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Show ?TeRIAL.'$ L STORY j ffovelixed from the Comedy of the Same Name By ILLUSTRATED Rupert From Photographs oi tho Ploy Produced Hughes By Henry W. Ssvss ' Copyright, mi, by U. It. Fly Oo. 1 SYNOP6IS. Lieut. Harry Mallory Is ordered to the Philippines. He and Marjorle Newton decide to elope, but wreck of taxlcab prevents pre-vents their seeing minister on the way to the train. Transcontinental train Is taking tak-ing on passengers. Porter has a lively time with an Englishman and Ira Lath-rop. Lath-rop. a Yankee business man. CHAPTER II. (Continued.) He resigned himself to the despot, and began to transfer his burdens to the seat. But he did nothing to the satisfaction of the Englishman. Everything Every-thing must be placed otherwise; the catch-all here, the portmanteau there, the Gladstone there, the golfstlcks there, the greatcoat there, the raincoat rain-coat there. The porter was putting like a donkey-engine, and mutiny was growing in his heart. His last commission com-mission was the hanging up of the bowier hat. He stood on the arm of the seat to reach the high hook. From here he paused to glare down with an attempt at irony. "Is they anything else?" ' "No. You may get down." The magnificent patronage of this wilted the porter completely. He returned re-turned to the lower level, and shuffled shuf-fled along the aisle in a trance. He was quickly recalled by a sharp: "Pawtah!" "Yassah!" "What time does this bally train start?" "Ten-thutty, sah." "But it's only ten now." "Yassah. It'll be ten-thutty a little lit-tle later." "Do you mean to tell me that I've got to sit hyah for half an hour just waitin'?" The porter essayed another bit of irony: "Well,-" he drawled, "I might tell the conducta you're ready. And meb-be meb-be he'd start the tram. But the timetable time-table says ten-thutty." He watched the effect of his satire, but it fell back unheeded from the granite dome of the Englishman, whose only comment was: "Oh, never mind. I'll wait." The porter cast his eyes up in despair, de-spair, and turned away, once more to be recalled. "Oh, pawtah!" "Yassah!" "1 think we'll put on my slippabs." "Will we?" "You might hand me that large bag. No, stupid, the othah one. You might open it. No, it's in the othah one. Ah, that's it. You may set it down." Mr. Wedgewood brought forth a soft cap and a pair of red slippers. The porter made another effort to escape, his thoughts as black as his face. Again the relentless recall1: "Oh, pawtah, I think we'll unbutton my boots." He was too weak to murmur "Yassah." "Yas-sah." He simply fell on one knee and got to work. There was a witness to his helpless rage a newcomer, the American counterpart of the Englishman v in all that makes travel difficult for the fellow fel-low travelers. Ira Lathrop was zealous zeal-ous to resent anything short of perfection, per-fection, quick-and loud of complaint, apparently Impossible to please. In everything else he was the opposite op-posite of the Englishman. He was burly, middie-aged, rough, careless In attire, careless of speech as uncouth and savage as one can well be who is plainly a man of means. It was not enough that a freeborn Afro-American should be caught kneeling kneel-ing to an Englishman. But when he had escaped this penance, and advanced ad-vanced hospitably to the newcomer, he must be greeted with a snarl. "Say. are you the porter of this car, or that man's nurse?" "I can't tell yet. What's yo' num-ba. num-ba. please?" The answer was the ticket. "Numba se'm. Heth she is. boss." "Right next to a lot of women, I'll bet. Couldn't you put me In the men's end of the car?" "Not ve'y well, suh. 1 reckon the cah Is done sold out." With a growl of rage, Ira Lathrop slammed into the seat his entire band baggage, one ancient and rusty valise. The porter gazed upon him with increased in-creased depression. The passenger list bad opened lnauspiciously with two of the worst types of travelers the Anglo-Saxon race has developed. But their anger was not their worst trait in the porter's eyes. He was, in a limited way, an expert In human character. When you meet a stranger you reveal re-veal your own character in what you ask about his. With some, the tirst question is, "Who are his people?" With others. "What has he achieved?" With others. "How much Is he worth?" Each gauges his cordiality according j to his estimate. J The porter was not curious on any of these