The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1884-12-20

the row of buildings opposite, they
moved on to street-crossing, where
the cool breeze from the mountain tops
tempered the scorching air.
Seen at once that the whole row
was going, l telegraphed the company
| may as well shut up shop after the
losses are paid. Reckon they'll clap on
mo- premium than yo' fellows can
stand was the melancholy remark of
the tall, raw boned insurance agent, VINO
hailed from the bluegrass country.
Boys" (the stout, well-built figure
OF Joe Graham, pioneer settler of the
place, stood out in the middle of the
open circle they had left in their midst
Its no use mincing matters. Some
body had hand in this and he's got to
be found out
We've no strangers among US --more'S
the pity. One of us is the guilty one,
and the question is who's the man?"
He had voiced the sentiments of the
majority around him, yet each of them,
startled at the open avowal of their
secret thoughts, looked with dark sus-
plcion into his neighbours face, nor
dreamed that the answering look was
actuated by the same miserable con-
seriousness of distrust.
"The question is, who's most in luck
by the fire." The man who gave utter
ance to these significant words appeared
to have reused from deep reflection and
to be giving expression to his thoughts
rather thar deliberately addressing the
crowd, but he was accorded instant and
N OF 1n Oh
heaviest loser by the fire, the merchant
whose advent in the place some months
since, with dry-goods stock of some
what extravagant richness, had been
hailed with rejoicing by the feminine
element, and regarded by the commun-
lty, generally in the light of a tribute
to the growth and prosp Gritty of the
place; and had it not required the
strength of four men combined to pre-
vent him from immolatip himself upon
his own burning goods and making of
his flaming shop a funeral pyre? The
query he so gently advanced could re-
celve but one answer:
Jack Willoughby."
Bah Away with the thought. The
genial young fellow they had received
IN their own home, whose industry and
good nature had won him the kindly re-
gard of the whole community. Mon
strous! Increditable! How dared Mar
shall make such suggestionl
Where is the lad? Let him speak
for himself"
Momentary silence ensued, then an
old mans voice, weak and querulous,
responded.
He went off up to his shanty nigh
an hour ago. Whistlin' an singin-
pretty capers for a night like this"
who has been complaining all sum-
mer of dull times and no work."
Marshall's reminder aroused dormant
recollections. To be surel To be sure!
Jack had growled savagely about the
scarcity of building operations, and
gone so far as to threaten that he would
abandon his claim and pull up stakes if
no one started up before winter. But
how could the boy ruin his best friends
for the sake OF getting ahead in life I'M
ss-unless-he were different from
what he seemed-what they had thought
him; the fair exterior and pleasant ad-
dress but cloak for treacherous ma
ture. One reads of such things every
day. What did they really know of the
man after all, aside from his advent
with the birth of the settlement less
than two years before? Whistling and
singing in the face of universal disas-
ter. Who would have thought it of
Jack Willoughby?
The seed of distrust had been planted
and sprang into full-hedged life. Only
one among them was bold to demand
sounder grounds for the speakers insin-
uations. This was Graham, the man
who had been first to speak.
@Have care, Marshall" grasping the
merchant somewhat roughly by the
shoulder, have care how you blast a
mans character without some evidence
to bear you out"
Many who beheld the scene recalled
and without connecting the cir
with present occurrence, that
the merchant and as well the man he
accused had both been suitors for the
hand of fair Eleanor Graham, the speak
er's motherless daughter and the queen
lest girl for hundred miles around;
they recoilected, too, that Graham had
been favorably disposed to Marshall
from the first, while openly discounte-
nancing the attentions of the mechanic.
Furthermore, they did not connect the
fact with the present occasion, and
failed to appreciate the fathers fine
sense of justice which prevented him
from accepting, unchallenged accusa-
tons of the man who had not been his
favorite. To be led captive of Eleanor
Graham was, indeed, an ordinary affair."
Few who came within the girls circle es-
capped the influence of her charm.
Il saw him at ten minutes past
eleven pass out through the back door
of his shop. A quarter of an hour later
the fire broke out at that end of the
row." Marshall launched this intelli-
gence with telling force, but Willough-
by's selfconstituted advocate remained
firm.
"Pish, mani That fellow owned his
shop, and his building and tools went
up with the rest"
"a well-played game, my friend. How
many new kits of tools do you suppose
the profits from our new buildings will
provide?"
al angry CutIuS IeSpCuueu.
He shall never build them"
Through the closed shutters of the neat
adobe cottage hard by a girl had been
listening with throbbing hear. and
hushed breath. At this ominous cry
her woman's lealty mastered every 9th
er emotion, and throwing open the door
she stole along the walk with it's bris-
ting borders of cactus, unattached the
gate, penetrated the circle of men and
stood by her fathers side.
at is not true" she cried. "You
have no right to Judge him SO. He was
with me all the evening and went down
there to get this ring-it was his mothers
and he kept it in drawer of the little
desk he had made" High above her
head, that all might see, she raised a
shapely hand, and as she did SO the
loose thin sleeve fell away from her
rounded arm. Upon her finger was an
old fashioned pearl ring.
do ven think he would commit sucb