Skeptic Brown

Prown was the sworn foe of superstiti'iou. He derided all the good old gavs and he jeered at omens. It was his one hobby, this warfare with the believers in signs and porteuts. There was uo meroy iii biru for the crodulous. He langhed at broken rairrors. Nothiug pleased him better thau to see the new moon over his left shoulder. The ever recnrriug terror of 13 at a table he had reduced to a mathematioal probleru to be solved through the law of chances and the statistics of life insurauce actnaries. Three moruings in the week he put on his right shoe flrst. On the other four the left preceded the right. Last, but not least, he had taken lodgings in a rather poor neighborhood becanse it abouuded in white cats, and the likelihood of one of the unlucky animáis orossing his path was thereby greatly Increased. These things did not add to his popularity. Most men shnnned him. So did forne women, thongh their aversión to him interested, no one bnt themselves, ior Brown would have been a misogyuist had he been able to cherish two great hatreds simultaneonsly. Sometimes, though, he longed for more friends of his own sex. He had but two or three, and he could not preach to them always. There was a point a"t which they rebelled, and when that point was reached _ Brown feit alone in the world. So at last, through growing dread of isolation, he carne to spare these two or three, which proves that the man of one idea may learn in the school of bitter experience. Even wben, ont of the goodness of their hearts, they now and then cleared the lists for him to break a lance in his favorito cause he declined the challenge - sometimes. And then the others began to fear for his health. "Your trouble, Brown, is that yon lack au actual test, ' ' observed Ferguson, on one of these occasions of combat declined. "Yon're theoretical. You've never faced a ghost nor heard a snpernatnral voice. Now, if you only conld have something uncanny happen. " Ferguson paused, partly because he thonght he had said enough in the way of enconragement, but more lause his eigar demanded attention. Kandall nodded approval of the curtailed sentiment. The three had been dining together and were lingering over the coffee. "No, I've escaped so f ar, " Brown answered slowly. "At least - well, nothing has occurred to shake my mon sense. Truth is, thongh, I may be able to teil you something convincing ín a few days. Last night I had what Bome fools would cali a warning. " "What?" cried Randall. "You had?" asked Ferguson incredukrasly. "I had a dream, " Brown continued. "I don't know wherethe scène was laid or whether there was any. Bnt I held a bit of newspaper with edges jagged, as if it had been torn from the sheet. On one side was what seemed to be an account of a curious accident to a sound stearner which was rnn into by a 8chooner whose jib boom pierced the wall of a stateroom and impaled the occupaut. The name of thesteamer was missing." "And the passenger's name?" queried Randall. "It was not tt be fonnd in the part of the article bef ore me. " "Sure it was a sound steamer?" Fergnson asked. "Yes. Something in the context made tfaat clear. There was no bint uf the date. I turned the paper over, but found on the other side nothing but part of a table of stock quotations. Great Eastern common had closed at 20 -that 's all I remember to have noticed. " "I'd like to see the stuff there eveu in a dream," said Ferguson fe'elingly. He ventured into Wall street occasionally. "No doubt you would, " said Randall. "But, Brown, where's the warning? Are you going down east?" "Yes. Tin due iu Boston next Saturday morniug. And I always go by boat. ' ' "This time too?" "Certainly, " responded Brown with dignity. "This time of all times. " "Well, I'd stay asboreif Iwereyou," Bandall couuseled. "As a boy I had uy fill of trying to 6ee if things were loaded. ' ' The skeptic smiled a superior srnile. "I have already arranged for the trip, " he announced. "This morning I reserved a stateroom on the Y ankeeland - she's next Friday's boat. In 6hort, I propose to prove so couclusively the"- "Precisely, " said Ferguson, rising irom the table in soine haste, "we realize what you expect to prove, old mau. I know you think it too good a chance to be wasted ; but, just as a friend of yonrs, I'd get out an iujunction to keep you from going - I would indeed - if it ■were uot for that quotation of Great Eastern at 20. In view of such a freak of midnight phantasy I guess I won't have you dragged into court. But you ooght to be fiued for dreamiug such a thing and unduly exciting the imagination of thehonest poor, who'veput good money into that stock. " Browu's friends bade him good night at the door of the restaurant. "Well, what do you think?" said Fergnson to Randall, as they walked ap fcown together. "Oh, if anybody else had had such a dream I'd be worried, " said Randall to Ferguson. "But Brown won't be even frightened - more's the pity. By the way, he has loaned me one of his scientific antighost boóks. I'm going to read it as a personal favor to him - that is, if I can. It's heavy enough, though, to make me doubt my ability to finish it. ' ' And he took a tighter grip on the neatly wrapped volume he had tucked under one arm. To Randall, at work in his office the following Saturday