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About The Red Cloud chief. (Red Cloud, Webster Co., Neb.) 1873-1923 | View Entire Issue (March 17, 1905)
8flpft ' 1 ' .$. ' ' "mmm-TiFF : ' ' mm lTHTTT- . !rw rfcJ,, i. ., i .,-! .vt, ,&.Jj ' liiMni- j A -i h. r Mlwril iiiiimii - -t,.I IP4- WW-" ;-; ,in ' imii '. &iftn.n v-i.ii1 i i .-,. 'f 1 l 4.m'H-4.mM' 67i Gentleman 1 . From Indiana . Copyright. t8DD. h)( Tioublcday $ opyrignt, iuu, f? ???? o ... v..nHT-l..mlM(4MMt 1 1 i fCONTINt'IID rilOM LAST WIIKK.) "No, yon couldn't. It's the ribbon of superiority In your buttonhole 1 know several women who manage to live without men to open doors for thi'in, and 1 think I could bear to lit a iiiiui pass before mc now nml then or wear his lint In mi olllce where 1 happened to be, and I could pet my own ice nt a dunce, I think, possibly with even lews fus and scramble than I've sometimes observed in the .voting men who have done it for me. Hut you know you would never let us do things for our selves, no matter what legal equality might be declared, even when wo got " """ .iihui. 1,111 will never lie able to deny yourselves giving us our 'privilege!' 1 hate being waited on! IM rather do things for myself." She was so earnest In her satire, so full of scorn and so serious in her mean ing, and there was such a contrast be tween what she said and her person she looked so pre-eminently the pretty marquise, the little exquisite, so essen tially to be waited on and bellied, to have cloaks thrown over the dampness for her to tread upon, to be run about for he could see half a dozen youths rushing about for her Ices, for her car riage, for her chaperon, for her wrap, nt dances that to save his life ho could not repress a chuckle. lie man aged to make it inaudible, however, and it was as well that he did. "I understand your love of newspa per work," she went on less vehement ly, but not less earnestly. "I have al ways wanted to do It myself, wanted to immensely. I can't think of a more fascinating way of earning one's liv ing. And 1 know I could do it. Why don't you make the Herald a daily?" To hear her speak of "earning one's living'' was too much for him. She gave the impression of riches, not only by the tine texture and fashioning of her garments, but one felt that lux uries bad wrapped her from her birth, lie had not had mucli time to wonder what she did in J'liittvillo. It had oc curred to lit in that It was a little odd tbat she could plan to spend any extent of time there, even if she bad liked Minnie I'.riscoe at school. Ho felt that she must have been sheltered and pet ted and waited on all her life. One could not help yearning to wait on her. lie answered inarticulately, "Oh, some day." in reply to her question and then fell into outright laughter. "I might have known you wouldn't tnke me seriously," she said, with no Indignation, only a sort of wist fulness. "I am well used to it. I think it is be cause I am not tail. People take big girls with more gravity, liig people are nearly always listened to." "Listened to!" he said, and felt that ho must throw himself at her feet. "You oughtn't to mind being Titania. She was listened to. You" She sprang to her feet, and her eyes flashed. "Do you think personal com ment is ever In good taste?" she cried fiercely, and In ills surprise he almost fell oil' the bench. "If there is one thing 1 cannot bear, It is to bo told that I am 'small!' I am not. Every one who Isn't a giantess isn't 'small.' I detest personalities. I am a great deal over five feet, a great deal more than that -1"- 'Tlease, please." he said, "1 didn't" "Don't say you are sorry," she inter rupted, and In spite of his contrition he found her angry voice delicious, it was still so sweet, hot with indigna tion, but ringing, not harsh. "Don't say you didn't mean it, because you did! You can't unsay it, you cannot alter It, and this is the way I must re member you! All!" She drew In her breath with a .sharp sigh and, cover ing her face with her hands, sank back upon the bench. "I will not cry," she said, not so lirmly as she thought she did. "My blessed child!" ho cried In great distress and perturbation. "What have I done? 1-1"- "Call me 'small' all you like," she answered. "I don't care. It isn't that. You mustn't think me such an im becile." She dropped her hands from her face and shook the tears from her yes with a mournful little laugh. He saw that her lingers were clinched tightly and her Up trembled. "I will not cry," she said again. "Somebody ought to murder me. I ought to have thought-personalities are hideous" "Don't! It wasn't that." "I ought to bo shot" k "Ah, please don't say that," she said, fshuddorlng. "I'lease don't, not oven as a joke, after last night!" "Hut I on jlit to bo for hurting you. Indeed" She laughed. sadly again. "It wasn't tbat. IdonJJ.caro what ouenll me, I ivjM-.eiummu i or our taxation. You A J. if , ,f , tf, ,ti A iti A A .1. if i ifi m X tTTTTtTTTTTTT f By "Booth TA'RK.iftGTOjsr Ijj f3L McClurt Co. 