Besides I have yet to see the man I was afraid of So in we went The elevator took us up up-up- up up higher than Id I'd ever been before to the very top floor and when we got ou out the room he conducted me to was the smallest and poorest in the building There wasn't much of anything in i ia ia it ita a a couch some canvases and paint paint- boxes and on an easel a picture re covered covered covered cov cov- ered with a cloth About six feet in front of the easel ease an imitation Persian rug was spread on the floor and to this he escorted me He wanted me to sit on it I 1 haven't a chair he said and you get et just the right light on the picture from here Ive I've studied for days th the placing of the rug waiting for the time when you rou would come to see my picture pic- pic ture There was a kind of true ring to hi his voice oice that made me look Jook up and and once more I liked his eyes So Se I put myself into his hands and le let Jet him place me Just as he wished on th the rug rug And it was comfortable I never neve Knew new before how comfortable those thos heathen people that sit legged cross must be Then he went softly over to the picture and took th the cloth off orf it lie He must He-must must have stepped back out of my bight hight then for I remember no more of him But the picture Nr dr Shane that was a picture picture picture-a a Wonderful one The second my eyes fell on it it patched my mind from everything else b bl its its wonderful great brightness great masses of reds starlets an and crimson I I and garnets so dazzling and blinding that it was a little time before I saw the face in the center of them But I when I did come to that clear white whiteface whiteface face everything softened and blurred Then ih if a moment the great dark eyes eves I looking out met mine and I thrilled I with happiness that quieted as I 1 saw the half-dropped half lids and long shading lashes When half unconsciously I l' l wandered back to that mass of reds they were softer and clearer and I saw what they were were were-a a great bed of heavy nodding poppies drowsing in a sleepy breeze that rocked them and among them a delicate faced girl with great dark eyes gently falling asleep As I watched her eyelids seemed to droop more and more her eyes to grow more and more dreamy I could feel eel that warm rm soft wind hushing her and the poppies I could hear the bees buzzing in the distance and the soft rustle of the drowsy leaves and 1 could see the brilliant lazy reds of the poppies grow farther away farther away farther away away away- I woke up peacefully and gazed around me dreamily as I have waked and gazed a a. hundred times in my hammock at on n one of our long ong rapturous July days It did not surprise me in the least to see the bare Boards of the studio or to find that I Iwas Iwas Iwas was half sitting dropped over on a queer imitation Persian rug I think if when I looked ahe ahead d of me I had seen the crimson poppies blurred with those dreamy dark eyes eye's eyes that I should have fallen back to sleep again as peacefully as I had waked But when my eyes reached the easel it was like a cold shock of water in the face The picture was gone The canvas has bas been cut hacked cut hacked the ragged edges seemed to say say from from the frame An ugly hole like a gaping wound confronted me I stood up suddenly I felt cramped and uncomfortable as though I had slept for a long time and the sunlight on the floor looked more like that of the afternoon than of the morning Unconsciously I put up my hand for my watch to see the time But no watch was there Then quite consciously I felt for my eight one dollar notes They also had left left eft me So had my scarf pin and the crisp five-dollar five bill which had been my fee in advance e was missing too A dollar thirty-seven thirty in change had vanished trousers pocket I had not even cats cal car fare You can imagine that I pulled myself myself myself my my- self together then Its It's bad en enough ugh to lose ose but to lose Jose and have to JO walk home as well is too much I went out of the Lefevre with the firm intention of going straight to the po police police po- po lice lice but on my way down in the elevator elevator elevator ele ele- ele- ele vator I changed my mind Ive I've had just Enough nough dealing with the police of this city ity to know what they'd say t ta to toa toa a story like mineSo mineSo mine So instead I turned down Rand street and entered Dr Quigley's of of- of fice I 1 asked Quigley to look me over and tell me if he could how I had been drugged so quickly and so quietly He laughed but as he ex examined mined me I I saw his face grow puzzled When he had finished he looked up and asked me what kind of an experiment I was trying on him Do Dc you want to see whether I know my profession or what he asked There isn't the slightest symptom symptom symptom tom about you to indicate that you have been near any drug for years He was rather offended and I ha hato had to apol apologize gize quite humbly before I dared even to ask him to lend me car far fare Wh When n I got erot it T r ram camp A straight up un n J n here Th Theres There's res re's something very queer about the affair all around Mr Shane I and If anybody can explain It you can If I want ever to see my again Ive I've got to put the police on the track of it but I can cant can't t do that until I have some plausible kind of a story to offer All through this story the old mans man's keen eyes had been watching his friends friend's face I You didn't even find out the name of the the haggard the haggard man he asked Yes I 1 did find that out out out-at at the very last said Kraft I I asked the elevator elevator elevator ele ele- ele- ele vator man Ramon his name is is Royal Ramon Ah Marshall Shane's eyes bright bright- ened That accounts for it I didn't think there was but one man in the world who cou could could could- d- d Do you know him then demanded demand demand- ed Kraft No said Marshall Shane but I 1 knew his father Royal Ramon Senior He was a moderately successful painter in in England One day in a moment I of delirious greatness he painted a picture pic- pic ture lure of a man flinging himself off London bridge In a a dense gray fog When he had finished it H I suppose suppose he was foolish enough to look at it until it thrilled him for instead of selling seIling Ithe it ithe ithe he put it on exhibition In his studio His friends all came to see it and they looked and looked and went away with queer scared faces and before the end of the week three of them them- men who have been ben brave through every even kind of trouble trouble had had thrown themselves off London bridge A A great fuss was made about it an anit and I it ruined Ramon utterly as an artist and the government even went so far faras faras I as to forbid his exhibiting his picture But they couldn't prevent him from looking at it himself and one day when all London was hidden in a dense gray fog he stole away from his home borne le leaving ving his wife and little boy went up to London bridge and slipped and slipped off Wen Wh pen some one looked at the pic picture picture picture pic- pic ture afterward they discovered that he had scratched out the original name on the card which was something very commonplace and had renamed it Go thou and do likewise which was very appropriate all things fixings considered Mrs Ramon and the boy left England England England Eng Eng- land shortly afterward I kept track of them for a while while the the mother died nine or ten years ago But I lost the boy and now he turns up a haggard man and a greater genius even than his father And Ann I dont don't think that you'll ever against see your watch or your Do you really mean demanded Kraft that you you believe bellee that any man could paint a a. picture that would put one to sleep like Ilke an opiate t I T do said laid Marshall Shane but the police never would If you dont don't wish to have your sanity doubted I advise you not to try them You really r believe it repeated Kraft It seems so improbable such improbable such a strange thing I I Ive known stranger strang-er things than that said Marshall Shane |