In the Midst of Alarms | Page 3

had vaguely felt that he was trespassing when he first entered the hotel, and now his doubts were confirmed.
"I--I am not exactly a guest," he stammered.
"What do you mean by not exactly a guest?" continued the other, regarding the professor with a cold and scrutinizing gaze. "A man is either a guest or he is not, I take it. Which is it in your case?"
"I presume, technically speaking, I am not."
"Technically speaking! More evasions. Let me ask you, sir, as an ostensibly honest man, if you imagine that all this luxury--this--this elegance--is maintained for nothing? Do you think, sir, that it is provided for any man who has cheek enough to step out of the street and enjoy it? Is it kept up, I ask, for people who are, technically speaking, not guests?"
The expression of conscious guilt deepened on the face of the unfortunate professor. He Had nothing, to say. He realized that his conduct was too flagrant to admit of defense, so he attempted none. Suddenly the countenance of his questioner lit up with a smile, and he smote the professor on the shoulder.
"Well, old stick-in-the-mud, you haven't changed a particle in fifteen years! You don't mean to pretend you don't know me?"
"You can't--you can't be Richard Yates?"
"I not only can, but I can't be anybody else. I know, because I have often tried. Well, well, well, well! Stilly we used to call you; don't you remember? I'll never forget that time we sang 'Oft in the stilly night' in front of your window when you were studying for the exams. You always were a quiet fellow, Stilly. I've been waiting for you nearly a whole day. I was up just now with a party of friends when the boy brought me your card--a little philanthropic gathering--sort of mutual benefit arrangement, you know: each of us contributed what we could spare to a general fund, which was given to some deserving person in the crowd."
"Yes," said the professor dryly. "I heard the clerk telling the boy where he would be most likely to find you."
"Oh, you did, eh?" cried Yates, with a laugh. "Yes, Sam generally knows ere to send for me; but he needn't have been so darned public about it. Being a newspaper man, I know what ought to go in print and what should have the blue pencil run through it. Sam is very discreet, as a general thing; but then he knew, of course, the moment he set eyes on you, that you were an old pal of mine."
Again Yates laughed, a very bright and cheery laugh for so evidently wicked a man.
"Come along," he said, taking the professor by the arm. "We must get you located."
They passed out into the hall, and drew up at the clerk's counter.
"I say, Sam," cried Yates, "can't you do something better for us than the fifth floor? I didn't come to Buffalo to engage in ballooning. No sky parlors for me, if I can help it."
"I'm sorry, Dick," said the clerk; "but I expect the fifth floor will be gone when the Chicago express gets in."
"Well, what can you do for us, anyhow?"
"I can let you have 518. That's the next room to yours. Really, they're the most comfortable rooms in the house this weather. Fine lookout over the lake. I wouldn't mind having a sight of the lake myself, if I could leave the desk."
"All right. But I didn't come to look at the lake, nor yet at the railroad tracks this side, nor at Buffalo Creek either, beautiful and romantic as it is, nor to listen to the clanging of the ten thousand locomotives that pass within hearing distance for the delight of your guests. The fact is that, always excepting Chicago, Buffalo is more like--for the professor's sake I'll say Hades, than any other place in America."
"Oh. Buffalo's all right," said the clerk, with that feeling of local loyalty which all Americans possess. "Say, are you here on this Fenian snap?"
"What Fenian snap?" asked the newspaper man.
"Oh! don't you know about it? I thought, the moment I saw you, that you were here for this affair. Well, don't say I told you, but I can put you on to one of the big guns if you want the particulars. They say they're going to take Canada. I told 'em that I wouldn't take Canada as a gift, let alone fight for it. I've been there."
Yates' newspaper instinct thrilled him as he thought of the possible sensation. Then the light slowly died out of his eyes when he looked at the professor, who had flushed somewhat and compressed his lips as he listened to the slighting remarks on his country.
"Well, Sam," said the newspaper man at last, "it isn't more than once in a lifetime that