FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59  
60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   >>   >|  
in his way, so, unprotesting, she followed him in, as she had followed out, stumbling many times, for often her eyes did not see the road. And so they returned to their empty rooms. Jack Morris went to look for work at the Red Lion. There he met that genial comrade, Joe Hollends, who had been reformed, and who had backslid twice since Jack had foregathered with him before. It is but fair to Joe to admit that he had never been optimistic about his own reclamation, but being an obliging man, even when he was sober, he was willing to give the Social League every chance. Jack was deeply grieved at the death of his son, although he had said no word to his wife that would show it. It therefore took more liquor than usual to bring him up to the point of good comradeship that reigned at the Red Lion. When he and Joe left the tavern that night it would have taken an expert to tell which was the more inebriated. They were both in good fighting trim, and were both in the humor for a row. The police, who had reckoned on Joe alone, suddenly found a new element in the fight that not only upset their calculations but themselves as well. It was a glorious victory, and, as both fled down a side street, Morris urged Hollends to come along, for the representatives of law and order have the habit of getting reinforcements which often turn a victory into a most ignominious defeat. "I can't," panted Hollends. "The beggars have hurt me." "Come along. I know a place where we are safe." Drunk as he was, Jack succeeded in finding the hole in the wall that allowed him to enter a vacant spot behind the box factory. There Hollends lay down with a groan, and there Morris sank beside him in a drunken sleep. The police were at last revenged, and finally. When the grey daylight brought Morris to a dazed sense of where he was, he found his companion dead beside him. He had a vague fear that he would be tried for murder, but it was not so. From the moment that Hollends, in his fall, struck his head on the curb, the Providence which looks after the drunken deserted him. But the inquest accomplished one good object. It attracted the attention of the Social League to Jack Morris, and they are now endeavoring to reclaim him. Whether they succeed or not, he was a man that was certainly once worth saving. THE TYPE-WRITTEN LETTER. When a man has battled with poverty all his life, fearing it as he fought it, feeling for its skinny th
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59  
60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Hollends
 

Morris

 

police

 

Social

 

League

 
drunken
 
victory
 

factory

 

reinforcements

 

revenged


finally

 
panted
 

beggars

 

daylight

 

allowed

 

ignominious

 

finding

 

defeat

 

succeeded

 

vacant


saving
 

endeavoring

 

reclaim

 
Whether
 
succeed
 
WRITTEN
 
LETTER
 

feeling

 

fought

 

skinny


fearing

 
battled
 

poverty

 

attention

 

attracted

 
murder
 

moment

 

companion

 

struck

 
inquest

accomplished

 

object

 

deserted

 
Providence
 

brought

 

reclamation

 

obliging

 

chance

 

deeply

 
grieved