TheHauntedBookshop 10158746 PDF

T H E H AUNTE D
BO O KS HO P
BY
C HRI STOPHE R M ORLEY
NE W YO RK
DO UB LE DAY , PAGE C OMPANY
1919
CO P YR IGH T , 1 9 1 8, 1 9 1 9, BY
DO UB LE DA Y PA GE a CO M PA NY
, ;
ALL RIGH TS RES ER VE D IN CL UD ING T HA T O F

,
TRANS LA TIO N IN TO FO REIGN LAN GU A GES ,
INC LU DING THE SC AN DIN AVIAN

TO THE B OO KSE LLE RS

BE SED to kno w mo s t worthy that this
PLEA , ,
little book is dedica t ed to yo u in affection and

respect .
Th e faul ts of t h e composition are plain t o y o u a ll .
I began me rely in the hope of saying somethin g

fu rther of the adventures O f RO GE R M EELIN ,

whose exploits in Parnass us on Wh eels some of

you have been kind enough to applau d But .
then came Miss Titania Chapman and my yo ung ,
ad verti s ing man fell in love with her and t h e t wo

,
of them rather ran away with the tale .
I think I should explain that the pass ag e in

C hapter VIII dealing with the delightful talent
,
of M r Sidney D rew was written before the

.
,
lamented death of that charming artist B ut as .
it was a s incere tribute s incerely meant I have

, ,
s een no reason for removing it .
C hapters I II III and VI appeared originally

, , ,
in The B ookma n and to the e ditor of that a dmir

,
able maga z ine I owe thanks for his permi ss ion to

rep rint .
N ow that Roger is to have ten Parn a s suses on

vi TO THE B OOKS ELLERS
the road I am emboldened to think that some of
,
you may encounter them on th eir travel s An d if

.
yo u do I hop e you will n d that these new err ants

,
of the Parnass u s on W h eel s C o rpo ration a re living

up to the an cient and honourabl e tradition s of o ur
nobl e profes sion .
C HRISTOPH ER M ORLE Y .
Philadelphia ,
April 2 8 1 9 1 9
, .
C ONTENTS
PA GE
Th e Haunted Bookshop
Th e C orn C ob C lub
Titania Arrive s
Th e D isappearing Volume
Aub rey W alks Part W a y Home
An d Ride s the R e s t of the Way
Titania Le arns the Busin es s
Aub rey Takes Lodgin gs
Aubrey G oe s to the M ovies and ,
W i shes He Knew M ore Germ an

Again the Na rrative I s Retarded
Roger Raids the Ice box
-
Titania Tr ies Reading in Bed

Aub rey D etermine s to Give Service
That s Dzeren t

Th e Battle of Lu dl ow Str eet.
Th e Cromw ell M akes Its La s t Ap

p ea ra n c e
Mr . Chapman W aves His Wand

Th e H a unt ed Books/
20,0
C HAPTER I
THE HA UN TE D B OOKS HOP
F Y OU are ever in Brooklyn th at boro ugh

'
of superb sun s ets and m agnicent vistas of

husband propelled baby carriages it is to be
- -
,
hoped you may chance upon a qui et b y s treet -
where there is a very remarkable b ookshop .
This book shop wh i ch does bu s in es s u nder the

,

unu s ual name Parnassus at Home i s hou s ed in ,
one of the comf ortable O ld brown s tone dwellings-
which have been the joy of several generation s of

plumbers and cockroach es Th e owner of the.
b us ine s s has b een at pains to remodel the house

to make it/ a more suitable shrine for his tra de ,
whi ch deals entirely in second hand volumes -

.
There is no second hand books hop in the world

-
more worthy of respect .
It was about s ix o clock of a cold Nove mber

evening with gus ts of rain splattering upon the

,
3
4 THE HA UN TE D B OOKS HOP
pavement when a young man p roceeded un cer
,
t a in ly along Gi ss ing S t r eet stopping now and then

,
to look at shop windows a s though doubtful of his

way At the warm and shining face of a French
.
rOt isserie he halt e d to compar e the nu mb er enam
elled on the tran s om with a memorandum in his
hand Then h e pu shed on for a few minute s at

.
,
last reachin g the address he sought O ver the .
entran ce hi s eye was caught by the S ign
He st umbled down the three steps that led in to

the dwelling of the mu ses lowered his overcoat
,
collar and l ooked abo ut

, .
It w as very different from s uch b ookstores as he

had been accustomed to patronize Two stories .
O f the old hou s e had been thrown into one : the
lower space w a s divided into little alcove s ; above ,
a gall ery ran ro und the wall which carried books

,
to the ceil ing Th e air was heavy with the de

.
lightful fr agrance of mellowed paper and leather

s urcharged with a s trong bou quet of tobacco In .
THE HA UN TE D B OOKS HOP 5
front of him he fo und a large p lacard in a
Th e shop had a warm and comfortable O bscurity ,
a kind O f drows y du sk s tabbed here and th ere by

,
bright cones of yellow light from green shaded-
electrics There wa s an all pervas ive dr ift of

.
-
tobacco smoke which eddied and fumed under the

,
glass lamp s hade s Pas s ing down a narrow aisle

.
between the alcove s the vi s ito r noticed that s o me

of the compartments were wholly in darkne ss ;
6 THE HA UN TE D B O OKS HOP
in o t hers where lamp s were glowing he could see a
table and chai rs In one corner under a s ign
. ,
lettered E SSAY S an elderly gentleman w a s read

,
ing with a face of fanatical ecstasy illumined by

,
the sharp glare of electricity ; but there was n o

wreath of sm oke about him so the newcomer
concluded h e was not the p roprietor .
As the young man app roached the back of t h e

shop the general effect became more and more fan
t a st ic On s ome skylight far overhead he could
.
hear the rain dru mming ; but otherwi s e t h e pl ace

w a s comp let ely s ilent peopled only ( so it seemed )
'
by t h e gurgit a t ing whorls of smoke and the bright

p role of the ess a y reader It seemed like a s ecret
.
fane some shrine O f curious rites and the young

, ,
man s throat w a s tightened by a st rict ure which was

half agitation and half tobacco T owering above .
him into the gloom were shelve s and shelves of

books darkling toward the roof He saw a tab le
, .
w ith a cylinder of brown paper and twine evi ,
den t ly where p urchases might be wrapped ; but

there w as no sign of an attendant .

This pl a ce may indeed be haunt ed he ,

thought pe rhaps by the delighted s oul of Sir
,
W alt er Raleigh patron of the weed b u t seemin gly

, ,

not by the proprietors .
His eye s s earch ing the blue and vaporous vist as

,
of the shop were caught by a circle of brightness

,
THE HA N
U T D B OOKS HOP
E l 7
that shone with a curious egg like lustre It wa s -

.
round a n d white gleaming in the sheen of a hang

,
ing light a b right island in a s urf of tobacco smoke

, .
He came more close a nd fo und it was a bald head

, .
This head (he then sa w) s urmo unted a small ,
sharp eyed man wh o sat tilted back in a swivel

-
chair in a corner which seemed t h e nerve centre

,
of the establishment Th e large pigeon holed desk

.
-
in front of him was piled high with volumes of a ll

sort s with tins of tobacco and newspaper clippings
,
and letters An antiquated typewriter looking

.
,
something lik e a harpsicho rd was half b uried in ,

-
sheets Of manuscript Th e little bald headed man

.
-
was smoking a corn cob pipe and readiIJg a cook

-
book .

I beg your pardon sa id the ca ller pleasantly ;
, ,

Is this the prop rietor ?
M r Roger Milin the proprietor of Parnas s us

.
,

at Home looked up and the visitor saw that he
, ,
had keen b lue eyes, a short red beard and a con

,
v in cin g air of competent originali ty .

It is sa id Mr lWilin
, .

Anyt hing I can do
.
for you ?
My name is Aubrey G ilbert said the yo ung ,
man . I am representing the Grey Ma tter Adv er -
t isin g Agency I want t o disc uss with you the

.
advi s ability of your lett in g us handle your a dv er

t isin g account prepar e snapp y copy for yo u a n d
, ,

war s over you o ugh t to prepare some constru ctive
,

campaign for bigger bu siness .
Th e bookseller s face beamed He pu t down his

.
cookb ook blew a n expa nding gust of smoke and

, ,

My dear chap , he said , I don t do any adver

Impossible ! cried the other aghast as at some ,
grat u ito u s indecency .

Not in the sense yo u mean S u ch advertising .
as b enets me most is done for me by the snappiest

copy writers in the busine ss .

I suppose y ou refer to Whitewash and G ilt ?
said Mr Gilber t wistfully
. .

Not at all Th e people wh o are doin g my a d
.
vert ising are Stevenson B rowning C onrad and , ,

Company .
D ear me said the G rey Matter solicitor

, I -
.
don t know that a gency at all Still I doubt if

.
,
their copy has more p ep than o urs .

I don t think yo u get me I mean that my

.
advertising is done by the books I sell If I sell a .
ma n a book by Stevenson or C onrad a b ook that ,
delights or t erries him that man a nd that book ,

b ecome my living a dvertisements .

B ut that word o f mouth advertisin g is ex
- -

l D

p oded , said G ilbert Yo u can t get ist rib

. u
THE HA UN TED B OOKS HOP 9
tion that way Yo u ve got to keep yo ur trade

.

mark before the public .

B y the bones of Tauchnitz ! cried lVIifin .
Look here you wouldn t go to a doctor a medical

, ,
speciali s t and tell him he ought to adverti s e in

,
papers and maga zin es ? A docto r is advertised

b y the bodies he cu res My bu s iness is a dv er
.
t ised by the minds I s timulate An d let me tell

.
yo u that the book busine ss i s different from other

trades People don t know they want b ooks I
. .
can see ju s t by looking at you that yo ur mind is ill

for lack of books b ut yo u are blis sfully unaware of

it ! People don t go to a bookseller until so me
serious mental acciden t or disease m ak es them
aware of their danger Then they come here . .
For me to advertise wo ul d be about as usefwl a s

telling people wh o feel perfectly well that they
ought t o go to the doctor Do you know wh y .
people are reading more books now than ever

before ? Because the terric catastrophe of the
war has made them realiz e that their minds are
ill Th e world w a s s uffering from all sorts of
.
mental fevers and ac hes and diso rders and never ,
knew it Now o ur mental pangs are onl y too

.
manifest W e are all reading hun grily hastily

, ,

.
,
t rying to nd out aft er the trouble is over what

was the m at ter with our minds .
Th e little bookse ller wa s standing up now and ,

his visitor watch ed him with mingled amusement
and alarm .

Yo u know said Mi tin I am in teres ted t hat
'
, ,
yo u sho uld have thought it wo r th while to come

in here It reinforces my conviction of the amaz
.
ing future ah ead of the book business But I t ell .
yo u that future lies not merely in systematiz ing

it as a trade I t lies in dignify ing it as a p rofes
.
sion It is s mall use to j eer at the public for craving

.
shoddy books quack boo ks untrue books Physi

, , .
oian , cure thyself ! Let the bookseller learn to

kn ow a nd revere good books he will teach t he ,
customer Th e h u nger for good books is more

.
general and more insistent th an you would dream .
B ut it is still in a way s ub con s ciou s People .
need books but they don t know they need them

, .
Ge nerally they a re not aware that t h e books they

need a re in existence .

W h y wouldn t adve rtising be the way to let

them know ? asked the young man rather acutely , .

My dear chap I unders tand the value of a dv er
,
t isin g . But in my own cas e it would be futile .
I am not a deal er in merchandise but a s p ecialist in

adju s ting the book to the hu man need Between .
ourselve s there is no such thing ab s tract ly as a

, , ,
good b ook A book is good onl y when it meets

.

so me human hunger or refute s so me human error .
A book that i s good for me would very likely be

explosive : it will win Yes I have a few of the
.
,
good bo oks here There are onl y about

.
really impor t ant books in the world I suppose .
about of them were written in the E nglish

langu age and , more have been translated .

You are open in the evenings ?
Until ten o clock A great many of my best

.
cu stomers are those who are at work all day and

can only vi sit bookshop s at night Th e real b ook .
lovers you know are gene rally among the humbler

, ,
classes A man who is impas s ioned with books

.
has little time o r patience to grow rich by concoct

ing schemes for coz ening his fellows .
Th e little bookseller s bald pate shone in the light

of the bulb hanging over the wrapp ing table His .
eyes wer e b right and earnest his short red beard ,
b ris tled lik e wire He wore a ragged bro wn Nor

.
folk jac ket from which two b uttons were missing .
A bit of a fanatic himself thought the cu s tomer

, ,

but a ve ry entertaining one Well sir he said
.
, , ,
I am ever so grateful to yo u I ll come again .

.

Good night
-
An d he started down the aisle for
.
the door .
As he neared the front of t h e shop Mr Mitin , .
switched on a cl uster of lights that hung high up ,
and the young man found himself bes ide a large

bull etin board covered with clipp ings announce ,
ments ; c ircul ars and little notice s written on cards

,
in a small neat script . Th e following caught his

eye :
Human beings pay very little attention to what

is told them unl ess they know something about it
already Th e young man had heard of none of
.
thes e books pres cribed by the practitioner of

bibliotherapy He was about to open the door
.
when Nlifin appeared at his side .

Look here h e said with a quaint touch of
, ,

embarrassment . I w a s ve ry much interested by
m
our talk I all alone this evening my wife is
.

a way on a holiday W on t you s tay and have sup

.
p er with m e ? I was ju s t looking up some new

recipes when you c ame in .
Th e oth er was equally surprised and pleased b y

this unu s ual invitation .

W h y that s very good of you

he said , .

Are y ou su re I won t be intruding ?

Not at all ! c ried the bookseller I detest .
eating alone : I was hoping someone wo uld drop

in I alway s t ry to have a guest for supp er when
.
my wife i s away I have to s tay at home you s ee

.
, ,
t Okeep an eye on the s hop W e have no servant

. ,
and I do the cooking mys elf It s great fun No w .

.
you light your pipe and m ak e yours elf comf ortable

fo r a few minutes whil e I get things ready Sup .

po s e you come back to my den .
O n a table of books at the front of the

Miiin laid a large card lettered :
THE HA UN TE D B O OKS HOP 15
B eside the card he placed a large old fashioned -
dinner bell and then led the way to the rear O f the
,
shop.
Behind the little O fce in which thi s unu su al

merchant had been studying his cookbook a nar
row stairway rose on each side running up to the ,
gallery Behind these stairs a short ight of steps

.
led to the domest f rece s ses Th e visitor found

.
himself ushered int f a small room on the left ,
where a grate of coats lowedjun der a dingy m antel

piece O f yellowish marble O n the mantel stood
.
a row of blackened corn cob pipe s and a canister of

-
tobacco Above was a star t ling canva s in em

.
phatic oil s repres enting a large blue wagon drawn

,

by a stout white animal evidently a horse A .
e
background of lu sh scenery enhanced the force

ful techniqu e of the limn er Th e walls were .
chairs were drawn u p to the iron fender and ,
a mu stard coloured terrier was lying so clo s e

-
to the glow that a smell of singed hair was sen

sible
.

There said the host ; this is my cabinet
, ,
my chapel of ease Take off your coat and sit

.

down .

Really b egan G ilbert
, I m a fraid this
,

Nonsense ! Now yo u sit do wn a nd commend

16 THE HA UN TE D B OOK S HOP
your soul to Providenc e and the kitchen stove .
I ll bu s tle round and get s uppe r

.
G ilbert pulled out his pipe and with a sense of ,
elation prepared to enjoy an unu sual evening .
He was a young man of agreeable parts amiable ,
and s ensitive He knew his d isadvantages in

.
literary conve rsation for he had gone t o an excel

,
lent college where glee club s and thea tricals had

left h im little time for reading But s till he wa s a .
lover of good books tho ugh he knew them chiefly

,
by hearsay He was twenty v e years O ld em

.
-
,
ployed a s a copywriter by the Grey M atter Ad -
v ert isin g Ag ency .
Th e little room in which he found himself was

plainly the bookseller s sanctum and conta ined his ,
own private lib rary Gilbert browsed along t h e

.
shelves curiou sly Th e volum e s were mostly

.
shabby and bruised ; they had evidently been

picked up one b y one in the humble mangers of the
second hand vendor They all showed marks of
-
.
use and meditation .
Mr Gilbert had the earne s t mania for self

.
improvement which has b lighted t h e lives of so

many young men a pass ion which however is , ,
commendable in those who feel themselves han di

capped by a college career and a jewelled fraternity
emblem It s uddenl y st ru ck him that it wo uld be
.
valuable to m ak e a list of some of the titles in

Mifflin s collection as a s uggestion for his own read

,
ing He took o ut a memor andum b ook and began

.
jotting down the b ooks that intrigu ed him :
The Works f
o Fra ncis Thompson (3 vols .
)
S ocia l History of S moking: Apperson .
The Pa th t o Rome: Hila ire Belloc

The B ook o f Tea : Ka kuzo
Ha ppy Thought s: F C B urna nd
. .
Dr J ohnson
.

s Pra yers a nd Medita tions
Conf essions o f a Thug: Ta ylor

Genera l Ca ta logue of the Oxf ord University Press
The S pirit f Ma n :
o edited by Robert B ridges
The Roma ny Rye: B orrow
Poems: George Her bert

The House of Cobuwbs: George Gissing
So far had he got and was beginning t o say to ,
h imself that in the interests of Advertis ing ( who

is a jealou s mis tress) he had bes t c all a halt wh en ,
his ho s t entered the room hi s sm all face eager his , ,
eyes blue point s of light .
C ome Mr Aubrey Gilbe r t ! h e c ri ed

, . Th e .
meal i s set You want to wash your hands ? Make

.

haste then this way : t h e eggs are hot and waiting
, .
Th e dining room into which the gu est w a s con

ducted betrayed a feminine to u ch not vi sible in
the s moke dimm ed qu arters of shop and cabinet
-
.
At the windows were curtains of laughing Chintz

and pots of pink geranium Th e tabl e u nder a .
,
dr op light in a ame coloured silk screen wa s

- -
,
b rightly set with s ilver and blue china In a .
cut glass decanter sparkled a ru dd y brown wine

-
.
Th e edged tool of Adverti s ing felt his spirits u nder

go an unmi s tak able u pward pres sure .
Sit down sir said Mifflin l ifting the roof of a

, , ,

platter These are egg s S amuel Butler an in
.
,

v en t ion of my own the apotheosi s of hen fru it
, .
G ilbert greeted the invention with applause .
An Egg S a muel B utler for the notebook of house,
wives may be summarized as a pyramid based

, ,
u pon to ast whereof the chief ma s onries are a ake

,
O f b a con an egg poached to rmness a wreath of

, ,
mu shrooms a cap sheaf of red peppers ; the whole

,
-
dribbled with a warm pink sauce of which the

inventor retains the secret TO this the book .
selle r chef added fried potatoe s from another dish ,
and poured for his guest a glas s of wine .

Thi s is C alifornia catawba s aid IVIii n 111 , ,
which the grape and the s unshine very pleasantly

( and cheaply ) full their allotted des tiny I pledge .

you prosperity to the black art of Advertising !
Th e p s ychology of the art and mystery of Ad
v ert ising rests upon tact an instinctive perception ,
of the to ne and accent which will be en ra pp ort

with the m ood of the b ea rer Mr G ilbert w as . .
racking S urround a man with C a rlyle E merson
.
, ,
Thoreau C hes terton Shaw Nietzs che and George

, , , ,
Ade wo uld you wonder at his getting excited ?

What would happen to a cat if s he had to live in a

room tapestried with catnip ? Sh e woul d go crazy !

Truly I had never thought of th at phase of
,

bookselling said the yo ung man
, How is it . ,
though that libraries are shr ines of such austere

,
calm ? If books are as provocative as you sug

g es t one would expect every librarian to u tter the
,
shrill screams of a hierophant to clash ecstatic ,

castanets in his silent alcoves !

Ah my boy you forget the card in dex !
, ,
Librarians invented that soothin g device for the

febrifuge of their so uls ju s t as I fall back u pon the
,
rites of the kitchen Librarians wo uld all go mad

.
,
t hose capable of concentrated thought if they did ,
not have the cool and hea lin g card index as medi
ca men t ! Some more of the eggs ?

Thank you said Gilbert, Who was the .

butler whose name was ass oc iated with the dish ?

What ?
cried M fin in agitation yo u
, ,
have not heard of Samu el B u tler the author of ,
The W a y of All Flesh ? My dear y o u ng man ,
whoever permits himself to die before he ha s read

that book and al s o E rewhon has deliberately
, ,
forfeited his chances of par adise For paradise in .
the world to come is uncertain b ut there is in deed ,

THE HA UN TE D B OOK S HOP 21
a heaven on this earth a heaven which we inhabit

,
when we read a good book Po u r yo u rself a n .
other glas s of wine and permit me

,
(Here followed an enth u siastic developme n t of

the perverse philosophy of Samu el B u tler which , ,
in deference to my readers I omit Mr G ilbert , . .
took notes of the conversation in his pocketb ook ,
and I am pleased to say that his heart was moved

to a realiz ation of his iniqu ity for he w a s ob s erved
,
at the Public Library a few days later a sking for a

copy of The Wa y of A ll Flesh After inquiring .
at fo ur libraries a nd nding a ll copies of the book

,
in circulation h e was compelled to buy one

, He .
never regretted doing so ) .

But I am forgetting my duties as host said ,
M ifflin.

Our de ss ert con s ists of apple sauce ,

gingerbread and coffee
, He rapidly clea red the
.
empty di shes from the ta ble and brought on t h e

second co urse .

I have been noticing the warning over the

sideboard said Gilbert
, I h Op e yo u will let
.
me help you thi s evening ? He poin ted to a card

hanging n ea r t h e kitchen door It read .
AL W AY S W ASH DISHE S
IMME DIATELY AFTER ME ALS

IT SAVE S TROUB LE
22 THE HA UN TE D BO OKS HOP

I m afraid I don t al ways obey that precept

said the books eller as he poured the coffee

Mr s . .
Milin hangs it there whenever she goes away to ,
rem ind me B ut as our friend S am u el B utler says

.
, ,
he that is stupid in little will al so be stupid in

much I have a different theory about di sh
.
was h ing and I please mys elf by in d ulging it

, .

I us ed to regard dish wa shin g merely as an -
ignoble chore a kind of hateful discip line which had

,
to be undergone with knitted brow and b razen

fo rtitude W hen my wife went away t h e rs t
.
time I erected a reading stand and an electric

,
light over the s ink and u sed to read while my

,
hands went automatically thr ough base ge s tures of

purication I made the great spirits of literature
.
partne rs of my sorrow and learned by heart a good ,
dw l O f Pa ra dise Lost and of W alt M ason while ,
I sou s ed a n d wallowed among pots and pans I .
used to comf ort myself with two lines of Keats
Th emoving waters at their priest like task -
Of pure ablution ro und earth s hum an sho res
Then a new conception of the matter struck me .
It i s intolerable fo r a human being to go on doing

any task as a penance under dure s s N o matter , .
What the work is one mu s t spiritu a lize it in s ome

,
way shatter the old idea of it into bits and reb u ild
,
THE HA UN TE D B OO KS HOP 23
it nearer t o the heart s desire How wa s I to do

this with dish washing ?

I b roke a good many plates whil e I wa s pon
dering over the matter Then it occu rred to me
.
that here wa s just the relaxation I needed I had .
been worrying over the mental strain of being s u r

ro unded a ll day long by vociferou s books crying ,
out at me their conicting views as to the glories

and agonies of lif e Why not make dish wa shing
.
-
my balm and po ultice ?

When one views a stubborn fact from a new
angle it i s amazing how all its conto u rs and edges
,
change shape ! Immediately my dishpan began

to glow with a kind of philosophic halo ! Th e
warm soapy water became a sovereign medicine
,
to retract hot blood from the head ; the homely act

of wa s hing and drying cup s and s aucers beca me a
symbol of the order and cleanline ss that man im
poses on the unruly wo rld about him I tor e down .
my book rack and reading lamp from over the s ink .
M r Gilbe rt he went on do not laugh at me

.
,

,
when I tell you that I have evolved a whole kitchen

philosophy of my own I n d the kitchen the
.
shrine of ou r civiliz a tion the focus of a ll that i s

,
comely in l ife Th e ruddy shine of the s tove i s as

.
beautiful a s any s un s et A well polished jug or

.
-
spoon i s as fair a s comp let e a n d beautiful as any

,
'
sonnet Th e di sh mop properly rinsed and wrun g

.
,
and hung outside the back door to dry is a whole ,
sermon in itself Th e s tars never look so bright

.
as t hey do from the kitchen doo r after the ice box -
pan i s emptied and the whole place i s redd up

,

as the Scotch say .

A very delightful philosophy indeed said ,
Gilbert . An d now that we have nished our

meal I insis t upon your letting me give you a hand
,
with the washing up I am eager to test this dish

.

panthei s m of yours !

My dear fellow said Bl il in la yin g a re
i
i
, ,

straining hand on his impetuou s gues t it is a ,
poor philosophy that will not abide denial now and

.
,

then N o no I did not ask you to spend the

evening with me to wash dishes An d he led .
the way back to his sitting room .
W hen I saw you come in said Mifin I was

, ,
af raid you might be a new spaper man looking for ,
an interview A young journali s t came to s ee us

.
once with very unhappy re s ults He wheedled

, .
h irhself into Mrs Miiin s good graces and ended

.
,
b y p utting us both into a book called Pa rn a ssus ,
on W heels whi ch has been rather a trial to me

, .
In that book he att ribute s to me a number of

shallow and s ugary O b s ervation s upon books elling
that have been an annoyance to the t rade I am .
happy to s ay though that his book had only a

, ,

triing sale .
THE HA UN TE D B O OKS HOP 25

I have never heard of it said Gilbert , .
If yo u are really interes ted in booksellin g yo u

sho u ld come here some evening to a meetin g of the
C orn C ob C lub Once a month a number of

.
booksellers gathe r her e and we discuss matters of

bookish concern over co rn cobs and cider We .
have all sorts and conditions of books ellers : one is a

fanatic on the subject of libraries He thinks that .
every public library shoul d be dynamited An .
other think s that moving pictures will destroy the

book trade What rot ! Surely everything that
.
arou ses people s minds that makes them alert and

,

questioning increases th eir appetite for books
, .

Th e lif e O f a boo ksell er i s very demoralizing

to the intell ect he went on af ter a pau se
, He
i s surrounded by inn umerable books ; he cannot
pos s ibly read them all ; he dips into one and picks
up a scrap from another His mind gradually ll
.
itself with miscellaneo u s ot sa m with supercial ,
opinions with a t housand half knowledges Al

,
-
.
mo s t unconsciously he begins to rate literature

accordin g to what people ask for He begins to .
wonder wh ether Ralph W al do Trine isn t really
greater than Ralph W aldo E merson whether J M , . .
C happle isn t as big a man as J M B arrie That

. . .
wa y lies intellectual suicide .

On e thing however yo u must grant the good
, ,
b ookseller He is tolerant He is patient of a ll

. .
id ea s and theo ries S urrounded engulfed b y the

.
,
torrent of men s wo rds he is willing to listen to

,
them all E ven to the publisher s sale sman he

.

turns an indul gent ca r He is willing to be h um.
b ugged for the weal of hum anity He hopes un .
cea sin gly for good b ooks to be born .

My business yo u see is different from mo s t
, , .
I only deal in second hand books ; I onl y buy books

-
that I con s ider have some honest reas on for exist

enc e In so far as h uman judgment can dis cern
.
,
I t ry to keep trash o u t of my shelves A doctor .
doesn t trafc in qu ack remedies I don t trafc

.

in bogu s books .

A comica l thing happened the other day .
There is a certain we al thy man a Mr C hapman , .

,
who has long f req uented this shop

I wonder if that coul d be Mr C hapman of the .
C hapman D a in t yb it s C ompany ? said Gilbert ,
feeling hi s feet touch familiar soil .

Th e s ame I believe

, said Mr m D O you, .

know him ?

Ah , cried the yo ung man with reverence .
Ther e is a man wh o can tell you the virtue s of

adve rti s ing If he i s intereste d in books it i s
.
,
a dvertisin g that made it possible W e handle all .

his copy I ve written a lot of it myself

We .
have made the C hap man prune s a s taple of civili

z a t ion and cul ture I myself devised that slogan
.
28 THE HA UN TE D B OOKS HO P
will take her in here to learn to s ell books He .
wants her to thin k she i s earning her keep and i s ,
going to pay me p rivately for the p rivilege of hav

ing her live here He thin ks that being s ur rounded
.
by books will put s o m e s en s e in her head I am .
rather n ervou s about the experiment but it is a ,

compliment to the shop is n t it ? ,

Ye god s cried Gilbert
, what advertising ,

copy that wo ul d m ake !
A t thi s point the bell in the s hop rang a nd ,
Miilin jumped up
This part of the evening is
.

often rather bu sy he s aid , I m afraid I ll have .

to go down on the oo r S ome of my habitu! s .
rather expect me to be on hand to go s sip about

b ooks .

I can t tell yo u how much I ve enjoyed my

self said Gilbert
, I m going to come again and
.

study your shelves .

W ell keep it dark about the young lady s aid
, ,
the books eller I don t want al l you young blades

.

dropping in here to un s ettl e h er min d If she .
fall s in love with anybody in this shop it ll have ,

to be Joseph C onrad or Joh n Kea ts !
As he pa s sed out G ilbert s aw Roger M fin
,
engaged in a rgument with a bea rd ed man who

looked like a college profe s so r C a rlyle s O liver .

Cromwell ? he wa s saying Ye s indeed ! Right . ,
over here ! Hullo that s odd ! It w a s here

,

.
CHAPTER H
THE CORN COB CL UB !
HE Haunted Bookshop was a delightful

place e specially of an evening when its
, ,
drows y alcoves were kindled with the

b rightne ss of lamp s shinin g on the rows of volume s .
Many a pas ser b y would stumble down the steps

-
from the street in sheer curl o s1t y ; others familiar ,
visitors dropped in with the same comfortable

,
'
emotion that a man feels on entering his club .
Roger s custom was to sit at hi s de sk in the rear

,
pufn g hi s pipe and rea ding ; though if any cu sto

mer started a convers ation the little man w as ,
quick and eager to ca rry it on Th e lion of talk .
lay only sleeping in him ; it was not har d to goad it

up .
It may be remarked that all bookshop s that are

open in t h e evening are b usy in the after supper -
hours Is it that the true book lovers are noc

.
-
t urn a l gentry only venturing forth when darkness

,
and s ilence and the gleam of hooded lights ir

!
Th e l tta er ha lf of thi
s ch a pter m y b
a eo mitted by all rea ders wh o
are not booksel l ers .
30 THE HA UN TE D B OOKSHOP
res i s tibly s ugg s t e reading ?
C ertainl y night time -
has a mystic afnity fo r literature an d it i s s tr ange ,
that the E s quimaux have cr eated no great b ooks .
C e rta inl y for most O f us an a rctic night wo ul d be

, ,
insupportable without 0 Henry and Steven s on . .
Or as Roger M lin remarked during a p a ss ing

,
enthusiasm for Ambrose Bierce the true noctes ,
a mbrosia n a e are the n octes a mbr ose bierceia n a e .
But Roger was prompt in clo s ing Parnas s us at

ten o clock At that hour he and B ock (the rmi s

.
tard coloured terrier named for B occaccio) would

-
,
make t h e round of the shop see that everything ,
was shipshape empty the as h trays provided for

,
customers lock the front door and turn off the

, ,
lights Then they would retire to the den where

.
,
Mrs lVIiiin w a s generally knitting or reading

. .
Sh e wo uld b rew a pot of cocoa an d they wo ul d

read or talk for half an ho ur or so befo re bed .
Sometimes Roger would take a stroll along Gi ss ing

Street before turning in All day spent with books
.
has a rather exhaus ting effect on the min d and ,
he us ed t o enjoy the fresh air s weeping up the

dark B rooklyn streets meditating some thought
,
that had sprun g from his reading While Bock ,
sniffed and padded al ong in the ma nn er of an

elderly dog at night .
W hile Mrs lVIifin was away however Roger s

.
, ,
ro utine was s omewhat diff erent After clo s ing .

THE HA UN TE D B OOKS HO P 31
the sh Op he would return to his desk and with a

f urtive shamefaced air take out from a bottom
,
drawer an untidy folder of notes and man u script .
This wa s the skeleton in his closet his secret sin , .
It was the scaffolding of his book which he had ,
been compil ing for at lea s t ten years and to which ,
he had tentatively as s igned such different titles

Th e M u se on C ru t

as Notes on Literature ,

ch e s ,Books and I and W hat a Yo un g B ook
,

seller O ught to Know It had begun long ago .
,
in the day s of his odys sey as a ru ral book huckste r ,

un de r the title of Literature Among the F arm

ers but it had branched out until it began to
,
appear that (in b ulk at least) Ridpath wo ul d

have to look to his linoleum lau rels Th e man u .
script in its p resent sta te had neither beginning

nor end but it w a s gro wing stren u ou s ly in the
,
middle and hundreds of pages were covered with

,

Roger s minute script Th e chapter on Ars

.

B ibliop ola e or the art of books ellin g would be
, , ,
he hoped a clas sic among generations of book

,
vendors still unborn Seated at his disorderly .
desk caressed by a co unterpane of drifting tobacco

,
haz e he woul d pore over the manuscript cros s in g

, ,
out interp olating re arguin g and then referring

, ,
-
,
to volumes on his shelves Bock woul d snore under

. .
the chair and soon Roger s brain woul d begin to

,

Wa ver In the end he woul d fall asleep over his

.
papers wa ke With a cramp abo ut t wo o clock an d
,

,
creak irrita bly to a lonely bed .
All this we mention only to explain how it w a s

that Roger wa s dozing at his desk abou t midnight ,
the evening af ter the ca ll paid by Aubrey Gilbert .
He was awakened by a d raught of chil l air passing

like a mountain b r ook over his bald pate St ity .
he sat up and looked about Th e shop w a s in .
darkn ess sa ve for the b right electric over his head .
Bock of more regular habit th an his ma st er h a d

, , _
g one back to his co u ch in the kitchen ma d e of a ,
packing ca se that had once coin ed a set of the

E ncyclop aedia B ritannica .

That s f unny said Roger to hi mself S urely

.
,

I locked the door ? He walked to the front of the
shop switching on the cluster of lights that h ung
,
from the ceiling Th e doo r was ajar b ut every

.
,
thing else seemed as u sual Bock hearing his

.
,
foot s tep s came trotting o u t from the kitchen

, ,
his claws rattling on the bare wooden oor He .

r
looked u p with the p atient in quiry of a dog

customed to the eccentricities of hi s patron .

I guess I m getting ab s ent minded

said
-
,

Roger .I mu st have left the door open He .
closed and lock ed it Then he noticed that the

.
terrier wa s snifng in the History alcove which ,
w a s at the front O f the shop on the left hand side -

.

What is it old man ? said Roger
, Want .
THE HA UN TE D B OOKS HOP as
somethin g to read in b ed ? He turned on the

light in that alcove E verything appea red nor
.
mal Then he noticed a book that projected an

.
inch or so beyond the even line of binding s It .

was a fad of Roger s to keep all his books in a at
row on the shelves and almo s t every evening
,
at clo s ing time he u sed to ru n his palm along the

ba cks of the volumes to level any ir regularities left
by carele ss brows e rs He put out a hand to p ush
.
the book into place Then he stopped

. .

Queer again he thought C arlyle s Oliver

, .
Cromwell ! I looke d forit h a t book the other even

ing and couldn t nd it W hen that profe ss or

.
fellow was here M aybe I m ti red and can t see

.

straight I ll go to bed
.