points. He showed a democratic demo-cratic indifference to them, ills one vital Inquiry was: "How much will he tip?" His inspection of his first two charges promised small returns. He buttoned up his cordiality, and determined de-termined to waste upon them the Irreducible Ir-reducible minimum of attention. It would take at least a bridal couple to retsore the balance. But bridal couples in their first bloom rarely fell to the lot or that porter, for what bridal couple wants to lock itself it-self In with a crowd of passengers for the first seventy-two hours of wedded bliss? The porter banished the hope as a vanity. Little he knew how eagerly the young castaways from that wrecked taxicab desired to be a bridal couple, and to catch this train. But the Englishman was restive again: i "Pawtah! I say, pawtah!" "Yassah!" "What time are we due in San Francisco?" Fran-cisco?" "San Francisco? San Francisco? We are doo thah the evenin' of the fo'th day. This betn' Monday, that ought to bring us in abote Thuzzday evenin'." The Yankee felt called upon to check the foreign usurper. "Porrterr!" "Yassah!" "Don't let that fellow monopolize you. He probably won't tip you at all." The porter grew confidential: "Oh, I know his kind, sah. They don't tip you for what you do do, but they're ready letter writers to the Sooperintendent for what you don't do." "Pawtah! I say,' pawtah!" "Here, porrterr." The porter tried to imitate the Irish bird, and be In two places at once. The American had a coin In his hand. The porter caught the gleam of it, and flitted thither. The Yankee growled: "Don't forget that I'm on the train, and when we get to 'Frisco there may be something more." The porter had the coin In his hand. Its heft was light. He sighed: "I hope so." The Englishman was craning his head around owlishly to ask: "I say, pawtah, does this train ever get wrecked?" "Well, it hasn't yet," and he murmured mur-mured to the Yankee, "but I ha3 hopes." The Englishman's voice was queru-ous queru-ous again. "I say, pawtah, open a window, will you? The air is ghastly, abso-ripping-lutely ghastly." The Yankee growled: "No wonder we had the Revolutionary Revolution-ary war!" Then he took from his pocket an envelope addressed to Ira Lathrop & Co., and from the envelope he took a contract, and studied it grimly. The envelope bore a Chinese stamp. The porter, as he struggled with an obstinate window, wondered what sort of passenger fate would send him next. CHAPTER HI. In Darkest Chicago. The castaways rrom the wrecked taxicab hurried along the doleful street. Both of them knew their Chicago, Chi-cago, but this part of it was not their Chicago. They hailed a pedestrian, to ask where the nearest street car line might be, and whither it might run. He answered indistinctly from a discreet dis-creet distance, as he hastened away. Perhaps he thought their question merely a footpad's introduction to a sandbagging episode. In Chicago at night one never knows. "As near as I can make out what he' said, Marjorle," the lieutenant pondered pon-dered aloud, "we walk straight ahead till we come to Umptyump street, and there we find a Rarara car that will take us to Bloptyblop avenue. 1 never heard of any such streets, did you?" "Never," she panted, as she Jog-trotted Jog-trotted alongside his military pace. "Let's take the first car we meet, and perhaps the conductor can put us off at the street where the minister lives." , "Perhaps." There was not much confidence in that "perhaps." When they reached the street-carred treet, they found two tracks, but uothing occupying them, as far as they could peer either way. A small shopkeeper In a tiny shop proved to be a delicatessen merchant so busily selling foreign horrors to aliens, that they learned nothing from him. At length, In the far-away, they made out a headlight, and heard the grind and squeal of a car. Lieutenant Mallory waited for it, watch in hand. He boosted Marjorie-s elbow aboard and bombarded the conductor with questions. But the conductor had no more heard of their street than they had of his. Their agitation did not disturb his stoic calm, Dut he invited them to come along to the next crossing, cross-ing, where they could find another car and more learned conductors; or, what promised better, perhaps a cab. He threw Marjorle into a panic by ordering her to jettison Snoozleums, but the lieutenant bought his soul for a small price, and overlooked the fact that he did not ring up