111 The Tribune F M KIMMELL Publisher MCOOK KBCZ NEBRASKA HEARTS AND MASKS By HAROLD MacGRATH Author of The Man on ths Box etc With Drawings by Harrison Fisher Copyright 1805 by Bobbs Merrill Co CHAPTER II Continued Next turning from the window I fell to examining my fellow passen gers in the hope of seeing some one I knew Conversation on trains makes short journeys I sat up stiffly in my seat Diagonally across the aisle sat the very chap I had met in the curio shop He was quietly reading a popular magazine and oc casionally a smile lightened his sar donic mouth Funny that I should run across him twice in the same evening Men who are contemplating suicide never smile in that fashion He was smoking a small well colored meerschaum pipe with evident relish Somehow when a man clenches his teeth upon the mouthpiece of a re spectable pipe it seems impossible to associate that man with crime But the fact that I had seen him selecting a pistol in a pawnshop rather neutral ized the good opinion I was willing to form I have already expressed my views upon the subject The sight of him rather worried me though I could not reason why Whither was he bound Had he finally taken one of Friards pistols For a moment I was on the point of speaking to him if only to hear him tell more lies about the ten of hearts hut I wisely put aside the temptation Besides it might be possible that he would not be glad to see me I always avoid the chance acquaintance unless of course the said chance acquaintance is met under favorable circumstances like the girl in Mouquins for in stance After all it was only an in cident and but for his picking up that card I never should have remem bered him Behind him sat a fellow with a countenance as red and round and complacent as an English butlers red hair and small twinkling eyes Once he leaned over and spoke to my chance acquaintance who without turning his head thrust a match over his shoulder The man with the face of a butler lighted the most villainous pipe I ever beheld I wondered if they knew each other But closely as I watched I saw no sign from either I turned my collar up and snuggled down There was no need of his seeing me Then my thought reverted to the ten of hearts again My ten of hearts The wrinkle of a chill ran up and down my spine My ten of hearts Hastily I took out the card and ex amined the back of it It was an un commonly handsome back represent ing Diana the moon and the midnight sky A horrible supposition came to me supposing they looked at the back as well as at the face of the card And again supposing I was miles away from the requisite color and design I was staggered Here was a pretty fix I had never even dreamed of such a contingency Hang it I now wished I had stuck to my original plan and gone to the theater Decidedly I was in for it there was no backing down at this late nour unless I took the return train for Jer sey City and I possessed too much stubbornness to surrender to any such weakness Either I should pass the door committee or I shouldnt of one thing I was certain Blankshire bawled the trainman then the train slowed down and finally came to a stop No turning back for me now I picked up by suit case and got out On he platform I saw the curio shop fel low again Tramping on ahead the smell from his villainous pipe assailing my nostrils was the man who had asked for a match The former stood undecided for a moment and during this space of time he caught sight of me He became erect gave me a sud den sardonic laugh and swiftly dis appeared into the darkness All this was uncommonly disquieting in vain I stared into the blackness that had swallowed him What could he be doing here at Blankshire I didnt like his laugh at all there was at once a menace and a challenge in it Any baggage sir asked one of the station hands No But I asked him to direct me to a hotel He did so I made my way down the street The wind had veered around and was cOming in from the sea pure and cold The storm clouds were broken and scudding like dark ships and at times there were flashes of radiant moonshine The fashionable hotel was full So I plodded through the drifts to the unfashionable hotel Here I found ac commodation I dressed sometimes laughing sometimes whistling some times standing motionless in doubt Bah It was only a lark I thought of the girl in Mouquins how much better it would have been to spend the evening with her exchanging badinage and looking into each others eyes Pshaw I covered my face with the gray mask and descended to the street The trolley ran within two miles of the Hunt club The car was crowded with masqueraders and for the first time since I started out I felt comfort- able Everybody laughed and talked though nobody knew who his neighbor was I sat in a corner silent and mo tionless as a sphinx Once a pair of blue slippers attracted my eye and again the flash of a lovely arm At the end of the trolley line was a carryall which was to convey us to the club We got into the conveyance noisily and good humoredly The exclamations of the women were amusing Good gracious Isnt it fun Lovely And all that It must have been a novelty for some of these to act naturally for once Nothing lasts so long as the natural instinct for play and we always find ourselves coming back to it Standing some hundred yards back from the road was the famous Holly wood inn run by the genial Moriarity Sometimes the members of the Hunt club put up there for the night when there was to be a run the following morning It was open all the year round We made the club