.
Th e next day was a date of some moment Not .
onl y was it Thanks giving D a y with the Novemb er

,
meeting of the C orn C ob C lub s cheduled for that

evening but Mrs lVIifin had promised to get
, .
home from Bo s ton In time to bake a chocolate c ak e

for the book s ellers It was said that some of the
.
memb ers of the club were faithf ul in attendance

more by reason of Mrs M i in s chocolate cak e
.

,
and the cask of cider that h er brother Andr ew

Mc Gill sent down from t h e S abin e Farm every
autumn than on account of the booki sh conversa
,
tion.
Ro ger sp ent the morning in doing a little house

cl e aning in p repara tion for hi s Wife s return
, .
He w as a trie abashed to n d h ow many mingled (
crumb s and tob acco cinders had accumulated on

the dining room rug He cooked hims elf a modest
-
.
lunch of lamb chops and baked potatoes and w a s ,
pleased by an epigram concerning food that came

into his min d It s not the food you dream about
.

that matters he said to himself ; it s the vittles
,

that walk right in and become a member of th e "

family . He felt that thi s needed a little polishing
and rephrasing b ut that there wa s a germ of wit
,
in it He had a h abit of enco untering ide as at his

.
solitary meals .
Af t er this he wa s b usy at the sink scrubbing the

,
dishes when he w a s s urpris ed by feeling two very

,
competent arms s urround him and a pink ging ,
ham apron w a s thrown over his head

M fin ,

said his wife how many times have I told you to
,

p u t on an apron when you wash up !
They greeted each other with the hearty a ec

,
t ion a t e s implicity of tho se congenially wedded in

middle age Helen Mifin w a s a b ux om healthy
. ,
creature rich in good sense and good humo ur

, ,
well no urished b oth in mind and body Sh e kis s ed .
Roge r s bald head tied the apron aro und his

,
s hrimpish pers on and sat down on a kitchen chair

,
to watch him ni sh wiping the china Her cheeks .

36 TH E HA UN TE D B OOKS HOP
b eauteou s dams el pretty soon You remember .
my telling you that M r C hapman wants to send .
his daughte r to wo rk in the s hop ? W ell here s a

,
letter I had from him thi s morn ing .
He rumm aged in his pocket and produ ced the ,
following which Mrs Mitin read

, .
D EAR MR MIF FLIN .

,
I a m so deligh t ed t h a t you a n d Mrs Miiin a re W illing t o .
t ry t h e ex perimen t o f t a king my da ugh ter a s a n a ppren t ice .
T ita nia is rea ll y a v er y ch a rming girl , an d if onl y we -

a
c n get

so me of th e

nishing sch ool n onsen se o ut of h er h ea d
sh e w ill ma ke a n e w oma n . S h e h a s h a d (it w a s my fa ult ,
not h ers) t h e disa dva n ta ge of b rough t up or

b eing , ra t h er
brough t down , by ha vin g e very p o ssible w a n t a nd w him
gra t i ed . O ut Of kin dn ess for h erself a n d h er fut ure h usb a n d ,
if sh e sh ould h a ve I w a n t h er t o lea rn a
o n e, lit t l e a b out ea rn
ing a livin g . Sh e is n ea rly nin et een a n d I t old h er if sh e ,
w o uld t ry t h e booksh op j ob for a while I w ould t a ke h er t o

Europe for a yea r a f t erwa rd .
As I l
exp a in ed t o you, I
f
wa nt h er t o t hink sh e is rea lly
r
ea ning h er w a y Of . course I don t w a n t t h e rout in e t o be

to o ha rd for h er , b ut I do w a n t h er t o get so me idea of w h a t

it mea ns t o fa ce life on on e s own If you w ill p a y h er t en

.
dolla r s a week a s a beginner an d deduct h er boa rd from t ha t

, ,
I W ill p a y you t w en t y dolla rs a w eek priva t ely for your re , ,
sp onsib ilit y in ca rin g for h er a n d k eep in g your a n d Mr s .
Mifin s friendly eyes on h er I m coming roun d t o t h e Corn

.

Cob meet in g t o morrow - nigh t , a n d we ca n ma ke t he n a l

r
a r a n gemen t s .
Luckily , sh e is v ery fon d of books an d I rea lly t hink sh e is

,
look ing f rw a
o r d to t h e a dven t ure w it h much a n t icip a t ion .
THE HA UN TE D B O O KS HOP 37
I o ve rh ea rd h er sa ying to on e of friends yest erda y t h a t

h er

lit era ry w ork t h is w in t er T h a t s

sh e w as goin g t o do so me .

t h e kin d of nonsen se I wa n t h er t o o ut gro w . W h en I h ear

she s j ob in bookst ore, I ll kn ow

h er t ha t sh e s

sa y got a a
r
cu ed .
Cordia lly yours ,
Well ? said Roger as Mrs Milin made no , .

D on t yo u t hink it will b e rather

comment .
interesting to get a naive yo ung gir l s re a ctions

toward the problems of o ur tranquil existence ?

Roger you bles s ed innocent ! cried his wife
, .
Life will no longer be tranquil with a girl of nine

teen round the place You may foo l yourself b u t .
,
you can t fool me A girl of nineteen doesn t react

.

toward things Sh e explodes Things don t re
. .

act anywhe re but in Boston and in chemical

laboratories I suppo s e you know you re taking
.

a human bomb shell into the arsenal ?

Roger looked dubious I remember s omething .
in W eir of Hermiston about a girl being an ex

plosive engine he said But I don t see that
, .

she can do any very great harm ro und here W e re .

both pretty well proof against shell shock Th e .
worst that co ul d happen would be if she got hold of

my private copy of Fireside Con versa tion in the Age
of ! ueen E liz a beth Remind me to lock it up .
so m ewher e will you ? ,

This secret m a st erpiec e by Mark Twain was

one of the b ookseller s treasur es Not even Helen

.
had ever been permitted to read it ; and she had

shrewdl y judged that it wa s not in her line for ,
th ough she knew pe rfectly well where he kept it

( together with his lif e insurance policy some ,
Liberty Bonds an autograph letter from C harle s

,
Spencer Chaplin and a s nap shot of herself taken

,
on their honeymoon) she had never made any

attempt to examine it .

W ell s aid Helen ; Titania or no Tit ania if
, ,
the C orn C obs want their chocolate cake to night -

,
I must get bu s y Take my s uitcase upstairs like a

.

good fellow .
A gathering of booksellers is a pl easant sanhe

drim to attend Th e members of this ancient
.
c raft bear mannerisms and earmarks ju st as de

n it ely recognizable as tho s e of the clo a k and suit
bu s in es s or any other trade They are likely to be

.

a little shall w e say worn at the bindings as ,
become s men who have fors ak en wo rldly prot to

pu rsue a noble calling ill rewarded in cash They .
are po ss ibly a trie embittered which is an excel

,
lent demeanou r for mankind in the face of inscru

table heaven Long exp erience with publishers
.

salesmen makes them s u spicious of books pra ised

between the courses of a heav y meal W hen a .
THE HA UN TE D B O OKS HO P 39
publisher s sales man takes yo u o ut to dinner it is

,
n o t s urpris ing if the co nversation t urns t oward
literature about the time the last of the peas are

being harried about the plate But as Jerry .
,
Gla dst says ( he runs a S h O p up on Thir t y E ighth -

Stre et) the pub lishers salesmen supply a long felt -
want for they do now and then b uy one a dinner

,
the like of which no bookseller wo uld otherwise be

likely to commit .

W ell gentlemen
, said Roger as his gu ests
, ,

assembled in his little cabinet it s a cold evenin g ,

.
Pu ll up toward the re M ake free with the cider . .
Th e cake s on the table

My wife came bac k from .

Bost on S pecially to make it .

Here s Mrs M in s health ! sa id Mr C hap

.

.
man a qui et little man wh o had a habit of listen

,

ing to what he heard I hope sh e doesn t mind
.

keeping the sh op wh ile we celebrate ?

Not a bit said Roger , She enjoys it . .
I see Ta rza n of the Ap es is running at the

Gis sing Str eet movie palace said Gla dst , .
Great stuff Have you s een it ?

.

N ot whil e I ca n still read The J ungle B ook ,
said Roger .

You make me tired with that talk about litera

ture cried Jerry
, A b ook s a book even if
.
,

Harold B ell Wright wrote it .

A bo ok s a book if yo u enjoy reading it

,
amended M eredith from a big Fifth Avenu e book
,
store . Lots of people enjoy Har old Bell W right

jus t as lots of people enjoy tripe E ither of t hem .

wo uld kill me But let s be tolerant
.

.

Your argument is a whole succession of non

sequit urs said Jerry stimulated by the cider to
, ,
un usual brilliance .

That s a long p utt ch u ckled B enson the
, ,
dealer in rare books and rs t editions .

W hat I mean is this said Jerry We aren t
, .
literary critics It s none of our business to s ay

.

what s good and what is n t O ur job is s imply to

.
s upply t h e public with the b ooks it wants when it

wants them How it comes to want the books it
.
'

does is n o con cem of ou rs .

Yo u re the guy that calls booksell ing the worst

b usiness in the wo rld s aid Roger warml y and , ,
yo u re the kind of guy that m akes it s o I suppose

.
yo u woul d say that it is no concern of the booksell er

to t ry to increase the public appetite for books ?

Appetite is too strong a word said Jerry , .
As far as books are concerned the public is barely

able to sit u p and take a littl e liquid no urishment .

Solid foods don t in tere s t it If you try to cram .
,
roast b eef down the gullet of an invalid yo u ll kill
him Let the public alone and thank G od when

. ,
it comes ro und to amp utate any of its hard earned -


Well take it on the lowe s t b asi s said Roger
, , .
I haven t any facts to go upon

Yo u never have interjected Jerry
, .
B ut I d like to bet that the Trade has made

more mon ey out of B ryce s America n Common
wea lth than it ever did out of all P arson Wright s

books put together .

W hat of it ? W h y sho uldn t they make

both ?
This preliminary tilt was interru pted b y the ar
rival oi two more visitors and Roger handed ,
roun d mugs of cider pointed t o the cake and the

,
basket of pretzels and lit hi s corn cob pipe Th e

.
,
-
.
new arrivals were Quincy and Fruehlin g ; the former

a clerk in the book depar t ment of a vast drygoods
store the latter the owner of a bookshop in the

,
Hebrew quarte r of G rand Street one of the best

stocked shops in the city though little known to ,
uptown book lovers - .

W ell ,said Fruehling his bright dark eyes ,
sparkling above richly tinted cheek bones and -

bushy beard what s the argument ?
,

Th e usual one said Gla dst grinning lWif
, , ,
in conf using merch andise with metaphys ic s .

MIFF IJ N Not at a ll I am simply saying that
.
it is good business to sell only the b est

'
.
GLADF IS r Wrong again Yo u must select your.
stock according to your customers Ask Quincy .

h ere Wo ul d there b e any sense in his loading up

.
hi s shelves with M aeterlinck and Shaw when t h e

d epar t ment store trade wants E leanor Porter and
-
the Tarz an st uff ? D oes a co untry grocer carry

the same cigars that are listed on the wine card of a
Fifth Avenue hotel ? Of co urse not He gets in.
the cigars that his tr ade enjoy s and i s a ccu s tom ed

to Bookselling m ust obey the ordinary ru les of
.
commerce

.
MIFFLIN A g for the ordinary rul es of com

merce ! I came over here to Giss ing S treet to get
away from them My mind woul d blow out its
.
fus es if I had to abide b y the dirty little consid era

tions of suppl y and demand As far as I amcon
.
cerned supply crea tes demand

, .
GM DH S P S t m old chap you have to abide

, ,
by the dirty little consideration of earning a living ,
unless someone has endowed you ?

BENS O N O i cou rse my line of b us iness isn t
"
strictly the same as yo u fellows But a thought
.
that has often occurred to me in selling rare edi

tions may interes t you Th e cu s tomer s willing
.

.
nes s to part with his money is us ually in inverse

ratio to the permanent benet he expects to derive
from what he purchas es .

M E R E D IT H Sound s a bit like John Stuart M 11 .

B E NS O N E ven s o it may be true
, Folk s will .
pay a darn ed sight more to be amused than they

th ey can Let n atural selection operate I think
. .
it is fascinating to watch them to see their h elp ,
les s groping and to study the weird ways in which

,
they make their choice Usually they will buy a

.
book either because t hey think the jacket is a t

tract ive or becaus e it co sts a dollar and a quarter
,
instead of a dollar and a half or b ecau s e they s ay

,

they saw a review of it Th e review usually
.
turns o ut to be an ad I don t think one book

.

b u yer in a thousand knows the difference .

MIFFLIN You r do ctrine is pitil ess base and , ,
false ! W hat would yo u think of a phys ician who

saw men s uffering from a cu rable diseas e and did
nothing to alleviate their s ufferings ?

GL A DF rsr Their suff erings ( as you call them)
a re nothin g to what mine woul d be if I s tocked up
wi t h a lot of books that no one but highbrows

would buy W hat wo uld you think of a base public
.
that woul d go pas t my shop day after day and let

the high minded oc cupant die of starvation ?
-

MIF F L m Your ailment Jerry is that you con
, ,
ceiv e yo u rself as m erel y a trade s man W hat I m

.
telling yo u i s that the books eller is a public ser

vant He ought to be pens ioned by the s tate
. .
Th e honour of his profe s sion s hould co mpel him to

do all h e can to s pread the distribution of good
s tuff
.

! UIN CY I think you fo rget how much we who
deal chiey in n ew books are at the mercy of the

publishers W e have to s tock the new stuff a
.
,
large propo rtion of which i s always punk W h y it .
is p unk goodness knows becau s e most of the b um

, ,
books don t sell

. !
MIFF LIN Ah that is a mystery indeed ! B ut

I can give you a fair reason Firs t because ther e .

,
i s n t enough good stuff to go ro und Second b e

.
,
caus e of the igno rance of t h e publishers many of ,
whom hones tly don t know a good book when they

see it It is a matter of sheer heedles snes s in the

.
selection of what they intend to publis h A b ig .
drug factory or a manufact urer of a well known -
jam spend s vas t sums of money on chemically as

saying and analyzing the ingredients that are to go
into his medicines or in gathering and s electing the
fru it that i s to be stewed into jam An d yet they .
tell me that the mo s t import ant depar tment of a

publishing bu s ines s which is the gathering and
,
samplin g of manu s cripts is the least considered

,
and the least remunerated I kn ew a reader for .
one p ubli shin ho u se : he was a babe recently out

g
of college w h o didn t know a book from a frat pin

.
If a jam factory employs a tr ained chemis t why ,
i sn t it wort h a publi sher s while to employ an exp ert

book analyzer ? There are s ome of them Look .
at the fellow who ru ns the Pa cic Monthly s book
bu s iness fo r example ! He knows a thing or two .


C HA PMAN I think perhap s you exaggerate the
value of those trained expe rts They a re lik ely to
.
be fourush ers W e had one once at our factory

.
,
and as far as I coul d mak e out he never thought

.
we were doing goo d busin ess except when we were

lo s ing mone y

.
M IFFLIN AS far as I have been able to ob serve ,
making money is the eas iest thing in the world .
All yo u have to do is to t urn out an honest product ,
something that the public need s Then you have .
to let them know that you have it and teach them ,
that they need it They will batter down your

.
front door in their eagerness to get it But if yo u .
begin to hand them gold bricks if you begin to s ell

,
them books built like an apartment house all ,
marble front and all brick behind yo u re cutting ,

yo ur own throat or rather cuttin g yo ur own pocket

, ,

ME RE D ITH I think M fin s right

Yo u know .
the kind of place our shop is : a regul ar Fifth Avenu e

st ore all plate glass front and marble columns
,
glowing in the indirect lighting like a birchwood at

full moon W e sell hundreds of dollars worth of
.

b unk um every day because people ask for it ;

but I tell yo u we do it with reluctance It s rather .
the cu s tom in o ur shop to s coff at the book b uying -
public and call them boobs but they really want

,
good books the poor s o uls don t know how to get

them Still J erry has a certain grain of tru th to

.
,
his credit I get ten times more satisfaction in

.
selling a copy of Newt on s The A menities of B ook

Collect ing t han I do in selling a copy of well ,
Ta rz a n; but it s poor b usiness to impose your

own private tastes on you r customers All you .
can do i s to hint them along tactfully when you get ,
a chance toward the st uff that counts

, .
QUINC Y Yo u remind me of somet h mg that

-
happened in our book department the other day .
A apper came in and said she had forgotten the

name of the book she wanted but it wa s something ,
about a young man who had been b rought up by

the monks I was stumped I tried her with
. .
Th e Cloister a nd t he Hea rt h and M on a st ery B ells

an d Legen ds of t he M on astic Orders and so on b ut ,
her face was blank Then one of the salesgir ls

.
overheard us talking and she gu ess ed it right off

,
the b a t Of course it was Ta rza n

. .
MIFFLIN Yo u poor s imp there was you r chance ,
to introduce her to Mowgli and the bandar log -
QUI NCY Tru e I didn t think of it

.

Mw u N I d like to get you fellows ideas abo u t

adver t ising There wa s a yo ung chap in here the

.
other day from an a dvertis ing agency trying to ,
get me to put some copy in the papers Have yo u .
found that it pays ?

FRUE H LING It always pays somebod y Th e .
only qu est ion is does it pay the man wh o pays for

,
the ad ?

M ERED ITH What do yo u mean ?

FRUEH LING Did you ever consider the pr oble m
of what I ca ll tangenti al adverti s ing ? By tha t I
mean advertis ing that ben et s your rival rather
than you rs elf ? Take an example On Sixth .
Avenu e there 15 a lovely delicates sen shop but ,
rather exp ens ive Every conceivable kind of

.
sweetmeat and relis h is di s played in the b rightly

lit window W hen you look at that window it
.
s imply make s your mou t h water Yo u decide to .
have som ething t o eat But do you get it there ?

.
Not much ! You go a little far t her down the street

and get it at the Automat or the C rys tal Lunch .
Th e delicatess en fellow pays the overhead expense

of that b eautiful food exhibit and the other man ,

gets the bene t of it It s the same way in my b usi
.

ness I m in a factory district where people
. ,
can t afford to have any but the best books

.
(M eredith will bear me o u t in saying that onl y the

weal th y can a fford the poor ones ) They read the .
book ads in the p a p ers a n d magaz ines the ads of

'
Meredith s shop and others and then they come

"
to me to buy them I believe in advertising but I

. ,
b elieve in l etting someone else pay fo r it .

MIFFLIN I gues s perhap s I can afford to go on
ridin g on Meredith s ads I hadn t thought of

.
THE HA UN TE D BOO KS HOP 49
t hat B ut I think I shall put a little notice in one

.
of the paper s some day j ust a littl e card saying

,
It will be fun to see what come b a ck I get -

.

QUIN CY Th e book section of a depar t ment s t ore

doesn t get much chance to enjoy that tangential
advert ising as Fru ehling calls it W h y when our
, .
,
interior decorating shark puts a few volumes of a

pirated Kipling bo und in crushed oilcloth or a cop y

of Knock kn eed Stories into th e window to show
-
,
off a Lo uis ! VIII bo u doir suite display space is ,
charged up against my depa rtment ! Last sum

mer he asked me for so mething by that Ring

fellow I forget the name to put a p unchy nis h
, ,
on a layo u t of porch furniture I thou ght perhap s .
he meant Wagner s Nibelungen operas and b egan

,
to dig t hem out Then I fo und he meant Ring

.

GLADFIS T There you are I keep telling yo u.
bookselling is an impossible job for a man wh o loves

literature W h en did a bookseller ever make any
.
real contribution to the world s happiness ?

50 THE HA UN TE D B O OKS HOP
MmFLrN Dr Johnson s father was a bookseller

-

. .
GLADFIS T Yes a nd co uldn t afford to pay for

,
S am s ed ucation

FRU EH LIN G There s another kin d of t angential
Coles Phillips painting for some brand of silk

s t ockings Of co urse the high ligh t s of the pic
.
t ure are cunningly focussed on the s t ockings of the

emin en t l y beautiful lady ; b ut ther e i s always

something el se in the p ict ure a n au t omobile or ah
country ho use or a Morris chair or a parasol

which makes it j ust as effective an ad for those
goods as it is for the stockings Every now and .
t hen Phillips st icks a book into his paintings an d I ,
expec t the Fif t h Avenu e book trade bene t s by it .
A book that ts t h emind as well as a silk stocking

does the ankle will be sure to sell

.
MIFFLIN Yo u are all crass materialists I tell .
yo u, b ooks are the depo s itories of the h u man

spirit whi ch is the only thing in this world tha t
,
end ures What wa s it Shak espeare said

.
Not ma rble n or t h e gilded monument s

Of p rin ces sha ll out li ev t his pow e ul rf rh yme
By the b ones of the Hohenz ollerns, he wa s right !

An d wait a minute ! There s so me t hin g 1n C a r

lyle s Cromwell that comes back t o me

.
M aybe but I doubt it said M fin
, M rs , . .
M fin s ay s sh e didn t sell it this evening I woke

.
her up to as k her Sh e was dozing over her knit.
ting at the desk I gue ss she s tired aft er her trip

.

.

I m so rry to mis s the C arlyle quotation said

,

Bens on Wh at was the gist ?
.

I think I ve got it jotted down in a notebook

,

said R og er hunting along a Shelf
, Yes here it .
,
is He read alo u d
The works of a ma n bury them under wha t

, gua n o-
mounta ins
a nd O bscene owl- dr op p in gs you will, do n ot perish , ca n not
p erish . Wha t of Heroism wha t Of Eterna l l i ght wa s in a Ma n

,
a nd his Lif e is with verygr

,e a t ex a ct ness a dded to t he E ternities;
rema insf orever a new divine p ortion of the S um o T
f ings
h .
Now my friend s the b oo kseller is one of the keys

, ,
in that u nivers al add ing machine bec ause he aids ,
in the cross fer t iliz ation of men and books His

-
.
delight in his ca l ling doesn t need to be st imul ated
even by the b right shanks of a C oles Phillips pic

tu re .

Roger my boy said Gla dst your inn ocent
, , ,
en t h usa sim makes me think of Tom D aly s fa

v ourite story ab o u t the Irish priest who w a s reb uk
ing his ock for t heir love of whisky Whi sky he .

,

said is the bane of this congregation Whis ky

,

.
,
that steals away a man s brains W hisky that

.
,

m akes you shoot at landlo rds and not hit them !

E ven so my dear Roge r yo u r en t hu s iasm mak es

, ,
you shoot at tru th and never come anywhere near

it
Jerry , said Roger yo u are a up as tree
, .

Your shadow is poisono u s !

W ell gen t lemen
,

said Mr C hapman
, I .
,
know Mrs Mitin wants to be relieved of her po s t

. .
I vote we adjourn early You r conversation is.
always delightful though I am some t imes a bit

,
uncer t ain as to t h e conclusions My daughter is .
going to be a bookseller and I shall look forward

,

t o hearing h er views on t h e b us iness .
As t h e gu ests made t heir way ou t through t h e

shop Mr C hapman drew Roger aside
, .

It s per .

fect ly all right about sen ding Titania ? he asked .

Ab s olutely said Roger
, When does she
.

want to come ?

Is to morrow t oo soon ?
-
Th e sooner the better W e ve got a little spare

.
room upstairs that she can have I ve got some .

ideas of my own ab out fu rnishing it for her Send .

her round to morro w afternoon
-
.
C H APTE R III
TI TA N IA A RRI VE S
rst pipe after breakfas t is a rite of s ome

importance to s eas oned smokers and Roger ,
applied th e ame to the bowl as he stood at

the bottom of th e s t airs He blew a great gu sh of
.
st rong bl u e reek that eddied behind him as he ran

u p the ight his mind eag erly meditating the con
,
genial tas k of arranging th e little spare room for the

coming employee Then at t h e top of t h e steps
.
, ,
he found tha t his pipe had already gone o u t .
W hat with l ling my pipe and emptying it ,

lighting it and relighting it he thought I don t
, ,

seem to get much time for the seriou s concerns of

lif e C ome t o think of it smoking soiling dishes
. , ,
and washing them talking and listening to o t her

,

people talk take up mo s t of life anyway
, .
This theory rath e r pleas ed h im so he ran down ,
stairs again to tell it to Mrs Mitin . .
Go along and get that room xe d up she said , ,
and don t t ry to palm off any bogus doctrines

on me so early in the morning Hou s ewives have .

no time for philosophy aft er breakfast .
R oger t horoughly enjoyed himself in the task of

54
! THE HA UN TED B OOKS HOP 55
preparing the gu est room for the new assis t ant

-
.
It was a small ch am ber at the back of the second

stprey opening on to a narrow passage that con
,
n ect ed throu h a door with the gallery of the book

g
shop T w o small windows commanded a view of
.
the modest roofs of that quarter of Brooklyn roofs ,
that conceal s o many brave hearts so many baby ,
carriages so many cups of bad coffee and so ma ny

, ,
cartons of the Chapman prunes .

By the way he called downstairs
, better ,
have some of the pru nes for supper to night j ust -

,

as a compliment to Miss Chapman .
Mrs Mitin preserved a humorou s s ilence

. .
O ver these n oncommittal summits the bright eye

of the bookseller as he tacked up the freshl y ironed
,
muslin curtains Mrs Mitin had allotted co ul d

.
,
di s cern a glimpse of the bay and the leviathan ferries

that lin k S taten Is land with civili z ation Jus t a .

touch of roman ce in the outlook he thought to ,

hims elf . It will sufce to keep a blas ! e yo ung

girl aware of the exci t ements of existence .
Th e room as might be expected in a hou s e pre

,
sided over b y Helen M iin was in pe rfect order to

,
receive any occupant but Roger had volunteered

,
to p sychologize it in such a fashion as (he thought)

would convey favou rable in uences to the mis
guided yo ung s pirit that w a s to be its tenant .
Incurable idealist he had taken quite gravely his

,
responsibility as landlord and employer of Mr .
C hapman s daughter N o ch ambered nautilus

.
w a s to have better oppo r t unity to expand th e

tender mans ions of its soul .
Bes ide the bed w as a bookshelf with a reading

lamp Th e problem Roger was dis cu ssing w a s
.
what books and pictures might be the best preach

ers to thi s congregation of one To Mrs Mifin s
. .

"
sec ret amu s ement he had taken down t h e p ict ure of

Sir G alahad which he had once hung there beca use ,
(as he had said ) if Sir Galahad were living to day -

he wo uld be a bookseller W e don t want her

.

feas ting her imagination on young Galahads ,

he had remarked at b re a kfast .That way lies
premat ure matrimony What I want to do is put
.
up in h er room one or two goo d prints repre senting

actu al men wh o were so delightful in their day that
all the youn g men she is likely to see now will seem
tepid and prehensil e Thus she will become di s
.
gu s te d with the present gen eration of youths and

there will be some chance of her really p u tting her

mind on the book bu siness .
Accordingl y he h ad spent s ome time in going

th rough a bin where he kept photos and drawings

of authors that the pub lishers publicity men

were always shower ing upon him After some .
thought he dis carded p romis in g engra vings of

Harold B ellW righ t and Stephen Le acock an d chose
,
pictures of Shelley Anthony Trollope Robert

, ,
Louis Steven son and Rob er t Burn s

, .Then aft er,
further meditation he decided that n either Shelley

,
nor Burns wo uld quite do for a young gi rl s room

and set them aside in favour of a portrait of Samuel

Butler To thes e he add e d a framed t ext that he
.
was very fond of and had hung over his own des k .
He had once clipped it froma copy of Life and

found much plea sure in it It runs thus
.

There !
he thought That will convey to her
.

the rs t element of bo ok morality .
The s e deco r ations having b e en disp layed on the

walls he bethought himself of the books that should
,
stand on the be dside shelf .
This is a qu est ion that admits of the utmost

nicety of discu s sion Some authorities hold that
.
the proper books for a gu est room are of a soporic -
quality that will indu ce s wif t and painl e ss repo s e .
under t he Caesa rs, The S ta tesma n B ook

s Yea r ,
certain novels of Henry James and The Letters Of ,
! ue en V ictoria (in three vol umes ) It is plausibly .
cont ended that books of this kind cann ot be read
( lat e at night ) for more than a few minutes at a

time and that they afford useful scraps of informa
,
tion .
Anothe r b r anch of opinion recommends for bed

time reading shor t stories volumes of p ithy aneo ,
dote, s w ift and s parklin g st uff that ma y keep one

awake for a sp ace yet will advantage all the
,
swee t er slumber in the end E ven ghost st o ries .
and harrowing matter are maintained seas onable

by these pundits This clas s of reading comp ris es
.
0 Henry Bret Harte Leonard M errick Amb r o s e

. . , ,
Bierce W W Jacobs D audet de M aupas s ant

, . .
, , ,
and p o ss ibly even On a S low Tra in Th rough A rka n

sa w th a t grievo us classic of the railway bookstall s
,
s aid to himself to have a young mind to experi
,
ment with Now my wife delightful creature

.
,
though she is was well distinctly mature when I

, ,
ha d the good fort une to meet her ; I have never

been able properly to supervise he r mental p roc
esses But this C hapman girl will come to u s
.
wholly unlettered Her father said she had been.
to a fashionable school : that su rely is a guarantee

that the deli cate tendril s of her mind have never
begun to sprout I will te s t her ( without h e r
.
k nowing it) by the books I put he re for her By .
noting which of them sh e res ponds to I will know ,
how to proceed It might be worth while to shu t

.
up the shop one day a week in order to give her

some b rief talks on liter atur e Delightful ! Let .
me see a little seri e s of talks on the developmen t

,
of the E nglish novel b eginning with Tom J ones ,
hum that wo ul d hardl y do ! Well I have alway s

, ,
longed to be a teacher this looks like a chan ce to ,
begin We might invite some of th e n eighbou rs to

.
send in their children once a week and start a little ,
s chool Ca useries da lundi in fact ! W h o knows

.
, ,

I may yet be the Sainte Beuve of B rooklyn .
Acro s s his mind ashed a vi s ion of news paper

c lip ings Th is r ema rka ble st uden t of let t ers who

p ,
hides his brillia n t p a rts under the un a ssuming

exist ence of a second ha n d bookseller, is n ow recog
-
n ized a s the
Roger ! called Mrs M fin from down s tairs

.
Front ! s omeone want s to know if you keep back

numbers of Foa my S tories .
After he had th rown out the intrude r Roge r re ,

tu rned to his meditation Thi s sel ection he .
,

mu s ed is of cours e only tentative It is to act
, .
as a preliminary tes t to see what sort of thing ,
in terests her Firs t of all her name naturally

.
,
s ugges ts Shakespeare and the E lizabethans It s .

a remarkable nam e Titania C hapm an : there mu s t

,
be grea t virtue in p runes ! Let s begin wi t h a
volume of C hristopher M a rlowe Then Keat s I .

,
gue ss : eve ry young p ers on o ught to shiver over

S t Agne s E v e on a b right cold wint er evenin g

. .
Over B emerton s certainly becau s e it s a bookshop

, ,
story E ugene Field s Tribune Primer to try out

.

her s ense of humour An d Archy by all mean s fo r.

, ,
the same rea s on I ll go down and get the Archy

.

scrapbook .
It should be explained that Roger was a ke en

admirer of Don Marqui s t h e humou ri st of the ,
New Yo rk E vening S un M r M arqui s once lived . .
in Brooklyn ; and the books eller was never tired of

saying that he wa s t h e mo s t eminent author who
had graced the borough since the days of W alt
W hitman Archy the im aginary cockroach whom
.
,
Mr M arquis u s es as a vehicle for so much excellent

.
f un was a con stant delight to Roger and he had

, ,
k ept a scrapbook of a ll Archy s clippings This
.
b ulky tome he now b rought out from the grotto

b y his desk where his par t icul ar treasure s were
k ept He ran his eye over it and Mrs Mifin
.
, .
heard him utter shrill s creams of laughter .

W hat on earth is it ? she asked .

Only Archy he said and began to read
, ,
aloud
down in a va ult undernea t h t h e cit y

w in e
t wo old men were sitt ing t h ey w ere drinkin g booz e
t orn w ere t h eir ga rment s ha ir a nd bea rds were grit t y
n e ha d a n o vercoa t b ut h a rdly a ny sh oes
o
o ve rh ea d t h e st reet ca rs t hr ough t h e st ree ts were runn in g

lled wit h h a p py peopl e g in g h ome t o Christmas
o
b ig sh ip s w ere sa ilin g down by t h e ist h mus
in ca me a little t ot for t o k iss h er gra nn y

such a little t ot ty sh e co uld sca rcely t ot t le
sa ying kiss me gra n dpa your little na nn y
kiss
b ut t h e old ma n bea ned h er wit h a whisky b ot t le
o ut side t he wa k es bega n for t o utt er

sn o
far a t sea t h e ship s w ere sa ilin g w it h t h e sea men

n ot a n o t h er w ord did a ngel n a nn y ut t er
h er gra ndsir e ch uckled a nd pledged t h e whisky demon
up sp a ke t h e second ma n h e was worn a n d wea ry

t ea rs wa sh ed his fa ce which oth erw ise w a s p a st y
sh e lo ved h er p a rent s w h o commut e d n t h e erie o
bro th er im a fra id y u struck a t ri e h a st y

o
sh e ca me t o see pret t y duds on

you a ll h er
bringin g Chr i tma s po sie from h mot h e s ga rden
s s er r
riding in t h e t unn el un dern a t h t h e h udson e
brot h er w a s it rum ca used your h eart t o h a rden
What on earth is there funny in that ? said

Mrs Mifin
.

Poor little lamb I think it was
.
,

terrible .

There s m ore of it cried R oger and O pe ned hi s

, ,
mouth to continue .

No more thank you said Helen
, There , .
ought to be a ne for u s ing the meter of L ove in

the V a lley that way I m going out to market
.

s o if the bell rings you ll have to answer it
.
Roger added the Archy scrap b ook to M ss

Titania s shelf an d went on b rowsing over the

,
volum es he had collected .
The Nigger of the Na rcissus he said to ,

himself for even if she doesn t read the st ory per
,

hap s she ll read the preface which n ot marble nor

,
the monuments of princes will outlive Dickens .

Christ mas S tories to introd uce her t o Mrs .
Lirrip er the que en of landladies

, Publishers tell .
me that No rfolk Street St rand is be s t known fo r , ,
the famou s litera ry agent that h a s his ofc e there ,
but I wonder how many of them know that that was

where Mrs Lirrip er had her immortal lodgings ?
.
Th e N otebooks of S a muel B ut ler ju s t to give her ,
a little intellect u al jazz The Wron g B ox be .

,
c aus e it s
b e s t farce in t h e language Tra vels
the .
with a Don key to show h er what go od writing i s

,
lik e The Four Horsemen of t he Ap oca lyp se t o

.
g ive he r a sen s e of pity for human woes w ait

a min ute though : that s a p retty b road book for
,

yo ung ladies I gue s s we ll put it aside and see

.

what else there is Some of Mr Mo sher s cata . .

logue s : ne ! they ll show her the tru e spirit of what
one book lover calls b iblio bli ss W a lking S tick
- - -
Pa p ers yes there are sti ll good e s sayists running

,
around A bo und le of Th e Pu blishers Weekly

.

to give her a s m ack of trade matters J o s B oys

.
in ca s e she needs a li t tle relaxation The La ys Of .
A n cient Rome and Au s tin D obson to show her

s ome good poetry I wonder if they give them .
The La ys to read in school nowaday s ? I have a

horribl e fear they are brough t up on th e bat t le of
Salamis an d the bru tal redcoa t s of 76 An d now
.
we ll be excep t ionally subtle : we ll s tick in a Robert

Chambers t o see if she falls fo r it .
He v iewed the shelf wi t h pride No t b ad .

,

he said to h imself I ll jus t add this Leonard
.