their fares. The young couple squeezed Into a seat and talked anxiously in sharp whispers. "Wouldn't it be terrible, Harry, if, just as we got to the minister's, we should find papa there ahead of us, waiting to forbid the bands, or whatever what-ever it Is? Wouldn't it be Just terrible?" ter-rible?" "Yes. it would, honey, but It doesn't seem probable. There are thousands of ministers In Chicago. He could never find ours. Fact is, I doubt If we fiud him ourselves." Her clutch tightened till he would have winced, if he had not been a soldier. "What do you mean, Harry?" "Well, In the first place, honey, look what time it is. Hardly more than time to get the train, to say nothing of hunting for that preacher and standing up through a long rigmarole." rigma-role." "Why, Harry Mallory, are you getting get-ting ready to Jilt me?" "Indeed I'm not not for worlds, honey, but I've got to get that train, haven't I?" "Couldn't you wait over one train Just one tiny little train?" "My own, own honey love, you know it's Impossible! You must remember re-member that I've already waited over three trains while you tried to make up your mind." 1 "And you must remember, darling, that it's no easy matter for a girl to decide to sneak away from home and be married secretly, and go all the way out to that hideous Manila with . no trousseau and no wedding presents pres-ents and no anything." "I know it Isn't, and I waited patiently pa-tiently while you got up the courage. But now there are no more trains. 1 shudder to think of this train being late. We're not due in San Francisco Fran-cisco till Thursday evening, and my transport sails at sunrise Friday morning. morn-ing. Oh, Lord, what if I should miss that transport! What If I should!" "What If we should miss the minister?" min-ister?" "It begins to look a great deal like it" "But, Harry, you wouldn't desert me now abandon me to my fate?" "Well, it isn't exactly like abandonment, abandon-ment, seeing that you could go home to your father and mother in a taxi-cab." taxi-cab." She stared at him in horror. "So you don't want me for your wife! You've changed your mind! You're tired of me already! Only an hour together, and you're sick of your bargain! You're anxious to get rid of me! You " "Oh, honey, I want you more than anything else on earth, but I'm a soldier, dearie, a mere lieutenant in the regular army, and I'm the slave of the government. I've gone through West Point, and they won't let me resign re-sign respectably and if I did, we'd starve. They wouldn't accept my resignation, but they'd be willing to courtmartlai me and dismiss me from the service in disgrace. Then you wouldn't want to marry me and 1 shouldn't have any way of supporting you If .you did. I only know one trade, and that's soldiering." "Don't call it a trade, beloved. It's the noblest profession m all the world, and you're the noblest soldier that ever was, and ln; a year or two you'll be the biggest general In the army." He could not afford to shatter such a devout Illusion or quench the light of faith in those beloved and loving eyes. He tacitly admitted his ability I JI M - , 4f if NSWJwi 'ft The Porter. to be promoted commander-in-chief In a year or two. He allowed that glittering glit-tering possibility to remain, used It as a basis for argument. "Then, dearest, you must help me to do my duty." She clasped his upper arm as if it were an altar and she an lphlgenla about to be sacrificed to save the army. And she murmured with utter heroism: "I will! Do what you like with me!" He squeezed her hand between his biceps and his ribs and accepted the offering in a look drenched with gratitude. grat-itude. Then he said, matter-of-factly : "We'll see how much time we have when we get to whatever the name of that street is." The car jolted and walled on its way like an old drifting rocking chair. The motorman was in no hurry. hur-ry. The passengers seemed to have no occasion for haste. Somebody got on or got off at almost every corner, and paused for conversation while the car waited patiently. Mallory looked at his watch, and Marjorie's hopes dropped like a , wrecked aeroplane, jor he grimly asked how long It would take them to reach the railroad station. "Good Lord, the train starts In twenty minutes!" During this tense Journey the gin perfected her soul with graceful martyrdom. "I'll go to the train with you, Harry, Har-ry, and tfien you can send me home in a taxicab." (TO BE CONTINUED.) |