at exactly 1030 Fortune went with me doubtless it was the crowd going in that saved me from close scrutiny My spirits rose as I espied Teddy Hamilton at the door He was on the committee and was in plain evening clothes It was good to see a familiar face I shoul dered toward him and passed out my ten dollars Hello Teddy my son I cried out jovially Hello grinning Teddy thought it was some one he knew well so it was Whats your card he cried as I pressed by him The ten of hearts The ten of hearts repeated Teddy to a man who was keeping tally on a big cardboard This sieht did not reassure me If they were keeping tally of all the cards presented at the door they would soon find out that there were too many tens of hearts too many by one Well at any rate I had for the time being es caped detection now for the fun It would be sport royal while it last ed What a tale to give out at the club of a Sunday night I chuckled on the way to the ball room I had dis pensed with going up to the dressing room My robe was a genuine one heavy and warm o I had no overcoat to check Grave monk your blessing Turning I beheld an exquisite Col umbine Pax vobiscum I replied sol emnly Pax What does that mean It means do not believe all you seen the newspapers Columbine laughed gaily I did not know that you were a Latin scholar and besides you gave me to understand you were coming as a Jes uit Billy Billy Here was one who thought she knew me I hastened to disillusion her My dear Columbine you do not know me not the least bit My name is not Billy it is Dicky Oh you cannot fool me she re turned I heard you call out to Teddy Hamilton that your card was the ten of hearts and you wrote me saying that would be your card Complications already and I hadnt put my foot inside the ball room I am sorry I said but you have made a mistake Your Jesuit probably told you his card would be the nine not the ten I will wager Hush This is a charity dance no one makes wagers at such affairs But Why my goodness theres ray Jesuit now And to my Intense relief she dashed away I carofully observed the Jesuit and mnfln un my mind to keep an eye upon him If he really possessed the J ten of hearts the man who kept tally on the cardboard was doing some tall thinking about this time I gilded away into the gorgeous ball room What a vision greeted my eye The decorations were in red and yellow and it seemed as though perpetual au tumnal sunset lay over everything At the far end of the room was a small stage hidden behind palms and giant ferns The band was just striking up A Summer Night in Mu nich and a monderful kaleidoscope revolved around me I saw Cavaliers and Roundheads Puritans and Beel zebubs Musketeers fools cowboys Indians kings and princes queens and empresses fairies and Quaker maids white and black and red and green dominoes Tom Fools night indeed Presently I saw the noble Doge of Venice coming my way From his portly carriage r reasoned that if he wasnt in the gold book of Venice he stood very well up in the gold book of New York He stopped at my side and struck an attitude Pax vobiscum said I bowing Be at the Inquisition Chamber di rectly the clock strikes the midnight hour he said mysteriously I shall be there to deliver the su preme interrogation I replied It is well He drifted away like a stately ship N Delightful foolery I saw the Jes uit and moved toward him Disciple of Loyola hast thou the ten of hearts My hearts number nine for I have lost one to the gay Columbine The Car Was Crowded with Masqueraders I breathe Thou art not he whom I seek We separated I was mor tally glad that Columbine had made a mistake The women always seek the monk at a masquerade they want absolu tion for the follies they are about to commit A demure Quakeress touched my sleeve in passing Tell me grave monk why did you seek the monastery My wife fell in love with me gloomily Then you have a skeleton in the clothes press Do I look like a man who owned such a thing as a clothes press much less so fashionable a thing as a fam ily skeleton Then what do you here I am mingling with fools as a pen ance A fool caught me by the sleeve and battered me gaily over the head with a bladder Marry come up why am I a fool It is the fashion was my answer This was like to gain me the reputa tion of being a wit I must walk care fully or these thoughtless ones would begin to suspect there was an impostor among them Aha There was mine ancient friend Julius Hail Caesar He stopped Shall I beware of the Ides of March I asked jovially Nay my good Cassius rather be ware of the ten of hearts said Cae sar in hollow tones and was gone To be Continued Goatskin Imports Increase Washington Goatskins to the value of 32000000 were imported into the United States in the fiscal year 190G against 10000000 worth a decade earlier These figures were gathered by the bureau of statistics of the department or commerce and labor and in making them public it is stated that the only important article of manufacturers materials showing a more rapid gain is pig tin Of the importers of goatskins India is the largest contributor having supplied 11000000 worth in 190G To Defend Thaw mg 8Eii5a AAS opvr w I 1 jdlma3 I jjr From itereograph copyright by Underwood Underwood K Y Delmas although unknown in the East has made an enviable record for himself as a criminal lawyer on the Pacific coast He will aid in the defense of Harry Kendall Thaw at his trial for the murder of Stanford White A FORT QF 76 FOUND SECRET REFUGE IN BOSTON RE CALLS REVOLUTION Wonderful Network of Concealed Rooms and