Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-08-22

: face lit up with mlSchievous smile.


like thu rest OF them; sitting on u lumber
pile all doubled up with II pain in
A flying Spanish conversation book
checked further Intelligence and Maxon
dodgod around the corner to escape
other missiles. At 6 o'clock, when
the hands came up to receive pay for their
days labor, John Proctor saw his protcge
standing off a little distance. The man made
no demand for wages, and his employer took
no notice of him. As the men fled out the
express agent of the Pumbago City train,
personal friend of Proctors came running
into the Office with package in his hand.
"IIerc, Proctor, run them over quickly and
sign this receipt It's the 5000 from .Juarez
d Signor. | haven't moment to spare"
The lunbcrman hastily counted the notes,
signed his name to the receipt in bold,
dashing hand, and the agent hurried off. Left
alone, Proctor drew from his pocket a long,
Russia leather pockCt-bOOl and laid the notes
carefully inside. AS he thrust this into his
breast pocket. he CHANGED to glance toward the
window, and encountered the hungry eyes of
the tramp sharply following his movements
from without. As the man saw that he was
detected, he paused, seemed about to speak,
then changed his mind and saun-
to""l "nrcloselv away. \ vague anxiety
assaulted John Proctor. 1t was long
after banking hours; there was no help for it,
he must be custodian of his treasure until
morning
He sat up late that night. The payment
of this sum was all that was necessary to
make the eastern trip definite and tangible
matter. There was a pile of correspondence
to be turned off and a letter to be dispatched
to that little woman in Illinois, telling her to
discharge her music pupils and make ready
for his coming. When he had finished his
letters he sat quietly for awhile in his big
arm chair. 1t was very late when he rose,
and locking doors and windows, proceeded
to the little inner room where he slept. He
drew off his coat, and. folding it carefully,
placed it beneath his pillow Then he ex
amined the barrels of an English bulldog
pistol, viii oh hung upon a hook beside his
bed. Measured by this precaution he sank
into heavy sleep.
Several hours before man had crawled
upon low pile of planks, ianked by two others
of towering height. As he stretched himself
at length, with a bundle of shakes for pill
low, he philosophically reflected that such n
bed was not to he despised He was not i'll
qualified to judge, for his experience had
been wide and diversified, and he had
learned to weigh the most delicate points of
variance with the fine discrimination of a
connoisseur. He had travelled half way across
the continent without once knowing the shell
ter of a civilized roof. He had tented beneath
the fragrant shades of orange groves in south
ern California, and, i'll waving fields of golden
grain passed some terrible July nights on
the Colorado desert where the mer.
curry marks 10 degrees at midnight, parch
ing for water and choking with the hot dus
81 Il IL
the delusive mraG. knocking him in the dis
lance He had sunk down exhausted on the
barren plateaus of Arizona and reused to find
himself stabbed in a thousand places by the
minute cactus needles, cast upon him by the
malicious breeze: ever lured ON by the sweet
face of a child who had smiled farewell
through mist of tears.
The quiet of the place, the gently stirring
air odorous with the fragrance of the pine
woods, the sleepy twinkle of the stars over
head, and the WEAKNESS of muscles uuaccus-
toned to labor, soon lulled him into slumber,
\ little later two glowing sparks of fire
seemed to glide down the railroad track,
stole around the office and disappeared
within the long dryinG-shed at its rear.
During their progress these sparks of fire
occasionally described magnitict mt curves in
the air, in the accentuation of certain rhyth-
mical utterances in the corrupted Spanish of
the Mexican tongue. The lowest Mexican
peon, who all his life goes half clothed half
fed and msheltered, handles his cigar or
cigarette with the fine pomposity and care
less grace of the proudest hidalgo.
John Proctor awoke that night to find him
5elf assailed by foe mightier than his feeble
imagination had pictured. He tried to rise
but found himself unable to move, oppressed
by a terrible sense of suiIocaton from dense
volumes of smoke which filed the air,
through which vast sheets of flame darted
their forked tongues toward him. Suddenly
the wall of flame and smoke was parted, and
the face of the tramp bent over him. He
wasroughly shaken pulled off the bed, half
dragged, half carried through the little pri-
vate Office and into the larger room beyond,
where the fire had begun its work of devasta-
ton. Then voice and memory came back
and he shouted: My notes. In my coat
pocket--under the pillow-let me go!'
For answer he was violently propelled for
ward into the arms of some men. eagerly
crowding through the flaming doorway.
He struggled to free himself from their wise
like grasp. He fought with them, cursed
them. and finally broke down and cried like
child MaXon's fierce tones recalled him
to himself
Why, man, do you think we would let you
go into that fiery furnace again See,
There goes the root now
With Il gentle waving motion, the ROOT
seemed to slowly vbrate to and fro, thel
sank down with sudden crash, and a flying
column of sparks celebrated its downfall.
With haIf-duzed senses John Proctor stare
about him, and his gaze wandered to the sky
above, where an angry crimson glow Ia,
hlotted out the stars and rested upon the dis
tant mountain chains Weiidly rejecting from
their scanned fronts and cragsy peaks The
glare of the unIighteous flames. Would sht
admire them now
Surely it was Il spectacle to enchant the cy,
5 of an unprecedented spectator, whose whole pos
sessions We're not being sacrificed TO the effect
He turned collectedly to the scene before him
There was still something to be done. Til,
cream of the stock had been destroyed, hu
unless some piles Of lumber to the right of thu
building We're specify removed, the fir
!, would communicate with the whole outsid,