New-York tribune., 1891-08-30


nv mother will be as glad to see you as shall.
The sneaker is a young man, hardly thirty, ana
as he sits in the blackboard, taxing eave o. id +HS
little crowd of men who have assembled to pa
him good-by, his handsome lace and welEknC
form are such TO attract attention at ohce.
After an absence OF years, Len tawey Is eonns
home To him, as well as TO the men who sur
round him, the parting means great deal, even
though they strive-wlth that intensely American
dislike of exhibiting any emotion-io conceal Inear
adeus under an air of everyday unconceLn'
After one has seen the days lengthen into weeks,
the weeks into months. and the months into wears YEAR
with one set of comrades, when II comes 10 port
ing the DAYS long past bring up their memories
TO pass in review and while no one speaks OIL
them, all are conscious that they are present
"Oh, you'll be back again, Len you can't stay
away" says one OF the men to whom he has peen
speaking, more TO break the silence that is Dc
coming uncomfortable than for any other reason
The young man merely shakes his mead lie,
as well as all the rest, knows that after years
spent together this parting VIII, Tor Inc most Oh
them be forever Out Of the little frontier min
be is going-neyer TO return. Many anUther, VINO,
day after day, had dreamed of going as he now is
going, lay resting under the sod in the mountains
around, whose crests are Just beginning 70 De
gilded with the rays OF the early summer sun
We'll. everything is on board, Jose, and you
his wife and then turn yourself loose 1t is the
stage agent giving his last commands 10 the
driver.
into the street, the young mans fece smarts and
burns at the words he hal just heard, and in the
embarrassment they cause hiE, he almost foreets
10 respond 10 the farewells Shouted after him.
He feels almost like jumping from the buoSh board
and rejoining his comrades he has leu le has
hardly recovered his sef-posseSsion rs Jose stops
his team at house in front of which are already
waiting q man of his own age ana woman some
years younger. The man, with much domineef-
ing, at last has the trunk, Of wbcl lie seems so
soicitous, placed to hin satisfaction in the buck
board. and, with the lady, "a ics the rear OF the
two seats With crack Of the whip. Jose turns
his team into the road, and the weekly r'oil be-
fxuap A "A
begun its six hundred miles OF travel over noun
tans and deserts meet the steamers Of the
Pacific.
Whether or not the mass of letters and papers
piled in the bottom of Tie vehicle will al' reach
there or whether any OF il viii, IS Il question.
While it is the boast of tie contractors that they
run strictly on schedule time, they give no
guarantee assuring the safe deverT Of anything.
even of the passengers they carry. II thev pre-
tend TO do is to run the gauntlet If thu get
through, they will bring the mail in on ti'>e' ::
and after waiting without avail an hour fot its
arrival when it is due. il is useless 70 expect it,
Another week will elapSe, and then new driver,
driving a new team, will come in ard explain just
where and when the Indians Jumped and took
in" the missing mail and in confirmation of what
he says as likely as not he will turn over to the
postmaster mass of riHd letters. So stained and
black with blood that the readers will have 20
puzzle long over them before they decphcr
their contents. 1t is standing rule though,
one that ali drivers urged &c observe strictly,
that If absolutely necessary O Tighten the load in
order to escape from Indian attach the mail.
bags containing papers TO be sacrificed first,
and those containing letters are TO be thrown of
only in extreme emergencies. SIch is human
nature that constant association with danger
brings at last callousneSs, ard while all of the
passengers who have taken seats on this partic-
ular morning may have thought Of the dangers in
o general way, not one has conceived It possible
that his or her fate may be the same as has met
those whose graves they so often encounter close
by the roadside. Each of the men has prepared
for possible attack by arming himself Two at
least of the paSsengers-Len Hawley and Mrs.
Dunsmier-are thinking how unfortunate the CO.
incidence that has thrown them together to make
this long trip in company. As for Mr. Dunsmier.
he merely thinks how unfortunate Re is to be
f9TCed to make It at all In the past When en-. Mrs
mitted belle Of the little frontier settlement, she
and Len Hawley. had been lovers That was
before the who now sat beside her had come
into her life and as she and the man she had dis
carded sat together for the first time IN months
neither could refrain from thinking Of the past
had caused them 10 drift so vide apart that re.
cOnciliatiOn was impossible.
AS for Len Hawlcy. when he had heard Of her
engagement to another, lac had determined to for
get her by gathering together the little property
be had and beginning life anew elsewhere. II
was hardly a year since the engagement that
bound them together had been broken and already
he thought bitterly. she had fallen into the arms
Of another.
Some said that when Mr. Dunsmier tie rich
mine-owncr had first exhibited on interest in her,
she had sought the opportunity 30 discaId Hawley.
Much as the latter NAV have felt his loss, out
wardly he appeared Indifferent. He could not be-
leve that she had Simply cast nm aside Tor
money, and when the palmer spoken portion Of the
community, in referring 10 the marriage, intimated
that, after all 1t had been merely matter Of
bargain ard SALE he would have told them they
led had it not been for showing how deeply the
wound still ranked. OF this woman he could
never think aught but good. Strive as he would,
he felt that he never could cease TO love her. He
would not blame her for what she had done. Who
could tell what her motives had been? Might
She not have loved Dunsmier. she had in the
past loved hm-perhaps even more! lie only
wished that she would he happy AS for Duns-
mier himself, he had never liked him. In foct,
there were very few who did. Selfish, overbear-
ing, and unscrupul0us, Dunsmer loved money as
he loved nothing else on earth. 10 him u was
@ god, 20 be defed and worshpped above all else
1t was his boast that with money anything could
be obtained. and when he had first begun TO visit
Mamie Manning. during her engagement TO HawleX,
his arrogant display of wealth. as wei as his lit
concealed contempt OF those Of less means had In.
censed Hawley so much that the quarrel that
broke the engagement ensued and Manic had Deen
pleased to charge it TO his iealonsy After that IL
was easy for her to defend Dunsmier; and then
the drifting apart had begun, until she stood at
the altar as Dunsmier's bride.
From that day, Halsey had determined TO leave
the country. He had gone for the last time 10
look at tie house which, during their engagement;
Mamie and he had planned and Of which they had
superintended the building As he went from
room to room, be thought OF the many times they
had gone through them together, PLANNING for
the future and dreaming dreams that were never
TO be realized. For the last time he had locked
from frs pI him somehow he could not bear the
Thought of giving it into the possession OF another
That had been months ago, and the house still
stood vacant As the blackboard passed il in the
early morning. he unconsciousy noted how the six
months had changed il. and he wondered II the
woman behind him noticed it, 1t was 10 have
been their home For nearly two years it had
been the one theme of all others that pervaded
their talk and now---He would not think of IL,
though. After all it might be for the best. He
would leave il behind him as she was leaving IL,
and in his old home in the East ne would strive
to forget it, In the COMPANY of the dear old
mother whom he had not seen for years the
memory of the woman who had entered his life
only to mar il would in time pass swsy: How.
though. would he explain 70 his mother that this
woman OF whom he had written so lovingly, who
herself had called her mother In her many
Of another-that after all, she whom he had
thought 90 true had proven false? lie