Trap Floors Disclosed Accidentally in a Raid Made on a Gamblers Den Boston A wonderful network of concealed rooms secret passages and trap floors sufficient to serve as a hiding place for a score of men and probably secret meeting places during the revolutionary war for the colon ists have been unearthed by Chief T O Urquhart of the Arlington police as the result of a raid on the famous old Cooper Tavern on Massachusetts ave nue Arlington The raid followed the issuance of a warrant for a sea 2I1 for liquor but so astounding were the discoveries that Chief Urquhart will continue his search until he has laid bare all the secrets of the famous old hostelry The discoveries so far show that the old house is literally honeycombed with secret rooms and passages in one of which was found a full gam bling layout Early in the raid a pa trol wagon full of liquor was taken from the place and liquor of every kind from champagne to beer was lo cated The place was being conducted by Louis and Ida Brown and run with out an innholders license Coopers Tavern was built prior to the revolutionary war and was im mortalized by the martyred deaths of Jabez and Jason Winship who made their last stand behind its stone win dows hemmed in by the British le gions in April 1775 Others in the building at the time disappeared and it has always been thought they es caped by secret recesses It fell to the lot of gamblers the police say to discover the hidden haunts and their knowledge was guarded well The police at the raid discovered that the foundation wall seemed too short for the actual sup port of the walls of the building and digging down laid bare a complete room small but compact Inspired by their discovery the police contin ued in their search and will not rest until the entire inside of the building is torn away CITY OVERSTOCKED WITH CASH Money in Treasury Is Becoming a Veritable Drug Crystal Falls Mich Crystal Falls is crowing over other towns in the upper peninsula for the latter have a hard time making both ends meet and they often borrow money to tide the municipality over until the annual collections have been made Crystal Falls city is so loaded with money that the surplus funds are be coming a veritable nuisance and the council has decided to invest 10000 of the money putting it into circula tion instead of allowing it to lie idle in the hands of the treasurer The annual report of the treasurer showed a balance on hand of about 13000 over and above all outstanding orders As the time for the collection of taxes is at hand the funds in hand will be increased very shortly by an other 10000 The sewer work is all paid for and the suspension of operations has elim inated the demand for money from that source until next spring The treasurer has been instructed to place the money at interest wherever the best rate can be secured Love Not Marriage Motive Paris A French statistician recently asked 95 girls between 15 and 17 years why they wished to marry Sixty one were unable to specify their reasons five replied that they wanted to be able to go out alone ten in order to amuse themselves five so they could travel seven because they wanted to own their own homes and four want ed to marry for the sake of a future family Three did not wish to get married None suggested love as a motive for matrimony but doubtless many of them were too shy to do so IRELAND SENDS OUT 5000000 Irish Emigration to This Country Has Been Enormous Washington No page in history reveals such a migration as that of the Irish to America The figures are astonishing From 1840 to 1860 not fewer than 2000000 crossed the ocean to settle in the United States from 1860 to 1880 an additional 1000 000 made a fresh start in life in the great republic over the seas and from 1880 to the present time another 1000000 was added to our population Since 1860 the average has been 500 000 a decade The 12 agricultural states repre sented by Ohio Indiana Michigan Illinois Wisconsin Missouri Iowa Minnesota Kansas Nebraska North and South Dakota contain one fourth of the 5000000 Of the portion set tled m the North Atlantic states but one fifth are on farms but this ten dency to crowd Into towns disap pears when the surroundings are agri cultural as is shown by the large per centage more than 50 of those who have taken to farming in the 12 agri cultural states above mentioned It is only because the bulk of the Irish in America are not in the midst of farming districts that they are less an agricultural people than the other immigrant elements added to the population They have found an outlet for their energies in the con gested districts and their wonderfully adaptive natures have allowed them easily to enter upon the industries of the people among whom they were thrown It is in the eastern states that the Irish promise to ultimately constitute a majority of the population This is already the case in three New Eng land states and in many New England cities In New York city they are barely behind the Germans and slight ly so in Chicago ENORMOUS SALT DEPOSIT Bed 15 Miles Long and Eight Wide Found in Utah Denver Col During 1906 wonder ful progress was made on the con struction of the new Pacific coast line of the Denver Rio Grande Thirty nine tunnels are being bored through the mountains There is one 75-mile-stretch of track that will cost 100000 a mile to build The object of this expenditure in construction is to obtain a direct and low grade route through the mountains Track is already laid from Salt Lake City nearly to the Nevada state line