'kit oy ncJiurt, rniutpj rst lo. J IT e o A miwi it-i riT-i r-- i am small. You'll try to forgive me for being such a baby? I didn't mean any thing I said. I haven't acted so badly since I was a child." "It's my fault, all of It. I've tired you out, and I let you get crushed at the circus, and" "That!" she said. "I don't think I would havo missed the circus." lie had a thrilling hope that she meant the tent pole. She looked as If she meant that, but be dared not let himself b'ellevo It. "No," he continued, "I have been so madly happy in being with you that I've fairly worn out your patience. I've haunted you all day, and 1 have" "All that has nothing to do with It," she sa!d, with a gentle motion of her hand to bid him listen, ".lust nflw you left this nft". noon I found that 1 could not stay here. My people are going abroad at once, and I must go with them. That's what Is almost making mo crv. 1 leave hero tomorrow morn ing." ' He felt something strike at his heart. In the sudden sense of dearth ho bad no astonishment that she should be tray such agitation over her departure from a place she had known so little and friends who certainly were not part of her life. Ho rose to bis feet, and, resting his arm against a syca more, stood staring away from her at nothing. She did not move. There was a long silence. Ho had wakened suddenly. The skies laid been sap phire, the sward emerald, l'lattvlllo a Camelot of romance, a city of enchant ment, and now, like a meteor burned out in a breath, the necromancy fell away and he gazed Into desolate years. The thought of the square, his dusty olllce, the bleak length of Main street, as they would appear tomorrow gave him a faint physical sickness. Today it had all been touched to beauty, lie had felt tit to live and work here a thousand years a fool's dream, and the waking was to add emptiness. He should die now of hunger an I thirst in this Sahara. Ho hoped the fates would let It be soon, but be knew they would not; knew that this was hysteria, that in his endurance he should plod on, plod, plod dustily on, through dingy, lonely years. There was a rumble of thunder far out on the western prairie. A cold breath stole through the hot stillness, and an arm of vapor reached out be tween the moon and the quiet earth. Darkness fell. The man and girl kept silence between them. They might have been two sad guardians of the black Httie stream tbat plashed un seen at their feet. Now and then a re flection of finrnway lightning faintly limned them with a green light. Thun der rolled nearer, ominously. The gods were driving their chariots over the bridge. The chill breath passed, leav ing the air again to its hot inertia. "I did not want to go," she said at Inst, with tears just below the surfaco of her voice. "I wanted to stay here, but he they wouldn't I can't" "Wanted to stay hero?" bo said hus kily, not turning. "Hero? In In diana?" "Yes." "In ltouen, you mean?" ' "In l'lattvlllo." "In riattvllle!" Ho turned now, as tounded. "Yes. Wouldn't you have taken me on the Herald?" She rose and came to ward him. "I could have supported myself hero If you would, and I've studied how newspapers are made. I know I could have earned a wage. I could have helped you make It a daily." Ho searched In vain for a trace of rail lory in her voice. There was none. She seemed to intend her words to be taken literally. "I don't understand," ho said. "I don't know what you mean." "I mean that I want to stay here; thnt I ought to stay here; that my conscience tells me I should; but I can't, and It makes mc very unhappy. That was why I acted so badly." "Your conscience!" ho cried. "Oh, I know what a jumble and puz He it must seem to you!" "I only know one thing that you nro going away tomorrow morning and that I shall never seo you again." The dnrkuess had grown Intense. They could not see each other, but a wan glimmer gave him a fleeting, misty View of her. She stood half turned1 from him, her hand to her cheek In tho uncertain fashion of his great mo ment In the afternoon. Her eyes, ho' saw in the flying picture that ho caught, were troubled, and her hand trembled. She had been lrreslstiblo in, her gayoty, but now that n mysterious distress assailed her, of tho reason for which he bad no guess, she was so tdorably pathetic and seemed such n rich and lovely and sad and, happy thing to have