Average Jones

job, A

r of the early summer, drifted to the coolest spot in the Ad-Vis

you?" returned Average Jones. "Th

f the quack's scion would have tr

ame back," confessed the other. "What have you got up your faultlessly creased sl

Average Jones snorted gently, "is no reason why he should unanimously

int; exploitations of grotesque quackeries; appeals, business-like, absurd, or even passionate, in the form of "Wants;" threats thinly disguised as "Personals;"' dim suggestions of crime, of fraud, of hope, of tragedy, of mania, all

everting to Average Jones' last observation. "

ow?" retorted the other lazily. "

ace, and prodded his friend severely in the ribs. "Double-up Lucy; the sun is in the sky!" he proclaimed with unwonted energy. "Listen. I cut this out of ye

young man,

to act as

ientific w

sirable as

one month's

family ins

:30 P. M. in

4 Bellai

out a hand, received the clipping, read it throug

opening sentence? And the specification that the applicant must be without family

s with dignity, "because I perceive with pain that I shall h

this ma

man

llair Street, wh

hed, "There isn't

bout it?" demanded

r argument. 'Emolument generous.' 'Apply in proper person.' Did a Smith ever write that? No

is. Only I thought you might be the aspi

here's the directory? Thanks. Yes, it is Greenwich Village. Well, I

old house which had once been the abode of solemn prosperity if not actual aristocracy in the olden days of New York City. Almost immediately the telegrap

ase come in,"

y rightful Smith. The visitor stepped into a passageway which was dim unt

the voice. "A severe affect

Smith?" asked

hand if y

ately the hand turned and closed, and he was led forward to an inner room and seated in a chair. The gentle,

ice, coming dulled, from a further apartment. "Dou

rmously entertained by the dime-novel se

e distinguishing feature, unless a high and odd-shaped traveling-bag which st

in answer to my

s,

n, of scienti

, at least. I hope to m

e, if you

ones, of New

with you

amily or nea

ks. But the pay is high. Can you endure exposure? Laboring in

d in the nort

the voice. "Y

g upon me, then," he drawled quietly.

ce came. A chair blocked his way. Without lowerin

re!" warne

pen, disclosing a small cardboard cabinet. Across the front of the cabinet was a strip of white paper labeled in handwrit

," ordered the v

aightened up to f

s," he said slowly, "when you expl

s a paus

you have accidentally seen, you will perhaps apprec

door to the floored cabinet

a cabinet with a girl's name on it doesn't seem calculated to sc

scientific work?" coun

ied the young

ntomology? Astronomy?

d in repeated negation. "No

u will not sui

, why you've been studying me through a pe

consideration the

ou every courtesy for having put you to this troubl

huddled in a chair. He wore a black skull cap. So far as identification went he was safe. His who

nes, "but I am by nature cautious. Yo

ly indicating a smile, made the chan

not. You can find your way ou

ar platform of an Eighth Avenue car, "by what lead I could

for his maladroitness until both of them temporarily forgot the strange "Smith" and his advertisement in the entrancement of a chase which led them for a time far back through the centuries to a cli

ren to you," was his message. "

rm and instruction, in about equal parts, through the medium of lectures at the Metropolitan University. During vacations the professor pursued, with some degree of passion, experiments which added luster and selected portions of the alp

emple, took the elevator to the ninth floor, and, following directions, found hi

ES, AD

ssor, rancorously. "A vicious v

ADVERTISING

tion Fre

anifest pitfall! I don't know why Mr. Bertram should have sent me hithe

r and, emerging, received the accusation

the exasperated mentor,

ou're a duck," observed the young man mildly,

e. "If you are Mr. Jone

a

things which Mr. B

u were coming, but I'd alm

red? Of all the patent and infernal ras

I know all about the free swindles. This i

settled in a chair. "Now, go ahead. Show me th

tisement about it. What I came for is advi

ncourage the timorous.