Merrick W h isp ers a bout W omen to amu s e her

, , .
I b et that title will s tart her guessing Hel en will .
say I ought to have included the Bible but I ll ,

omit it on p urpose ju s t to see whether the girl

,

mis s es it .
W ith typica l m al e curio sity he pulled o u t the

bureau drawers to see what dis po s ition his wif e had

mad e of them and wa s pl eas ed t o n d a little mu slin
,
bag of lavender dispers ing a quiet fragrance in

each . Ve ry nice he remarked Ve ry nice
, .
indeed ! About the only thing missing is an a sh

tray If M iss Titania is as mod ern a s some of
.
them that ll b e the rs t thing she ll c all fo r An d

,

.
maybe a copy of E z ra Pound s p oems I do hope

.
she s not what Helen calls a b olsh evixen

.
There was no t hing bolshevik about a glittering

lim ou s ine that drew up at the corner of Gi ss ing
and S winbu rne streets early that afternoon A .
chauffeur in green livery opened the door lif ted ,
out a s uitcase of beautiful b rown leather and ,
gave a respectful hand to the vision that emerged

from depth s of lil ac coloured uphol stery -
.

W here do you want me to carry t h e bag miss ? ,
This is th e bitter part ing

repl ied M ss ,

Titania I don t want you to know my address
.

,
E dwards Some of my mad friends might wo rm

.
it out of you and I don t want them co ming down

,

and bothering me I am going t o be very bu sy .

with literatur e I ll walk the re st of the way
.

.

E dwar d s saluted with a grin h e worshipped

the original young heiress and returned to hi s
whe el .

Th ere s one thing I want you to do for m e

,
66 THE HA UN TED B OOKS HOP
s aid Titania . C all u p my father and tell him

I m on the j ob

.

Yes miss said Edwards wh o woul d have run
, , ,
the limou sine into a government motor truck if she

had ordere d it .
Miss C hapman s small gloved hand descended

into an inte resting p u rse that wa s cuffed to her

wrist with a bright little chain She drew out

.
a nickel it w a s characteristic of her that it was a

very b right and engaging looking nickel and
'
handed it gravely to her chariot eer E qually .
gravely he saluted and the car after moving

, ,
thr ough certain dignied arcs swam swiftly away ,
down Thackeray Bo ulevard .
Titania after m ak ing s ur e that E dwards wa s

,
out of sight turned up G is sing Street wi t h a

,
uent pace and an o bservant ey e A small boy .

cried, C arry your bag lady ? and she w as
,
about to agree but then remembered that she

,
was now engaged at ten dollar s a week and waved

him away . Our readers would feel a j us tiable
grudge if we did not attempt a description of
the young lady and we wil l employ the few
,
blocks of her co urse along G issing St ree t for this

purpo s e.
W alking behind her the observer by the time

, ,
she had reached Clemens Pla ce would have seen ,
that she was faultless ly tailo red in genial twee d s ;

note a bunch of s uch violet s as never bloom in
the crude springtime but reserve thems elve s for
,
N ovember and the plate gl as s windows of Fift h

Avenue .
It i s probable that whatever t h e errand of t his

sp ectator he would have contin ued along Gissing
S treet a few pace s farther T hen with calcula t ed
.
,
innocence he woul d have halted halfway up t h e

,

block tha t lead s to the W ord s worth Avenue L ,
and looked backward with carefully s imulated

irres olution as though con s idering some forgotten
,
m atte r W ith apparently unseeing eyes he woul d

.
have scanned the bright pedestrian and caught the ,
full impact of he r rich blue gaze He would have .
s een a s mall res olute face rather vivacious in effect ,
yet with a quaint pathos of youth and eagernes s .
He wo uld have noted the cheeks lit with excitement

and rapid movement in the bracin g air He wo uld .
certainl y have noted the delicate contrast of the
fur of the wil d nutria with the soft V of her bare

throat Then to his s urprise he would have seen
.
, ,
this attract ive person s top examine her s urround

,
ings and run down some s tep s into a rather dingy

,
looking s econd hand bookshop He wo uld have

-
.
gon e a bout his affair s wi t h a new and s urpri s ed

conviction that the Almighty h a d the borough of
Brooklyn under His e s pecial care .
Roger wh o h a d conceived a notion of some

,
rathe peevish four of the Rit lob n dlin g z

Carlton
bies and C entral Park riding acad emie s was ,
agreeably am azed by the s weet simplicity of the

young lady .

Is this Mr Mifin ? she said as he advanced .
,
all agog from his smoky c o rner .

M s s Chapman ?
h e replied taking her ,

bag . Helen ! he called Miss Titania is .
here .
She looked about the sombre alcoves of the shop .
I do think it s adorable of yo u to take me in

,

she s a id D a d has told m e so much about you
. .
He s ays I m impo ss ible I suppo s e this is the

.
lit erature h e talks about I wa nt to know all .

about it .

An d here s Bock ! she cried D ad says he s

.
the great es t dog in the world named a fter Botti ,
c elli or s o mebody I ve b rought h im a present .

.
It s in my b a g Nice old B ooky !

.
Bock who was unaccustomed to S pats was

, ,
examin ing them aft e r his own fa s hion .

Well my dear s aid Mrs M fin

,

We a re , . .
delighted to see you I hope you ll be happy .

with u s but I rather doubt it

, Mr M fin is . .
a har d man to get along with .

Oh I m s u r e of it ! c ried Titania
,

I mean . ,
I m s ur e I s hall b e happy ! You m u s tn t b el ieve

a word of what D a d s ays about me I m crazy .


about book s I don t see how you ca n bear to
.
s ell th em I brought thes e violet s for you Mrs

.
, .
How perfectly sweet of you said Helen , ,

captivated al re ady C ome along we ll p u t ,

them right in water I ll show you your room .

.
Roger hear d them moving about overhead .
It suddenl y occurred to him that the shop w a s

rather a dingy plac e for a youn g girl I wish .

I had thought to get in a c ash regi s ter he ,

mus ed She ll think I m terribly un b usmess
.

lik e.

Now said Mrs M lin as she and Titania
, .
,

came downstair s again I m making some past ry ,

so I m going to turn you ove r to your em oyer

.
He can show you roun d the shop and tell you

where all the book s are .

Befo re w e begin said Titania j ust let me
, ,

give Bock his pre s ent Sh e showed a large .
package of tissue pap er and unwinding in n umer ,
able layers nally di sclo s ed a sta lwar t bone

, , .
I was lun ching at Sherry s and I mad e the

,
head waiter give me this He wa s a wf u lly .

amu s ed .

C ome along into the kitch en and give it to

him s ai d Helen He ll be your fri end fo r lif e
, .

W hat an adorabl e kennel ! c ri e d T itania ,
when she s aw the remodelled packing case that -

served Bock as a retreat Th e bookseller s in .

ge n ious carpentry had built it into the simili tude

of a C arnegie library with the sign READ ING ,
RO O M over the door ; and he had painted imitation

book shelves along the interior
-
.
You ll get u s ed to Mr Mitin af ter a whil e

.
,

said Helen amusedly He spent all one winter
.
getting that kennel xed to hi s l iking Yo u might .
have thought he wa s going to live in it in s tead of

Bock All the titles that he painted in there are
.
books th at have dogs in them and a lot of t hem ,

he made up .
Titania insis ted on getting down to peer

in s ide Bock w a s mu ch attered at this atten
.
tion from the new planet that had swum into

hi s kenn el .

Gracio u s ! she s aid here s Th e Rubaiyat ,

of Omar C anine
I do think that s clever
.
"

Oh there are a lot mo re
, s aid Helen Th e , .
works of Bonar La w and Bohu s C la ss i c s and ,

,

C ate chism s on D ogma and goodn es s kn ow s what

.
If Roger paid half as much attention to bu s in ess

as he does t o jokes of that s o rt we d be ri ch ,

.
Now yo u run along and have a look at the

,
shop .
Tita nia found the books ell er at his desk .
Here I am Mr Mitin , she s aid.

S ee I , .
,
brought a ni ce sharp p en cil along with me to

make out s ale s slips I ve been pra cticing .

s ticking it in my hair I can do it quite nicely .
now .I hope yo u have some of tho s e big red

books with all the carbon paper in them a n d
everything I ve been watch in g the girls up
.

at Lord and Taylo r s make them out and I
think they r e fa s cinating An d you must teach

.

me to run the elevator I m awf ul ly keen about .

el evato rs .

Bles s me s aid Roger You ll n d this very
, ,

different f rom Lord and T aylor s ! W e haven t
any elevato rs or any sales s lip s or even a cash

, ,
regi s te r W e don t wait on customers unl ess

.

they ask us to They come in and brows e round

.
,
and if they nd an y thing th ey want they come

back here to my de sk and a s k about it Th e price .
i s ma rk e d in every book in red pencil Th e ca sh .
box i s he re on this shelf Thi s i s the key hanging .
on this little hook I enter each sal e in this ledger

. .
W hen you sell a book you m u st write it down here ,

and the p rice p aid for it .
But s uppose it s charged ? s aid Titania

.
N 0 charge accounts E very t hing is cash . .
If someone comes in to sell books you must refer ,
him to me Yo u mu s tn t be s urpri s ed to see

.

peopl e drop in he re and sp end s everal hours read

ing Lot s of th em look on thi s a s a kind of club
. .
I hope you don t min d the smell of tobacco

,
for almost all the men that come here sm oke in

the shop You see I put ash trays around for
.
,

them .
I love t ob a cco smell said Titania D addy s , .

lib rary at home smell s s omethin g like thi s b u t ,
not quite so s trong An d I want to s ee t h e worms

.
,
bookwo rms you kn ow Daddy said you had lots .

of them .

You ll s ee them a ll right said Roger ch u ck

, , ,

ling They come in and out To morrow I ll

-
. .
show yo u how my stock is arranged It ll take .

you quite a while to get familiar with it Until .
then I ju s t want you to poke a round and see

what there is until you kn ow the shelves so well
,
you co uld put your hand on any given book in

the dark That s a game my wife and I u s ed t o
.

play We woul d turn off a ll t h e lights at night

.
,
a n d I wo uld call out the title of a b ook and see
how near she co uld come to n din g it Then I .
would tak e a turn W hen w e came mo r e than .
six in ches away from it we wo ul d have to pay a
forfeit It s great fun

.

.
W hat l arks we ll have c ried T itania

.
,

do think thi s is a c unnin g place !

This is the bull etin board where I put up ,
notices about books that interest me Here s a .

card I ve ju s t been writing

.
Roger drewfrom his p ock et a squ are of card boar d

74 THE HA UN TED BOOKS HOP
and afxed it t o t he board with a thumbtack .
T itania read
D ear me said Titania Is it s o good a s a ll

, ,

that ? Perhaps I d bette r read it

.

It is so good that if I k new any way of doing
so I d in s is t oniMr iW ilson reading it on his voyage

to France I wish I could get it onto hi s ship

. .
t , what a book ! It m akes on e po s itivel y ill

with pity and terro r Sometime s I wake up at
.
n ight a n d look out of the window an d imagine I

hea r Hardy laughing I get h im a littl e mixed
.
up with the D eity I fear But h e s a bit too hard

, .

for you to tackle .
Titania wa s p uz z led and said nothing

,
.But
CHAPTE R IV
THE DIS APPEARIN G VOL UME
ELL my d ear s aid Roge r after supper

, ,
that evening I think p erhap s we had

,
better int roduce Bl iss Titania to our

cu s tom of reading al oud .

Perhap s it would bo re her ? s aid Helen .
You know it is n t everybody that likes being

read to .

O h I should love it ! exclaimed Titania
, I .
don t think anyb ody ever read to me that is not

,

s in ce I wa s a child .

S uppo s e we l eave yo u to look after the shop ,

said Helen to Roger in a teas ing mood and I ll
, ,

take Titania out to the movies I think Ta rza n .

is s till run ning .
Whatever p rivate impul s es Bl is s Chapman

ma y have felt she s aw by the books elle r s down

,
cast face that a vis it to Ta rza n would break his

heart and she was prompt to disclaim a ny taste
,
fo r the s creen cl a s sic .

D ear me

,

she said ; Ta rz a n that s all that
nature s tuff b y John B urro ughs ; isn t it ? Oh

, ,
Mrs Mifin I think it would be ve ry tediou s

.
, .
Let s have M r Mifin read to us I ll get down

.

my knitting bag .
You mu s tn t mind being interrupted said

,

Helen . W hen anybody rings the bell Roger
h a s to run out and tend the shop .

Yo u mu st let me do it said Titania I , .
want to earn my wages you kn ow , .

All right

s aid M rs h fin ; Roger yo u
, .
,
settle l iss Chapman in the den and give her s ome

thing to look at while we do the dishe s .
But Roger w a s all on re to begin the readin g .

Why don t we postpone the dishes he said

, ,

ju s t to celebrate ?

Let me help in s is ted Titania
, I should .
think wa shing up would be great fun .

N o no not on you r rs t evening
, , s aid ,
Helen
. Mr lVIifin and I will ni sh them in a
.
So Roger poked up the coal re in the den di s ,
po sed the chairs an d gave Titania a copy of S a rt or

,
Resa rtus to look at H e then vani shed into the

.
kitchen with his wife wh en ce Titania heard the ,
cheerful cl an k of crocke ry in a di shpan and the
splashing of hot wate r Th e best thing about .
wa shing up she heard Roger s ay

, i s that it ,
make s one s hand s s o clean a novel sensation for a

second hand books eller
-
.

describe d as a once over , and then se ein g the
as sh e h ad n ot r md it . Her ey e f ell up on t h e
a n d as sh e ha d recen y lost lit t l e p ea rl brooch

a ,
sh e ra n h ast ily t h ro ugh it . Sh e ch uckled a lit t le

O V CI

ID ST C py o ol
'
f h om s Ca yk

s

Oliver Cmmwell be ,

t imt M m and t be O c gnn Hot d If .
i t nt che f to read
a ss s a . No wonder th eir lun ches
Wh e n Boger an d Helen re oine d

j h er in t be den

Tha t s a funn y thing he id Ther e s

, sa .
THE HA UN TED B OO KS HOP 79
you about it ? La st esda y

I know it wa s then
it wasn t on the shel f

Then the next night .
,
W ednesday I was up very late writin g and fell

, ,
a sl eep at my desk I must have left the front

.
doo r ajar beca u se I was waked up by the dra ught

, ,
and when I w ent to cl ose the door I sa w the book

sticking out a little be yond the other s in its usu al ,
place An d last night when the Co rn Co bs were

.
,
here I w ent out to l ook up a qu ota tion in it and

, ,

Perhaps the ass istant chef stole it ?
But if so why the deu ce w oul d he adver tise

,
having done so ? ask ed Roger .

W ell if he did steal it
, sa id Helen I , ,
wish him joy of it I tried to rea d it on ce you

.
,
ta lked so much about it and I fo und it drea dfully ,

d ull .

If he did stea l it cried the boob ell er I m
, ,

If a n assist a n t ch ef is m fond of good b ooks t h a t

'
he has to st ea l them t h e w orld is sa fe for democ
,
racy Usually the only books a ny one wa nts to

.

Book of Oracles I don t mind a man stealing books
.

if he s teal s good one s !

You s ee the remarkable principles that govern

thi s bu s ines s said Helen to Titania They sat
, .
down by the re and took up th e ir knitting while

t h e boo ks eller ran out to s ee if t h e volume had by
any chanc e returned to his shelves .

I s it there ? s aid Helen when he came back , .
N0 s aid Roger and picked up the advertis e

, ,

ment again I wonder wh y he wants it re
.

turned before midnight o u Tues day ?

So he can read it in bed I gu e s s said Helen, , .

Perhap s he suffers from in s omnia .

It s a darn s hame he lost it before he had a

chance to read it I d like to have kn own what

.

he thought of it I ve got a great mind to go up

.

and c all on him .

C harge it off to prot and lo ss and fo rget

about it said Helen, How about that reading
.

aloud ?
Roger ran his eye along his private shelves ,
and pulled down a well worn volume -

.

N ow that Thank s giving IS pa s t he said , ,
my mind always turns to C hr is tmas a n d C hris t ,
mas mean s C harle s Di ckens My dear would it .

,
bore you if w e had a go at the old Christma s

S tories ?
M rs NIii. n held up her hands in mock dis may .
He read s them to me every year at this time ,

she s aid to Titania Still th ey r e worth it
. I,

.
know good old Mrs Lirrip er better t han I do .

mo s t of my friend s .

W hat is it the Chr i s tmas C arol ? said Titania
, .

W e had to read that in school .

N said Roger ; the other stories innitely ,
better E verybody get s the C arol dinn ed into

.

them until they re weary of it but no one nowa ,
days seem s to read the others I tell yo u C hri s t .

,
ma s wo uldn t b e Chris tmas to me if I didn t read

these tale s over again every year How homesick .
they make one for the good old days of real inns
and real be efs teak and real ale drawn in p ewter .
My dears s ometimes when I am reading D ickens

,
I get a vi sion of rare s irloin with oury boiled ,
potatoes and pl enty of hors e radi sh set on a -

,
shining cloth not far from a blaze of English

coal

He s an incorrigible vi s ionary

said Mrs , .
M fin
To hear him talk you might think no
one had had a s quare meal s inc e D ickens died .
Yo u might think that all landladies died with

M rs Lirrip er
. .

Very ungr ateful of him s aid Titania I m
.
,
s ure I couldn t ask for bett er potatoe s or a nicer

hostes s than I ve found in B roo klyn
,

.

Well well s aid Roger You are right of
, , .
,
82 THE HA UN TE D B OOKSHOP
course And yet something went out of the
.
world when Victorian England vanished some ,
thing that will never come again Take the stage .
coach drivers for instance Wh at a racy h uman

, .
,
type they were ! An d what have we now to com

pare with them ? S ubway guards ? Taxicab
drivers ? I have hung around many an all night -
lunchroom to hear the chauffeurs talk B u t they .
are too much on the move you can t get the pic ,

ture of them the w a y D ickens co uld of hi s types

You can t catch that so rt of thing in a snapshot

you know : you have to have a time exposure .
I ll grant you though that lunchroom food is

, ,
mighty good Th e best place to eat is always a

.
counter where the chauffeurs congregate They .
get a w q y hun gry you see d riving round in the

, ,
cold and when they want food they want it hot

,
and ta s ty There s a little ha sh all ey called

.

-
F rank s u p on B roadway nea r 77t h where I

, ,
g u ess the ham and egg s a n d French fried i s as

good as any Mr Pickwick ever ate . .

I must get E dward s to take me there s aid ,
Titania E dward s i s ou r chauffeu r I ve been

. .
to the Ansonia for tea that s near there ,

.

Bette r keep away said Helen , W hen .
Roger come s home from tho s e place s he smells so

s trong of onion s it b rin gs t ea rs to my eye s ,
.

W e ve ju s t be en talking about an ass is tant


matchbox and grumbling It s alway s the way
, ,
he hurried out of the room .
He wa s agr eeably s u rp ri s ed to nd that his

calle r was the young a dv ert i smg man Aub rey ,
Gilbert .

Hullo ! he said I ve been saving s ome .

thing fo r you It s a quotation from Jo s eph

.

C onrad about adve rt i s ing .

Good enough s aid Aub rey An d I ve got
, .

something fo r you You were so ni ce to me the .
other evening I took the lib erty of b ringing you

round some tobacco Here s a tin of Blue E yed .

-
lWixt ure it s my favourite I hope you ll like

, .

it.
B ully for yo u Perhap s I ought to let you off

.

t h e C onrad quotation since you r e s o kin d

.

Not a bit I suppose it s a knock Shoot !
. .
Th e book s elle r led the way back to his

desk where he rumm aged am ong the litter and
,
n ally foun d a s crap of pap er on which he had

written
B ein g my self a ni ma t ed by feelings of a ff i

ect on t owa rd my
fellowmen I , a m sa dden ed by t h e modern y
s st e m of a dv er
t isin g. W h a t ever vid n ce

e e it o ff e rs o f en ert p i
r se , in gen uity ,
imp uden ce reso urce in

, and cert a in in dividua ls it p ro ves t o ,
my min d t h e w id p va l n c e re e e of t h a t form of men t a l degra da
t ion which is ca lled gullib ilit y .
J O S E P H C O N R AD .
W hat do you think of that ? s aid Roger .
You ll nd that in t he sto ry called The A n

a rchist .

I think le ss than nothin g of it said Aub rey , .
As your fri end D on M arq ui s ob s erved the oth er

evening an idea i sn t alway s to be bl a med for the
,

people wh o believe in it Mr C on rad ha s been . .
reading s om e quack ad s that s all B ecau s e the re

, .
a r e fake ad s that doe s n t cond emn the p r inciple of

,
Publicity But look here what I really came

.
,
round to see you for i s to show you t his It w a s

.

in the Times thi s mo rnin g .
He pull ed out of hi s po cket a c lipping of the

LOST in s e rtion to whi ch R oger s attention had

al ready been d rawn .

Yes I ve ju s t s een it
,

s aid Roger I , .
miss ed the book from my shelve s and I believe ,

someone m u s t have s tol en it .

Well now I want to tell you something
, , ,

said Aubrey To night I had dinner at the
.
-
O ctagon with M r C hap m an . .

Is that s o ? said Roger You know hi s .

da ugh t er s h ere now

/
.

So he told me It s rather interes ting how
.
it all wo rks out You see after you told me the

.
,
other day that lVIiss C hap man wa s coming to work

fo r you that gave me an idea I kn ew her father
, .
wo ul d be specially interested in B rooklyn on th at ,

account and it s ugge s ted to me an idea fo r a
,
window di splay c a mpaign here in Brooklyn for

-
the D a in t yb it s Pr oducts You know we han dl e .
all his s al es p rom otion campaigns Of cour se .
I didn t let on that I knew about his daughter

c omin g ove r he r e b ut he told me about it him s elf

,
in the cours e of our talk Well h ere s what I m .

,

getting at W e had dinn er in the Cz ech o S lovak

.
-
G rill up on the fourteenth oor and going up in

, ,
the elevato r I s aw a man in a chef s:unifo rm carry
ing a book I loo ked over hi s should er to s ee

.
what it wa s I thought of cou rs e it would be a

.

cook book It wa s a copy of Oliver Cromwell
. .

So he found it again eh ? I mu s t go and have ,
a talk with that chap If he s a C arlyle fan I d .

lik e to know him .

W ait a minute I h a d seen t h e LO S T ad in .
the paper this morning bec au s e I always look ,
ove r that column O ft en it give s me id ea s for

.
adverti s ing stunts If you keep an eye on the .
thing s people are anx ious to get back you know ,
what they really p riz e and if you know what they ,
prize you ca n ge t a line on wha t good s ought to

be adve rti s ed mo re exten s ively This wa s t h e .
rst time I had ever noticed a LOST ad for a book ,

s o I thought to mys elf the book bu s iness i s c om

ing up . Well when I saw the chef with the
,

book in hi s hand I s aid to him jokingly I see
,
-
yo u fo und it again He w as a foreign looking

.
-
fellow with a b ig beard whi ch is unusual for a

, ,

chef b ecause I suppose it s likely to get in the
,
soup He looked at me as though I d run a carv

.

ing knife into him almost scared me the wa y he

,

looked Yes yes he said and shoved the
.
, , ,
book out of sight under his arm He s eemed .
half angry and half frightened so I tho ught may ,
be he had no right to be riding in t h e pas senger

elevator and w a s scared someone wo uld report
him to the man ag er J ust as we were getting to.

the fo urteenth oor I said to him in a whisper ,
It s all right old chap I m not goin g t o repo rt

, ,

you . I give you my word he looked more scared
than before He went quite white I got off at
. .
the fourteenth and he followe d me out I thought

, .
he w a s going to s peak to me but Mr Chapman , .

w a s there in the lobby and he didn t have a chance, .
But I noticed that he watched me into the grill

room as though I w a s his last chance of s al vation .

I gu ess the poor devil was scared you d report

him to the police for stealing the b ook said ,
N ever mind let him have it

Roger .
, .

Did he steal it ?
I haven t a notion But somebody did b e

.
,

cause it disappeared from here .

W ell now wait a min u te Here s the qu eer
, , .

part of it I didn t think anything more about

.

it except that it was a funny coincidence my seeing
, .
him af ter having noticed that ad in the paper .
I had a long talk with Mr Chapman and w e dis .

,
cussed some plans for a prune and S aratoga chip

campaign and I showed him some sugge sted
,
copy I had prepared Then he told me abo ut his .
daughter and I let on that I knew you I left

, .
the O ctagon about eight o clock and I thought

,
I d run over here on the subway ju s t to show yo u

the LO ST notice and give you th is tobacco .
An d when I got off the subway at Atlantic Avenu e ,
who should I see b ut friend chef again He got .
off the same train I did He had on civilian .
clothes then of cours e and when he was out of

, ,
his white uniform and pancak e hat I recogniz ed

h im right off Who do yo u suppose it wa s ?
.

C an t imagine

said Roger highl y interested
, ,
by this time .

Why the profes sor lookin g gu y who came in to
,

a sk for the book the r s t night I w a s her e .
Humph ! Well he mu st be k een about ,
C arlyle becaus e he was horribl y disappointed

,
that evenin g when he asked for the book and I

cou ldn t nd it I remember how he insisted that
.
I must have it and I h unted a ll thr ough the

,

Hi s tory shelves to make sure it hadn t got mis
placed He said that some friend of hi s had seen it
.
here and he had come right ro und to buy it I told

, .
him he could certainl y get a copy a t the Public

Library and he said that wo ul dn t do at all

, .

Well I think he s nut s said Aubrey b e
,

, ,
cau se I m damn sure he foll owed me down t h e

street after I left the sub way I stopped in at .
the drug store on the corner to get some matches ,
and when I came o u t there he wa s u nderneath ,

the lamp post -
.

If it was a modern author in s tead of C arlyle , ,

said Roger I d say it was some publicity stunt
,

pulled O R by the publis hers Yo u know they go .
to all manner of queer dodges to get an author s
name in print But C a rlyle s copyrights expir ed

.

long ago so I don t see the game
,

.

I guess he s picketing your place to try and

steal the formula for egg s S amuel Bu tler said ,
Aubrey and they both laughed

, .

Yo u d better come in an d meet my wife and

Mi s s C hapman said Roger Th e young ma n

, .
made some feeble demur b u t it wa s obvious to ,
the bookseller that he wa s vastly elated at the

idea of mak ing Miss C hapman s acqu aintanc e
.

Here s a friend of mine said Roger ushering

, ,
Aubrey into the little roo m where Helen and Ti

tania were still s itting by the re
Mrs Mitin . .
,
Mr Aubrey Gilbert lVIiss C hapman Mr Gilbert

. ,

, . .
Aubrey was vaguely awa re of the rows of books ,
of the shining coals of the buxom hoste s s a n d the

,
friendly terrier ; b u t with the inten s e focus of an
intelligent yo ung male mind thes e were all merely
app urtenances to the congenial spectacle of the
employee How quickly a yo ung man s senses
.

as s emble and assimilate the data that are reall y

relevant ! Without s eeming even to look in that
direction he had performed the most amaz ing feat
of lightnin g calc ulation known to the human
fac ulties He had added up all the yo ung ladies
.
of his ac qu ainta nce and fo und the sum total less

,
than the gir l b efore him; He had subtracted

the new phenom enon from the universe as he
knew it in cludin g the solar system an d the a d
,
v ert isin g bu s iness and foun d t h e remainder a

,
minus qu antity He had multiplied the contents

.
of his intellect by a factor he had no reason

to ass ume constant and wa s sta rtled at what,

teachers call (I believe) the p roduct An d he .
had divided what wa s in the left hand armchair -
into his own career and found no room for a ,
quotient All of whi ch t ransp ired in the length

.
of time neces s ary for Roger to push forward

another chair .
With the politeness desirable in a well bred -
youth Aubrey s r st instinct was to make hims elf

,

square with the ho s tes s Resolutely he oc cluded .
blue eyes silk shirtwaist and admirab le chin

, ,
from his mental vi s ion .

Aubrey welcomed this as a pl e as ant aven ue
of discu s sion leading into the parkland of M S S
C hapman s family affair s ; but Roger in s is ted

on h is telling the s to ry of the chef and the copy

of Cromwell .

An d he followed yo u here ? exclaimed Titania .
W hat fun ! I had no idea the b ook bus iness was

so exciting .

Better lock the doo r to night Roger said -
, ,
M rs Mi in
.

o r he may walk off with a set of
, .

the E n cyclop aedia B r itanni ca .

W h y my dear said Roger
, I think this is , ,
grand news Here s a ma n in a hum ble walk of

.

,
lif e so keen about good books that he even pickets

,
a books tore on the chance of s wipin g some It s .

the mo s t encouraging thin g I v e ever heard of

.
I mu s t write to the Publis hers Weekly about it

.

W ell said Aubrey yo u mustn t let me
, ,
interrupt yo ur littl e party .

You re not interruptin g said Roger We , .
were only reading aloud Do yo u know Dicken s .

Christ m a s S tories 9 .

I m afraid I dont

.
Suppose we go on reading shall we ? ,

Plea s e do .
Ye s do go on said Titania
, Mr Milin, . .
w a s ju s t rea din g a b out a most ado rable head waiter

in a L ondon chop house .
Aubrey begged permi ss ion to light his pipe a n d ,

Roger picked up the book But before we
.

read the items of the coffee room bill he said -
, ,
I think it only right that we shoul d have a

little refre s hment This passage sho uld never
.
be read witho u t something to accompany it .
My dear what do yo u say to a glass of sherry

,

all round ?

It is sa d to have to confess it said Mrs , .
Bl ilin to T it an ia

Mr lWilin can never read
, .
D ickens witho u t havin g something to drink I .
think the sale of D ickens will fall off terribly when

prohibition comes in .

I once took the trouble to compile a list of the

amount of liquor drunk in Dickens works said
,

Roger and I ass ure yo u the total was astound
,
ing : hogsheads I believe it was C alcul a

, .
tions of that sor t are great fun I have always .
intended to write a little e s say on the rainstorms

in the stories of Robert Lo uis Stevenson Yo u .
s ee R L S was a Scot and well acquain ted with

. . .
,
wet weather E xcu se me a moment I ll just run

. ,

do wn cellar and get up a bottl e .
Roger left the room and they heard hi s s tep s

,
pas s ing down into the c ellar Bock after the .

,
manner of dogs followed h im Th e smell s of

, .
cellar s are a rare treat to dogs e specially ancient ,
B rooklyn cellar s which have a cachet all their

own Th e cellar of the Haunted Books hop was

.
,
to B ock a fas cinatin g pla ce illuminated by a

, ,
warm glow from the furnace an d piled high with ,
split packin g cases which Roge r u s ed as kin dling

-
.
From be low came the ra sp of a shovel among coal ,
and the clear musical slither as the lumps were

,
th rown from the iron sc oop ont o the re Just .
then t h e bell ran g in the shop .

Let me go s aid Titania jumping up
, , .
C an t I

said Aubrey .
N ons ense ! s a id Mrs lVIii n laying down her

.
,

knitting Neither of you knows anythin g about
.
the stock Sit down an d be comf ortable I ll

. .

be right back .
Aub r ey and T itania loo ked at each other with a

tou ch of embarras s ment

.

Your father sent you his his kind regard s ,
said Aub rey That w a s not what he h ad intend ed

.
to say but somehow he could not utter the word

,
.

He said not to read a ll the books at on ce .
T itania laughed How funn y that you should

.
mm into him just when yo u were coming here .

He s a duck isn t he ?

.
,

W ell you see I only know him in a bu s ine s s
,
way but he c ertainl y is a co rker He believe s in

, .

advert is ing too , .

Are you c razy about books ?
W h y I never really had ve ry m u ch to do with
,
He said he wa s terribly absent minded and t hat ,
the other day he wa s in here looking at s ome books

and just walk ed off with it without knowing what
he wa s doing He offered to pay for the tro uble
.
he had cau s ed but of cours e I wouldn t let him

,

.
I a sked if he wanted to see you but he said he was ,

in a hu rry ,

I m almost disappointed

said Roger I , .
thought that I had turned up a real booklover .
Here we are all han d s drink the health of Mr

,
-

Thomas C arlyle .
Th e toast was drunk and they settled them ,
selves in their chairs .

An d here s to the new employee said Helen

.
,
This al s o was dis patched Aubrey d raining his ,
glass with a zeal which did not escape Bl iss Chap

man s dis cerning eye Roger then put out his .
hand for the Dickens B ut rst he picked up his .
beloved Cromwell He looked at it carefully and

.
,
then held the volume close to the light .

Th e my s te ry s not over yet he said It s

, .

been rebound Th i s i sn t the o riginal b inding
.

.

Are yo u s ure ? said Helen in s urpri s e It .

looks the same .

Th e binding ha s bee n cleverly imitated but ,
it can t foo l me In the r s t place th ere wa s a

.
,
rubbed corner at the top ; and there was an ink

s tain on one of the end pap ers .
There

s still a stain there said Aubrey look
, ,
ing over his s houlder .
Ye s but not the same stain I ve had that

, .

book long enough to know it by heart No w .
what the deuce woul d that lunatic want to have

it rebound fo r ?

Goodne ss gracio u s said Helen put it away
, ,
and fo rget about it W e ll all be dreaming about

.

C arlyle if you re not careful

.
CHAPTE R V

A UB RE Y WA LKS PA R T WA Y HOME A ND
RIDE S THE RE S T OF THE W A Y
T W AS a cold clear night as Mr Aubrey Gil

, .
bert left the Haunted B ookshop that even

ing and set out to walk homeward Witho u t
, .
making a very conscious choice he felt instinctively

,
that it wo uld be ag reeable to walk b a ck to M a n

hattan rath er than permit the roaring di s illu s ion
of the s ubway to break in upon hi s meditations .
It is to be fear e d that Aubrey wo ul d have badly

unk ed any quizzing on the chapters of S omebody s

Lugga ge which the bookseller had read alo u d .
His mind w a s swimming rapidly in the agreeable ,
unf ettered fa shion of a stream rippling downhill .
As 0 Henry put s it in one of hi s most delightful

.

stories He w a s outwardly decent and managed
to p reserve his aquariu m but in s ide he was im
,
p rom p t u and full of u nexpectedness To say

that he wa s thinking of Bl is s C hapman would
imply too much power of ratiocination and ab s tract
scrutiny on his part He wa s not thinking : he
.
w a s being tho ught . D own the ac customed chan

98
1 00 THE HA UN TED B OOKS HOP
boa t on the S ty . The Divine Fire
much grimed , ,
leaned against Joe Ch a p p le s Hea rt Th robs Those

.
familiar with the Tabard Inn bookcases still to be

found in outlyin g drug shops know that the stock
-

has not been turned for man y a yea r Aub rey .
w a s the more s u rprised on sp inning the case round

, ,
to nd wedged in between t wo other volum es the

empty cover of a book that had been torn loo s e
from the pages to which it belonged He glanced .
at the lettering on the back It ran thu s : .
CARLYLE
OLIVE R C ROM WELL S

LE TTE RS
SPEECHES
O be ying a su dden imp ulse he slipped t h e b ook ,
cover in h is overco at pocket

Mr Weintraub entered the shop a so lid Teu

.
,
tonic per son with discolo ured pouches under his

eyes and a face that wa s a potent argum ent for
prohib ition His mann er howeve r was that of
.
, ,
one anx iou s to ple a se Aub rey in dicated the

.
brand of cigarettes he wan ted Having himself .
coined the advertis ing catchword for them

They re mild b ut they sa tisfy h e felt a certain

loyal compulsion always to smoke this kind Th e .

THE HA UN TE D B OOKS HOP 1 01
druggi s t held o u t the packet and Aub rey noticed ,
that his n gers were stained a deep saffron colour .

I see yo u re a cigarette smoker too said , ,
Aubrey pleasantly as he opened the packet and,
lit one of the paper tubes at a little alcohol ame

b urnin g in a globe of blu e glas s on the count er .

M e ? I never smoke said Mr Weintraub , .
,
with a smile which somehow did not seem to t his

surly face I mu st have steady nerves in my
.
profession Apothecaries wh o smoke make up

.
bad pre s criptions .
Well how do yo u get yo ur hands stained that

,

wa y ?
Mr Weintrau b removed his hands from the
.
co un ter

.