come Into his life only to go out of it, and be was so full of the prophetic sense of loss of her, It seemed so much like losing everything, that he found too much to say to be able to say anything. He tried to speak and choked a little. A big drop of rain fell on his bare head. Neither of them noticed the weather or cared for. It. They stood with the renewed blackness hanging like a drapery between them. "Can can you- tell me why you think you ought not to go?" lie whis pered Anally with a great effort. "No; not now. Hut 1 know you would think 1 am right lit wanting to stay. 1 know you would If you knew about It; but 1 can't, 1 can't. 1 must go in tho morning." "1 should always think you right." he answered in an unsteady tone, "al ways." He went over to the bench, fumbled about for Ids hat and picked it up. "Come," he said gently, "1 am going now." She stood quite motionless for a full minute or longer; then, without n word, she moved toward the house. Ho went to her. with bands extended to llnd her, and his lingers touched her sleeve. Together and silently they found the garden path and followed Its dim length. In the orchard he touched her sleeve again and led the way. As they came out behind the house she detained him. Stopping short, she shook his lui ml from, her arm. She spoke In a breath, as if It were all one word. "Will you tell me why you go? It Is not late. Why do you wish to leave me, when I shall not see you again?" "The Lord be good to me!" be broke out, all bis long pent passion of dreams rushing to his lips as the barrier fell. "Don't you seo it is because I can't bear to let you go? I hoped to get away without saying it. 1 want to be alone. I want to be with myself and try to realize things. I didn't want to make a bubbling idiot of myself, but I am. It Is because I don't want another second of your sweetness to leave an added pain when you've gone. It Is because I don't want to hoar your voice again, to have It haunt me in the lone- llness you will leave. Hut It's useless, useless. I shall hear it always, Just as I shall always seo your face, Just as I have heard your voice and seen your face these seven years, ever since I first saw you, a child, at Winter Har bor. 1 forgot for awhile. I thought It was a girl I had made up out of my own heart, but It was you all the time. The impression I thought nothing of then; Just the merest touch on my heart, light as It was, grew and grew deeper till It.wns Jhoro forever. You've She sprung to licr feet, and her cyca Jluxlicil. known me twenty-four hours, and I understand what you think of me for speaking to you like this. If I had known you for years and had waited and bail the right to speak and keep your respect, what have I to offer you? I couldn't oven take care of you if you went mad as I and listened. I've no excuse for this raving Yes, I have." Ho saw her In another second of lightning, a sudden, bright one. Her back was turned to him, and she had taken a few startled steps from him. "Ah," ho cried, "you are glad enough now to see me go! I knew It. I want ed to spare myself that. I tried not to be a hysterical fool In your eyes." Ho turned aside, and his head fell on his breast. "t!od help mc!" he said. "What will this place bo to mo now?" Tho breeze laid risen. It gathered force. It was a chill wind, and there rose a wailing on tho prairie. Drops of rain began to fall. "You will not think a question Im plied In this," he said, more composed ly, but with an unhappy laugh at him self. "I believe you will not think mo capable of asking you If you care" "No," she answered, "I I do not love you." "Ah, was It a question, after all? I you read mo better than I do, perhaps. But, If I asked, I know the answer." She made as If to speak again, but words refused her. After a moment, "Cloodby," ho said very steadily. "I thank you for the charity that has given mo this little time with you. it will always bo precious to me. I shall always bo your sorvant." Ills steadiness did not carry htm to tho cud of his sentence. "Good- by" She started toward him and stopped. He did not see her. She answered noth ing, lint stretched out her hand to him and then let it fall quickly. "(Jooilby," be said again. "I shall go out the orchard gale. Please tell them good night for me. Won't you speak to me? (Joodby!" He stood waiting, while the rising wind blew their garments about them. She leaned against the wall of tho house. "Won't you say good by and tell nie you can forgot my" She did not speak. "No!" he cried wildly. "Since you don't forget ill I have spoiled what might have been a pleasant memory for you, and I know It. You are al ready troubled, and 1 have added, and you