“No sign of the Mystery yet?” breathed Dorothy.
“Nary a sign. I’m off! Good luck.”
And if finding the mysterious “John Smith” was sure enough good luck, Dorothy could consider herself fortunate within half on hour. A lanky, hesitating youth approached the general delivery window. Twice he stepped back and allowed other people to get in front of him. Somehow Dorothy’s attention was particularly attracted to the nondescript’s face.
He might have been seventeen—perhaps older. There was a little yellow fuzz on his cheeks and chin, showing that his blonde beard was sprouting early. He was possessed of sharp features and a high and narrow forehead, prominent, watery blue eyes, and scarcely a vestige of eyebrows or lashes. This lack in the upper part of his face gave him a blank appearance—like the end wall of a house with two shutterless windows in it.
Below his countenance was quite as unattractive. In the first place he had a retreating, weak chin, prominent upper teeth, and an enormous Adam’s apple. He was evidently nervous, or bashful. Dorothy saw him swallow several times before he could speak to the clerk inside the window. And when he swallowed, that bunch in his throat went up and down in a most ridiculous way.
“What did you say the name was?” Dorothy heard the mail clerk ask.
The shambling youth repeated it: “John Smith. Mis-ter John Smith. Yes, sir. Thank ye, sir.”
The boy backed away with something white in his hand which Dorothy knew to be her letter. A newspaper, pushed through the window, fluttered to the floor of the corridor. But Dorothy was already going out of the post-office.
The youth followed her out. The letter had been put away somewhere in his skimpy clothing; for it must be admitted that not a garment visible on the stranger seemed to fit him.
Either his trousers, and coat, and vest, had been intended for a much smaller youth, or he was growing so fast that he could not wear a suit out before wrists, ankles, and neck were thrust through their several openings in the clothes in a most ridiculous fashion.