afternoon, appeared JTerguson, who thrust a newspaper into ttis hand and dropped into a chair beside his desk. "Look at the stock table I" gasped the Ca Her. "Urn ! What of it?" Randall asked. "Great Eu-; irn at. 20." "So I ohserve. Insiders have böosted the stuff, that's ill. " "Now read an item ou the flrst page third column, about half way down. '' "All right, " said the other. "Helio I" he added a moment later, "that's odd, isn't it?" "Odd! It's terrible. PoorBrown!" "It's odd, very odd," Raudall repeated. "So the Yaiikesland was in collisiou, eh? Nothing said aboVit auybody being injured. " "They've snppressed that part," groaned Ferguson. "Poor oldBrown! Can 't we do something? Let's go to his rooms. They may have had word there. ' ' "Very well, " said Randall, rising and putting on hishat. "I'm with yon. But if I were you I wouldn't give np hope by any manner of means. ' ' As the pair approached the house in which Brown had lodgings that gentleman opened the door and carne down the steps. Ferguson gave a cry of relief at sight of liini. Raudall langhed softly. "You didn't take the boat then?" he asked. "No, I was - er - detained, " Brown stammered. "I'm going to Forty-second street now to catoh a train. " "Have you seen the papers?" Ferguson put in. "Great Eastern run up, and the Yankeeland run down. Notice it?" "I've read the items," Brown confessed. "Curious coinoidence, so to epeak, wasn't it? I - I don't know just what to make of it. " "You've been saved in spite of yourself. You ought to be mighty thankfnl, " said Ferguson, a little warmly. "Oh, 111 be honest with yon," responded Brown with an effort. "I wasn't aotually detained - that is, I raight have caught the boat. But it had oocurred to me - I bad four days to think things over, you know - that perhaps by staying in town and waiting to see if the Y ankeeland met with an accident I'd have just as good a chance to prove the f alsity of the omen. ' ' "Do you cali it proved false?" "Umi Hardly, hardly, ' : said Brown. "An nnfortunate incident, very unfortnnate, I must say. It has a jiost unsettled my convictions. " Ant8 glanced about ïnru nervously. "You'll be taking a car at the corner," said Randall. "We'll toddie along with yon. ' ' The three had advanced hardly 50 feet when Brown dashed from between his corupanions and ran to the gutter. "Look out!" he cried. "Don 't yon see those painters at work overhead? They're on a ladder. Don't walk under it. It 's unlucky. " No sooner had this perilbeen avoided than he dropped to his knees and feil to picking at a crack in the sidewalk. "Horribly unlucky to pass that," he explained, lifting a pin from the crevice. "So I've been told," said Randall, ■with a chuckle. Ferguson lacked words appropriate to the occasion. They halted at the corner, but Brown pretended not to see the first car which passed. The others saw it very plainly. It was No. 13. They put their friend aboard the next, which proved to have a nuniber above suspicion. "This affair beats me, " said Ferguson soberly. "What ails Brown anyway?" "Nothing much, " replied Randall, "only he's gone from one extreme to the other. He didn't believe anything. Now he believes everything. That 's all." "I don't blame him - after such an escape. "Yon think the spirits warnedhim?" "Whoelse?" "One Brown. " "He warued himself? Impossible!" "Not at all. His own memory did the business. " "Memory of something to happen in the future! That's uonsense. " "No more nousense than hisuewborn fears. " "I give np the conundrum. What's the aiiswer?" "I can't teil you in a word. You recollect the book he lent me the other night, don't you? Well, he'd beeu reading it the eveuing before - at least so he told me -and that was the evening preceding the visión. When I got home, I took off the old newspaper in which the book had been wrapped and feil to skimming - skipping about, you nnderstaud. Pretty soon I found a piece of paper stuck between two pages, evidently to mark the place where Brown had stopped. Not being much interested in the book, I beguu to look over the slip - and what do you suppose it was? The very fragment Brown had seen in his dream!" "Eh?" "Yes, sir. The very same. Then I thought of the paper which had been around the book, picked it up froin the floor" - "Go on, man. Go on I" oried Ferguson. "And found that the small piece just fltted a hole in it. That newspaper was nearly six montas old, as it had to be to contain a quotation of Great Eastern at 20. It was clear enough what had happeued. Brown, when he tore off the slip to stick in the book, read both sides of it without really kuowing what he was doing. Thenhe ïnnst have dreamed about it, and you know as well as I do wbat resulted. " "But the accident to the steamer - it was a sound steamer" - "Puget sound. The item was reprinted from a western paper and was duly credited. There has been acurious coiuoidence, that's a fact, but the warning theory is rather spoiled. " The pair strode on in silence for a time. At last Ferguson turned toward his companion with a question : "When are yougoing totell Brown?" "Not for some time,"said Raudall decisively. "Nature has a way of averaging up things. Brown has a lot of believing to do to make up for his unbelief. You wouldn't have me iuterfering prematurely with the benevolent