won't forget It, nor shall I- nor shall I. Don't say good by! I can say It for both of us. (loil bless you, and goodby, goodby, good by I" He crushed his hat down over his yos and ran toward the orchard gate. For a moment lightning Hashed repeat edly. She saw him go out the gate and disappear Into sudden darkness. Ho ran through the field and came out on the road. Heaven ami earth were revealed again for a dazzling white second. Krom horizon to horizon rolled clouds contorted like an Illimitable Held of Inverted haystacks, and be neath them enormous volumes of blu ish vapor were tumbling In the west, advancing eastward with sinister swift ness. She ran to a little knoll at tho corner of the house and saw him set his face to (lie storm. She cried aloud Ro htm with all her strength and would hae followed, but the wind look (hi words out of her mouth and drove her back, cowering, to the shelter of thu house. Out on the road the lashing dust came stinging him like a thousand net tles. It smothered him mid beat him so that he covered his face with his sleeve and fought Into the storm shoul der foremost, dimly glad of Its uproar, yet almost unconscious of It, keeping westward on Ids way to nowhere. West or east, north or south, it was all one to him. The few heavy drops that fell boiling into the dust ceased to come; the rain withheld while the wind kings rode on earth. On ho went in spite of them. On and on, running blindly whfn he could run at all. At least the wind kings were company. He had been so long alone. There was no one who belonged to him or to whom ho belonged. Kor a day his dreams had found In a girl's eyes tho precious thing that Is called home. Oh, the wild fancy! lie laughed aloud. There was a startling answer a lance of fire hurled from the sky, riving the Holds before his iyvn, while crash on crash numbed ids ears. With that his common sense awoke, and ho look ed about him. He was two miles from town. The nearest house was the Hrls coos', far down the road, lie knew the rain would come now. There was a big oak near him at the roadside, ami ho stepped under Its sheltering branches ilnd leaned against the great trunk, wiping the perspiration and dust from his face. A moment of stunned quiet had succeeded the peal of thunder. It was followed by several moments of in cessant lightning thnt played along the road and the fields. 'Krom that in tolerable brightness he turned his head and saw, standing against tho fence, Ave feet away, a man, leaning over the top rail and looking at him. The same flash swept brilliantly be fore Helen's eyes as she crouched against tho back steps of the brick bouse, it revealed a picture like a marine of big waves, the tossing tops of the orchard trees, for In that second the full fury of tho storm was loosed, wind and rain and hull. It drove her against the kitchen door with cruel force. The latch lifted, the door blew open violently, and she struggled to close It in vain. The house seemed to rock. A candle flickered toward her ftom the inner doorway and was blown out. "Helen! Helen!" came Minnie's voice anxiously. "Is that you? Wo were coming to look for you. Did you get wet?" Mr. WIHetts threw bis weight against the door and managed to close it. Then Minnie found her friend's hand and led her through the dark hall to the parlor, where tho judge sat placidly reading by a student lamp. LIge chuckled as they left the kitch en. "I guess you didn't try too hard to shut that door, Ilarkless," lie said, and then when they camo into tho lighted room, "Why, where Is Hark less?" he asked. "Didn't he come with us from the kitchen?" "No," answered Helen faintly. "He's gone." She sank upon the sofa and put iter hand over her eyes as If to shade them from too sudden light. "Gone!" Tho Judge dropped ids book and sat staring across tho tabic at the girl. "Gone! When?" "Ten minutes five half an hour I don't know. Hefore tho storm com menced." "Oh!" Tho old gentleman appeared to bo reassured. "Probably ho had work to do and wanted to get in before the rain." Hut hige Willetts was turning pnle. "Which way did lie go? Ho didn't conio around tho house. Wo were out there till the storm broke." "IIo went by tho orchard gate. When ho got to tho road he turned that way." Sho pointed to tho west. "IIo must havejheon crazy I" exclaim ed tlio Judge. ''What possessed the Tel low?" "I couldn't stop him. I didn't know how." She looked at her three com panions, slowly and with growing ter ror, from one face to another. Min nie's eyes were wide, and she had un consciously grasped hlge's arm. Tho t'oung man was staring straight before .lm. The Judge got up and walked nervously back and forth. Helen rose to