y, for whom I feel a certain responsibility,

nes as the pro

disapp

he

y, since te

mane

imself without reporting to me for

ved wi

me in certain investig

hat l

allu

did he

four we

give any

k had been offered him, he hinted,

't know

othing whatev

inite suspicions

t the boy has made

y s

him at his room. He had obviously undergo

ld you

, his whole face, were abnorma

d suddenly taken on a bored indiff

s? Why sh

hy, indeed? Y

d not

m depressed

t say tha

n, what, newspap

itizen in the morning, The

hem delivered to

the Re

keep it

N

hen you wouldn't know

was a copy containing a letter upon

recall

iddle of Jun

r a file and handed i

sked, indicating t

etter!" said t

und, upon an inside page, the strange

ssor," said he. "When did

ys ago. I think

he impr

at preoccupied.

face swol

N

id you s

my laboratory, ab

m again tha

Twenty-third Street. I was surprised, because he had tol

hadn't

ad, but that he had been sen

he was tellin

th young men I have never know

s coming back to New York an

up two or three times to say that he was well and wor

d he call

teer the information

uicide. If anything of importance occurs, please notify me at

ious to outer things, made his way to the Cosmic Club in a series of caroms from indignan

bridge game this evening?" he de

y. What's the

t. I've told you the first chapter. You've been th

h Village house. The name "Smith"

id Jones. "Our hope

lat by the month, was prompt in payment, quiet in habit, given to long and frequent absences; had been there hardly at all in the last few weeks. Where had he moved to? Hummel only knew! He had left n

, ignorant, and a willi

it-rappin's! Somethin' fierce! My kitchen window is on the air-shaft. So's his. Many's the time in the still evenin's I've heard the rap-rap-rappin' on his window an' on the wall, but mostly o

m about them?"

miled and half owned up. And once I seen him with his

s w

y like this wood-what's the name of it, now?-they make fish poles out of. Only the real big-bugs in spiritualism use

ng. Going to the kitchen, which he opened through intermediate doors on a straight line with the front room, Average Jones inspected the window. The glass was thickly marked with faint, bluish blurs, being, i

d. Some of them were local journals, mostly the Evenin

spapers," rem

two sheets fluttered a very small bit of paper, narrow and half

in his most casual tone. "The quality

s Average Jones had said, in a strained, effortful handwriti

E

o you think, possibly?

that? Rather not! More lik

of the label on t

er who rules familiar spirits with a wand, and, between investigations in the realms of science, writes a

. The next step," he observed, as they walked slowly up the street, "is by trai

away, fai

mith' and the lost Craig have b

ssor Gehren couldn't tell

raig has, I'm afraid, succumbed to it. Otherwise he'd have sent some word to Professor Gehren. He may be dead or he may only be disabled by the dangerous character of the work, whatever it was

arge contract on you

do is to look for a place that is very

ow it is quite

w, we've got to find such a place which is near a stretch of deserted, swampy ground, very badly

ll," said Bertram; "

ands both of them suffered from," explain

vy or some kind of plant

m, while mosquitoes they could protect themselves against, if they didn't become immune, as they most likely would. As t

mute-on the Jersey and Delaware Short Line. There's a station on that line, Pearlington by name, that's a combination of Mosquitoville, Lonesomehurst and Nutting Doon. It's in th

und Pearlington to consist of a windowed packing-box inhabited by a hermit in a brass-butt

ld, neither. He talked very soft and slow. Used to stay off in the reeds three and four days at a time. No, ain't seen him

a where we could

road man

uare miles of it, every square just like every other square, and a hun

ones. "It would take a month to

Kills-a little one. I never saw no tent with 'em. And they had to have something over their

Jones. "That's a good i

red in the newspapers of several shore towns

all houseboa

m the Hacken

reward paid

ecovery. Jon

rt Temple

n to wind and current, but certain evidences of charred wood, and the fact of a succession of furious thunder-showers in the week past, suggested the reason for failure. In a heap of rubbish, where the fire had apparently started, Average Jones found, first, a Washington newspaper, w

TROY AT ONCE. Do Not

fishes glinted up through the water, turned their white bellies to the sunlight and bobbed, motionless. The investigator hastily threw away the label and cast his gloves after it. But on his return to the city he