Chemical s he grunted, Prescription s a ll .

that sort of thing .

W ell said Aubrey smoking s a bad habit
, , .

I gu ess I do too much of it He could not re s ist .
the impres sion that s omeone was li s tening to their

talk Th e doorway at the back of the shop wa s
.
veiled b y a portiere of beads and thin bamboo

,
sections th readed on string s He heard them .
clicking as though they had been momentarily

p ull ed aside Turning ju s t a s he opened the door
.
,
to leave he noticed the bamboo cu r tain s wayin g

, .
Well good night he said and stepped o ut

,
-
, ,
onto the street .

As he walked down Wordsworth Avenu e un der ,
the thunder of the L pa s t lighted lunchrooms , ,
oyster saloons and pawn shops Bl is s C hapm an

, ,
res umed her sway With the delightful velocity

.
of thought his mind whir led in a narrowing spiral

ro und the experience of the evening Th e sm all .
book crammed sittin g room of the Mifin s the

-
,
sparkling r e the lively chirru p of the b ookseller

,
reading aloud and there in the old easy chair ,
whose horseh air stufng was bulgin g o u t t hat ,
b lue eyed vi s ion of careless girlhood ! Happily

-
he had been so seated that he could s tudy her with

out seeming to do so Th e lin e of her ankle where
.
the religh t danced upon it p ut C oles Phillips

to shame he averr ed E xtraordinary how these
, .
,
c reatures are made to torment u s with their ln

tolerable comeliness ! Against the backgro und
of du sky b indin gs her head shone with a soft haz e
of gold Her fa ce that had an air of naive and
.
,
provoking independence made him angry with ,
it s unnece ss ary s urplus of en chantment An .
un accountable gust of rage d rove him rapidly

along the frozen str eet D amn it he c ried .
, ,
what right has any girl to be as p retty as that ?

,

W h y why I d lik e to b eat her ! he muttered ,

amazed at him s elf W hat the devil right has a
.
girl got to look so inn ocently adorable ?

1 04 THE HA UN TE D B OOKS HOP
uptown merriment : he could s ee the ruby beacon
on the M etropolitan Tower signal three quarters .
Underneath the airy decking of the bridge a tug

went pufng by her port and s tarboard lamps
,
trailin g red and green threads over the tideway .
S ome great argo s y of t h e S taten I sland eet swept

serenely down to S t G eo rge pas t Liberty in her
.
,
soft robe of light carrying t h ea t red commuters

, ,
dazed with wearine ss and blinking at the raw fury

of the electric bulb s O verhead the night w a s a
.
superb arch of clear frost s ifted with stars Blue

, .
sparks crackled stickil y along the trolley wir es as

the cars groaned over the bridge .
Aubrey surveyed all thi s s pl endid scene without

exact ob s ervation He was of a philosophi c turn
.
,
and was attempting to con s ole his discomt ure

in the overwhelmin g lu stre of M iss Titania by the
thought that she was after a ll the c reature and
, ,

off s pring of t h e science he wo rshipp e d that of
Adve rtis ing . W a s not the fragrance of her p res
ence the soft compuls ion of h er gaze even the
, ,
deliri ou s frill of mu s lin at h er wri st to be set down ,
to the credit of his cho s en art ? Ha d he not pon ,

dering ob s curely up on attention c ompelling -
copy and lay out and type face in a co rner of the

- -
,
G rey M atter ofce contributed to the triumphant

-
,
p ro sp erity and grace of this uncons cious b en e

c ia ry ? Indeed she seemed to him ercely tor ,
men t in g himself with her lovelines s a sy mbol of,
the mysteriou s and subtle power of publi city It .

was Adverti s ing that had done thi s that had
enabled Mr Chapman a shy and droll little per
.
,
son to surround this girl with all the fructifying

,

glorie s of civilization to foster and cherish her
until she shone upon the earth like a morning star !
Adve r tis ing had clothed her Adverti s ing had fed
,
her schooled roofed and sheltere d her In a

, , , .
sense s he wa s the crowning adverti s ement of her

father s career and her innocent perfection taunted

,
him ju s t as much as the bright sky s ign he kne w

-
wa s ashing the wo rds CH A PMA N P R U NE S above the

teeming pavements of Time s Square He groaned .
to think that he himself by his con s cientious

,
lab ou rs had helped to put this gi rl in s uch a p o

,
sitiou that he could hardly dare approach h er .
He wo uld never have approached her again on ,
any pretext if the inten s ity of hi s thought s had

,
no t cau s ed him unco n s c iou s ly to grip the railing

, ,
of the bridge with s trong an d angry hands For .
at that m oment a s ack wa s thrown over his hea d

from behind and he wa s viol ently s eized by the
legs with t h e obvious intent of hoi s ting him over
,
the parapet His unexpected grip on the railing

.
delayed this attempt j ust long enough to save him .
S wept off his feet by the fu ry of the a ss ault he fell ,
sideways again st the barrier and had the good

fortune to seize his enemy by t heleg Mufed in .
the sacking it was vain to cry out ; but he held

,
furio usly to the limb he had grasped and he and

his attacker roll e d t ogether on the footway Aub .
rey was a powerful man and even despite the ,
surprise could p robably have got the better of the

situation ; but as h e wrestle d de sperately and tried
to rid hims elf of his hood a cra s hing blow fell upon
,
his head half s tunning him He lay sprawled out

, .
,
momentarily in capable of struggle yet cons cious ,
enough to expect rather curiously the dizzying

, ,
s ensation of a d r op through in s upportable air

into the icy water of the E a s t River Hand s seiz ed .

him and then pass ively he heard a shout the
, , ,
so und of footstep s runn ing on the planks and ,
other footst ep s hu rrying away at top speed In .
a moment the s acking was torn from his head and

a friendly pe de strian was kn eeling b es ide him .

S a y a r e you all right ?
, s aid the latter a ux

iously . Gee tho s e guys near ly got you
, .
Aubrey wa s too faint and dizzy to speak for a

moment .His h ead wa s numb and he felt c ertain
that s everal in che s of it had been caved in Putting .
up hi s hand f eebly h e wa s su rp ri sed to nd the

, ,
c ontou rs of hi s s kull much the s am e as u s ual Th e .
s tranger p ropped him again s t his knee and wiped

away a t ri ckle of blood with his handk erchief

S a y old man I thought yo u was a gone r he
, , ,
ing a touring car which was sp eeding over from
B r ooklyn Th e driver willingly agreed to take
.
Aub rey home and the other two help ed him in

, .
Barring a nasty ga sh on his s calp he wa s none the

wors e .

A fellow need s a tin hat if he s going to wander

round Long I sland at night s aid the motorist

,

genially Tw o fellows t ried to hold me up com
.
ing in f rom Rockville C ent re the other evening .
M aybe they were the s ame two that picked on you .

Did you get a look at them ?

No ,said Aubrey That piece of sacking
.

might have helped me trace them but I forgot it , .

W ant to run back for it ?

N ever mind said Aubrey I ve got a h unch
.
,

about this .
Th ink yo u know who it is ? M aybe yo u re

in politics h ey ? ,
Th e ca r ran s wiftly up the dark channel of the

B owe ry into Fourth Aven u e and turned off at
, ,
Thirty Second S treet to depo s it Aubrey in front

-
of hi s boarding house He thank ed his convoy

.
heartily and refused further as s is tance After

, .
several false shots he got hi s latch key in the lock ,
climbed four creaking ights and s t umbled into

,
his room Groping his way to the wash basin

.
-
,
he bathed his throbbing head tied a towel roun d

,
it and fell into bed

, .
CHAPTE R VI
TI TAN IA LEARNS THE B US INE S S
OUGH
he kept late hours Roger ,
Bl ilin w a s a prompt riser It i s only the

.
very young who nd satisfaction in lying

abed in the morning Those who approach the
.
term of the fth decade are sensitively awar e of

the uency of life and have no taste to s quander
,
it among the blankets .
Th e booksell er s morning ro u tine was brisk and

habitual He w a s generally awakened about

.
half past seven by the jangling bell that b alanced

-
on a coiled sprin g at the foot of the s tairs This .
ringin g announced the arrival of Becky the old ,
scrubwoman wh o came each morning to sweep out

the shop and clean t h e oors for the day s trafc
.
Roger in his old d re ssing gown of vermilion a n

,
nel would s cufe down to let her in picking up the

, ,
milk bottle s and the paper bag of baker s rolls at
the same time As Becky propped the front doo r

.
wide opened window tran s oms and set about

, ,
buffetin g du s t and tobacco smoke Roger wo uld ,
ta ke the milk and rolls back to the kitchen and

1 09
give Bock a mornin g greeting Bock would
.
emerge from his literary kenn el and thru s t out hi s

,
foreleg s in a genial obeis an ce This was partly

.
politene ss and partly to straighten out hi s s pine

,
after its all night curvature Then Roger would

-
.
let hi m ou t into the back yard for a run him s elf,
s tanding on the kitchen step s to inh ale the bright

freshne ss of t h e morning air .
This S atu r day mo rning was clear and cri s p Th e .
plain back s of the hom es along W hittier S treet ,
irregu lar in prol e a s the margins of a free verse

poem o ered Roger an agr eeabl e human pano
,
rama Thin st rand s of s moke were ris ing f rom

.
chimneys ; a b elated bak er s wagon was joggl ing

down the alley ; in bedroo m bay windows sheet s-
and pillows were al ready set to sun and air .
B rooklyn , ad mirabl e bo rough of ho mes and

hearty bre akfas t s attacks the mo rning hou rs in
,
chee ry s miling s pirit Bock sn iffed and rooted

, .
about the sm all back ya rd as though t h e earth

( every cubic inch of wh ich he alr eady knew by
rote) held s o me n ew entrancing avou r Roger .
watch e d him with t h e amu s ed and tender con

de s cen s ion one alway s feel s toward a happy dog
p erhap s the s ame mood of tol erant paternalis m
that Gott i s s aid to have f elt in watching hi s bois
t erous Hohenzoll ern s .
Th e nipping air began to inl t rate hi s d r e ss ing

thou ght it wou ld be fun to b righten the place up a

b it Think how pleased your oorwalker will be

.

when he comes in !

Dear me said Roge r I hope yo u don t
, .
really think we have oorw a lkers in the second

hand book business .
After breakf ast he set abo u t initiating his new

employee into t h e routine of the shop As he .
moved about explaining the arrangement of his

,
shelves he kept up a running commentary

, .

O f co ur s e all the miscellaneous inf ormation
that a b ookseller has to have will onl y come to yo u

gr adually he said
, S uch tags of bookshop lore
.
as the difference between Phil o Gubb and Philip

Gibbs Mrs W ilson W oodrow and Mrs W ood row
, . .
W il s on and all that sort of thin g Don t be

, .
frightened by all the ad s yo u see for a book called

Bell and W ing becau s e no on e was ever heard
,
to ask for a copy That s one of the rea s ons wh y

.

I tell Mr Gilbert I don t believe in adverti sing

.

.
S o meone may ask you who wrote The W inning

of t he B est and you ll have to know it was n t

C olonel Roosevelt but Mr Ralph Waldo Trine . .

Th e beau ty of being a bookseller is that you don t
have to be a literary critic : all yo u have to do to
books is enjoy them A literary criti c is the kind
.
of fellow wh o will tell yo u that W ordswort h s

Ha ppy W a rrior is a poem of 85 lines composed

entirely of two sentences one of 2 6 lines and one ,
of 5 9 What does it matter if Wordsworth wrote

.
sentences almost as long as th ose of W alt W hit

man or M r W ill H Haye s if o nl y he wrote a
. . ,
great poem ? Literary critics a re queer b irds .
There s Professor Phelps of Yal e for instance He

, .
publishe s a book in 1 9 18 and calls it The A dva nce

of E nglish Poetry in t he Twen tiet h Cent ury . To
my way of thinking a b ook of that title oughtn t to
be published u ntil 201 8 Then somebody will

m
.
come along and ask yo u for a book of poe s abo u t

a typewriter and bye and bye you ll learn that
,

what they want is Stevenson s Underwoods Yes

.
,
it s a complicated life Never argu e with c u s

.
t omers Ju s t give them the book they o ught to

.

have even if they don t know they want it .
They went outs ide the f ront door and Roger ,

,
lit his pipe In the little area in front of the shop

.
Windows stood large empty boxes s upported on

tre s tl es Th e rst thing I always db
. he ,
rst thing you ll both do is catch your

Th e

death of Gold said Helen over his shoulder
, .
T itania yo u run and get yo ur fur

, Roger go .
,
and n d your ca p W ith yo ur b ald head yo u

.
,

ought to know better !
W hen they returned to the front door Titania s

,
blue eye s were sparkling above her soft tippet .

I applaud you r taste in fur s said Roger , .
That i s ju s t the colour of tobacco smoke He .
blew a whiff against it to prove the liken ess He .
felt very talkative as mo s t old er men do when

,
a youn g gir l looks a s delightf ul ly lis tenable a s
W hat an ado r able little pl a ce

said Titania , ,
lookin g round at the bookshop s sp a ce of p rivate
pavem ent which was s unk below the s tr eet level

, .
You coul d put f able s out here and serve t ea in
Th er s t thing every mornin g continued ,

Roger I s et out t h e t en c ent s tuff in the s e boxes
,
-
.
I tak e it in at night and stow it in the s e bin s .
W hen it rains I shove out an awning which is

, ,
mighty good bus in ess S omeone i s s ure to take

.
shelter and spend the time in looking over the

,
books A reall y heavy shower i s often worth

.
f ty or sixty cent s Once a week I change my

.
pavem ent sto ck This week I v e got mo s tly c

.

tion out here That s t h e s o rt of thing that come s

.

in in unlimited numbers A good deal of it s

.
tripe but it s erve s it s pu rpo s e

,
.

Aren t th ey rath er dirty ? s aid Titania doubt

fully looking at s ome littl e blue Rollo books on

, ,
which t h e s iftings of generation s had accumul ated .

W o ul d you mind if I du s ted them off a bit ?

It s almo s t unhea rd of in the second hand

-
very deep reader but at any rate D a d has taught ,
me a re spect for good books He gets so mad .
becau s e when my friend s come to t h e hou s e ,
and he asks them what they ve been reading
the onl y thing they seem t o know about is Dere

Ma ble
.

Roger chuckled I hope yo u don t think I m .

a mere highb row he s aid As a cu s tome r said
, .
to me once without meaning t o be funny I like

, ,

both the Iliad and the A rgosy Th e onl y thin g .

I can t stan d is literatu re that is un fairly and in

t ent ion a lly avoured with vanilla C onf ectionery .
soon disgusts the palate whether you nd it in ,
Ma rc us Aurelius or Doctor C rane There s an .

odd aspect of the matter that sometimes strikes
me : Doc C rane s remarks are just as true as Lo rd

B acon s so how i s it that the D octo r puts me to

,
sleep in a paragraph while my Lo rd s e s says keep ,

me awake all night ?
Titania being unacquainted with the s e p hiloso
,
p h er s p ,u rsued the characte r is ti c fem in m e cour s e

of clin gin g to the subject on whi ch she was in
formed Th e undiscerning have cal led this h abit
.
of mind i rrelevant but wrongly Th e feminine , .
intellect leap s lik e a gra sshopper ; the masculine

plod s as the ant .

I see there s a new M able book coming she

,
said .

It s called Th a t s Me All Over Ma ble

,
an d the newss tand clerk at t h e Octagon says he

expects to s ell a thou s and copies .

W ell there s a meaning in that said Roger

, , .
People have a craving to be amu s ed and I m ,

sure I don t blame em I m af raid I haven t read

.

Dere M a ble If it s r eally amu s ing I m glad they

.
,
read it I s u spect it i sn t a ve ry great book b e

.

caus e a Philadelphia schoo lgi rl has written a reply

to it called Dere B ill whi ch i s s aid to be as good as ,
the original N ow you can hardl y imagine a

.
Philad elphia apper writing an effective compau

ion to Bacon s E s s ays But never mind if the

.
,
stuff s amu sin g it has its plac e Th e h uman

, .
yearning for innocent pa s time i s a path etic thing ,
come to think about it It shows what a despe r .
ately grim thing life ha s bec ome One of the most .
signicant thin gs I know i s that b reathless ex ,
p ec t a n t ado r ing
, hu s h that fall s ov e r a theatre at a
Saturday matinee when the hou s e goe s dark and ,
the footlights s et the bottom of the curta in in a

glow and the latecomers tan k over your feet clim b
,
ing into their s eats

Isn t it a n adorable moment ! cried Titania

x
.

Y es it i s , s aid Roger ; but it makes me sad
,
to s ee what to sh is handed out to that eager ex ,
p ec t a n t audien c e mo s t of the tim e, T he r e they .
all are ready to b e thr illed eager to be wo rked

, ,
upon deliberately p utting themselves into that

,
glorious rare receptive mood when th ey a re clay
, ,

in the arti s t s hand and Lo rd ! what mi serable

s ub s titute s for joy and sorrow are put over on

them ! D a y after day I see people streaming into
theatre s and movi es a n d I know that more than
,
ha lf the time they are on a blind quest thin king ,
they are sati sed when in truth they are fed on

paltry hu sk s An d the sad part about it is that if
.
yo u let you rself think yo u are sati sed with h usks ,

you ll have no appetite left for the real grain

.
Titan ia wondered a little panic s t ri cken

,
-
,
whether she had been permitting her self to be

sati sed wi t h h usks S h e remembered how greatly
.
Sh e had enjoyed a D orothy Gi sh lm a few even

ings b efore . B ut sh e ventur ed
, you s aid
,
people want to be amused An d if they laugh .

and look happy s urely they r e amused ?
,

c ried M itin

They only think they a r e ! .
They th ink th ey re amu s ed because they don t

know what real am u sem ent i s ! Laughte r an d

p rayer are the two noble s t habits of man ; they
ma rk u s off f rom the b rutes To laugh at cheap .
jes ts is a s ba s e a s to pray to c he ap gods To .
laugh at Fatty Arbuckl e is to degr ade the human

spirit .
Titania thought she was getting in rather deep ,
but she had the tenaciou s logic of every healthy

g irl . S h e said :
cha nt the cold dirges o f the baled, a nd sulle n hymns
of defea t I ve sat here in my

shop at night a n d ,
looked round at my shelves looked at all the ,
brave books that house the hopes and gentle

nesses and dreams of men and women and w on ,
dered if they were all wrong discredite d defeated , , .
W ondered if the wo rld were still merely a jungle of

fu ry I think I d have gone balmy if it weren t
.

for W alt W hitman Talk about M r B rit lin g. .
W alt was the man w h o saw it thr o ugh

.

Th e gl u tton the i dl er and the fool in their
, ,
deadl y path history Aye a .

,
dea dly pa th indee d Th e German military men .
weren t idlers but they were gluttons and fools

,
to the nth power Lo ok at their d eadly path !

.
And look at other dea dly paths too Lo ok at , .
o ur slums jails insane asylums

, , .
'
I used to wonder wha t I co ul d do t o j ust ify
my comf ortable existence here d uring su ch a time
of horror Wha t right had I to Shirk in a q uiet
.

dying through no fa ult of their own ? I tried to

ge t into an amb u lan c e u nit b u t I ve had no medi ,

ca l train ing and they said they didn t want men

of my a ge unless they were ex perienced doctors .

I know h ow you felt said Titania with a , ,

su rpris ing look of comprehension D on t yo u

.
suppose th a t a great many girls wh o co uldn t do

,
an ything rea l t o help got tired of wearing neat,
little uniforms with S a m Browne belts ?

W ell sai d Roger
, it was a bad time Th e, .
wa r contradicted and denied ever y thing I had ever

lived for Oh I can t tell you how I felt about

.
,
I used to feel as I think tha t tr uly noble simpleton

Henr y Ford may have felt when he organiz ed his
peace voyag e that I would do anythin g however ,
stupid to st o p it a ll In a wo rld where everyone

, .
w a s so wise and cynical and cruel it was admirable ,
to nd a man so utte rly s imple and hopefu l as

Henry A boo b they called him W ell I say
. , .
,
bravo for boob s ! I dare sa y most of the apo s tles

were boob s o r maybe they ca lled them bol

sh evik s .
had only the vaguest notion abo ut

T ita nia
bol sh eviks but she had seen a good many news
,
paper cartoon s .

I guess Judas w a s a bo l shevik she s aid in ,
Yes an d probably G eorge the T hird ca lled

,

Ben F ranklin a bolsh evik retorted Ro ger Th e , .
tr ouble is truth and fal seh ood don t com e laid out
in black and white Truth and Hun t r ut h as the ,
wartime joke had it Sometimes I thought Tru th

.

had van ished from the ea rth he cried bitterly , .
Like everyt hing else it was rationed by the ,

governments I taught mys elf to disbelieve h alf
.
of what I read in the papers I saw the world .
clawing its elf to s hr ed s in blin d rage I saw hardly .
any one brave enough to face the brutalizing a h

surdity as it really was and de sc ribe it I saw , .
the glutton the idler a n d the fool applauding

, , ,
While brave and simple men walked in the horrors

of hell Th e stay a t home poets turned it to
.
- -
p retty lyri c s of glo ry and sac r ice Pe rhap s half .
a dozen of them have told the tru th Hav e you .
read S ass oon ? O r Latzko s M en in W a r which

,
w a s so damn ed true that the gove rnment s up

pres sed it ? Humph ! Putting Truth on rations !
He knocked out hi s pipe a gainst hi s heel and his ,
b lue eyes shone with a kind of de sperate earnest

ness .

But I t ell you the world is going to have the
,
t ruth about W a r W e re going to put an end to

.

thi s madne ss It s not going to be ea sy Just

.

.
now in t h e intoxication of the Germ an collap s e

, ,
we re all rejoic ing in o ur new happines s I tell

.
you t h e real Peac e will be a lo ng time coming

, .
W h en you tear up all the bre s of civ ilization it s

a s low job to knit thing s t ogether again You .
s ee tho s e children going down the s treet to school ?

Peace li es in their hand s W hen they ar e taught
.
in s choo l that W a r i s the most loath so me s courge

hu manity i s s ubject to that it s mirche s and fo uls
,

asked to be noble at such a co s t That s the .
mo s t pitiful tragedy of it all D on t you suppose

.

the Germans thought they t oo were marching off

for a noble cau s e when they began it and forced
this mi s ery on the world ? They had been edu
c a t ed to believe so for a generation That s the

, .
terrible hypnotism of wa r the bru te mass imp ul se

,
-
,
the pride and national spirit the instinctive ,
simplicity of men that m akes them worship what

is their own above every t hing else I ve thrilled .

and shou ted with patriotic pride like everyone , .
Music and ags and men marching in step have

bewitched me as they do all of us An d then I ve
, .

gone home and sworn to root this ev il in s tinct out

.

of my sou l God help us let s love the world ;

love h umanity not j u st o u r own co un t ry ! That s

wh y I m so keen about the part we re going to play

at the Peace C onference O ur motto over there

.
will be America L ast ! Hurrah for us I say for w e , ,
shall be the o nly nation over there with absolutely

no axe to grind N othing b u t a pax to grind !
.

It argu ed well for Tita nia s breadth of mind that
she was not dismayed nor alarmed at the poor
books eller s angu ish ed harangu e She surmis ed

.
s agely that he w a s cleansing his b o som of mu ch

perilous stuff In some mysterio us way she had
.
learned the greatest and rarest of t h e S pirit s gifts
toleration .
THE HA UN TED B OOKS HOP 1 25
You can t help loving your country she said :

,

Let s go indoors he answered You ll

.
,
catch cold o u t here I want to show yo u my

.

alcove of books on the war .

O f co u rse one ca n t h elp loving one s country

he added . I love mine so much that I want to
see her take the lead in makin g a new era pos s ib le .
She has s acriced least for wa r she should be ,

read y to sacrice mo s t for peace As for me .
,

he said s miling I d be willing to sacrice the
, ,

Whole Republican party !

I don t see wh y yo u call the war an absurdity

said Titania .W e ha d to beat Germany or ,
where wo uld civilization have been ?

W e had to beat Germany yes b u t the absu rd, ,
ity lie s in the fact that we had to beat o urs elves

in doing it Th e rst thin g you ll nd when
.

,
the Peace C onference get s to wo rk will be that ,
we shall have to help Germany onto her feet again

so that she can be p uni shed in an orderly wa y .
We shall have to feed her and admit her to com

merce so that she ca n pay her indemnities we
shall have to police her cities to prevent revolution

from b urning her up and the up shot of it all will
be that men will have fought the mo s t terrible
w a r in history and endur ed nameless horrors
, ,
for the privilege of nu rs ing their enemy back to

health If that isn t an abs urdity What is ? That s
.

,

w hat happ ens when a great nation like Gerrrl a n y
goe s in s ane .

W ell we re up again s t some terribly compli

i
,
c a t ed p r obl em s M y only con s olation is that I

.
think the book s eller can play a s u s eful a part as

a n y man in r ebuilding the wo rld s sanity W hen

.
I was f retting over what I could do to help th ings

along I came acro ss two lines in my favourite poet
,
that encou raged me Good old Geo rge Herbert

.
says
A gra in of glory mixed wit h h umblen esse

C ures bo t h a fever a n d let h a rgickn esse .
C e rtainly
running a second hand books tore is -
a p retty h umble calling but I ve mixed a grain of

,

glo ry with it in my own imagination at any rate

, .
You see books c ontain the thoughts a nd d reams

,
of men their hop es and s triving s and all their

,
immortal parts It s in books that most of u s

.

learn how s plendidly wo rth while lif e i s I never

-
.
realized the greatne ss of the human s pirit the ,
indomitable grandeur of man s mind until I read

,
M ilton s A reop a git ica To read that gr eat out

.
bu rs t oi s plendid anger ennobles the meanes t of

u s s imply becau s e we belong to t h e s am e species
of animal as Mi lton Book s are the imm o rtality
.
of the race the father and mother of mo s t that is

,
worth while cheri shin g in o ur hearts To spread .

government s s tarted to o d
books ! Blue
publish
Book s Yellow Book s White Boo ks Red Books
, , ,
everything but Black Boo k s which wo uld have ,
been appropriate in Berlin They knew that guns .
and troops were helpless unl e ss they could get

the books on their side too Books did as much
, .
as anything el s e to bring America into the war
Some German book s helped to wipe the Kaiser

off his throne I A ccuse and D r Muehlon s , .

magnicent outb urst The Va nda l of E urop e a nd ,
Lichn ow sky s private memorandum that shoo k

,
Germany to her foundations s imply because he ,
told the tru th Here s that book M en in W a r

.

written I believe by a Hungarian ofcer with its , ,

noble dedication To Friend and Foe Here .

are some of the French books books in which the
clear pas s ionate intellect of that race with its
, ,
savage irony b urn s like a ame Romain Rol

, .
land s A u Dessus de la M elee written in exil e in

-
,
Switzerland ; B a rbusse s terrib le Le Feu; Du

hamel s bitter Civiliza t ion; B ou rget s strangely

fascinating novel The Mea ning of Dea th And .
the noble b ooks that have come ou t of E ngland :

A S tuden t in A rms; The Tree of Hea ven; Why
,

Men Fight b y B ertrand Ru s sell I m hoping
he ll write one on Why Men Are Imprisoned: you

know he wa s locked u p for his sentiments ! An d

here s one of the most moving of all The Letters

of Arthur H ea t h a gentle sen,s itive young

, O xford
tutor who was killed on the W es tern front Yo u .
o ught to read that book It shows the entire .
lack of hatred on the part of t h e English Heath .
and his friends the night b efore they enl isted

, ,
sat up singing the German mu sic they had loved ,
as a kind of farewell to the old friendly joyous life

, .
Yes that s the kind of thing W a r does wipes

,

out spirits like Arthur Heath Please read it . .
Then you ll have to read Philip Gibbs and Lowes

,
Dickinson and all t h e young poets O f co u rs e .

yo u ve read W ell s already E verybody has

. .

How about the Ame rican s ? said Titania .
Haven t they wri t ten anything abou t the war

that s worth while ?

Here s one that I found a lot of meat in

,
streaked with ph ilosophical gristl e said Roger , ,
relighting his pipe He pulled out a copy of

.
Prof essor La timer s Progress

There w a s one

.
passage that I remember ma rking let s see now

,

what wa s it ? Yes here ! ,
It is t rue t h a t if you ma de a poll of n ew sp a per edit o rs you

, ,
migh t n d a grea t ma n y wh o t hin k t h a t w a r is e vil B ut if .
y ou w e re t o t a ke a census a mong pa st ors of fa shiona ble met ro
Thats a bu llseye hi t ! Th e chu rch has done

for itself with most thi nking men

There s another good pas s age in Prof essor La timer

where he points o u t the philo s ophical value of

dishwashing Some of La t imer s talk is so mu ch
.

in common with my ideas that I ve been rather

h O p in g he d drop in here some day I d like to
.
meet him As for American poets get wise to

.
,
E dwin Robinson
There is no knowing how long the bookseller s

monologu e might have continued b u t at this ,
moment Helen appeared from the kitch en .

Good gracio u s Roger ! she exclaimed I ve
, ,

heard your voice piping away for I don t know how
long W hat are yo u doing giving the poor child

. ,
a Chautauqua lecture ? You mu st want to frighten

her out of the book busine s s .
Roger looked a little sheepish My dear .

he said I w a s only laying down a few of t h e
,
principles underlying the art of boo kselling

It w a s very interesting hone s tly it was, ,
said Titania brightly Mrs M iin in a blue

. .
,
check apron and with plump arm s oury to the

elbow gave her a wink o r as ne a r a wink as a
,
woman ever achieves ( ask the man who owns

one)
W h enever Mr lWifin feel s V ery low in his

.

mind about the bu s ine ss she said he falls back
, ,
on tho s e highly idealized sentiments He knows .
that nex t to being a parson he s got into the worst

,

1 32 THE HA UN TE D BOOKS HOP
D id youever notice how books track yo u down

and hunt you out ? They follow you like t h e
ho und in Francis Thompson s poem They know
.
their qu arry ! Look at that book The E duca tion

of Henry A da ms !

Just watch the wa y it s ho und
ing o u t thinking people this winter An d The

.
Four Horsemen yo u can see it racing in the vein s

of t h e readin g people It s one of the uncanniest
.

things I know to watch a real book on its career

it follows yo u and follows you and drives yo u into
a corner and ma kes you read it There s a qu eer .

old book that s been chasing me for years : The

Lif e a nd Op inions of J ohn B unele E sq it s called

, .
, .

I ve tried to escape it but every now and then ,

it sticks up its head somewhere It ll get me some .

day and I ll be compelled to read it Ten Thou
, .
sa nd a Yea r trailed me the same way until I s ur

rendered Wo rds can t describe the c unning of
.

some books Yo u ll think you ve shaken them
.
off yo u r trail and then one day some innocent

,
looking c usto mer will pop in and begin to ta lk ,

and yo u ll know he s an uncon s cious agent of

book de s tiny There s an old s ea c apta in wh o

-
.

-
drops in here now and then He s simply the .

novels of C aptain Marryat put into esh He .
has me under a kind of spe ll : I know I shall have

to read Peter S imp le before I die ju s t becau s e the ,
old fellow loves it so That s why I call thi s place

.

the Haunted Bookshop Haunted by the ghosts .

of the books I haven t read Poor uneasy spirits .
,
they walk and walk around me There s only one .

way to lay the ghost of a book a nd that is to read ,
it
I know what yo u mean said Titania I , .
haven t read much Bernard Shaw b ut I feel I

,
shall have to He meets me at every t urn b ul ly

.
,
ing me An d I know lots of people wh o are simply

.
terroriz ed by H G Wells E very time one of h is

. . .
books comes o ut and tha t s pretty often they re

,

,

in a perfect panic until they ve read it .
R oger chuckled Some have even b een stam

.
p ed ed in to s ub scribing to the New R ep u blic for

that very p u rpose .

B ut speakin g of t h e Haun ted B ookshop ,
well book ?

Oh I m glad yo u mentioned it

, said Roger , .
I mu st put it b a ck in its place on the she

He ran back to the den to get it and j u st then ,
the bell clanged at the door A customer came .
in and the one sided gossip was over for the time
,
-
being .
CHAPTE R VH
A UBRE Y TAKES LODGINGS
AM sen s ible that Mr Aubrey Gilbert i s by no

.
mea ns ideal as the leadin g ju venil e of ou r

piece Th e time s till dem ands som e explana
.
tion wh y the leading juvenile wears no gold

chevrons on his left sleeve As a matter of fact
.
,
our youn g s ervant of the G re y M att er Agency

-
had been declined by a rec ruiting s tation and a

draft board on accoun t of at feet ; although I
must protest that their atnes s detracts not at
a ll f rom his outward b earing no r f r om his physical
capacity in the o rdinary concerns of amiable

youth W hen the army turned him down at
.
,
as he put it he had enter ed the service of

,
the C ommittee on Publi c Inf ormation and had ,
c arried on mysteriou s activitie s in th eir behalf
for over a year up to the time when the armistice

,
w a s s1gned by the Unite d Press O win g to a

small error of judgment on hi s part now com
,
p let ely fo rgotten but due to the regrettabl e d elay

,
of the Germ an envoys to synchronize with over

exuberant press correspondents the l ast three
,
1 34
and Prin ter s In k that naive jou rnal of the p ub

,
licit y profe ss ion s Hi s favourite diversion w a s

.
luncheon at the Adverti s ing C lub where he would

pore fascinated over di splays of adverti s ing book
, ,
let s posters and pamphlets with such titles as

, ,
Tell Your S tory in B old Fa ce He was acc u stomed -

.
to remark that the fellow who writes the Packard

ad s ha s Ralph W aldo E merson skinned three

ways from the Jack Yet much mu st be for .
given this young man for his love of 0 Henry . .
He knew what many other happy sou l s have

,
found that 0 Henry is one of those rare and

, .
gifted tellers of tales who can be read at all times .
No matter h ow weary how depres s ed how , ,
shaken in morale one can always nd enjoyment

,
in that master romancer of t h e C a b a ra bia n Nights .
'
D on t t a lk t o me of Dicken s Chri st mas S tories

Aubrey said to himself recalling hi s adventure ,

in Brooklyn I ll b e t 0 Henry s Gift of the
.

.

Ma gi beats anything Dick ever laid pen to What .
a shame he died witho u t nishing that Christmas

story in Rolling S tones! I wish some boss writer
like Irvin C obb or E dna Ferb er would take a

hand at ni shing it If I were an editor I d hire .
s omeone to wind up that yarn It s a crime to .

have a good story like that lying aro und half

written .
He wa s s itting in a soft wreath of cigarette

smoke when his landlady came in with the morning
yo u might like to see the Times

Tho ught ,
Mr Gilbert she said I knew you d been too

.
, .
sick to go out and b uy one I see the President s .

going to sail on W ednesday .
Aubrey threaded his wa y thro ugh the news with

the practiced eye of one who knows what interest s
him Then by force of habit he carefully scan
. , ,
ned t he adver t ising pages A notice in the H E L P .
W A NTE D col u mns leaped out at him .

W ANTED For em ora ry em t p pl ym n t
o e at Hotel Octa gon 3 chefs , ,
p
6 ex erienced cooks, 20 wa i ers A t . pply h f c e

s ofce. 11 p . m Tuesda y
. .
Hum
he tho ught
, I s uppose to take the
.
,
place of those fellows wh o are going to sail on the

George W a shington to cook for Mr W ilson That s

. .
a grand ad for t h e O ctagon having their kitchen ,
staff chosen for the President s trip G ee I

. ,
wonder why they don t play that u p in some real

space ? M aybe I can place some copy for them

along that line .
An idea suddenly occ urred to him and he wen t ,
over to the chair where he had thr own his over
coat the night before From the pocket he took

-
o ut the cover of C arlyle s Cromwell and looked

,
at it carefully .