a distance of nearly 90 miles In California the track is laid into Oak land and Stockton It is believed the entire line through to the coast will be in operation by January 1909 Among the curious things encoun tered in the construction work is an enormous deposit of pure salt found on the west side of the Utah desert not far from the Nevada state line This singular deposit Is 15 miles long and eight miles wide Excavations to a depth of more than six feet are still in solid salt The salt that has been found is suitable for stock and can be readily refined for table use Unquestionably this section was once the bed of the great Salt lake and even now may have a subterran ean connection with that mysterious body of water more than a hundred miles distant X RICHES OF UNCLE 11 TOTAL WEALTH REACHES STU PENDOUS FIGURES More Than Half a Dozen American Worth More Than All the Rulers of the World Together All Records Broken Washington The United States ifr the wealthiest nation In the world said a close friend of President Roose velts the other day who had just gone over a remarkable official report which Is soon to be made public He added In a brief span of young life this Infant nation has broken all records relating to the accumulation of riches We are beginning to think in billions instead of millions Take It any way you like our affluence outstrips any thing ever known before Our country has more actual mon ey more gold a larger volume of ex ports greater banking facilities rich er farms more productive mines mora railroads more internal commerce more millionaires more farmers moro highly paid laborers and a greater distribution of luxuries than any othei has enjoyed since time began To prove all this some facts ar gleaned at random from the reports gathered by the statistical department of the treasury One day last October Uncle Sam had gathered into his money store house in Washington the greatest amount of gold ever collected in one place in the history of the world gold representing 871893899 This was indeed the high water mark There was in one little room moro gold than was in circulation in Great Britain The largest receipt ever given and the greatest money trust ever under taken was when the present treasurer of the United States Charles H Treat went into office He receipted to Ellis II Roberts retiring treasurer for all money and securities in the vaults of the treasury a total of 125959827S It required trom July 1 to Sept 5 to- count the money and at the comple tion of the task the accounts balanced to a fraction The costliest governmental estab lishment in the world is the British navy upon which 1500000000 has been expended within the last ten years Yet three individual Ameri cans Rockefeller Carnegie and Clark could have paid the whole bill and have pocket money left The United States is spending about 100000000 a year on its navy and the country is new at this kind of ex penditure That it is not investing more than it can afford is shown by the fact that the display loving women of the United States spent 100000 000 for diamonds purchased in foreign lands during the last two years In fact we are so rich the sales of prod uce and manufactured articles we are sending abroad each year axe equal to a sum sufficient to support all the navies in the world When it comes to individual wealth we have dozens of citizens who are worth more than all the kings and rulers of the world taken collectively or severally The czar is reputed to have a greater income than any other living man but his private fortune is so mixed up with government rev enues that it is impossible to separate them If distinction could be made John D Rockefeller undoubtedly could make comparison with Nicholas and show the biggest revenue The Rus sian monarchs wealth is the accumu lation of an empire centuries old in making while the Ohio oil magnate can remember when he had nothing Leopold king of the Belgians is the richest monarch in Europe after the czar Although his income from the state is but 1700000 a year his business interests ar so large and the income from the Congo Free state so great it is estimated he gathers 5 000000 annually Senator Clark has an income that is at least three times as great Alphonso XIII has 1400000 a year to provide a style that should sur round a king but John Jacob Astor could easily outstrip this youthful monarch if he felt disposed The kais er receives a small annual allowance only 650000 so that either William K Vanderbilt or August Belmont has more ready money at hi3 disposal than Germanys emperor HEADS LIST IN BUCKEYE STATE Columbus Man Says He Was First to Enlist in Ohio at Call of Lincoln Columbus It now develops that Major Henry M Neil of this city was the first man to be enlisted in Ohio under the call for troops by President Lincoln for the civil war Major Neil has never spoken of his distinction until now The Major says that when the message came from Lincoln for the quota he was in Gov ernor William Dennisons office The governor who was his brother-in-law related the contents of the telegram and Major Neil followed by saying that he could be counted on and desired to be the fir3t man en rolled When Lieutenant Bob Wil liams arrived from Washington that night to recruit soldiers he swore Ma jor Neil in as a private Neil served in the short service and was mustered out in 1864 after com manding a battery he had raised This honor of being the first Ohioan to en list has always been credited -to Lorin Andrews of Ashland who died in Sep tember 1S61 a i