her feet and went toward the old man, her hands pressed to her bosom. "Ah," sho cried out, "I had forgotten that! Yon don't think they you don't think he" "I know what I think," LIge broke in. "I think I'd ought to be hanged for letting him out of my sight. Maybe It's all right. Maybe he turned and started right back for town -and got there. Hut 1 bad no business to leave him, and If I can I'll catch up with him yet." Ho went to the front door and, opening It, let In a tornado of wind and flood of water that beat htm back, Sheets of rain blew In horizontally hi spite of the porch beyond. Hrlseoe followed him. "Don't bo a fool, LIge," ho said. "You hardly ex pect to go out In that." LIge shook hi head. It needed them both to got tho door closed. The young man leaned his back against It and passed liU sleeve across his wet brow. "1 hadn't ought to have left him." "Don't scare the girls," whispered the other; then In a louder tone: "All I'm afraid of Is that he'll get blown to pieces or catch his death of cold. That'. all (hero Is to worry about. They wouldn't try It again so soon after last night. I'm not bothering about that; not at all. That needn't worry any body." "Hut this morning" "Pshaw! He's likely home and dry by this time. All foolishness. Don't be an old woman." The two men re-entered tho room and found Helen clinging to Minnie'. hand on the sofa. She looked up at them (illicitly. "Do you think do you what do you" Her voice shook so that she could not go on. The Judge pinched her cheek and pat tod It. "I think he's home and dry, but I think ho got wet first. That's what I think. Never you fear. He's a good hand at taking care of himself. Sit down, LIge. You can't go for awhile." Nor could he. It was a long, long while before ho could venture out. The storm raged and roared without abatement. It was (.'arlow's worst since Til, tho old gentleman said. They heard tho great limbs crack and break outside, while the thunder pealed and boomed, and tho wind ripped at the eaves till it seemed as If the roof must go. Mean while the Judge, after some apology, lit bis pipe and told long stories of ro storms of early days and of odd freaks of the wind. He talked on calmly, tho picture of repose, and blew rings above his head, but Helen saw that one of his big slippers beat an unceasing little tattoo on the carpet. Sho sat with llx cd eyes, In silence, holding Minnie's hand tightly, and her face was color less growing whiter as the slow hours dragged by. Every moment Mr. Willetts became more restless, lie assured the ladies ho had no anxiety regarding Mr. Hark less. It was only his own dereliction of duty that ho regretted. The boys would have tho laugh on him, he said. But ho visibly chafed more and more under tho Judge's stories and constant ly rose to peer out of the window Into tho wrack and turmoil, and onco 'or twice he struck his hands together with muttered ejaculations. At last there was a lull In tho fury without, and as soon us it was perceptible be announced his intention of making his way into town, lie "had ought to havo went before," ho declared apprehensively, and then, with Immediate amendment, of course ho would And the editor at work In the Herald olllce. There wasn't the slightest doubt of that, ho agreed with the judge, but ho better see about It. Ho would return early lu the morning and bid Miss Sherwood goodby. Hoped she'd come back somo day; hoped It wasn't her last visit to Plattvllle. They gave him an umbrella, and ho plunged Into the night, and as they stood for a moment at the door, tho old man calling after him cheery good nights and laughing messages to Ilarkless, they could seo him light with his umbrella when he got out into tho road. Helen's room was over tho porch, tho windows facing north, looking out up on the pike and across the fields. "Please don't light the lamp, Minnie," she said when they hud gone upstairs. "I don't need It." Miss Briscoe was flitting about the room hunting for mntches. In the darkness she came to her friend and laid a kind, largo hand on Helen's eyes, and the hand became wet. Sho drew Helen's head down on her shoulder and sat beside her on the bed. (TO UK CONTINUED,) MOLLI8TER'S Rocky Mountain Tea Nuggets i A Bnsy JJIodlclno for Easy People. Brlngi Golden Iloaltb and Eenowed Vigor. A Hjiccldo for Constipation, IndlKOstlon, LIt i nnd KIiIiipv Troubles. Pimples. Eczema, Impure Hloou, al Ureatli, KhiKcish llowels, Ueartacuft nml IlftcfcncUo. It's Kooky Mountain Tea In taorJ let form, 35 cent a box. Genuine mado by UOM.ISTEH Dnrn Company, MndUon, Wis. tOLDEN NUGGETS FOR SALLOW PEOPLf . N i fit (Q 'I K3 TrS i i ,m'''MMM0ateflpttmm!iit9iHiu,M mmii. -A' jtJ.Msii:'i.