I wonder what the 31nx is on this book ? he
t hought It s a quee r thing t h e way that fellow

t railed me la s t night then my nding thi s in the

drug s tore and getting that cra ck on the bean
, .
I wonder if that neighbourhood i s a safe place for

a gi rl to wo rk in ?
He paced up and do w n the room forgettin g the ,
pain in his h ead .

M aybe I ought to tip the police off about this

bu s ine ss h e thought
, It look s wrong to me
.
.
But I h ave a hankerin g to work the thing out on

my own I d have a wonde rful s ta nd in with old
.

-
man C hapman if I saved that gi rl f rom anything .
I ve h ea rd of gangs of kidnapp ers

.
N o I don t like the look s of thing s a little bit

, .
I think that book s elle r 1 s half cracked anyway , .
He doe sn t b elieve in adver ti sin g ! Th e idea of

Chapman tru s ting his daughter in a place like

that
Th e th ought of playing kn ight err ant to some
thing mo re pers onal and romanti c than an a d

v ert isin g ac c ount wa s i rr e s i s tibl e I ll s lip ove r
.

to B r ookl yn a s soon a s it get s dark thi s evenin g ,

he said to him s elf I ough t to be able to get a
.

room s omewhere along that s treet where I can ,
watch that bookshop without being s een and ,
nd out what s haunting it I ve got that old 22

.

.
popgun of mine that I u sed to u s e up at camp .
m
I ll take it along I d like to kn ow more about

.

Street . block between Word s worth Avenu e
Th e
and Hazlitt Street i s p eculiar in that on one s ide
the side where the Haunted B ook shop s tands
the old brown s tone dwellings have mo s tly been
replaced by s mall shops of a bright lively char ,
acter At the Word s worth Avenue corn er where

.
,
the L swing s round in a lofty roaring c urve sta nd s ,
W ein t ra ub s drug store ; below it on the wes tern

,
side a succes s ion of shining windows beacon

,
through the evening Delicates s en shops with .
their appetizing medl ey of cooked and pickled

meats dr ied fru its cheeses and bright colo ured
, , ,
jars of preserves ; small modi s tes with generou sly

conto u red wax busts of coiffured ladies ; lunch

rooms with the day s men u typed and pasted on
the o uter pane ; a French roti ss erie where chickens

t urn his s ing on the s pits before a tall oven of ro sy
coals ; ori s ts tobacconists fruit dea lers a n d a
, ,
-
,
Greek dandy shop with a long soda fountain shin

-
ing with onyx marb le and colo ured glass lamps

and nickel tanks of hot ch ocolate ; a stationery
shop n ow st uffed for the holiday trade with
,
Christmas cards toys c al endars and those queer

, , ,
little su ede bo und vo lumes of Kipling Service

-
, ,
O s car Wilde and Omar Kh ayyam that appear

,
every year toward C hri s tm as time such modes t

and cheerful merchandi s ing makes the wes t ern
pavement of Gissing S treet a jolly place when the
lights are lit All the s hop s were decorated for

.
the C hristm a s trade ; t h e C h ri s tmas i ss ue s of the

magazin e s were ju s t out and brightened the news
stan ds with their glowing covers Thi s section .
of Brooklyn has a tone and atmo sphere pec uliarly

French in s o me parts : one can quite imagine one
self in s ome sm aller Pari s ian boulevard fre qu ented
by the p et it bourgeois lVIidw a y in this engaging
.
and animated block s tands t h e Haunted Book

shop Aubrey could see it s windows lit and the
.
,
shelved mass es of books within He felt a s evere

.
tempta tion to enter b u t a certain ba shfu lness

,
added i t self to hi s desire to act in secret There .
was a privy exhilaration in h is plan of putting the

bookshop u nder an unsuspected surveillance and ,
he had the emotion of one walking on the frontiers

of adventure .
So he kept on the O pposite side of the street ,
which still maintain s an u nbroken row of quiet

b rown fronts save for the m ovie theatre at the
,
uppe r corner oppo s ite W ein t ra ub s S o me of

,

.
the basements on thi s s ide a re occupied now by

, ,

s mall tailors laundries and lace curtain cle ane rs
(lace curtains ar e still a fetish in B r oo klyn ) but ,
mo s t of t h e hou s e s are still merely dwellin gs .
C a rryin ghis bag Aubrey passed the bright halo

,
of the movie theatre Posters an nouncing T H E

.
R E TURN O F TAR! AN showed a kind of thi rd ch apter

of Genesis scene with an E ve in a sports suit .
ADD E D ATTRA CTIO N MR AN D MRS S ID NEY DR E W

, . .
,
he read .
A little way down the block he saw a sign V A

CA N GIE S in a parlou r win dow Th e ho use wa s
.
n e arly opposite the b ookshop and he at On c e ,
mounted the tall steps to t h e front door and rang .
A fawn tinted colour ed girl of the kind gener

-
,

ally called Addie arrived pres ently , Ca n I .

get a room here ? he asked I don t know you d

.
,

better s ee M z Schill er she said without ranco r

, , .
Adopting the c u stomary compromise of untrained

dom estics she did not invite him in s ide b ut de
, ,
p a rt e d
, lea vin g the door open to show that th e rewas
no ill will .
Aubrey stepped into the hal l and c lo s ed the

door behind h im In an imm en s e mirr o r the pale
.
chee s e colou re d utter of a ga s j et was remotely

-
reected He noticed the Land s eer engraving

.
hung again s t wallpaper d es igned in fac s imile of

large recta ngle s of gray ston e and t h e u s ual tele ,
phone m emo randum for the u sual M rs J F

. . .
,
S mith (who abid es in all lodging hou s es ) tucked

into the frame of t h e mi rr or W ill M rs S mith . .
p le as e ca ll S t ock to n 6 7 7 1 it s aid A ,ca r peted .s tair

with a n e old mahogany balu s trade ro s e into
t h e dimn ess Aubrey who was thoroughly famil
.
,
iar with lodgin g s knew in s tin ctively that the

,
Mrs Schiller brightened the gas and led the wa y
.
u pstairs Treasure skipped u p the treads beside

.
her Th e sight of the six feet ascending together

.
am u sed Aubrey Th e fourth ninth ; tenth a nd

.
, ,
fou rt eenth step s creaked as he had gu essed they

,
would On the landing of the second store; a

.
r
transom gushed orange light Mrs Schiller was . .
secretly pleased at not having to au gment the gas

on th at landing Under the transom and behind a
.
door Aubrey co uld hear someone having a b ath wi th ,
a great slo shin g of water He wondered irrev er .
ently whether it was Mrs J F Smith At any rate

. . . .
(he felt sure) it was some experienced habitu! of

,
lodgings wh o knew that ab o u t ve thirty in the

,
afternoon is the best time for a b ath b efore cook 1 -
ing s upper and the homecoming ablutions of other

tenants have exhausted the hot water boiler .
They climbed one more igh t Th e room was .
small occupying half the third oo r frontage

,
-
.
A large window opened onto the street giving a ,
plain view of the boo kshop and the other ho u ses

across the w a y A wash s tand stood modestly
.
-
in side a large cupboard O ver the mantel was the

.
familiar picture us ually however reserved for

, ,
the fourth oor back oi a youn g lady having her

shoes shin ed by a ribald small boy .

Aubrey wa s delighted This is ne he said
. , .
Here s a week in advan ce

.
Mrs Schiller w a s almo s t di s concerted by the

.
rapidity of the tran s action Sh e preferred to .
solemnize the reception of a new lodger by a little

more talk remarks about the weather the dit ,

cul ty of getting help the young women guests
,
wh o empty tea leaves down wa sh basin pipes

- -
,
and so on All this sort of gossip apparently

.
,
aiml e s s has a ve ry real p urpo s e : it enables the

,
defenceless lan dl ady to size up the stranger wh o

comes to prey upon her Sh e had hardly had a . .
good look at this gentleman nor even knew his ,
name and here he had paid a week s rent and

,

was already in stalled .
Aubrey divined the cause of her hesitation and ,
gave her his b usiness card .
All right Mr G ilbert she said

, . I ll send up
, .

the girl with some clean towels and a latchkey .
Aubrey sat down in a rocking chair by the win

dow tucked the muslin c urtain to one side and
, ,
looked out upon the bright chann el of Gis sing

Street He was full of the exhilaration that
.
springs from any change of abode but his romantic ,
satisf action in being so close to the adorable Ti

tania was somewhat marred by a sen s e of a b
surdity which is feared by yo ung men more than
,
wounds and death He co uld see the lighted win

.
dows of the Haun ted Books hop quite plainly ,
b ut he co uld not think of any adeq uate excus e for

going over there An d already he realized that t o

.
be near lVIiss C hapman wa s not at a ll the c on s ola

tion he had expect ed it would be H e had a power .
ful desire to s ee her He turned off the ga s lit his

.
,
pipe opened the window and focussed the opera

, ,
glasses on the door of the bookshop It b rought .
the place tantalizin gly nea r He could see the .
t a ble at the f r ont of the shop Rog er s bulletin

,
board under the electric light and one or two ,
nonde s cript customers gleaning along the sh elves .
T hen s omething bounded violently unde r the thir d

button of his s hir t There she w a s ! In the bright
. ,
prismatic little circle of the len s es he could see

Titania Heavenly creature in her white V necked
.
,
b louse and b rown skirt there she wa s looking ,
at a book He saw her put out one arm and

.
caught t he twinkle of her wrist wat ch In the -

.
startling familiarity of the magnifying glass he

coul d see he r b right un con scious face the merry
, ,

p rol e of her cheek and chin Th e idea
.

of that gi rl wo rking in a second hand bookstore ! -

he exclaimed It s po s itive sacrilege ! O ld man
.

C hapman mu s t be crazy .
He took out hi s pyjamas and th rew them on the

bed ; put his toothbru sh and razor on the wa sh
basin laid hairbru she s and 0 Hen ry on the b u
, .
reau F eeling rather serio comic h e loaded his

.
-

small r evolver and hipped it It was s ix o clock . ,
But the face of lVIiss Titania kept coming between
his hand and brain Of what avail to ood the .
world with the C hapman C hip s if the girl hers elf

should come to any harm ? W a s this the face

that launched a thou s and chips ? he m urmured ,
and fo r an in s tant wi shed he had brought The

Oxf ord B ook Of E n glish Verse in stead of O Henry . .
A tap s o un ded at h is door and NIr s Schiller , .
Telephone for you Mr Gilbert

appeared .
, .
,
she s a id .

For me 9 said Aubrey in amaz ement How
. .
coul d it be for h im he thought for no one knew he

, ,
Th eparty on the wire asked to speak to

the gentleman wh o arrived abou t half an ho ur
ago a n d I guess yo u mu st be the on e he
,

mean s .
Did he say wh o he is ? as ked Au brey .

No sir , .
For a moment Aubrey thou ght of refu sing to

answer the call Then it occurred to h im that
.
this woul d arou se Mrs Schiller s su spicions He .

.
ran down to the telephone which stood under t h e ,
stairs in the front hall .

Hello he s aid

.
,
Is this the new gu est ? said a voice a deep ,
gargling kind of voice .

Yes said Aubrey
, .
I s this t h e gentl eman that arrived half an

hour ago with a handbag ?

Ye s ; who are you ?

I m a friend said the voice ; I wish yo u

,

well.

How do yo u do friend and wellwisher , said ,
Aub rey genially .

I sch ust want to warn you that Gissing Street

is not healthy for you said the voice , .

Is that so ? said Aubrey sha rply Who a re .

you ?

I am a friend b uzzed the receiver There
, .
was a harsh bass note in the voice that made t h e

,
diaphragm at Aubrey s ear vibrate tinnily Aubrey

.
g rew angry .

Well Herr Freund he said
, if you re the, ,

.
wellwisher I met on the Bridge last night watch ,

yo ur step I ve got yo ur number
. .
There was a pau se Then the other repe ated

.
,

p onderously I am, a f r iend Gis s ing S treet is .

not healthy for you There was a click and he
.
,
had rung o
.
Aubrey w a s a good deal perplexed He re .
tu rned to his room and s at in the dark by the win

,
dow smoking a pipe and thinking with his eyes

, ,
on the bookshop There was no longer any doubt

.
in his mind that something sinis ter was afoot He .
reviewed in memory the events of the pas t few days .

It w a s on Monday that a bookloving friend had
rs t told him of the existence of the shop on G iss
ing S tree t On Tu e s day evening he had gone
.
round to vi s it the plac e and had stay ed to supper ,
with Mr Mitin On Wednesday and Thurs day

. .
he had been bu s y at the ofce and the id ea of an ,
intensive D a in t yb it campaign in Brookl yn had

occ u rred to him On Friday he had dined with
.
Mr C hapman and had run into a cu riou s string

.
,
of coincidenc es He tabulated them

.
(1 ) Th e Lo st a d in t he Times on Frida y mornin g .
(2) Th e ch ef in t h e eleva t or rying t h e book t ha t w a s sup

ca r
posed t o b e los t h e bein g the sa me ma n Aubrey ha d
(3 ) See in g t h e ch ef i
a ga n on Gissing St reet .
(4 ) Th e ret urn o f t he b ook t o t h e b ooksh o p .
(5 ) M ifin h a d sa id t h a t the book ha d been st olen from him .
Th en why sh o uld it be eit h e r a dvert ised or ret urned?
(7) Fin din g t h e or igina l co ver of t he book in W ein t r a ub

s
(8 ) Th e a ff a ir on r
t h e B idge
fri
.

(9) Th e t elep h on e messa ge fr o m a friend a en d wit h
He remembe red the face of anger and fear dis

played by the O ctagon chef when he h a d spoken
to him in t h e elevator Until thi s oddly menacing.
telephone message he co uld have explained the

,
He put the cove r in hi s poc ket and went out for

a bite of s uppe r It s a puzzle with three sides
.

to it he thought as he de s cended the crepitant
, ,
s ta i rs Th e Bookshop the O ctagon and W ein

, , ,
traub s ; but that book seems to be the cl u e to the

whole b usiness .
C HAPTER VII I
A UB RE Y GOE S TO THE M OVIE S A ND ,
W IS HE S HE KNE W MORE GE RMA N
FE W doors from the bookshop was a small

lun chroom named after the great city of
Milwaukee on e of those plea s ant reice
,
tories where the diner b uys his food at the coun ter
a nd eats it sitting in a a t armed chair
-
Au brey
.
got a bowl of soup a cup of co ffee beef stew and

, , ,
b ran mufns and took them to an empty seat by

,
the window He ate with one eye on the street

. .
From his place in the corner he coul d comman d the

strip of pavement in front of Mifin s shop Half
.
way thr ough the stew he sa w Roger co me o u t onto

the pavement and begin to remove the b ooks from
the b oxes
.
'

After nishing h is supp er he lit one of his mil d

but they satisfy cigarettes and sa t in the com
fort a ble warmth of a near by radiator -
A large.
b lack cat la y sprawled on the next chair Up at .
the service co unter there was a pleasant clank of

sto u t crockery as occa sional customers came in and
ordered t heir victuals Aubrey b egan to feel a
.
1 53
relaxation s wim t hrough hi s veins G issing Street
.
was very bright and orde rly in its Sat urday even
ing b u stle C ertainly it was grotesqu e to imagine
.
melodrama hanging abo u t a second hand book -
shop in B rooklyn Th e revolver felt absurdly

.
lump y and uncomf ortable in his hip pocket .
What a different a spect a little hot supper gives

to affairs ! Th e mo s t resolute idealist or assassin
had b etter write his poems or plan his atrocities
b efore the evening meal After the narco sis of
.
that repast the spirit falls in t o a softer mood ,
eager onl y to b e amu sed E ven M ilton wo uld

.
hardly have had the inhuman fortitude to sit

down to t h e manu script of Pa ra dise Lost right
af ter s upper Aub rey b egan to wonder if his
.
un pleasant s u spicions had not been overdrawn .
He thought how delightful it wo uld be to stop in

at the b ookshop a nd a sk Titania to go to the
movies with him .
C urio us m agic of tho ught ! Th e idea was sti ll

sparkling in his mind when he saw Titania and
Mrs Miiin emerge from the book s hop and pass
.
bri skly in front of the lunchr oom They were .
talking an d laughing merrily : Titania s face shin

,
ing with yo ung vitality seemed to him more

,

attention co mpelling than any ten point C aslon
- -
type arrangement he had ever seen He admir ed

-
.
the layo ut of her face from the stan dpoint of his

she added rather enjoying the yo ung man s pre
,

dica men t .
Titaniashook hands cordially Aubrey search .

,
ing the old style italics with the de s pe rate in tensity

-
of a proofr eader saw no evidence of chagrin at ,
see ing him again so soon .

W h y he said rather lamely I was coming

, ,
to see you all I I wondered how yo u were .

getting along .
Mrs Mit in had pity on him

. We ve left .

Mr NIilin to look after the shop
. she s aid , .
He s bu s y with some of his old crony customers

.

Why don t yo u come with u s to the movi es ?

Yes do said Titania
,

It s Mr and Mrs
, .

. .
Sidn ey D rew y o u kno w how adorab le they

,

are ! '
N0 one needs to b e told h ow q uickly Aub rey

assented Pleasu re coincided with d u ty in that
.
the o u ter wing of the party placed him nex t t o
Well how do you like b ookselling ? he asked

, .

Oh it s the greatest fun ! she cried

, B ut .
it ll take me ever and ever so long to learn abo u t

a ll the b ooks People a sk s uch qu estions ! A

.
woman came in this afternoon looking for a copy

of B la s! Ta les How was I to know sh e wanted
.
The B la z ed Tra il
You ll get us ed to that said Mrs lWiiin
.

, . .
Just a m mut e people I want to stop in at the

, ,

d rug store .
They went into W ein t ra ub s pharmacy Eu

.
tranced as he wa s by the p roximity of Bl iss C hap

man Aubrey noticed that the druggi s t eyed h im
,
rather queerly An d b eing of a noticing habit ;

.
he also ob s erved that when We intraub had occa

sion to write out a label for a box of powdered alum
Mrs Bl ifin was buying he did so with a pale
.
,
Violet ink.
At the glas s s entry box in front of t h e theatre

-
Aubrey insis ted on buying the tickets .

W e came out right after s upper said Titania ,

as they entered so as to get in before the crowd
, .
It is not so easy however to get ahead of Brook

, ,
lyn movie fan s They had to stand for s everal

.
min u tes in a packe d lobby while a s tern young man

held the waiting crowd in check with a velvet
rope Aubrey sustained delightful s pasms of t h e
.
protective instinct in trying to shelter Titania from

b uffets and p ush ings Unknown to h er hi s a rm
.
,
extended behind h er like an iron rod to ab s orb

the onward i mpul s es of the eager throng A .
rustling groan ran through thes e enthu s iasts as

they saw the preliminary footage of the great
Ta rz a n ash onto the s creen and realized th ey ,
were mi ssing s omething At last however the

.
, ,
trio got through the barrier and found th ree seats

well in front at one side From thi s angle the
, .
yin g picture s were strangely di s t orted but Au ,
brey did not mind .

Isn t it lucky I got here when I did whis ,
pered Titania Mr Mitin ha s jus t had a tele

. .
p hone ca ll fro m P

hi ladelphia asking him to go
over on Monday to mak e an e s timate on a lib rary
that s going to be sold so I ll be able to look after

the shop for him while he s gone
.

Is that so ? s aid Aub rey 1 Well n ow I v e

.
, ,
got to be in Brooklyn on Monday on bu s iness , .
Maybe Mrs Mifin wo uld let me come in an d buy

.

s ome books from you .
C u s to me rs always wel come said Mrs Mifm , . .

I ve taken a fancy to that C romwell book

,
said Aubrey
What do yo u suppose Mr Mitin
. .

woul d sell it for ?

I think that book mu st b e valuable said ,
Titania Somebody came in this afternoon and

.
wanted to buy it but Mr Bl ifin woul dn t part

, .

with it He says it s one of his favourites G ra

.

.

cious what a we ir d l m thi s i s !
,
Th e fantas ti c ab s u rditie s of T arzan proceeded

on the screen t earing c elluloid pass ions to tatters
, ,
but Aubrey found the strong man of the jungle

coming al mo s t too clo s e to his own imperious in
st in ct s .

W a s not he too h e thought naively a ,

p oor T arzan of the adverti s ing j ungl e lo s t a m o n g ,
and the ever delightful Mr and Mrs D rew a p
-
. .
peared ou the s creen in one of their domestic

comedies Lovers of t h e movies may well date a
.
new screen era from the day those whimsical pan

t omimers set their wholesome and hu mane talent
at the servi ce of the a re light and the lens Au .
b rey felt a serene and intimate pleasure in watch

ing them from a seat b eside Titania He knew .
that the b reakfast table scene shadowed b efore

them wa s only a makeshift section of lath propped
up in some b arnlike motion p icture stu dio ; yet
his rocketing fancy imagined it as some arcadian
sub urb where he and Titania b y a j uggle ry of
,
b enign fate were bun ga lowed together Young

, .
men have a pioneering imagination : it is doubtful

whether any you ng O rlando ever found him s elf
side by side with Rosalind witho u t dreaming him
self wedded t o her If men die a th o u sand deaths
.
before thi s mortal coil is shufed even so s u rely,
do yo uths contract a thou sand marriages b efore

they go to the City Hall for a license .
Aubrey remember ed the opera glasses which ,
were s t ill in his pocket a n d b rought them out

, .
Th e trio am u sed themselves b y watching Sidney

D rew s face thro ugh the magnifying lenses They

.
were disappointed in the result however as the , ,
pictures when so enlarged reveal ed all the cob

, ,
web of ne crack s on the lm Mr Drew s no s e

. .

,
the most amu s ing feature known to the movies ,
lost its quaintness when so augmented .

Wh y cried Titania
, it makes his lovely ,

nose look like the map of Florida .

How on earth did yo u happen to have these in
yo u r pocket ? asked Mrs Mitin returning t h e

.
,
glasses .
Aubrey was hard pressed for a prompt and rea

sonable b but adverti s ing men a re res our ceful
, .

Oh he said, I sometimes carry them with me
,
at night to study the advertis ing sky sign s I m a -

.

little short sighted Yo u see it s par t of my b u si

. ,

ness to stu dy the tech ni qu e of the elec t ric signs .
After so me current event pictures the pro

gramme prepared to repeat itself and they went ,
out . Will yo u come in and have some cocoa with

u s ? said Helen as they reach ed the door of the
bookshop Aub rey was eager enough to accept
. ,

b u t feared to overplay his hand I m sorry he .

,

said bu t I think I d bette r not I ve got s ome
,

.

work to do t o night Perhaps I can drop in on

-
.
Monday when Mr Bl ifin s away and p u t coal .

,

on the fu rnace for you or something of t hat sort ? ,
Mrs Mit in laughed

.

S urely !
she said . .

Yo u re welcome any time Th e door clo s ed .
behind them and Au brey fell into a profound

,
melancholy Deprived of the heavenly rhetoric

.
of her eye Gissing Street seemed at and d u ll

, .
It w a s
still early not quite ten o clock
an
d it
occurred to Au brey that if he w a s going to pat rol
t h e neighbourhood he had better x it s details in
his head ; Hazlitt the next street b elow the book
,
shop proved to be a quiet little b yway cheerfully

, ,
lit with modest dwellin gs A few paces down

.
Hazlitt Street a narrow co bb led alley ran thro ugh

to Wordsworth Avenue passing b etween the b ack
,
y ards of G issing Street and Whittie r S treet Th e .
alley w a s totally dark but b y countin g o ff the

,
correct number of hous es Au brey identied the

rear entrance of the b ookshop He tried the.
yard gate cautiously and foun d it unl ocked

, .
Glancing in he could see a light in the kitchen win

dow and as sumed that the cocoa was b eing b rewed .
Then a window glowed up s tairs and h e was thrilled

,
to see Tit ia nia sh ining in the lamplight She .
moved to the window and p u lled down the blind .
For a moment he saw her head and shoulders

silho uetted against the c u rtain ; then the light
went o u t .
Aubrey stood b riey in sentimental th ought .
If he only had a couple of blankets he mu s ed he , ,
co uld camp out here in Roger s back yard all night

.
Surely no har m co uld come to the gi rl while he

kept watch beneath her casement ! Th e idea w a s
ju st fantas tic enough to app eal to h im Then .
,
as he stood in the open gateway he heard distant ,

hi s hand was on his revolver ; b u t in a moment t h e

two had pas sed on down the alley
Th e youn g adverti s ing agent stood against the
fence in s ilent horror his heart bumping heavily
, .
His hand s wer e clammy hi s feet s eemed to have

,
grown larger and taken root s what damn able

.
complot wa s thi s ? A s ult ry wave of anger passed

over him This bland s lick talkative book
.
, ,
s eller was he arranging s ome blackmailing s cheme

,
to kidn ap the gir l and wring blood money out of

-
her father ? An d in league with Germans too , ,
the scoun drel ! W hat an asinine

C hapman to send an unprotected girl over here
into the wilds of Brooklyn and in the
meantim e what wa s he to do ? Patrol the back
,
ya rd all night ? N o the friend and wellwisher

,

had said W e mus t nd some other wa y Be .
sides Aub rey remembered s omething having been

,
said about the old terrier s leeping in the kitchen .
He felt sur e B ock woul d not let any German in

at night without rai s ing the roof Probably the
.
best wa y would be to watch the front of the shop .
In miserable pe rplexity he waited several minutes

until the two Germans would be well o u t of ear
shot . Then he unbolted the gate and stole up the
alley on tiptoe in the opposite direction It led
, .
into Wordsworth Avenue ju s t behind W ein t ra ub s
drug store over the rear of which hun g the great

,
girders and trestles of the L station a kind of ,

S wi s s chalet straddling the street on s tilts 3 He .
thought it prudent to make a d etou r s o he turned ,
east on Word s worth Avenue until he reached

W hittier Street then sauntered ea s ily do wn W hit
,
tier for a bl ock spying sharply for evidences of

,
p urs uit Brooklyn was p utting out its lights for

.
the night and all was quiet He turn e d in to Ha z

, .
litt S treet and so back onto Gi ss ing noticing now ,
that the Haunted Bookshop light s were off It .
was nearly eleven o clock : the las t audience was

ling o u t of the movie theatre where two work ,
men were already perched on ladders taking down

the Tarzan electric light s ign to sub s titute the,
illuminated lettering for the n ext feature .
After s ome debate he decided that the best thin g

t o do w a s to retu rn to his room at Mrs Schill er s

.
,
from which he could keep a sharp watch on the

front door of the bookshop By good fortun e .
there wa s a lamp p o s t almo s t directly in front of

Mifin s house which cast plenty of light on the

,
l ittle sunken area before the door With his ope ra .
gla ss e s he could s ee from his bedroom whatever

went on As he crossed the street he cast his
.
eyes upward at the facade of Mrs Schiller s ho use .

.
Tw o windows in the fo urth storey w ere lit and ,
the gas b urned minutely in the down stairs hall ,
elsewhere all was dark An d then as he glanced

.
,
at the window of his own ch a mbe r wher e the cur ,
ta in wa s still tucked back behind the p an e he ,
noti ced a curious thing A small point of ro sy.
light glowed faded a n d glow ed again by the win

'
, ,
dow Someone wa s smoking a cigar in his room

. .
Aub r ey contin ued walking in even strid e a s ,
though he had s een nothing R et urning down the .
street on the oppo s ite s ide he veried hi s rs t

, ,
glan ce Th e light was still t h ere and he ju dged

.
,
hims elf not far out in a s suming the s moker to be

the friend and wellwisher or one of hi s gang He .
had s uspected the other man in the all ey of being

W eintraub but he coul d not be s ur e A cautio us
, .
glance through t h e w
-
indow of the drug s to re

re vealed Weintraub at his p re s cription coun ter .
Aub rey dete rmin e d to get even wi t h the guttu ral

gentleman w h o wa s waiting for him cer tainly with ,
no aff ectionate intent He thank ed t h e good for

.
tun e that ha d led him to s tick the book cover in

hi s overcoat pocket when l eaving Mr s Schiller s .

.
E vidently for rea s on s unknown someone was very

, ,
anxiou s to get hold of it .
An id ea o ccurred to him as he p a s sed the little

orist s s hop which wa s ju s t clo s in g H e entered

.
,
and bought a dozen white ca rnation s and then , ,

as if by an afterthought asked Have you any ,
wire ?
Th e orist produced a spool of the slen der ,
the pug dog might come prowling and n d him .
He was s tartled by a lady in a d ressing gown

.

perhap s M rs J F S mith who emerged from a
. .
ground oor room pass ed very clo s e to him in the

-
,
dark arid muttered upstairs He t witch ed hi s

'
.
,
noo s e out of the way ju s t in time Pres ently .

,
however hi s patience wa s rewar ded He heard a

, .
doo r s queak above and then the groaning of the

,
s tairc as e as so m eone de s cended slowly He re .
laid his trap and waited smiling to hims elf A , . -
clock s omewhere in the house was chiming twelve

as the man came groping down the last ight feel ,
ing his w a y in the dark Aubrey heard him swear .
ing under his breath .
At the precise moment when both his victim s

,
fee t were within the loop Aubrey gave the wire a ,
gigantic tug Th e man fell lik e a safe crashing

.
,
against the banisters and landing in a sprawl on

the oor It wa s a terric fall and shook the
.
,
hou se He la y there groaning and cu rs ing

. .
Barely retaining his laughter Aubrey struck a ,
match and held it over the s prawlin g gure Th e .
man la y with his face t wisted again s t one out

spread a rm b ut the b eard wa s u nmistakable
, .
It w a s the as s istan t chef again an d h e seemed , .
partly uncon sciou s Burnt hair is a grand rest ora

.
tive s aid Aubrey to himself and applied t h e

, ,
'
match to the b ush of b eard He singed o a c ouple .

of inches of it with inten s e delight and laid his ,
carnations on the head of the s tricken one Then .

,
hearing s ti rring s in t h e ba s ement he gathered up ,
his wi r e and shoe s and ed u pstairs He gained .
his room roaring with inward mirth but entered ,
cautiously fearing s ome trap S ave for a strong

, .
tincture of cigar smoke everything s eemed cor

,
r ect
. Li s tening at hi s door he heard M rs Schill er .
exclaiming s hrilly in the hall a ssi s ted by ya pp ings

,
from the pug Doors up s tai rs were opened and

.
,
que s tion s were called out He heard guttural .
groans from the bearded one mingled with oaths ,
and some angry remark about having fallen down

st a irs Th e pug frenzie d with excitement yelled

.
, ,
insanely A female voice po ssibly Mrs J F

. . . .

Smith c ried o u t W hat s that s m ell of burning ?

Someone else said They re b u rning feathers
,

under hi s no s e to bring him to .

Yes Hun s feathers
,

chu ckled Aubrey to
,
him s elf He locked his door an d sat do wn by t h e

. ,
windo w with his opera glasses .

C HAPTER I!
AGAIN THE NARRA TI VE IS RE TARDE D
GE R
had spent a quiet evening in the
bookshop S itting at hi s de sk unde r a fog
.
of tobacco hehad hone s tly intended to do

,
some writing on the twelfth chapter of his great

work on boo ks elling Thi s chapter wa s to be an
.

( ala s entirely conjectural ) Addre ss D elive red by
,
a Books elle r on Being C onferre d the Honorary

D egr ee of D octo r of Lette r s by a Leading Univer

sity and it presented s o many alluring pos s ibili
,
ties that Roger s mind always wandered from the

pape r into entranced vi s ion s of his imagined scene .
He loved to build up in fancy the atte ring details

of that ne ceremony when book s elling would at
last be prope rly recognized a s one of the learned
p rofe ss ion s H e co uld see the great audito ri um
.
,
lled with cultivated people : men with E mersonian

prole s ladie s whi spering behind thei r uttering
,
programme s He could s ee the a ca deml c b eadle

.
,
p ro cto r dean (o r whatever he i s Ro ge r wa s a little

, ,
doubtful ) prono uncing the augu st words of pres

a grea t ma p of New
by a coloure d p i
n . He
h m to i
va r ous ba ses
d t h da w m t h e sh m of the l
m
THE HA UN TE D B OOK SHOP 1 73
a a l enpin
g g boo k s o n t h e j y
o s of m t r y v
m g who dw el ls a t t h e Sa b e Fa mm in t h e g een
r
elbow of a Connecticut valley Th e

O
t h e da ys b d c
re his mara ga m mow mw m
'
l odging t h a e a lso. It occurr ed to Roger c e
It is sw n da la us na t t o h a v e t h an M yw m
bem mm
a n a ut x wh m l h a ve b m h a rd p ut t o i t
t o k w p up wit h my o m t h gh t s a n d l v e writ

.
sta t m wh o wl b e a bl e t o t nm ft t o t he hm et
of h uma n it y I wi s h there coul d be a n in ter
.
national peace conference of booksellers for (y o u ,
will smile at this) my own conviction is that the

future happ in ess of the world depends in no small
mea s ure on them and on the librarians I wonder .
what a German books eller is like ?

I ve been reading The E duca tion of Henry Ada ms

a n d wi s h he might have lived long enou gh to give
u s hi s thoughts on the War I fear it wo uld have .
bowl e d him over He th aught that this is not a

.
worl d that sen s itive and it imid natures can regard

witho u t a shudder What wo uld he have said
.
of the fo ur year shambles W e have watched with

-
s ickened hearts ?
Yo u remem ber my favo urite poem old G eorge
Herbert s Church Porch where he says

By a ll mea n s use so met imes t o be a lone ;
Sa lut e t h y self ; see w ha t t hy soul dot h w ea r ;
Da re t o loo k in t h y ch est for t is t hine own,

,
An d t umble up a nd down W ha t t h ou n d st t h ere

W ell I ve b een tu mbling my tho ughts u p and

,
down a good de al Melancholy I suppose is the

.
, ,
curs e of the thinkin g classes ; bu t I confess my

soul wears a great uneasiness these days ! Th e
s udden and amazing turn over in hu man affairs -
,
dramatic beyond anything in his tory already

. ,
seems to b e taken a s a matt e r of cou rse My great .

In this instance I thin k Reason is going to W in
, , .
I feel the whole current of the world settin g in that

d irection .
It s quaint to think of old W oodrow a kin d of

,
C romwell Wordsworth going over to do his bit

-
,
among the diplo matic shell craters What I m -

.

waiting for is the day when he ll get back into
private lif e and write a b ook abo u t it There s a .

job if you like for a man wh o might reasonably

, ,
be s upposed to be pretty tired in bo dy and so ul !

W hen that book comes o u t I ll spend the rest of my

-
lif e in selling it I ask nothing better ! Speak ing

.

of Wordsworth I ve often wondered wheth er
,
Woodrow hasn t got some poems concealed some

where among his papers ! I ve always imagined
that he may have written poems on the sly An d .

by the way yo u needn t m ak e fun of me for being
,
so devoted to Geo rge Herbert Do you reali z e that .
two of the most familiar qu otations in o ur langu age

come from his pen viz ,
W ouldst t h ou bot h ea t t hy ca ke, a nd h a ve it ?
Da re t o be t r ue : n ot hing ca n need a ly ;
A fa ult , w hich n eeds it most , grow s t w o t h ereby .
Forgive th is tediou s sermon ! My mind has

bee n so tumbled up and down this autu mn that I
am in a qu ee r state of mingled melanch oly and

exaltation You kn ow how much I live in and for
.
books : Well I have a cu riou s feeling a kind of

, ,
premonition that there are great books coming o u t

of this Welter of hu man hopes a n d angu ishes ,
perhaps A book in which the tempes t shaken sou l -
of t h e race will speak out as it never has before .
Th e Bible yo u kn ow is rather a disappointment

, ,
it has never done for humanity what it sho u ld

have done I wonder wh y ? Walt Whitman is
.
going to do a great deal b u t he is not qu ite what I

,
mean There is something coming I don t know

.

j u st what ! I thank God I am a bookseller ,
trafcking in the dreams and b eauties and cur iosi

ties of hu manity rather than some mere hu ckster
of merchandise B ut how helpless we a ll are when
.
we try to tell what goes on within u s ! I fo un d this

in one of Laf cadio Hearn s letters the other day
I marked the passag e for yo u
Ba udela ire h as a t ouch ing poem a bout a n a lba t ross, which
you wo uld like

d ribi g t h
esc n p oet

s soul sup e rb in it s own
b t h
e
free azure u elp less, in sult ed ugl y msy wh en

clu riving
st

, ,
t o wa lk on co mmon ea rt h r or athe r , on a deck , w h ere sa il ors
Yo u can imagine what evenings I have here

among my shelves now t h e long dark nights are
,
come ! Of co urse u ntil ten o clock when I shut

,
up shop I am con s tantly

, I have
interru pted as
been during thi s letter once to sell a C opy of ,
Helen s B a bies and once to sell The B a lla d of

Rea ding Ga ol so you can see how varied are my

,

client s taste s ! But later o n after we have had ,
our evening cocoa and Helen has gone to bed I ,
prowl about the place dipping into this and that , ,
fu ddling myself with spec ulation How clear and .
b right the stream of the mind ows in those late

hou rs after all th e se diment and oating trash of
,
the day has drained off ! Sometimes I seem to

coast the very shore of Beauty or Tru th and hear ,
the surf breaking on those shining sands Then .
some offshore wind of wea riness or prejudice b ears

me away ag ain Have yo u ever come acros s.
Andreyev s Conf essions of a Lit t le M a n During

Grea t Da ys On e of the hone s t books of the War .
Th e Little M a n ends his co nf ession thus
'
My a nge r ha s lef tme my sadn ess ret urned a nd once more

,

,
t h e t ea rs ow . W hom ca n I c urse w h om ca n I j udge wh en

, ,
we rt una t e ? S ufferin g is universa l ha nds

a re a ll a lik e unf o ,
a re o utstret ch ed t o ea ch o t h er a n d w h en t h ey t ouch
My h ea rt rs a glow a nd I st ret ch
,
t h e grea t solut ion w ill come . ,

o ut my h a n d a nd cry , C ome, let us j oin h a nds ! I love you ,

I love you !

An d of course as soon as one puts one s self in
,
that frame of mind someone comes along and picks

W e ll gra sp rm h a nds a n d la ugh a t t h e old pa in

.
W h en it is pea ce B ut un t il pea ce t h e st orm

. ,
Th e da rkn ess a n d t h e t h un der a nd t he ra in .
Isn t that nob le ? Yo u see what I am d umbly

groping for some wa y of thinking about the
W a r that will mak e it seem ( to future ages) a
'
p urication for h uma n it yz r a t h er than a mere b la ck
ness o fist in kin g c inders and t ort ured esh and men

shot to ribbon s in m arshe s o f blood and sewage .
O ut of such unspeakable desolation men must rise

to some new conception of national neighbo urhood .
I h ea r so much apprehension that German y3

o
w on t
be p unished sufciently for her crime But how .
can any punishment b e devis ed o r impo s ed for such

a huge panorama of sorrow ? I think she has al
ready p unis hed herself horribly and will continue ,
to do so My prayer is that what we have gone

.
thro ugh will s tartle the world into s ome n ew

realiz ation of the sanctity of lif e all life animal ,
as well as h uman Don t yo u nd th at a visit to a

.

z o ca n h umble and asto und yo u wi th a ll that

o
am azing and grotesque variety of living energy ?
What is it that we nd in every form of life ?

D esire of some sort some un explained motive
power that impels even the smallest insect on its
queer travels Yo u must have watched some
.
inn itesimal red spider on a fence rail bustling

,
along why and whither ? Who knows ? And

when you come to man what a chaos of h ungers ,
and i mpul s e s keep thru s ting him thro ugh his cycle
of quaint task s ! And in every hu man heart yo u
n d some s orrow some fru s tration some l urking
, ,
pang I often think of Lafcadio Hearn s sto ry of

.

his Japanese cook Hearn was talking of the

.
Japanese habit of not showing their emotions on

their faces His cook was a smiling healthy
.
, ,
agreeable l ooking young fellow who s e face w a s

-
alway s ch eerful Then one day by chance Hearn

.
, ,
happened to look through a hole in the wall a n d

saw his cook alone His face was not the same
.
face It was thin and drawn and showed strange

.
lines worn by old hardships or sufferings Hearn .

thought to himself He will look just like that
,

when he is dead He went into the kitchen to
.
see him and instantly the cook was a ll changed

, ,
yo ung a n d happy again Never again did Hearn .
see that face of trouble ; b u t he knew the man wore

it when he was alone .
D on t yo u think there is a kind of parable there

for the race as a whole ? Have yo u ever met a

man witho ut Wondering what shining sorrows he
hides from the world what contrast be tween vision
,
and accomplishment torments him ? Behind every

smilin g mask is th ere not some cryptic grimace of
pain ? Henry Adams put s it ters ely He say s the .
human min d appea rs suddenly and inexplica b ly

out of some unknown a nd unimaginable void .
It pas se s half its kn own life in the mental chaos of

sleep E ven when awake it is a victim of its own
.
ill adj ustment of disease of age of ext ernal sug

-
, , ,
ges tion of nature s compul s ions ; it doubts its own

,

sensations and trus ts only in instruments and

averages After sixty yea rs or so of growing
.
astonishment the mind wakes to nd itself looking

bla nkly into the void of dea th An d as Adams .
,
says that it shoul d profess its elf plea s ed by this

,
pe rforman ce is all that the highest rules of good

b reeding ca n ask That the mind sho uld actually
.
be satised woul d prove that it ex ists only as
I hope that you will write to tell me along what

c urves yo ur mind 18 moving For my own part I .
feel that w e are on the verge of amaz ing things .
Long ago I fell back on books as the only perma

nent consolers They are the one stainl ess and
.
unimpeachable achievement of the human race .
It sadden s me to think that I sh all have to die with

thou s and s of books unread that woul d have given
me nob le and unblemished happiness I will tell .
you a secret I have never read King Lea f and

. ,
have p urposely refrained from doin g so If I .
were ever very ill I would only nee d to say to my

self You can t die yet you haven t read Lea r

,

.
That would b ring me roun d I know it wo uld , .

has gone out to the m ovies with a youn g prot! g! e of
ours Miss T itania C hapman an engaging dam s el
, ,
Whom we have taken in as an apprentice book

seller It s a quaint idea done at t h e r eques t of

.
,
her father M r C hapm an t h e p rop ri etor of C hap

, .
,
man s D a in t yb it s which you s ee adverti s ed every

where H e is a great booklov er and i s v ery eager

.
,
to have t h e z eal tran smitted to his daughter .
So you ca n imagine my glee to have a neophyte of

my own to p reach books at ! Also it will enable me
t o get away f ro m the shop a little mo re I had a .
t e lephone call from Phil adelphia this af ternoon

asking me to go over there on M onday evening to
m ak e an estimate of the value of a private collee
tion that is to be sold I was rather attered be
.

cau se I ca n t imagine how they got hold of my
n ame .
Forgive this long in co h erent scrawl

, How did .
yo u like Erewhon 9 It s prett y near clo s ing t h e

.

and I m ust say gra ce over the day s accounts .
RO G E R Mrmrnnv .
C HAPTE R !
ROGE R RAIDS THE

ICE B O!
OGE R had ju s t put C arlyle s Cromwell
back in its p roper place in the Hi s tory

alcove when Helen and T itania returned
from the mo v ies Bo ck who had been dozing un
.
,
der his ma s ter s chair ro s e politely and wagged a

,
deferential tail .

I do think Bock has the da rlin gest manners ,
said Titania .

Ye s said Helen it s rea lly a m a rvel that his
, ,

wagging mu s cles aren t all worn out he has abu sed

,

them so .

Well ,said Roger did you have a good
,

time ?

An adorable time ! c ried Titania with a face ,
and voice so sparkling that two m u s ty habitu! s of

the shop popped their head s out of the alcoves
marked E S S AY S and T H E O L O GY and peered in
amazement On e of these even went s o far as to
.
purchase the copy of Le igh Hunt s W ishing Ca p
Pa p ers he had been munching th rough in order ,
to have an excu se to approach the group and

1 85
satisfy his be wildered eye s When l\{Iiss Chap .
man too k t h e book and wrapp ed it up fo r him his ,
a s toni sh m ent was m ade complete .
Un con s ciou s that sh e w a s actually creating

bu s in ess Titan ia res um ed
, .

We met you r fri end M r Gilbert on the street .
,

she s aid and he went to t h e movi e s with us
, .
He say s he s coming in on M onday to x the fur

n ace wh ile you r e away

.

Well s aid Roger the s e advertising agencies
, ,
are certainly ente rp r ising a ren t they ? Think of ,

sending a man over to attend to my furnace just ,
on the slim chance of gettin g my adver ti sing a c
you have a quiet e vening ? said Helen

D id .
I spent mo s t O f the tim e writin g to Andrew ,
Said Roger
On e amu sin g thing happen ed
.
,
though I actually sold that copy of Philip

.

Dru .

NO ! cried Helen .

Afact s a id Roger , A man w a s looking at
.
it and I told him it was suppo s ed to be written by

,
C olonel Hou s e He in s i s ted on buying it But

. .

What a sell when he tries to read it !

D id Colonel Ho use really write it ? a sked
Titania .

I don t know said Roger

I hope not
, . ,
b eca use I nd in myself a secret tendency to be

after you had gone out thi s evening and wanted ,

to know how you were getting on .

Oh dear said Titania
, , He mu s t have been .
delighted to hear I wa s at the movies on t h e second ,
day of my rs t job ! He probably s aid it was j ust

like me .

I explained that I had in si sted on your going
with M rs M fin because I felt she needed the
.
,

change .

I do hope s aid Titania you won t let D addy
, ,

poison your min d about me He thinks I m dread .

fully frivolous ju s t becau s e I look frivolous But

, .
I m so keen to m ak e good in this job I ve been

.

p racticing doing up par c e ls all afternoon so as to ,
learn how to tie the string nicely and not cut it

until after the knot s tied I foun d that when you
.
cut it beforehand either you get it too short and it

won t go roun d o r el se too long and yo u waste

,
some Al so I ve lea rned how to make wrapping

.

pape r cuff s to keep my s lee ves clean .

W ell I haven t ni shed yet continued R oger

, , .
Your father wants u s all to spend to morrow out -
at you r home He wants to show u s some books

.
he has ju s t bought and besides he thinks maybe ,

you r e feeling homesick

.

W hat with all these lovely books to read ?
,
Non s en s e ! I don t want to go home for six

months !
He wouldn t take No for an swer He s

an .
going to send E dwar d s roun d with the ca r the rs t

thing to mo rrow morning
-
.

What fun ! s aid Helen It ll be delightful .

.

Goodne s s said Titania , Imagine leaving .
this adorable books hop to spend Sun day in Larch

mont W ell I ll be able to get that georgette
.
,

blou s e I fo rgot .

What time will the car be here ? a sked Helen .
Mr C hapman s aid abo ut nine O clock He

.

.
beg s u s to get out there as early as po ss ible as h e ,

wants to spend the day showing u s his books .
As they s at round the fading bed of coal s Roger ,

began huntin g along his p rivate shelves Have .
you ever read any Gis s ing ? he said .
Titania made a pathetic ge s tu r e to Mrs Mitin . .
It s a w q y embarrassing to be a sked thes e

things ! NO I never heard of him
, .

Well a s the street we live on is named after
,

him I think yo u ought to
, he said He pull ed , .

down his copy of The House of Cobwebs I m going .

to read you one of t h e mo s t delightful short stories

(
I know It s call ed A C harming

.

N0 Roge r said Mrs M in r mly
,

, N ot . .
to night It s eleven o clock and I can see

-
.

,
Titania s tired E ven Bo ck ha s left u s and gone

.
in to his kenn el He s got more sense than yo u

.

right
All s aid t h e books ell er amiably
, .
Nliss C hapman you tak e t h e book up with yo u

,
and read it in bed if you want to Are yo u a .
lib ro cub icul a rist ?

T itania looked a littl e s candalized .

I t s all right my d e a r s aid Helen He onl y

, , .
mean s are you fond O f reading in bed I ve been .

waiting to hear him wo rk that word into the con

vers ation He made it up and he s immensely
.
,

proud O f it .

Reading in b ed? s aid Titania W hat a .
quaint idea ! D oe s any one do it ? It never o c

curred to me I m s ure when I go to bed I m far
.

too sleepy to think of s uch a thing .

R un along then both of you said Roger
, , .

Get your beauty sleep I shan t be very late.

.
He meant it when he s aid it but returning to his ,
desk at the back of the shop his eye fell upon his

private s helf O f books which he kept there to

rectify perturbations as B urton puts it On this .
shelf there stood Pilgrim s Progress S ha kesp ea re

, ,
The A n a tomy of M ela ncholy The Home B ook of ,
V erse George Herbert s Poems The Notebooks of

, ,
S a muel B ut ler and Lea ves of Gra ss

,
H e took down .
The A n a tomy of M ela n choly that mo s t delightful ,
of all book s for midnight brows ing Turning to .
one O f his favourite pass ages

A C on s olato ry
D igression C ontaining the Remedie s of All M a n
,
I hesita te to touch u pon a topic of domestic
bitterness but candor co mpels me to say t ha t
,
Roger s evening vigil s inva riably ended at th e ice?

box There are two theorie s as to this subjec t of

.
ice b ox plundering one of the hu sband and the

-
,
other of the wife Husbands are prone to th ink

.
(in their si mplicity) that if they take a little O f

eve rything pal atable they n d in the refrigerator ,
by thus di s tributing their forage over the viands

the general effect of the dep ra da t ion will be almos t
unnotic eable Whereas wives sa y ( and Mrs
. .
Bil iiin h a d O ften explained to Roger) that it i s

far better to take all of any one dish than a little
of each ; for the latter cou rse is likely to diminish
each item below the b ulk at which it i s still u seful
a s a left over Roger however had the obstinate
-
.
, ,
viciou sness O f a ll good hu s bands and he knew the ,
delights of cold p rovender by heart Many a .
stewed prune many a mess of string beans or

,
n aked cold boiled potato many a chicken leg , ,
h alf apple pie or sector of rice pudding had

, ,
peri shed in the s e midnight festival s He made it a .
p oint of hono u r never to eat q u ite all of the di s h in

qu e s tion b u t wo uld pass with unabated z es t from
,
one to another This h abit he had sternly re

.
a
pressed d uring the wa r but Mrs Nfflin had no , .
ticed that since the armistice he had res umed it

with hearty violence Th i s i s a cu s tom which
.
causes the hous ewife to be c onfronted the next

morning with a tragical vi s ta of pathetic scraps .
Tw o slice s O f bee t in a little ea rthenware cup a ,
sliver of apple pie one inch wide th ree p runes ,
lowly nestlin g in a mere tr ickle of th eir own s yru p ,
and a table s poonful O f s tewed rhubarb where had

been one of those yellow ba s ins nearly full what
can the mo s t resourceful kit ch en eer do with these
O ddment s ? This atrocious p ractice cannot be too
bitterly condemn ed .
B ut w e a re what we are and Roger wa s even

,
more so The A na tomy of Mela ncholy al ways

.
made him hungry and h e dipped dis creetly into

,
various ve s sels of refresM en t s sharing a few scraps

,
with Bock who s e pleading b rown eye at the s e

secret suppers al ways s howe d a comical realiza
tion of their shameful and fu rtive natu re Bock .
knew very well that Roger had no bu s in ess at t h e

ice box for t h e larger ou tline s of s ocial law upon
-
,
which every home depends a re clearly un d erstood

by dogs But Bock s face always showed his
.
tremul ou s eagerness t o participate in the s in a n d ,
rather t h an have him s tand by as a silen t and

damning critic Roger u s ed to give him mo s t of the
,
cold potato Th e censure of a dog is something no

.
man can stand B u t I rove a s B urton would say

.
, .
After the ice box the cellar

-
, Like all tru e hou s e
.
holders Rog er wa s fond of his cellar It was s ome

, .
thing mouldy of smell but it harboured a well ,
sto cked littl e bin of liquors and the orid glow ,
O f the fu rnace mouth upon t h e c on c r ete oo r wa s a
g reat plea s ure to t h e book s ell er He love d to .
eer in at the dan cin g icker of sma ll b lue ames

p _
that played above the ruddy moun d of coals in

the reb ox tenuou s airy little ame s that were ,
a s blue as violets and hover ed up and do wn in the

a s cending gase s Before blacken ing the r e with
.
a stoking of c oal h e pull e d up a wooden B ush mill s
b ox turned O ff the el ec tric bulb overhead and s at

, ,
there fo r a nal p ipe watching the ro sy shin e of ,
the grate Th e tobacco sm oke d rawn inwa rd by

.
,
t h e hot inhaling r e s eem ed d ry and gr ay in the ,
golden brightn ess Bo ck who had patt ere d do wn

.
,
t h e step s afte r h im no s ed and snoop ed about the

,
cellar Roger wa s thinking of B urton s word s on

.

the imm o rtal weed

T o ba cco divin e ra re superexcellent t oba cco which goes
, , , ,
fa r beyon d a ll t h e p a n a cea s po t a b l e gold a n d p h ilosop h er s

, ,
st o n es a so vereign remedy t o a ll disea ses

, a v irt uo us
h erb if it be well q ua li ed oppo rt un el y t a ken a n d medic ina ll y

, , ,
used ; b ut a s it is co mmonly a bu sed by most men wh ich t a ke ,
t is p la gu mischief violen t r

it as t ink ers do a le , a e, a , a p ur ge
Bock was standing on hi s hind legs looking up ,
at the front wall of the cell ar in which two small ,

CHAPTE R ! I
TITANIA TRIE S READIN G IN B ED
UB RE Y , sitting at hi s window with the

opera glas se s soon realized that he w a s
,
blind weary E ven the exal ted heroics O f

.
romance are not proof again s t fatigu e mo s t potent ,
enemy of all who do and d ream He had had a .
long day coming after the skull s miting of the

,
-
night before ; it was only the f ro s ty air at the lif ted

'
sash that kept him at all awake He had fallen .
into a half drows e wh en he heard foots teps coming

down the oppo s ite sid e of the s treet .
H e had fo rc ed hi mself awake s eve r al times

befo re to watch t h e pass age O f so me harml ess
,
strollers through the innocent bl a c knes s of the

B rookl yn night but thi s time it w a s what he
,
sought Th e man stepped stealthily with a oer

.
,
tain blend of wariness and a ss ur an ce H e halted .
unde r the lamp by the bookshop doo r and the ,
glass e s gave him enlarged to Aubrey s eye It

.
wa s W eintraub the d ruggi s t

, .
Th e front of the book shop wa s now entir ely

dark sa ve fo r a curious little glimmer down below
1 96
the pavement level Thi s puzzled Aubrey b u t he

.
,
focu ss ed hi s gla ss e s on the door of the shop He .
saw Weintraub pull a key o u t of his pocket insert ,
it very carefully in the lock and open the door ,
stealthily Leaving the door ajar behin d him

.
,
the d ruggis t slipped into the shop .

W hat devil s bu sine ss i s thi s ? thought

Aubrey angril y Th e s wine ha s even got a

.
key O f hi s own There s no doubt about it

.

.
He and Mitin are working together on this

job.
For a moment he was unc e r tain what to do .
Should he run downstair s and ac ro s s the s treet ?

Then a s he he s itated he s aw a pal e beam of light
, ,
over in the front left hand corner of the shop -

.
Through the gla ss es h e could s ee the yellow ci rcle

of a ashlight splo t ched upon dim shelves of
books He s aw W eintraub pull a volume out O f
.
the case and the light vani shed Anothe r in s tant

, .
and the man reappeared in the doorway clo s ed the ,
door behind h im with a gestu re O f careful s ilence ,
and wa s off up the s treet quietly and swiftly It .
wa s all over in a minute Tw o y ellow O blong s .
shone for a minute or two down in the area under

neath the doo r Through the glasses he now made
.
out these patches as t h e cellar windows Then .
they disappeared al s o and all was placid gloom , .
In the quivering light of the street lamps he co u ld

see the booksell er s sign gleaming whitely with its

,
lettering T H IS S H O P rs HAUN TE D .
Au b rey s at b a ck in hi s chair W ell he said .

,
to M self that guy certainl y gave hi s shop the

,

right nam e Thi s is by me I do believe it s

. .

only so me book s tealin g game aft er all I wonde r

-
.
if he and W eintraub go in for so me rst edition -
faking or some such stunt as that ? I d give a

,

lot to know what it s all about .
He st ayed by the window on the qui vive bu t ,
no sou nd broke the stillness of Gi s sing S treet In .
the distance he co uld hear the occasional rumbl e

of the E levated trains ras ping round the cu rve on
Wordsworth Avenue He wondered whether he
.
ought to go over and break into the shop to see if

a ll was well . But like eve ry healthy young man
, ,
h e had a horror O f appearing ab surd Little by .
little w e arine s s numbed his apprehensions TW O .
O clock clang ed and ec hoed fr om dis tant steeples

.
He threw off his cl othes and c rawled into bed .
It was t en o clock on Sunday morning when he

awoke A broad swath O f sunlight cut the room

.
in half : the white mu s lin c urtain at the window

rippled outward like a ag Aubrey excl aimed .
when he saw his watch He h a d a sudden feeling

.
of having been false t o h is tru st What had been .
happening acro s s the wa y ?

woke t h e whole house u p by falling do wn s tairs ,
she added s ou rly .
He left the l odging hous e swiftly fearing to be ,
seen fro m the bookshop He wa s very eager to .
learn if everyt hing wa s all right but he did not ,
want the M ifins to know he wa s lodgingj ust op

p o sit e. Ha s tening d iagonally ac r o ss the street ,
h e found that the M ilwauk ee Lu nch where h e had ,
eaten t h e night b efo re was O pen He went in and

, .
h ad b re akfas t rejoi cing in grap efruit h a m and

, ,
eggs co ee and doughnuts He lit a pipe and sat

, , .
by the window wonde ring what to do nex t It s .

damned p erplexing he said to hi ms elf
, I .
stand to lo s e either way If I don t do anyt hing .

,
something may happen to the gi rl ; if I butt in too

soon I ll get in dutch with h er

I wi sh I knew .

what Weintraub and that ch ef are u p to .
Th e lunchr oom was p ra ctic ally e mpty and in ,
two chai rs near him the p rop rietor and hi s a s

sist a n t were s itting talking Aub rey was sud .
den ly s tru ck by what th ey s aid .

Say this here now book s ell er guy mu s t have
, , ,

struck it rich .
W h o M in ?

,
Yeh ; did ya see that car in front of his place

t his mo rning ?

NO .
Believe me so me boat , .
Musta hired it hey ? Where d he go at ?

,

I didn t see I just saw the b us stan ding

.

front the door .

Sa y did you see that swell dame he s got clerk

,
ing for him ?

I sure did Wh at s he doing taking her joy
.

,

ridin g ?
Sho uldn t

wonder I wouldn t blame .

Au brey gave no s ign of having h eard bu t got up ,
and left t h e lunchroom Had the girl b een kid .
napped while he overslept ? He burned with

shame to thin k what a pitif ul fail ure his knight
errantry had been His r st idea was to bea rd

.
Weintraub a nd compel him to explain his connec

tion with the bookshop His next thought was to .
ca ll up Mr C hap m an and warn him of what had

.
been going on Then he decided it would be futil e

.
to do either of thes e before he reall y knew what

had h appened He determined to get into t h e
.
b ookshop itself and bu rst open its sinister secr et

, .
He walked h urriedly round to the rear all ey ,
a n d s ur veyed the domestic apartment s of t h e
shop Two windows in the second storey stood

.
slightly open but he could di s cern no signs of

,
life Th e back gate wa s s till unlocked and h e

.
,
walked boldly into the yard .
Th e little enclos u re was serene in the pale win ter


sun light Along one fence ran a lin e of bus hes and
.
perennials their roots wrapped in straw Th e

, .
grass plot wa s lumpy the sod withered to a tawn y

,
yellow and granulated with a sp rinkle of frost

,
,
B elow the kitchen door which stood at the head of

a ight O f step s was a little grape arbour with a
ru stic bench where Roger used to smoke his pipe
on summer evenings At the back of this a rbo ur
.
w a s the cellar d oor Aubrey tried it and found

.
,
it locked .
He w a s in no mood to stick at t ries He was .
determined to unriddle the mystery of the book

shop At the right of the door was a low window
.
,
level with the brick pavement Thr ough the .
d us ty pane he coul d see it was fa stened onl y b y a

hook on the in s ide He thr us t his heel through
.
the p an e As the glass tinkled onto the cellar

.
oor he heard a low growl He unhooked the .
catch lifted the fram e of the broken window and

, ,
looked in There was Bock with head q uiz zicall y

.
,
t ilted u ttering a rumblin g gu ttur al vibration

,
t hat seemed to proceed a u tomatical ly from his

interior .
Aubrey w a s a little dashed but he said cheerily , ,
Hullo Bock ! Good O ld man ! Well well nice

, , ,

O ld fellow ! To his s urprise Bock recognized him ,
as a friend and wagged his tail slightly b ut still ,
contin ued to growl .

2 04 THE HA UN TE D B OOKS HO P
He unl ocked the door into the yard , and Bock ,
O beying the Irish terrier s natural imp ulse to
get into the open air ran o u tside Aubrey quickly

, .
B ook s face appeared

closed the door again .
at the b roken window looking in with so quaint

,
an expression of indignant sur prise that Aubrey

al most laughed There O ld man he said

.
, , ,

it s all right I m j u st going to look aroun d a

.
He ascended the stairs on tiptoe and fo und him

self in the kitchen All wa s quiet An alarm
. .
cl ock ticked with a stumblin g headlong h urry , .
Pots of geraniums stood on the window sill Th e .
range with its lids off and the r e carefully no ur

,
ish ed radiated a mild warmth

, Through a dark . .
little pantry he entered the dining room S till no .
sign of anything am iss A p ot of white heather

.
stood on the table and a com cob pipe lay on the

,

sideboard . This is the mo s t innocent looking -

kidn apper s den I ever heard of he thought

, .
An y moving pictu re directo r wo uld be ashamed

-

not to p rovide a better stage set -
.
At that instant he heard foo tsteps overhead .
C urio usly soft m uf ed f oots teps

, In s tantly he .
wa s on the alert N ow he wo uld k now the worst

. .
A window up s ta irs was thro w

n open B ock .
,

what a re you doing in the yard ? oated a voice
a v ery c lear i mperious voice that somehow made
,
him think of the thin ringing of a n e glass tu mbler .
It was Titania .
He stood aghast Then he heard a door open

.
,
and steps on the stair Merciful heaven the girl

.
,
mu s t not nd him here What would s he think ?

.
He skipped back into the pantry and s hrank into ,
a corner He heard the footfall s reach the bot

.
tom of the stai rs There was a door into the

.
kitchen from the central hall : it was not nece ss ary

for her to pas s through the pantry he thought , .
He heard her enter the kitchen .
In his an xiety he crouched down b eneath the

sink and his foot bent beneath him to u ched a
, , ,
large tin tray leaning again s t the wall It fell .
over with a terrible clang .

Bock ! said Titania sharply what are you ,

doing ?
Au brey wa s wondering miserably whether he
o ught to co unterfeit a bark but it was too late to
,
do anything Th e pantry door opened and Ti

.
,
tania looked in .
They gaz ed at each other for several second s in

mutual horror E ven in his aba s ement c rou ch
.
,
ing under a shelf in t h e corn er Aubrey s s tricken ,

sen s es told him that he had n ever s een s o fair a

spectacle Titania wore a blue kimono and a
.
curious fragile lacy bonnet which h e did not

understand Her dark gold spangled hair came
.
,
-
down in two thick braids acro s s her sho ulders .
Her blue eyes were very mu ch alive with amaz e

ment and alarm which rapidl y changed into anger .

Mr G ilbert ! she cried For an instant he
.

.
thought she wa s going to laugh Then a new ex .
pression came into her fa ce Withou t another .
word she turned and ed He heard her run up

.
stair s A door b anged and was locked A win

.
, .
dow wa s has tily closed Again a ll was silent

. .
he ro s e frOm his
_
S t up eed with chagrin ,
cramped position What on earth was he to do ?

.
How coul d he explain ? He stood by the pantry

sink in painf ul indecis ion Should he slink o u t
.
of the house ? No he co uldn t do that without

,

attempting to explain An d he was still con

.
v in ced that some strange peril hung about this
place He mu s t put Titania on her guard no mat

. ,
ter how embarrass ing it proved If only she

.
hadn t been wearing a kim ono how much e a sier

it wo uld have b een .
He stepped out into the hall and stood at the ,
bottom of the stairs in t h e thr oes of do ubt Af ter .
waiting some tim e in s ilence he cleared the h uski

nes s from his throat and called out :

Mis s Chapman !
There was no answer bu t he h eard light rapid
, ,
mo vements above .

Miss Chapman ! he called again .
208 THE HA UN TE D BOOKS HOP
way and he could see only a gleam of b rightness

,
upon her ank le His min d unconscio usly followed

.

its beaten paths W hat a co rking pose for a silk

.

stocking ad ! he thought Wouldn t it make a .

stunning full page layout I must sugges t it to the

-
.

Ank leshimmer people .

Well ? she s aid Then she co uld no t refrain .
from laughter he looked so hapless She burs t

, .

into an engaging trill Why don t yo u light your

pip e ? she said Yo u look as doleful as t h e
.

Miss Chapman he said I m afraid you

, ,
th ink I don t know what yo u mu st think But

I broke in here this morning beca use I well I ,

don t t hink this is a safe place for yo u to be .

So it seems That s why I asked you to get me
.

a taxi .

There s something qu eer going on roun d this

shop It s not right for you to be here alone this
.
wa y . I was a fraid something had happened to

you Of cour se I didn t know you were
.
,

9,
we re
Faint almond blos soms grew in her cheeks .
I wa s reading she s aid

Mr Mifin talk s so
, . .

much about reading in bed I thought I d try it , .
They wanted me to go with them to day b u t I -
woul dn t Yo u see if I m going to be a book

.
,

sell er I ve got to catch up with some of th is litera

ture that s b een acc umul ating Af ter they left I

I well I wanted to s ee if this reading in bed is

.
what it s cracked up to be

.

W here has Mif in gone ? asked Aub rey .
W hat b usin ess has he got to lea ve yo u here a ll

al one ?

I h a d B ock said Titania , G racious .
,
Brooklyn on Sun day mornin g doesn t seem very
perilous to me If yo u m ust kn ow he and Mrs

.
, .
Mifflin have gone over to spen d the day with

father I was t o have gone too b ut I wouldn t
.
, ,

.
What business is it of your s ? Yo u re as b ad as
Morris Finsb u ry in The Wrong B ox That s what .

I wa s re ading when I heard the dog barking .
Aubrey b egan to grow nettled Yo u seem to .

think this wa s a mere impertinence on my part ,

he said Let me tell yo u a thing or two
. An d .
he briey described to her the co urse of hi s ex

p e rien ces since lea v ing the shop on F riday even
ing but omitting the fact that he was lodgin g
,
just across the street .
There s something mighty un palatable going

At rst I tho ught M i n was the

on h efsa id
, .
goat I thought it might be some frame up for

.
-
swipin g val u able books from hi s shop But when .
I saw Weintra ub come in here with his own latch

key I got wise He and Milin are in cahoots
, .
,
th at s what I don t know what they re p ulling

.

off , b u t I don t lik e the looks of it Yo u say

.
M fin has gone out to see yo ur father ? I bet

t hat s j ust camo uage to stall yo u

I ve got a , .

great mind to ring Mr Chapman up a nd tell him .
"

he ought to get you out of here .

I won t hear a word said again st Mr M fin

.

He s one of my father s

said Titania angrily .
oldest friends What would Mr Nlifin say if he

. .
k new yo u had been brea king into his house a n d

frightening me half to death ? I m sorry You got
that knock on the head becau se it seems that s ,

yo ur weak spot I m quite able to take care of .

myself tha nk yo u This isn t a movie
, .

.

Well how do you explain the actions of this
,

man Wein traub ? said Aubrey Do yo u like to .
h ave a man poppin g in and o u t of the shop at a ll

ho urs of the night stea lin g books ? ,

I don t have to explain it at a ll said Titania

, .
I think it s up to yo u to do the explain ing

.
Weintraub is a harml e ss old thing and he keeps

delicio us ch ocolates that cost onl y half as mu ch as
what yo u get on Fifth Avenue Mr Mifin told . .

me that he s a very good customer Perhaps his .
b usiness won t let him read in the daytime and he

,
comes in here late at night to borrow books He .

probably read s in bed .

I don t think anybody wh o talks G erman

roun d back a ll eys at night is a harmless old thing ,
Probably Mr M lin has it somewhere .

aroun d said Titan ia
, It was there las t night . .

Probably nothing said Aubrey I tel l , .
you W eintraub came in and took it I saw him

, . .
Lo ok here if yo u really want to know what I

,

thin k I ll tell yo u Th e war s not over by a long
,

.
believe yo ur friend Milin is pro G erman too -

, .

I ve heard some of his talk !

Titania f ac ed him with cheeks a a me .

That ll do for you ! she cried Nex t thing

.
I suppose yo u ll say D addy s p ro German and

-
,
me too ! I d lik e to see yo u say that to Mr

,

.
I will don t worry said Aubrey grimly He

,

, .
kne w no w that he had put himself hope lessly m

t h e wrong in Tita nia s mind bu t he ref u sed to

,
abate his own convictions With sin king hea rt .
he saw her face relieved ag ainst the shelves of

faded binding s Her eyes shone with a deep and
.
s ultry blue her chin qu ivered with anger

, .

Lo ok here she said furiou sly ; Either yo u
,
y
or I must leave this place If yo u intend to stay .

,
plea se call me a taxi .
Aubrey wa s as angry as she wa s .

I m going he said But yo u ve got to
, .
play fair with me I tell yo u on my oath these

.
,

something up I m going to get the goods on .
them and show you But you mus tn t put them .

wi s e that I m on their track If yo u do of cour s e

.
, ,

they ll call it off I don t care what yo u think of

.

me You ve got to promise me that
.

.

I won t promis e you a nything she said

, ,
except never to speak to yo u again I never

.
saw a man like yo u before and I ve seen a good

many .

I won t leave here until yo u promise me not to

warn them he retor t ed , W hat I told you I said .
,
in condence They ve already foun d out where

.
I m lodgin g Do you think thi s i s a joke ? They

.
v e tried to put me out of the way twi c e If yo u
breathe a word of t his to Mitin he ll warn the

other two .

You re afraid to have Mr Mitin know yo u

.

b roke into his shop she taunted , .

You can think what you like .

I won t pro mise you anything ! s he b u rs t out

.
Then her face alt ered Th e deant little lin e of .
/
her mout h b en t and her s t rength s eemed to run
out at each end of that pathetic cu rve Y es I .
,

will she said
, I suppo s e that s fai r I couldn t
.

.

tell Mr M in anyway I d be asham e d to tell

.
.
,
him how you frightened me I thin k you re

.
hateful I ca me over here think ing I was going

.
a nd

to have su ch a good time , yo u ve spoilt it

a ll !
For one terrible moment h e thought she wa s

going to cry But he remembered having seen
.
heroines cry in the movies and knew it was onl y ,
done when t here was a table and chair handy .

Miss Chapman he said I m as sorry as a , ,
man can b e But I swear I did what I did in a ll

.
honesty If I m wrong in this yo u need never

. ,
speak to me ag ain If I m wrong yo u you can .

,
tell yo ur father to take his advertising away from

the Grey Matter Compa ny I can t say more than
-
.

that .
An d to do him j u stice h e coul dn t I t was t h e

, , .
supreme sacrice .
S h e let him o u t of the front door witho u t a n

o ther wo rd .
longer D ownstairs s o meone wa s dolefully play
.
ing a ute mo s t ho rrible of all to rtures to tightened

,
nerves W hil e her lodgers were at ch urch the

.
tireles s Mrs Schiller was doing a little house

.
cleaning : he co ul d hear the monotonous rasp of a
ca rp et s weeper pas s ing back and forth in an a d

-
joining room He creaked irritably down stairs

.
,
and heard the u s ual splashing behind the bathroom

door In the frame of the hall mirro r he saw a
.
pencilled not e : W ill Mrs S mith p lea se ca ll .

-
Ta rkington 1 5 65 it said Unreasonab ly annoyed

, .
,
he tore a piece of paper o u t of his notebook and

wrote on it W ill Mrs S mith p lea se ca ll B a th 4200
. .
Mo unting to the second oor he tapped on the

Don t come in !

b athro om door . cried an
agitated female voice He thru st the memoran .
d um under the door and l eft the ho use , .
Walking the windy paths of Prospect Park h e

condemn ed himself to relentless self scrutiny -
.

I ve damned myself forever with her

he ,

groaned unl ess I can prove somethin g
, Th e .
vi sion of Titan ia s face silhouetted against the

shelves of books came maddeningly to his mind .
I was going to have such a good tim e a n d yo u ve ,

spoilt it all ! With what angry conviction she

k
had said : I never saw a man li e you before and

I ve s een a goo d many !

E ven in his dis t urbance of so ul the familiar

jargon of his p rofess ion cam e natu rally to utter

an ce At lea s t s he adm it s I m dieren t he s aid

.
,
dolefully He remembered t h e rs t item in the

.
Grey Matter C ode a neat little booklet i ss ued b y

-
,
his employers for the information of their rep re

sen t a t ives :
B usin ess is built upon Condence . B efore you ca n sell
G re y Ma t t er Service t o a
-
C lien t you
, must sell Yourself .
How am I going to sell myself to he r ? he

wondered I ve simply got to deliver that s a ll
.

,

.
'
I ve got to give her service that s dieren t If I

.
fall down on this she ll never speak to me again

,

.
Not onl y that the rm will lose the old man s

,
account It s simply unthin kable

.

.
Neverthele ss he thought about it a good deal

, ,
stimulated from time to time as in the c ou rs e of his

walk (which led him out to ward the faubourg s of
Flatbu sh) he pa ss ed long vi s tas of s ignboard s ,
which he imagined placarded with vivid litho

graph s in behalf of the C hapman prunes Adam .
and E v e At e Prun es on Their Honeymoon wa s a

slogan that a shed into his head and he imagin ed a ,
magnicent pain ting illu s trating this text Thus .

,
in hou rs of s t re ss do all men tu rn fo r co mfort to

,
their cho s en art Th e poet battered by fate heal s

.
, ,
himself in the niceties of rhyme Th e p roh ibi .

tionist ca n weather the black e s t melan cholia b y
meditating the contortion s of oth er peopl e s a h
st in en ce
. Th e mo s t embitte red citiz en of D e
t roit will never perish by his own h an d while he
has an automobile to tink er .
Aub rey wal ked m a ny mile s gradually thro n,
hi s de spai r to the win d s Th e b right sp irits of

.
O ris on S wett Marden and R al ph Waldo Trin e ,
Dio sc uri of Good C hee r seemed to be with him

,
din g him that nothing is impos s ible: In a

sma ll resta urant he found sau s age s griddle c ak es ,
and syru p When he got b a ck to Gissin g Street

.
it was dark and he girded his s o ul for f urther

,
en dea vour .
About nine o clock he walked up the alley He

.
had l eft his overcoat inhis room at Mrs Schill er s .

and al s o the Cromw ell b ookcov er having taken
the p rec aution however to copy the insc riptions
, ,
into hi s pocket memo randum book He noticed -

.
lights in the rea r of the bookshop and concluded ,
that the M fin s and their employee h ad got home

saf ely Arrived at the back of W ein t ra ub s

.
pharmacy he studied the contou rs of the b uilding

,
ca refull y .
Th e drug store lay as we have explained before

, ,
at the corn er of Gissing S treet an d W ord sworth

Avenue J u s t whe re the E levated rail way s wings in
,
a long curve Th e cou rs e of this curve b rought the

.
back roof Fo r a moment h e reecte d that once
.
,
down there it woul d be impo ss ibl e to retu rn the

,
same way However he decided to risk it

. , .
W h er e h e wa s with his legs s wingin g astride the

,
girder he was in s erious danger of attracting

,
attention .
He would have given a gr eat deal ju s t then to

, ,
have his overcoat with him fo r by lowering it

,
rs t he could have jum ped onto it and muE led the

nois e of his fall He took off hi s coat a nd c are
.
fully d ropped it on the corn e r of the roof Then .
c annily waiting until a train pass ed overhead ,
d rowning a ll oth er s ound s with it s roar he lowered

,
h im self a s far a s he could hang by hi s hands and ,
let go.
Fo r s ome min u tes he la y prone on the t in roof ,
and d u ring that time a numb er of dis tre ss ing ideas

occurred to h im If he really expect ed to get into
.
W ein t ra ub s hou s e why had he not laid his plans

,
more carefully ? Why (for in s tance) had he not

made some attempt to nd out how many there
were in the hou s ehold ? W h y had he not ar
ranged wi t h one of his friends to call Wein traub
to the tel ephone at a given mo ment so that he
,
could be mo re s ure of making an entry unnoticed .
An d what did he expect to see or do if he got in s ide

the hou s e ? He fo und no answer to an y of these
questions .
It wa s unpleas antly cold and he wa s glad to ,
slip hi s coat on again Th e s mall revolver wa s

.
s till in his hip pock et Anoth er thought o ccu rred

.

to him that he s hould have p rovid ed hims elf
with tennis shoes Howeve r it was some com
.
,
fort t o know that rubber heel s of a nationally

advertise d brand were under h im He c rawled .
quietly up to t h e s ill of one of the windows It was .
clo s ed and the room in s id e wa s dark A blind was

, .
pulled mo s t of t h e way down leaving a gap of ,
about four inches Peeping c autiou sly over the

.
s ill he coul d see farther inside the house a brightly

,
lit door and a pass ageway .

On e thing I v e got to look out for he thought

, ,
1 8 children The r e a re bound to be s om e

.
who ever heard of a G erman without offspring ?

If I wake them they ll bawl Thi s room i s ve ry
,

.
likely a nurs ery a s it s on the s ou t hea s tern side

,

.
Al s o the window i s s hut tight which i s probably

, ,
t h e Germ an id e a of bed r oom ventilation .
His gu e ss may not have been a bad one for ,
after hi s eye s became accu s t omed to the dimn ess

of the rooni he thought he could perceive two
cot bed s He then crawl e d over to the other
.
window Here the blind wa s pulled down u s h

.
with the bottom of the sash Trying the window .
very cautiou sly h e found it locked Not knowing

, .
j ust what to do he ret urned to the rst window

, ,
and lay there peering in Th e s i ll wa s ju s t high .
enough above the roof level to make it nec ess ary

to rai s e hims elf a little on his hands to see in s id e ,
and the po s ition was very t rying Moreover t h e . ,
tin roof had a tendency to c rumple noi s ily wh en

he moved He lay for s om e tima shive ring in
.
the chill and wondering whether it would be

,
safe to light a pipe .

Th ere s another thing I d better look out for

,

he thought and that s a dog Who ever heard
, .

of a German witho u t a dach shund ?
He had watched the lighted doorway for a long
whil e without s ee ing anyth ing and wa s beginning ,
to think he was lo s ing time to no prot when a

stout and not ill natured looking woman appeared
-
in the hallway She came into t h e roo m he was

.
studying and closed t he door Sh e s witched on

, .
the light and to his horror b egan to di srobe

, .
This was not what he had counted on at all and ,
he retre ated rapidly It was plain that nothing

.
was to be gained where he was He s at timidly .
at one edge of the roof and wondered what to do

next .
As he sat there the b ac k door opened almost

,
directly below him and he heard the clang of a

,
garbage can set out by the stoop Th e door s tood .
open for perhaps half a minute and he heard a ,
-
male voice W ein t ra ub s he thought sp eak ing
,
with old fashioned slanting doors He recon
"
-
.
n oit red this waril y A bright light was sh inin g

.
from a window in this alley He c rept below it .
on hands and knee s fearin g to look in un til he had

investigated a little He foun d that one ap of
.
the cellar door wa s open and poked his nose in to

,
the aperture All was dark be low but a strong

.
, ,
damp s t ench of paints and chemical s aro s e He .

sniffed gingerly .I suppose he stores drugs down

there he thought
, .
V ery carefull y he crawled back on h a nds and ,
knee s toward the lighted window Liftin g his

, .
head a few inches at a time n ally he got his eyes

,
above the level of the sill To his di s appointment

.
he foun d the lower half of the window frosted .
As he kn elt there a pipe set in the wall s uddenly

,
vomited liquid which gushed o ut upon his knee s .
He sn iffed it and again smelled a strong aroma

,
of acids W ith great care leaning again s t the

.
,
brick wall of the ho use he ro s e to his feet a n d

,
peeped through the uppe r half of the pane .
It seemed t o be the room where pre s criptions

were compo un ded As it w a s empty he all owed
.
,
him self a hasty s urvey All manner of bottles

.
were ranged along the walls ; there was a high

coun ter with scales a de sk and a sink At the
, , .
b ac k he coul d see the bamboo curtain which he

remembered having noticed from the shop Th e .
whole place was in the u tmost disorder : mort ars ,
glass beakers a type writer cabinets of labels

, , ,
dusty pile s of old prescriptions strung on ling

hooks paper s of pills and cap s ules all strewn in an
, ,
indescribable litter S ome in fu s ion was heatin g

.
in a glass bowl p ropped on a tripod over a blue gas

ame Aub rey noticed particul arly a heap of old
.
books s everal feet high piled care lessly a t one end

of the counter .
Looking mo re carefully he saw that what h e h a d

,
taken for a mirror over the p re s cription c oun ter

was a n ape rtu re lookin g into the s hop Thr ough .
this he coul d s ee Weintraub b ehind the cigar ca s e , ,
waiting upon some belated customer with his shop

worn air of affability Th e vi s itor d eparted and
.
,
Weintraub locked the door after him and p ul led

down the blind s Then he retu rned toward the
.
prescription room and Aubrey ducke d out of

,
view .
Presently he ri s ked looking again and was just ,
in time to see a curiou s s ight Th e druggi s t was .
bending over the counter pouring s ome liquid into ,
a glass vessel His face was dire ctly un der a

.
hanging bulb a nd Aub rey wa s amazed at the

,
transformation Th e apparently genial a p ot h e

.
cary of cigars tand and s oda fountain wa s gone .
He s aw in s tead a heavy cruel jowli sh fac e with, , ,
eyelids hooded do wn over the eyes and a s quare ,

thrustin g chin buttres s ed on a mass of jaw and
s uetty cheek that gli stened with an oily shimmer .
Th e jaw quiver ed a little a s tho ugh with s ome in

t en s e supp ressed emotion Th e ma n w a s com
.
p le t ely abso r bed in his ta s k T h e thi

.ck lowe r lip
lapped upward over the mouth On the cheek .
bone was a deep red scar Aubrey felt a pang of

.
.
fascin ate d amazement at the gro s s ene rgy and

power of that abominable relentle s s mask .

So this is the harml ess old thing ! he th ought .
Just then the bamboo cur tain p a rted and the ,
woman whom he had seen up s tair s appeared .
Forgetting his own s ituation Aubrey still Stared, .
She wore a faded dressing gown and her hair wa s

braided a s though for the night She look ed .
frightened and mu s t have spoken for Aub rey

, ,
saw her lips move Th e man remain e d bent ove r

.
hi s counter un til the last d rops of liquid had run

out His jaw tightened he straightened sud
.
,
den ly and took one step towar d h er with out ,
stretched h an d imperiou s ly pointed Aub rey .
coul d see his f a ce plainl y : it had a s avagery more

than be stial Th e woman s face which had bo rne
.

,
a timid pleading exp res s ion appea l ed in vain

, ,
again s t that erce gesture Sh e turn ed and .
vani shed Aub rey saw the

. poin tin g
nge r trembl e Again h e duck ed out of s ight
. .
That m an s fa ce woul d be lonely in a c rowd

,
On trying to spy mo r e clearly he fo und that what
he had taken for dirt was a coat of whitewash
which had been applied to the window on the
in side but the coating had worn away in one spot
,
which gave him a loophole Wh at s ur pri s ed him

.
mo s t wa s to spy the covers of a number of books

strewn about the work table On e he was ready . ,
to s wear w a s the Cromwell He knew that b right

, .
blue cloth by t his time .
For the second time that evening Aubreywished

for the presence of one of hi s former instru ctors .

I wish I had my old chemi s try p rofess or here ,

he thought .I d like to know what this bird is up

to. I d hate to swallow one of his prescriptions .
His teeth were chattering after the long expos ure

a n d he wa s w et through from lying in the little
gutter that apparently drained off from t h e sin k

in W ein t ra ub s prescription labo ratory He could

.
not see what the druggi st was doing in the cellar ,
for the man s bro a d back was turned toward him

.
He felt a s though he had had quite enough thrill s

for one evening Creeping along he fo und hi s way
.
b ack to the ya rd and s t epped ca utiou s ly among the

,
empty boxe s with which it was s trewn An ele .
v a t ed tr ain rumbled overhead and he watched the ,
brightly lighted cars swing by W hile the train .
roared above h im he s crambled u p the fence and

,
droppe d down into the alley .


W ell
he thought I d give full page space
-
, , ,
preferred po s ition in the m agazin e Ben Fr anklin

,
founded to the guy that d t ell me what s going on

at this grand bol s hevik headquarters It looks .
to me as though they re getting ready to blow the

O ctagon Hotel off the map .
He found a little confectione ry shop on Words

wort h Avenue that wa s still open and went in for ,

a c up of hot chocolate to warm himself Th e .
expense account on this bu s in es s is going to be

rather heavy he said to hims elf
, I think I ll .

have to charge it u p to the D ain t yb it s account .
Say old Grey Ma t t er gives service that s dierent

, ,
don t she ! W e not only keep C hapman s goods in

the public eye but we face all the ho rrors of Brook

,
lyn to pres erve his family from unlawful occasions .
No I don t lik e the co mpany that book s eller ru ns

,
with If n a ch Philadelp hia i s the word I think

.

,

I ll tag along I guess it s o for Philadelphia in

.

the morning !
C HAPTE R ! III
THE B A TTLE OF L UDL OW S TREE T
ARE LY wa s a more genuine tribute paid

to entrancing girlhood than when Aub rey
co mpelled hims elf by s heer fo rce of will
,
and the ticking of his s ubcon s ciou s tim e s en s e to -

,
wake at six o clock the n ext mo rning For this

.
young man took sl eep s eriou s ly and with a p rim

it ive zes t It was to him almo s t a religiou s func
.

tion As a minor poet has said he made sleep a
.
,
career .
But he did not know what train Roger might b e

tak ing and he wa s d etermined n o t to miss h im
, .
By a quarter aft er six he w a s seated in the NH]

waukee Lunch (which i s never clo s ed Op en f rom
Now Till the J udgmen t Da y Ta bles f or L adies as
.
,
its sign s ay s ) with a cup of coffee and corned beef

hash In the mood of t ende r melan choly common
.
to unaccu s tomed early ri sing he dwelt fondly on

the thought of Titania s o n ear and yet so far
,
away He had lei s ure to give fr ee rein to th es e

.
musings for it wa s t en pa s t seven before Roger

,
appeared h urrying toward the subway Aubrey

, .
230
trip in tu rning over s ome annotated catalogu es of
recen t sales which Mr Chapman had lent him
. .

This in vitation he s a id to himself
, conrms ,
what I have always said that the artis t in any

, ,
line of work will eventually be recognized abov e

,
the mere tradesman Somehow or othe r Mr Old

. .
ham h a s heard that I am not onl y a s eller of old

books but a lover of them He p refers to have me
.
go ove r hi s treas ures with him rather than one of ,
those wh o peddle these t hings lik e so m u ch tal

low .

Aubrey s humo ur was far removed from that of
In t h e r st place Roger wa s
-
t h e happy booksell er .
,
sittin g in the smoker and as Aubrey fea red to

,
en ter t he same car for fear of being observed h e ,
h a d to do witho u t his pipe He too k the fore

.
most seat in the second co a ch and peering occa ,
sion a lly thro u gh the glass doors he co uld see the
bald poll of his quarry wreath ed with exh a lemen t s

of chea p havan a Secondly he had hope d to see
.
,
Wein tra ub on the same train but though he had ,
German had not appeared He had concl u ded .
from W ein t ra ub s words the night bef ore that dr ug

gist a n d bookseller were b o und on a joint errand .
Apparen tly he w a s mistaken He bit his nails .

,
glowered at the ying landscape and revolved ,
many grievo us fancies in his pri ckling b osom .

l
Among other di s contents was the knowledge t hat

he did not have eno ugh money with him to pay
his fare back to New York and he woul d either
,
have to borrow from someone in Phil adelphia or

wire to his ofce for fun ds He had not antici
.
pated wh en s etting out upon this series of a dven

,
tures that it would p rove so costly

, .
Th e t rain drew into B road Street station at

ten o cloc k and Aubrey foll owed the books eller

,
through the bu s tling terminu s and round the C ity

Hall plaza M fin s eem ed to know his w ay but
.
,
Philadelphia was comparatively strange t o t h e

Grey Matter solicitor He was quite s urprised
-
.
at the impressive vista of South B road Street a n d ,
chagrined to nd people jostling h im on the

crowded pavement as though the y did not know
he had just come f r om New Yo rk .
Roger turned in at a huge ofce b uilding on

Broad Street and took an exp res s elevato r Au .
brey did not dare follow him in to the ca r so he ,
waited in the lobby He learned f rom the s tarter

.
that there w a s a second tier of elevators on the

.
other s ide of the buil ding s o he tipped a boy a

,
quarter to watch them for him describing lVIifin

,
so accurately that he could not be missed By .
this time Aubrey w a s in a tho roughly ill temper ,
and enjoyed quarrelling with the starter on the

subject of in dicators for showing the position of
the elevators . Ob servin g that in this buildin g the
of the car was traced by a rl sl ng or falling col umn

of colo ured uid Aub rey remarked tes tily that
,
that old fashioned stun t had long been abandoned

-
in New York Th e starter retorted that New Yo rk

.
w a s onl y two ho u rs away if he liked it better .
This argument helped to eet the time rapidl y .
Me a nwhile Roge r with the pleasurable sensa

,
tion of one wh o expects to be received as a dis

t in guish ed vi s itor from out of town had entered ,
the lux urio u s suite of Mr Oldh am A young lady . .

,
rat her too tran sparentl y shirt w a ist ed b ut fair to

look upon asked what she could do for him
, .

I want to see Mr Oldham
. .

W hat name shall I say ?
.

Mr Mifin Mr Mitin of Brooklyn . .
Have yo u an appointment ?

Yes .
Roger sat down with agreeable anticipation .
He noticed the shining mahogany of the ofce
the hu shed and efcient activity of the young

ladies Phil adelphia girls are amazingly comely
. ,

he said to him s elf b u t none of these can hold a
,

candl e to Bl iss Tita nia .
Th e young lady returned from the private ofce

-
lookin g a little perplexed .

23 6 TH E HA UN TE D B OOKS HOP
W h y no ,I came over to apprai s e it for you
. .

Yo ur secretary telephone d me on S at urday .
"

My dear z
sir replied the other there mu st
, ,
b e some mista ke I have no inten t ion of selling

.

my collection I never sent yo u a message
. .
Roger w a s aghast .

Why he exclaimed
, yo ur secreta ry called ,
me u p on Sat urday and said yo u partic ularly

wanted me to come over thi s morning to examine
your books with you I ve made the trip from
,

Brookl yn for that purpose .
Mr O ldham touched a buz z er and a middle

.
,
aged woman came into the ofce

Mi ss Patter .
so n
, he said did you telephone to Mr M fin of

, .
B rooklyn on Sat urday asking him ,

It wa s a man that telephoned said Roger , .

I m exceedingly sorry Mr M iin said Mr

.
, .
,

Oldham More sorry than I ca n tell yo u I m
.

afraid someone has played a trick on yo u As I .
told yo u and Mi ss Patterson will h ear me o u t

, ,
I have no idea of selling my book s and have never ,

a u thoriz ed an y o n e even to s u ggest s u ch a thing .
Roger w a s lled with conf usion and anger A .
hoax on the part of some of the C orn C ob C lub he ,
thought to himself He ushed p a inq y to recall

.
the simplicity of his glee .

Please don t b e embarrassed
said Mr O ld ,
D on t

ham seeing the little man s vexation
, .

let s con s id er the trip wa s ted Won t you co me
.
out and dine with me in the co untry thi s evening ,

and see my things ?
But Roger was too proud to accept thi s balm ,
courteo us as it wa s .

I m sorry he s aid b ut I m afraid I can t
, ,

do it I m rather bu s y at home and onl y came

.

over becau se I believed this to be u rgent .

Some other time perhap s said Mr Oldham , , . .
Lo ok here yo u re a bookseller ? I don t believe

,
I know yo u r shop G ive me your card Th e next

. .

time I m in New York I d like to stop in .
Roger gotaway as qu ickly as the other s polite
ness wo uld let him He chafed savagely at t h e

.
awkwardnes s of his position Not until h e .
reached the street again did he breathe freely .

S ome of Jerry Gla dst s tomf oolery I ll bet a

hat , he muttered By t h e bones of Fann y
.

Ke lly I ll make him smart for it

.
,
E ven Aubrey picking up the trail again co u ld

, ,
s ee that Roger wa s angry .

S omething s got his goat he reec ted , .
Wonder wh a t he s peeved about ?

They cros s ed B road Street and Ro ge r sta rted

off down C hestnut Aubrey sa w the books eller
.
halt in a doorway to light his pipe and stopped ,
some yard s behind him to look u p at the statue of

William Penn on the C ity Hall It wa s a blu s tery .
day and at that moment a gus t of wind Whipped
,
off his hat and sent it spinn ing down Broad Street .
He ran half a block before he recaptured it When .
he got back to Ches tnut Roger had disappeared , .
He h urried down C he s tnut S treet b umping p e ,

.
dest ria n s in his e ag ernes s but at Thirteenth he ,
h alted in dismay Nowhere coul d he see a sign of

.
the little bookseller He appealed to the police

.
man a t that corner but learned nothing Vainly

, .
_
he sco ured the block and up and down Juniper

Str eet It was eleven o clock and the streets
.
,
we re thr onged .
He c ursed the book busine ss in both hemisp here s ,
c ursed himself and cursed Philadelphia Then he

, .

went int o a tobacconist s and b ought a p a cket of
cigarettes .
For an ho u r he patro lled u p and down C hestn ut

Street on both s ides of the way thinking he might
, ,
po ssibly en counter Roger At the end of this time .
he fo und hims e lf in front of a newspaper ofce and ,
remembe red that an old friend of his w a s an edi

t oria l writer on the staff He entered and went .
,
up in the elevator .
He fo un d his friend in a small grimy den s ur ,
rounded by a sea of papers s moking a pipe with ,
hi s feet on the ta ble They greeted each other.
joyfull y .

Well look who s here ! cried t h e fac etiou s
,

-

Wilson s speaking to C ongress to day a n d there s -
,

big stuff comin g over the wire S o long old man .

, .

Invite me to the weddin g !
Aubrey had no idea wh at Le ary s was an d rather

,
expected it to be a tavern of some sort When he .
reac hed the place however he saw wh y his friend

, ,
had suggested it a s a likely lurking ground for

R oger It would be as impossible for any bib
.
liop hile to pass this famo us second hand b ookstore -
as for a woman to go by a wedding party without

trying to see the bride Although it was a bleak
.
day and a snell wind blew down the stree t the

, ,
pavement counters were lined with people turning

over diso rdered piles of volumes Within he could .
,
see a vista of white shelves and the man y coloured

,
-
tape stry of bindin gs stretching far away to the rea r

of the building .
He entered eagerly and looked about The

, .
shop wa s comfortably bu sy with a number of ,
people b rowsin g They seemed normal enough

.
from behind b ut in their eyes he detec ted the wild

, ,
pee ring glitter of the bibliom aniac Here and .
the re stood membe rs of the sta ff Upon their .
feat ures Aub rey di s cerned the placid and philo

sophic t ra nquillity which he associated with
-
second hand booksellers all save Mitin .
He paced through the narrow aisles scanning ,
the b lissful throng of seekers He went down to .

t he edu cational department in the b asement up ,
to the medical books in the ga llery even back to ,
the sections of Drama and Penn sylvania History

in the raised quarterdeck at the rear There was .
no trace of Roger .
At a desk under the stairway he sa w a lean ,
studious and kin dl y looking b iblio s oph wh o was

,
-
,
po ring over an immense catalogue An idea .
stru ck him .
Have you a cop y of Carlyle s Lett ers a nd

Speeches of Oliver Cromwell ? h e a sked .
Th e othe r looked up .

I m afraid w e h aven t , he said

Another

.
gen tleman w a s in her e askin g for it j u st a fe w

min utes ago .

G ood God ! cried Aub rey D id he get it ? .
This emphasis b ro ught no sur prise t o the book

seller who was accustomed to t h e oddities of
,
edition hun ters .

No he said ? We didn t h ave a cop y We
.
,
haven t seen one for a long tim e

.

Was he a lit t le b ald man with a red bea rd a n d
'

bright blue eye s ? asked Aubre y hoarsely .

Yes Mr Milin of Brooklyn D o yo u kno w
-
. .

him?

I sho ul d s ay I do ! cried Aubrey Where .
has h e gone ? I ve been hun tin g him a ll over town

,
"
t h e sco undrel !
Th e b ooks eller douce man h ad seen too many

, ,
eccentric cus tomers to be shocked by the v eh e

men ce of his que s tioner .

He was here a momen t ago he said gently , ,
a nd gaz ed with a mild inte r e s t u pon the excited

young advertis in g man I dare say yo u ll nd
.

him ju s t out side ln Lu dlow Street
, .

W here s that ?

Th e tall man and I don t see wh y I shoul d

scruple to name him for it was Philip W arner ,
explained that Ludlow Street was the narrow alley

that runs along one side of Le ary s and elbows at
right angles behind the sh op D own the ank of .
the store al ong this narrow little street run sh elves

, ,
of books un der a pentho use It is here that .
Le ary s displays it s stock of ra ga muin ten c enters

queer dingy volum es that call to the hearts of

-
gentle que sters Along these histo ric shelves

.
many troubled spirits have come as near happi

ne ss as t hey are lik e to get for afte r all ,
happiness (as the mathemati cian s might say) lie s

on a c urve and we approach it only by as ymptote
, .
Th e frequente r s of this alley call them

selves whims ically Th e Lu dlow S tree t Business
Men s As s ociation and C harles Lamb or E ugene

,
Field woul d have been p r oud to p res ide at their

a n n ual dinners at which the members recount
,
t h eir happies t book n ds of the year -

.
A spot of red spread on Roger s cheekb ones
.
In spite of hi s apparent demurene s s he had a

pugnaciou s spirit and a quick st .

By the bones of C harles Lamb ! he said .
Yo ung man your manners need mending If

, .
y o u re loo kin g for display adverti sing I ll give

,

y o u one on each eye .
Aubrey had expected to nd a cringing culprit ,
a nd this b ac k ta lk infuriated him beyond control .

Yo u damned little bols he vik he said if , ,

y ou were my s ize I d give you a hiding You t ell .
me what you and you r pro G erman pals are u p t o

-

or I ll p u t the police on yo u !

Roger st i en ed His beard b ristled and his b lue

. ,
You impudent dog he said quietly yo u , ,
come ro und the corner where the s e people can t

see u s and I ll gi ve you some private tutoring

.
He led the w a y ro un d the corner of the all ey .
In this narrow channel b etween blank walls they

, ,
confronted each other .

In the name of Gu tenb erg said Roger callin g , ,

Upon his patron saint ex plain yo urself or I ll hit
,

you .

Who s he ? s neered Aub rey

An other on e.

of your Huns ?
That in s tan t he received a smar t blow on the
chin w hich wo uld have been much harder b ut
,
that Roge r misgauged his footing on the uneven

c obbl e s and hardl y reached the face of h is 0 p
,
ponent wh o topped him by many inches

, .
Aubrey forgot his resolution not to hit a smaller

man and al s o calling u pon his patron saints the

,
Ass ociated Advertis ing C lubs of the W o rld h e

delivered a smashing slog which hit t h e book s ell er
m the ches t and jol t ed him half acro ss the alley .

Both men were furio us ly angry Aubrey with
the accu mulated bitterness of several days anxiety
and suspicion and Roger with the quick a min g

,
-
indignation of a hot tempered man unwarrantably

-
outraged Aubrey had the better of th e encounter

.
in height weight and more than twenty years

, ,
j uniority b u t for t une played for the bookseller

, .

Aubrey s terric p unch sent the lat t er s t aggering
across the alley onto the oppo s ite curb Aubrey .
followed this up with a rush intending to crush ,
the other with one fearful smite B ut Roger .

,
keeping cool now had the advantage of position

, .
Standing on the curb he had a little the better in ,
heigh t As Aubrey leaped at him his face grim

.
,
with hatr ed Roger met him wi t h a s avage buffet

,
on the jaw Aubrey s foot stru ck a gainst the c urb

.

,
and he fell b ackward onto the s tones His head .
crashed violen t ly on the cobbles and the old cut ,
on his scalp broke ou t afresh Daz ed and shaken . ,
t h ere was for the moment no more ght in him

, , .
Yo u in solent pup panted Roger , do you ,
want any more ? Then he saw that Aubrey wa s

reall y h urt Wi t h horror he observed a trickle of
.
blood run down t h e side of the yo ung man s face

.

G ood Lo rd he said , Maybe I ve killed
.

him !
In a panic he ran ro und the corner to get Lea ry s
o u tside man who stands in a little s entry b ox at the

,
front angle of the s tore and sells the outdoor books .

Quick he said
, There s a fellow back here
.

b adly hurt .
They ran back ar o u nd the corner and fo und ,
Aubrey walking rather shakily toward them Im .
me nse relief swam thro ugh Roger s brain

Look here he said I m a w q y sorry are
, ,

yo u hurt ?
Aubrey glared whitely at h im bu t was too ,
stunned to speak He grunted and the others

. ,
took him one on each side and supported him .
Le ary s man ran in s ide the store and opened the

little door of the freight elevator at the back of the

shop In this way avoiding notice save by a few
.
,
book prowlers Aubrey was carted into the shop

-
,
as tho ugh he had been a parcel of second hand -
books .
Mr W arner greeted them at the back of t h e

.
shop a little s urpri s ed b u t gentle as ever

, , .

What s wrong ? he said .
THE CROM W E LL MA KE S I TS LAS T
APPEARA N CE
idiot said Roger half a n h our

OU u tte r , ,

later Wh y didn t yo u tell me all this

.
sooner ? Good Lord man there s some , ,

devil s work going on !

How the deuce w a s I to know yo u knew nothing

abou t it ? said Aub rey impatiently You ll .

grant every t hin g pointed against you ? When I

saw that guy go into the shop with his own key ,
what could I think b ut that yo u were in league with

him ? Gracious man are yo u so befu ddl ed in yo ur
, ,

old books that yo u don t see what s going on roun d

you ?

What time did yo u say that was ? said R oger
short ly .

On e o clock S un day morning

.

Roger thought a min ute Y es; I Wa s in the
.

cellar with Bock he said, Bock barked and I
. ,
thought it was rats That fellow mus t have tak en

.
an imp res s ion of the lock and made him s elf a key .
He s been in the shop hun dreds of times and co ul d

,
easily do it That explains the di s appearing

.
Cromwell But why W hat s the idea ?

.
9 .

For the love of heaven said Aub rey Let s

, .
'
get b ack to Brooklyn as soo n as we can God only .
knows what may have happened Fool that I was .

,
to go away a nd leave those women al l alone .

Triple distilled l unacy !
-

My dear fellow sa id Roger I was the fool

, ,
'
to be lured off by a fake telephone call Judging .
by what yo u say Weintraub m ust have worked

,
that also .
'
Aubrey looked at his watch Ju st after three .

,
We can t get a train till four said Roger

, .
That means w e can t get back to Gissing S tree t

un til nea rly seven .

C all them up said Aubrey
, .
They were s till in the p rivate ofce at the rear of

Leary s Roger was well kn own in the shop and

-
.
,
ha d no hesita tion in u sing the telephone He .
lifted the re ceiver .

Long D is tan ce please he said
, Hullo ? , .

I want to get B rooklyn W ordsworth 1 6 1 7 W
,
,
-
.
They spent a so ur twenty v e min ute s waiting -
for the connection R oger went out to talk with

.
Warner while Aubrey fum ed in the back ofce

, .
He could not s it s till and paced the little room in

,
a dget of impatience tearing h is watch o u t of his

,
poc ket every few min utes He felt dull and sick .
with vague fear To his mind rec urred the spiteful

.
buz z of that voice over the wire Gissing S treet

is not hea lt hy f or you He remembered the sc ufe .
on the Bridge the whispering in the alley and the

, ,
sinister face of the druggis t at his presc ription

counter Th e whole series of events seemed a
.
gro s sly fantas tic nightmare yet it frightened him , .

If only I were in B rooklyn he groaned it , ,

wo uldn t be s o bad But to be over here a h un .
,
d red mil es away in another cursed books hop while

, ,

that girl may be in trouble G osh ! he muttered .
If I get through this busine s s all right I ll la y

off book shops for the rest of my lif e !
Th e telephone rang and Aubrey frantically ,
b eckoned to Roger who wa s out side ta lkin g , , .

An swe r it yo u chump ! said R oger We ll
.
,

lose the conn ec tion !

Nix said Aubrey
, If Titania h ears my .

voice she ll ring off She s s ore at me

.

.

Roger ran to the in s trument Hullo h u llo ? ,

he said i rritably
, Hullo is that Wo rdsworth
.
,

Ye s I m calling Brooklyn Hull o !
,

Aub rey leanin g over Roger s shoulder co ul d

, ,
hear a clucking in the receiver and then in credibly , ,
clear a thin silver dis tant voice How well he

, , , .
kn ew it ! It s eemed to vibrate in the ai r all abou t

him He coul d hear every syllable d istinctly A
. .
Hold the wire a moment said Roger and , ,
clapped his hand over the mo u thpiece Sh e s ays .
W eintraub left a s uitca s e of books there to be

called for What do you make of that ?
.

For the love of God tell her not to to u ch those ,

books .
Hullo ? said Roger Aubrey lean ing over .

,

him noticed that the little boo ks eller s naked
,
pate was ringed with c ry s tal bead s .

Hull o ? replied Titania s eln voice promptly
.

D id you open the s uitcase ?

N0 It s locked Mr Weintraub said there
. . .
were a lot of old boo ks in it for a friend of his .
It s ve ry heavy

.

Look here said Roger and h is v ol ce rang
, ,

sharply This is important
. I don t want yo u .

to touch that suitcase Le ave it wherever it is .

,

and don t touch it Promise me

. .

Yes Mr NIifin Had I b etter put it in a safe
, . .

place ?

Don t touch it
B ook s snifng at it now

.
D on t touch it and don t let Bock to u ch it

.
,
t it s got val uable papers in it

.

I ll be c areful of it said Titania

, .
Promi s e me not to touch it An d another .

thing if any one calls for it don t let them ta ke ,

THE HA UN TED B OOKSHOP 25 3
Aubrey held o ut his watch in front of Roger .
Th e latter nodded .

D o you understand ? he said D o yo u hear . 1

me all right ?

Yes splendidly I thin k it s wonderful ! Yo u
, .

know I never talked on long dis tance before

D on t touch the bag repeated Roger dog

,
ged ly , and don t let any one take it until w e
until I get bac

I promis e said Titania b lithely
, .

Good bye said Roger and set down the
-
, ,
receiver His face looked cu riou s ly p mch ed and

.
,
there was perspiration in the hollows under his

eye s Aubrey held out his watch impatiently
. .

We ve just time to make it cried R oger and

, ,
they rushed from the shop .
It was not a sprightly jou rney Th e train made .
its accu stomed detour through Wes t Philadelphia

and North Philadelphia befo re getting down to
bu sine ss and the two voyagers felt a pe rs onal
,
hatred of the brakemen wh o pe rmitted pas s enge rs

from these suburbs to stra ggle leisu rely aboard
in stead of ogging them in with knotted whip s .
W hen the exp re s s s topp ed at T renton Aubrey ,
coul d ea s ily have turned a howitz er upon that in

no cent city and bla sted it into rubble An unex .
p ec t ed s top at Prince ton J un ction w a s the last

s traw Aubrey addre ss ed the conductor in terms
.
that were highl y treas onable conside ring that this ,
ofcial was a gove rnment servant .
Th e win ter twilight drew in gray and dreary , ,
with a threat of snow For some tim e they sat in

.
silence Roger burie d in a Philadelphia afternoon

,
paper containing the text of the Pres ident s spee ch
announ cing hi s trip to E urope and Aub rey gloo m ,
ily rec apitulating the s chedule of his past week .
His head throbb ed his hands were wet with ner

,
v ousn ess so that crumbs of tob a cco adhe red to
them annoyingly .

It s a fun ny t h mg he said at last

, Yo u .
know I neve r hear d of your shop until a week ago

to day and now it seems like the most importan t
-
,
place on earth It was onl y last T ues day that we

.
had suppe r together and sin ce the n I ve had my

,

scalp laid open twice h ad a de sperado lie in wait

,
for me in my own be dr oom spent two night vigils ,
on Gi ssing Street and endangered the bigges t

,
advertisin g accoun t our agen cy handl es I don t .

wonder yo u ca ll the place haunted !

I suppose it would a ll make good advertising

copy ? said Roge r peevish ly .

Well I don t know said Aubrey
,

It s a
, .

bit too rough I m afraid How do you dope it

,

.

out ?

I don t know what to think Weintraub has

.

'
Well one of t h ese is perfectly un derstan dable

, ,

said Roger Here where it says 3 2 9 j cf W
.
, . . .
W That simply mea n s page s 3 2 9 and following

.
,
compare Woodr ow Wilson I remember jotting .

that down not long ago b eca use that passage in

,
the book reminded me of some of W il son s ideas

.
I gener ally note down in the back of a book the

numbers of any pages that inte rest me specially .
These other page numbers convey nothing unless I

had the book before me .

Th e rs t bun ch of numb ers wa s in yo ur han d
writin g then ; b u t underneath were the s e others in

, ,
W ein t ra ub s o r at any rate in his ink W hen I

.
saw that he wa s jotting down what I took to be

code stuff in the backs of yo ur books I naturally
assumed yo u and he were working together

An d yo u found the cover in his dr u g store ?
Yes .
Roger scowled .

I don t ma ke it out he said , .
Well there s nothing we can do till we get there

,

.
D o yo u wan t to look at the paper ? There s the

text of Wil s on s s peech to C ongres s this mo rning .
Aubrey shook hi s head dismally and leaned his ,
h ot forehead again s t the pane Neither of them .
spoke again un til they reached M anhattan Tran s

fer where they changed fo r the Hud s on Termin al
, .

It was seven o clock when they hurried out of t h e
subway termin us at Atlan tic Avenue It was a .
raw damp evening but the streets had al rea d y

, ,
begun to bustle with their nightly exuberan ce of

light and colour Th e yellow glitter of a pawn
.
shop window reminded Aubrey of the small re

volver in hi s pocket As they passed a dark all ey
.
,
he stepped a side to load the weapon .

Have you anything of this sort with yo u ? h e

said showing it to Roger

, .

Good Lo rd no said the b ookseller
, , W hat .
do yo u think I am a moving picture hero ?

,
-
D own Gis sin g S treet the yo un ger man set so

rapid a pace that his c ompanion had to trot to
keep ab re a st Th e placid vi s ta of t h e little stree t

.
was reass uring Under the glowing effus ion of

.
the shop win dows the pavement was a path of

checkered b rightness In W ein t ra ub s pharmacy
.

they could see the pasty fa ced as si s tant in his

-
stain ed white coat s erving a beaker of hot choco

late In the stationer s shop people were looking
.

over trays of Christmas cards In the Bl ilwa uk ee .
Lunch Aubrey saw (and envied ) a stu rdy citizen

pe acefully dippin g a doughn ut into a cup of coffee .

This all s eems ve ry unr eal said Roger , .
As they nea red the books hop Aubrey s hear t

,
gave a jerk of apprehension Th e blin ds in the .
front win dows had been drawn down A dull .
shining came th rough them s howing that the ,
lights were turned on inside But wh y should the .

sh ades be lowered with closin g time thr ee h o urs
away ?
They rea ched the f ront door and Aubrey wa s ,
about to seiz e the h an dle when Roger halted him .

Wait a moment he said Let s go in
, .

quietly There may be something queer goin g

.

on
Aubrey turned the kn ob gently Th e door wa s .
locked .
Roger pulled ou t his latchkey and cau tiously

released the b olt Then he opened the door
.

slightly about an inch .

You re taller than I am he whispe red , .
Re ach up an d mufe the bell above the door while

I open it .
Aubrey thr ust three ngers through the aper

t ure and blocked the trigger of the gong Then .
Roger pu shed the door wide and they tiptoe d in , .
Th e shop was empty and appa rently no rm al , .
They stood for an in s tan t with poun din g puls es .
From the back of the ho use c a me a clear voice ,
a little tremulous

Yo u can do what you like I shan t tell yo u ,

where it is Mr Bl ifin said

. .
There followed the bang of a falling ch air and a ,
sound of rapid movement .
Aub rey wa s down the aisle in a a sh followed ,
by Roger who had delayed ju s t long enough to

,
Slowly he opened his right hand and his revolver

fell on the lin en cloth Then Roger burst into t h e .
room .
Titania wrenched herself away from the chef .

I woul dn t give th em the s uitcase ! she cried

.
Aub rey kept his pi s tol pinned again s t W ein

traub s face With his l eft hand he picked up the

.
druggi s t s revolver Roger was about to seiz e

.
the chef wh o wa s s ta nding uncertainly on the

,
othe r s ide of the table .

Here said Aubrey tak e this gun Cover
, , .
this fellow and leave that one to me I ve got a .

score to settle with h im .
Th e chef made a movement as though to jump

t h r ough the window behind h im but Aubrey ung ,
himse lf upon him He hit the man square on the

.
no s e and felt a delicio u s throb of satisfaction as

the rubbery e sh attened beneath his knuckles .
He s eized the man s hairy throat and sank his

ngers into it Th e other tried to snatch the bread

.
knife on the table but was too late He fell to t h e

, .
oor and Aubrey throttled him sa vagely

, .

You bla s ted Hun he grunted G0 wrest , .
ling with girl s will you ? ,
Titania ran f r om the room thr ough the pantry ,

Roger wa s holding W ein t ra ub s revolver in
f ront of the G erman s face

.

Look her e he said what doe s this mean ?
, ,
It s all a mi s take said the d ruggi s t suavely

, ,

though h is eye s s lid unea s ily to and f ro I ju s t .
came in to get some book s I left here earlier in the

afternoon .

W ith a revolver eh ? said Roger Speak up
, .
,
Hindenbu rg what s the big idea ?

,

It s not my revolver said Wein traub

It s , .

M etzger s

.

W here s thi s suitcase of yours ? said R oger

.
We re going to hav e a look at it

It s all a s tupid mi s take said Weintraub

, .
I left a s u itca s e of old book s h ere for Metzger ,
b ecau s e I expected to go out of town this after

noon H e called fo r it and you r young woman
. ,
wouldn t give it to him He came to me and I

.
,

came down h ere to tell her it was all right .

Is that M etzge r ? said Roger poin ting to the

,
bearded man wh o wa s t rying to b reak Aub re y s
grip . Gilbert don t choke that man we want

,

,

him to do some explaining .
Aubrey got up pi cked hi s revolve r f ro m the oor

,
where he had d ropp ed it and prodded the chef to ,
h is feet .
W ell you s wine he s aid how did you enjoy

, , ,
fa llmg down s tai r s the other evening ? As for yo u ,
Herr W eintraub I d like to know what kind of

,

p res cription s yo u make up in that cellar of

yours .
W ein t ra ub face shone damply in the lamplight

s .
Perspiration was thick on his fo rehead .

My dear Mitin he sa id

this is awfull y
, ,
stupid In my eagerne ss I m afraid

.
,

Titania ran back into the room followed b y ,
Helen who s e face wa s c ri mson

, .

Thank G od you re back Roger she said

, .
The s e brutes tied me up m the kitchen and

gagged me with a rolle r towel They thr eatened -
.
to shoot Titan ia if she woul dn t give t hem the

s uitcase .
Weintraub b egan to say something bu t Roger ,
thrus t the revo lver between his eyes .

Hold yo ur tongu e ! he said We re going to .

h ave a look at tho s e books of yo urs .

I ll get the su itcase said Titania

, I hid it .
When M r Weintraub came in and asked fo r it

.
,
at rs t I was goin g to give it to h im but he looked ,

so queer I thought something must be wrong .

D on t you get it said Aubrey and t heir eye s

, ,

met fo r the rs t time Show me Where it is and
.
,

we ll let friend Hun bring it

.

T itania u shed a little It s in my b edroom

.
c upboard she said , .
She led the w a y upstairs Metz ger following , ,
and Aub rey behind M etzger with his pistol ready .
O utside the bedroo m doo r Aub rey halted Show .
him the suitcase and let him pick it up he said , .

If they re old enough they may be valuab le

,

said Roger I m interested in old books Look
.

.

sha rp !
M etz ger drew a key from his pocket and un
locked the bag Aubrey held the pistol at his .
head as he threw back the lid .
Th e s uitca s e w a s full of second h an d books -
closely pack ed together R oger with great pres .

,
ence of mind was keeping his eyes o n Wein traub

, .

Tell me what s in it he said
, .
Why it s onl y a lot of books after all cried

,

, ,
Titania .

Yo u see said Weintraub su rlily The re s

.
, ,

no mys tery a bo u t it I m sorry I wa s so .

Oh look ! said Titan ia ; There s t h e Crom

,

w ell boo k !
For an instant Roger forgot himself He .
looked instinctively at the suitcase and in that ,
moment the dru ggi s t broke away ran down the ,
ais le and ew out of the d oor Roger da shed

, .
afte r him but was too late Au brey wa s holding

, .
Metzger by the collar with t h e pistol at his

head .

Good G od he said wh y didn t you shoot ?
, ,

I don t know said Roger in conf usion

I, .
was afraid of hitting someone Never mind we .

,

can x him later .

Th e police will be here in a min u te ,

Helen calling from the telephone I m going to

, .
let Bo ck in He s in the back yard

.

.

I think they re both c razy
said Titania , .
Le t s put the Cromwell ba ck on the s helf and let

this creature go Sh e put o u t her hand for the
.
book

Stop ! cried Aubrey and seiz ed her arm , .

D on t to u ch that book !

Titania shrank back frightened by his voice , .
Ha d everyone gone insane ?

Here Mr M etzger said Aub rey you pu t
,

.
, ,
that book back on the shelf where it belongs .
D on t try to get away because I ve got this re

,

volver pointed at you .
He and Roger were b oth startled b y the

chef s face Above the un kempt beard his eyes

.
shone with a half crazed lustre and his ha nds-

,
shook .

Very well he said Show me where it goe s
, . .

I ll show you s aid Titania

, .
Aubrey put out hi s arm in front of the girl .

Stay where yo u are he s aid angrily , .

D own in the History alcove said Roger , .
Th e front alcove on the other side of the shop .
We ve both got you covered

.
Instead of taking the volume from the suitcase ,
Metz ger picked up the whole bag holding it at , .
He carried it to the alcove they indicated He .

placed the case carefully on the oor and picked ,
the Cromwell vol ume out of it .

W here wo ul d yo u want it to go ? he said in

an odd voice This i s a valuable book
. .

On the fth shelf said R oger , .
there

For G od s sake stand back said Aubrey , .
D on t go near him There s something damn

.

able about this .

Yo u poor fools ! cried Metzger harshl y -
To .
h ell with yo u and yo ur old books He d rew his

hand back as though to throw the volume at them .
There was a quick patter of feet an d B ock , ,
growling ran down the aisle In the same instant

, .
,
Aubrey obeyin g some u nexp lained impulse gave

, ,
Roger a violent p ush back into the Fiction alcove ,
seized Titania roughly in his arms and ran with ,
her toward the back of the shop .
M etzger s a rm was rai s ed about to throw the

,
b ook when Bock darted at him and bu ried his

,
teeth in the man s leg Th e Cromwell fell from his

.
hand .
There was a shattering explosion a du ll roar , ,
and for an instant Aubrey thought the whole

bookshop had turned into a va s t spinning top .
Th e oor ro cked and s agged shelves of b ooks were ,
hur led in every direction C arrying Titania h e .

,
had just reached the steps leadin g to the domesti c

For heaven s s ake have you a can dle ?

, he
s aid .

W here s Roger ? she cried piteo usly a nd

stumbled into the kitchen .
W ith a candle Aub rey found Titania sittin g

on the oor very faint b u t unhurt W hat he had
, , .
thought was blood proved to be a poo l of ink from

a quart bottle that had stood ove r Ro ger s desk
.
He picked h er up like a child an d ca rried her

into the kitchen Stay here and don t stir
he said .
B y t his time a crowd wa s already gatherin g on

the pavement Someone came in wi t h a lantern
. .
Thr ee policemen appea red at the door .

For G od s sake c ried Aub rey get a light in

, ,
here so we can see what s happened Mifin s

.

b uried in this mess somewhere Someone ring for .

an amb ulance .
Th e whole fr ont of the Haunted Bookshop w a s

a wreck In the pale glimm er of th e lantern it
.
wa s a disa s trous sight Helen groped her way .
down the s hatte red ais le .

W here was he ? she cried wildly .

Than ks to that s et of Tro ll ope s aid a voice in ,

t h e rema in s of the Fiction al cove I thin k I m
'
,
all right Books make good shock abso rbers

.
-
.

Is any one h urt ?
It wa s Roger half stunned but undamaged, , .
He crawled out from under a case of shelves that

ha d crumpled down upon him .
B ring that lantern over h ere said Aubrey

, ,
pointi n g to a dark heap lying on the oor unde r the

broken fragments of Roger s bulletin boa rd

.
It w a s the chef He was dead An d clinging to

. .
his leg wa s all that wa s left of Bock .

" "
MR CHAP MAN WA VE S Hrs WAND

.
ISSIN G Street will not soon forget the ex

plo s ion at the Haunted Bookshop When .
it wa s learned that the cell ar of Wein

traub s pharmacy contained just the information

for which the D epartment of Ju s tice had been

looking for fo ur years and that the inoffensive
,
German American druggi s t had been the art isan

-
of hundreds of incendiary bombs that had been

placed on American and Allied shippin g and in

ammunition plants and that this same W ein
t raub had committed s uicide when arre s ted on

B romeld S treet in B oston the next day G is s ing
Street h ummed with excitement Th e Milwaukee
.
Lun ch did a roar ing bu s iness among the sen s ation

seeker s w h o came to view the ruins of the book
shop When it became known that fragments of
.
a cabin plan of the George W a shingt on had b een

foun d in M etz ger s p ocket and the conf ession of

,
an a ccomplice on the kitchen s taff of the O ctagon

Hotel showed that the bomb di sgui sed a s a c opy
,
of one of Woodrow W ilson s favourite book s was

,
270
Roger IS the kin d that doesn t co s t yo u an y
,

thing .
Au brey smiled a s he looked round a t the dis

mantled shop It see ms to me that this ll co s t

you a tidy bit when t h e bill comes in .

M y dear fellow s aid Roger

This i s j ust
, ,
what I needed I was getting into a rut Th e

. .
exp losion has blown o u t a whole lot of books I
had forgotten about and didn t even know I had

.
Look he re s an old copy of H ow to B e Ha ppy

,
Though M a rried whi ch I s ee the publi sher lists

,
as Fiction

Here s Urn B u ria l and The Love
.

,
Affa irs of a B iblioma nia c and Bl ist let oe s B ook O f

Dep lora ble Fa cts I m going to have a thorough

.

ho u se clea ning I m thinking s eriou s ly of put

-
.

ting in a vacuum cleane r and a ca sh regi ster Ti .
tania was quite right the place was too dirty , .

That gir l ha s given me a lot of idea s .
Aubrey wanted to as k where s he wa s b ut didn t

,
like to s ay s o point b lank -

.

Th ere s no question ab out it said Roger

, ,
an explo s ion now and then does one good Since .
the r epo rte rs got he re and d ragged the whol e yarn

out of u s I ve had half a dozen offers from pub
,

lish ers for my book a lyceu m b ureau want s me to

,
lec ture on Books elling as a Fo rm of Public S ervice ,
I ve had ve hun dred letters f rom people as king

when the shop wil l reopen for bu s ine ss and t h e ,

American Books ellers As s oc iation has invi ted me
to give an address at its convention next spring .
It s the rs t recognition I ve ever b a d If it

.
we ren t for poor dear old Bock

C ome we ve ,

bu ried him in the back yard I want to show yo u .

his g rave .
O ve r a pathetically small mound near the fence

a b un ch of big yellow Chrysanthemums were s t and
ing in a va s e .
Titania p u t those there said Roger Sh e , .
says she s going to plant a dogwood tree the re

in the sp ring W e intend to put up a littl e s tone

.
for him and I m trying to think of an in s cription

,

I thought of De Mort uis Nil Nisi B on um bu t ,

that s a bit t oo ipp a n t

.
Th e living quar ters of the hou s e had not been

damaged by the explo s ion and Roger took Aubrey ,

back to the den You ve come ju s t at the right
.
time , he said
Mr C hapman s comin g to
. .

dinner this evening and we ll a ll have a good talk,

.
There s a lot abo u t thi s bu s iness I don t under

stand yet .
Aubrey wa s still keeping hi s eye open for a s ign

of Titania s presence and Roger noticed his wan

,
der ing gaze .
Thi s is Mi s s C hapman s afternoon off

he ,

s aid . Sh e got her rs t sala ry to day and wa s s o -
,
much exhilarated that she went to New York to

blow it in She s o u t with her father E xc use
.

.
me plea s e I m going to help Helen get dinner

, ,

ready .
Aubrey sat down b y the re and lit his pipe , .
Th e burden of his meditation was that it was just

a week sin ce he had rs t met Titania and in all ,
that week th ere had been no waking mo ment when

he had not thought of her He wa s wonderin g .
h ow long it might take for a girl to fall in love ?

A man h e knew now co ul d fall in love in ve
minute s but how did it work with gi rl s ? He wa s
,
also think ing what unique Da in t yb it s advertis

ing copy he coul d build (like a ll ad men he a l
ways spoke of building an ad neve r of writ ing
_
,
o n e) o u t of this affair if he could only use the inside
stuff .
He h eard a ru stle b ehin d him and there she ,
wa s She had on a gray fur coat and a lively

.
little hat Her cheeks we re delica tely tinted b y

.
t h e winter air Aubrey ro s e . .

Why M r Gilbert ! she said
,

. W here have .
yo u been keeping you rself when I wanted to s ee

you so badly ? I haven t seen yo u not to talk to
, ,

since la s t S unday .
He found it i mpo ss ible to say anything intel

ligible Sh e th rew off her coat and went on
.
, ,
with a wis tful gravity that beca me her even more

It was a happy little party that sat down in
Roger s dinin g room that evening Hel en had

.
prepared E gg s Samuel Butler in Aub rey s honour
and Mr C hapman had b r ought two bottle s of

.
champagne to pledge the futur e succe s s of the

bookshop Aub rey w a s c alled upon to announ ce
.
the re s ult of his confe rences with the secret

service men who had been looking up W eint ra ub s
rec o rd
.

It all seems s o simple now he sai d that I

, ,
wonder we didn t s ee thro ugh it at once You see

.
,
w e a ll made the mistake of as s uming that Ge rman

plottin g would s top automatically when the
armi s tice w a s signed It seems that this man
.
Weintraub was one of the most dangerous spies

Germany had in this count ry Thirty or forty
.
res and explo s ions on o u r ships at sea ar e said to

have been due to his work As he had lived here
so long and taken o u t citiz en s papers no one

,
s uspected him B ut after his death his wife

. , ,
whom he had treated very brutally gave wa y and ,
told a great deal about his activiti es According .
to h er as soon a s it wa s announce d that the

,
President wo uld go to the Peac e C onfe rence ,
W eintraub made up his mind to get a bomb into

the President s cabin on boar d the George W a sh

ington . Mrs Weintraub tried to dissuade him

.
from it as she was in secret opposed to these mur

,
derous plots of hi s but he threatened to kil l her

,
if she thwarted him Sh e lived in terror of her .
l ife I can believe it for I remember her face

.
,
when her hu s band looked at he r .
Of cou rs e to make the bomb wa s simple eno ugh

fo r W eintraub H e had an infernally complete
.
laboratory in the ce llar of his hou s e where he had ,
made hund red s Th e problem was how to make

.
,
a bomb that would not look s uspiciou s and how ,
to get it into the P resident s p rivate cabin He

.
hit on the idea of binding it into the cove r of a

book Ho w he came to choose that particular
.
vol ume I don t know

,

.

I think p robably I gave him the idea quite

innocently said Roger , He u s ed to come in .
here a good deal and one day he a sked me whether

M r W il s on was a great r eader I s aid that I
. .
believed he was and th en mentioned the Crom

,
well which I had he a rd wa s one oi Wil s on s

,
favo u rite books W eintraub wa s much intere s ted

.
and s aid he mu s t r ead the book s ome day I re .
member now that h e s tood in that alcove for s ome

time looking ove r it
, .

Well s aid Aub rey, 1 t mu s t have s eemed to
,
him that lu ck wa s playing into hi s hand s This .
m a n M etzge r who had b een an a ss i s tant chef at

,
t h e O ctagon fo r yea rs wa s s lated to go on boa r d

,
the George W a shington with t h e party of cooks

from that hotel wh o were to prepare the Pre s ident s
meal s Weintraub was inf ormed of all this from

.
someone high er u p in the German spy o rganiza

tion Metzger who w a s known as Me ssier at the
. ,
hotel wa s a very clever chef and had fake pa s s

, ,
p orts as a Swi ss citizen H e was. another tool of

the organiz ation B y the original s ch eme the re
.
would have been no direct co mmunication be tween

Weintraub and Metzger b u t the go between w a s
,
-
s potted by the Department of Ju s tice on another

co unt and i s now behind bars at Atlanta
, .

It s eems that W eintraub had conceived the
idea that the le a s t su spicio us wa y of pass ing his
m e s sages to Metzger would be to s lip them into a

copy of some book a book little lik ely to be

p urchased in a second hand book shop Me tz ger
-
.
had been in formed what the bo ok w a s but ,
perhaps owing to the unexpected removal of the

g o
-
betwe e n d id not know in whi ch shop he was to
nd it That explain s why so many books ellers
.
had in quiri e s f ro m him recently for a copy of the

Cromwell volum e .

Weintraub of co urse was not at al l anxio us
, ,
to have a ny dir ect dealin gs wit h M etzger as the ,
druggi s t had a high regard for hi s own skin W hen .
the chef was nally inf o rmed where the bookshop

w a s in which he w a s t o see the book he h urried ,
over here W eintra u b had picked out th i s shop

.
that he had located the bookshop but didn t ,

know what to do next An d the date he men

.
t ion ed in the ad midnight on T ue s day D ecember

, ,
third was to inform We intraub (of who s e identity

,
he was still ignorant) when M etz ger was to go on

board the ship Weintraub had been instructed
.
by their spy organi z ation to watch the L osr and

'

F O U N D ads .

Thin k of it ! cried Titan ia .

Well continued Aub rey all this may not
, ,
b e 1 0 0 per cent accurate but after putting things

.
,
together this is how it dope s out Weint raub .

,
who was as canny as they m ak e them saw he d ,

have to get into direct touch with Metzger He .
sent him word on the Friday to come over to

, ,
see him and bring the b ook Metz ger meanwhile .

, ,
had had a bad fright when I spoke to him in the

hotel elevator He ret urned the bo ok to the shop
.
that night as Mrs Mitin remembers Then

, . .
,
when I stopped in at the dru g store on my way

home he mu s t have been with Weintraub I
, .
fo und the Cromwell cover in the drug s tore book -

case why Wein traub wa s carele s s enough to

leave it there I can t gu ess and they spotted me

right away as hav ing some kin d of hun ch S o .
they followed me over the B ridge and t ried to

get rid of me It w as because I got that cover
.
on Friday night that Weintraub broke into the

shop again early S unday morning He had to .

have the cover of the book to bind hi s bomb in .
Aubrey was agreeably consciou s of the cl os e

attention of hi s audience He caught Titania s .

gaze and ushed a little

, ,

That s p re tty nea rly all the r e is to it he said

, .
I knew that if tho s e guys were so keen to put

me out of the way there mu s t be s omething rather
rotten on foot I came over to B rooklyn the next
.
afte rnoon Satu rday and took a room across the

, ,

street .

An d we went to the movies ch irped Titania , .

Th e re s t of it I think yo u a ll know except

Metz ger s vi s it to my lodgings that night He

.

described the incident You see they were trail .
ing me pretty clo s e If I hadn t happ ened to .

notice the cigar at my window I gu e ss he d have
had me on toast Of cour s e you know how wrongly

.
I doped it out I thought Mr Mitin was run

. .
ning with them and I owe him my apology for ,
that He s laid me out once on that score over in

.

,

Philad elphia .
Humo rou sly Aub rey narrated how he had

,
sleuthed the book s ell er to Ludlow Street and had ,
been wo rs ted in battle .
I think they counted on dispo s ing of me sooner

or later s aid Aub rey
, Th ey f ramed up that .
telephone call to get Mr M ifin o u t of town Th e . .

point in having M etzger come to the bookshop to

g et the s uitca s e was to clear W ein t ra ub s skirts

if po ss ible Apparently it was ju s t a b ag of old

.
books Th e bombed book I gu e ss was perfec t ly

.
, ,

harmle ss until any one trie d to open it .

You both got back ju s t in the nick of time ,
said Titania adm iringly You see I was all al one .
mo s t of the afternoon Weintraub left the suit .

ca s e about two o clock Metzger came for it .
about s ix I refu s ed to let him have it He wa s

. .
very pers istent and I had to threaten to set Bock ,
at him It was all I co uld do to hold the dear old

.
dog in he wa s s o keen to go for Metzger Th e

, .
c hef w ent away and I suppo s e he went up to see ,
W eintraub about it I hid the s uitcas e in my .
room Mr Mifin had forbidden me to to u ch it

.

.
,
b ut I thought that the safes t thing to do Then .
Mrs M itin came in W e let Bock into the

. .
yard for a run and were getting s upper I heard, .
t h e b ell ring and went into the shop , There were .
t h e two Ge rman s pulling down the shades ,I .
a sked what the y meant by it and they grabbed ,
me and told me to shut up Then M etzger pointed .
a pi s to l at me while the other one tied up Mrs .
Mitin .

Th e damned s cound rel s cried Aub rey .

They got what wa s c oming to them .
W ell my friend s s aid Mr C hapman Let s

.
, , ,
in this edition three volume s are boun d in one .
Le t s look at page 1 5 3 in the third vol um e the

rst and second line s .
Aub r ey turned to the place He read and .

,
Right you are he said , .

Read it ! they all cried .
TO seduce the Protector s d blow up the

gua r , t o
Protect or in his bedroom, a nd do other litt le ddling

th ings .

I sho uldn t wonder if that s where he got his

idea said Roger What have I b een saying

, .

right along that books aren t merely dead

things !

G ood gracious said Titania , Yo u told me .
that books are explo s ives Y o u were right .

,
weren t you ! But it s lu cky Mr Gilb e rt didn t

.

hear you say it or he d cer tainly have s uspected

you !

Th e joke is on me said Roger , .
Well I Ue got a toa s t to p ropo s e s aid Titania

,

, .
Here s to the m emo ry of Bock the dearest

, ,

b ravest dog I ever met !
They dr ank it with due gr avity .

Well good people , said Mr Chapman
, .
,
t her e s nothing we can do for Bo ck now But

.

we can do s omethin g for the re s t of u s I ve b een .

talking with Titania Mr Bl ifin I m bo und , . .
THE HA UN TED B OOKS HOP
t o say that after this disaster my rst tho ugh t wa s

t o get her out of the book bu s iness as fast a s I
could I thought it wa s a little too exciting for
.
her Yo u know I sent h er over he re to have a

.
quiet time and calm down a bit But she wouldn t .

hear of leaving An d if I m going to have a family

.

interest in the book b us ine s s I want to do s ome

thing to ju s tify it I know you r idea about travel
.
ling book wagon s and takin g literatu r e into the

-
,
countryside Now if you and Mrs M itin can

. .
nd the proper peopl e to run them I ll nance a ,

ee t of ten of tho s e Pa rna ss use s you re always
talking abo ut and have th em b uilt in time to go

,

on the road next sp ring How about it ? .
Roger and Helen looked at each othe r and at ,
M r C hapman In a a sh Roger saw one of his

. .
dearest dream s coming true Titania to whom .

,
this was a surp ri s e leaped from her chair and ran

,

to ki s s her father crying Oh D addy yo u a re a
, , , ,

darling !
Roger rose solemn ly and gave Mr C hapman .
his hand .

My dear sir he said Miss Tita nia ha s found

, ,
the right wo rd You are an honour to human

.
natu re sir and I hope you ll never live to regret

, ,

it This is the happiest moment of my lif e .
Then that s settled

said Mr Chapman

, . .
W e ll go over the details later Now there s

.
another thing on my mind Perhaps I sho ul dn t .

b ring u p business matte rs h ere but this is a kind ,
of family pa rty Mr Gilbe rt it s my duty t o

-
.
,

inf o rm you that I intend to take my adverti sin g

out of the hands of t h e Grey Matter Agency -
.
Aubrey s heart sank He had feared a cata s

.
t rop h e of thi s kin d from the rst '

Naturally a .
ha rd headed bu s ine s s man wo uld not car e to en

-
t ru s t su ch va s t interes ts to a rm who s e youn g men

went careering about like s ecret s ervi ce agent s ,
huntin g for spies eave s d ropping in alleys , ,
and ac cus in g people of pro germani s m B u s ines s -

.
,
Aub rey s aid to himself i s built upon Condence , ,
and what condence could Mr Chapman have in .
s u ch V agabond and romantic doings ? Still he ,
felt that he had done noth in g to be a shamed of .

I m sorry sir he s aid

, , We have tried to .
give you service I as s ur e you that I ve spent

.

by fa r the large r part of my time at the ofce in

wo rking up plan s fo r your campaign s .
He coul d not b ea r to look at Titania ashamed ,
that sh e shoul d be the witne ss of his humiliation

T hat s exactly it

s aid Mr C hapman , I . .
don t want ju s t the larger part of your time I

.
want all of it I want yo u to accept the po s ition

.
of a s si s tant advertising manager of the D a in t yb it s

C orpma t ion '
.
They all cheered and for the third time that

,
W ill you write myame in it ?
n

I d love to she s aid a little shakily for she

, , , ,
too was strangely a l armed at certain th robbings

, .
He gave her hi s pen and she sat down at t h e ,
table Sh e wrote quickly

.
F or A ubrey Gilbert
From Tit a nia Ch a pma n
W ith much gr
Sh e paused .

Oh she s aid q uickl y
, D o I have to n ish it .

now ?
Sh e looked up at him with the lamp light shining ,
on he r vivid face Au brey felt oddly st upeed

.
,
and was thinking only of the little golden sparkle

of her eyela shes This time her eyes were the rst
.
to tu rn away .
You see she said with a funn y little qu aver

, ,
I might want to change the wording .
An d she ran from the room .
As she entered the den her father wa s speak ,
in g
.

Yo u know he said I m rather glad she
, ,

wants to stay in the book b u sine s s .
Roger looked up at he r .

W ell he s aid , I b elieve it agree s with her !
,
Yo u know the beauty of living in a place like

,
this is that you get so absorbed in the books yo u

don t have any temptation to worry abo ut any

thing el s e Th e people in books become more

.

real to you than any one in actual life
.
Titania s itting on the a r m of Mrs Bl ifin s

, .
chair took Helen s hand unob s erved by the

,

,
others They smiled at each other slyly

. .
TH E E N D
THE C O UN T RY F
LI E P RES S
GA RD E N C IT Y . N . Y,

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T H E H AUNTE D

C HRI STOPHE R M ORLEY

ALL RIGH TS RES ER VE D IN CL UD ING T HA T O F

TRANS LA TIO N IN TO FO REIGN LAN GU A GES ,

INC LU DING THE SC AN DIN AVIAN

little book is dedica t ed to yo u in affection and

Th e faul ts of t h e composition are plain t o y o u a ll .

I began me rely in the hope of saying somethin g

you have been kind enough to applau d But .

then came Miss Titania Chapman and my yo ung ,

ad verti s ing man fell in love with her and t h e t wo

of them rather ran away with the tale .

I think I should explain that the pass ag e in

of M r Sidney D rew was written before the

lamented death of that charming artist B ut as .

it was a s incere tribute s incerely meant I have

s een no reason for removing it .

C hapters I II III and VI appeared originally

in The B ookma n and to the e ditor of that a dmir

able maga z ine I owe thanks for his permi ss ion to

N ow that Roger is to have ten Parn a s suses on

you may encounter them on th eir travel s An d if

yo u do I hop e you will n d that these new err ants

of the Parnass u s on W h eel s C o rpo ration a re living

W i shes He Knew M ore Germ an

Titania Tr ies Reading in Bed

Th e Battle of Lu dl ow Str eet.

Th e Cromw ell M akes Its La s t Ap

Mr . Chapman W aves His Wand

THE HA UN TE D B OOKS HOP

F Y OU are ever in Brooklyn th at boro ugh

of superb sun s ets and m agnicent vistas of

hoped you may chance upon a qui et b y s treet -

where there is a very remarkable b ookshop .

This book shop wh i ch does bu s in es s u nder the

one of the comf ortable O ld brown s tone dwellings-

which have been the joy of several generation s of

b us ine s s has b een at pains to remodel the house

whi ch deals entirely in second hand volumes -

There is no second hand books hop in the world

more worthy of respect .

It was about s ix o clock of a cold Nove mber

evening with gus ts of rain splattering upon the

t a in ly along Gi ss ing S t r eet stopping now and then

to look at shop windows a s though doubtful of his

rOt isserie he halt e d to compar e the nu mb er enam

elled on the tran s om with a memorandum in his

hand Then h e pu shed on for a few minute s at

last reachin g the address he sought O ver the .

entran ce hi s eye was caught by the S ign

He st umbled down the three steps that led in to

collar and l ooked abo ut

It w as very different from s uch b ookstores as he

O f the old hou s e had been thrown into one : the

lower space w a s divided into little alcove s ; above ,

a gall ery ran ro und the wall which carried books

to the ceil ing Th e air was heavy with the de

lightful fr agrance of mellowed paper and leather

front of him he fo und a large p lacard in a

Th e shop had a warm and comfortable O bscurity ,

a kind O f drows y du sk s tabbed here and th ere by

bright cones of yellow light from green shaded-

electrics There wa s an all pervas ive dr ift of