The morning call., 1893-10-22
jim GODDARTS PROMISE.


l met Miss Pert just now in the street.
She could speak TO NE to-day fast enough
when she wanted something" and Miss
Belle Sutton, the buxoG barmaid who pre-
sided over the canteen at Kuranda Camp,
tossed her befrizZled head defiantly; "and
she told me so. and asked me if there was
doctor in the camp, and when told her
the nearest doctor was at CIonJe. four
hours ride off, she had the cheek to ask
me to tell her of some one who would go to
bring him. Fancy that, Jim, and on
Christmas eve of all nights in the year!'
what did you say :"
81 laughed at her. Of course. 7 don't
think the boys would stir out Of camp for
any one tonight l said. and certainly not
for people like you, who treat everybody
like the dust under your feet and are too
high ami mighty and virtuous to associate
with any of US poor Sinners had her
there, eh, Jlm?
Decidedly, my dear. If to love your
neighbors is a Christian maxim, to hate
your enemies Is one Of an equally meri-
torious character. besides being infinitely
more attractive to the earnaI mind, and
people who profess to be better than their
neighbors are ones natural enemies" Jim
replied placidly. And what did Miss
Miss Pert say to that?"
'Ob, she looked at me out OF her great
saucer eyes, and her lips twitched as if she
we're going to cry-great baby-then, DO
you really mean that there is DO one in all
the camp with sufficient humanity TO help
two sick, perhaps dying, men, and helpless
girl?' she said. That's just as you like to
put it, my lady, / says. You've held your
self aloof from us all, and looked down on
US, and now you'll find you can't drop and
pick US up again and use US just when you
think fit; you haven't a friend In the
camp now She didn't say anything to
that-just colored up and tossed her head
and walked away. L guess she didn't like
to hear the plain truth. BY the way, jim.
didn't think of you; you used To De
great friend of theirs at one time
LAY. l was when they first came to the
camp" Jim replied in his lazy, reflective
voice, before they knew me intimately.
When they thoroughly understood the
hlgh-toned, exalted nature OF my charac-
Ter they were content TO admire 1t and Inc
from distance. Give me another whisky.
Belle"
Belle laughed as she refilled the empty
glass She glanced with admiring eyes at
Jim Goddart as he leaned against the
doorpost, looking meditatively down the
struggling row of wooden shantIes and
tents of which the camp consisted, and on
which the sunset light was shining.
She laughed and went on with her
idle chatter. and Jim answered
mechanically now and then, but
he scarcely heard what she said. He
was looking intently toward clump
OF trees Just outside the camp under which
by the side of a wagon tent was pltcneu'
Within that tent he knew that the Two
men of whom Belle had spoken lay strlck-
en- by the terrible fever which few weeks
before had wrought such fearful havoc IN
the little camp. They were lying there.
suffering, perhaps - for be knew the
deadly nature OF the fever TOO WeI-dylhg'
and the girl who was the daughter OF one
man and the promised wife or the other
was watching by them alone. Somehow,
though Jim tried 10 harden his heart, he
did not like to think of it; TO picture the
blue eyes which had once smiled so frankly
and s8eetly into his own. dimmed with
tears, aching with long hours of anxious
vigil to imagine that sunny head bowed
under the burden of anxiety.
He tried TO turn his thoughts to other
subjects, but they went back persistently
10 the time when Mr.. Clifton and his
daughter, Lois, and her lover, Frank Wy
verne, first came to the camp. He had
made their acquaintance, and had been of
some slight service to them on the first
evening of their arrival, and they, attract
ed by the pleasant, courteous manner
which jim could assume at will, had made
him welcome to their shanty. He recalled
the pleasant evenings be had spent there.
the afternoons when he had returned
earlier than usual from work, and as he
passed the Cliftons' Shanty had fingered
under the trees where Lois generally
passed the afternoon with her work or
book, and spent pleasant time with her
alone. Those quiet tete-a-tetes had been
very pleasant to him, perilously sweet.
considering that Lois was the promised
wife of a ,ther man. and that even If she
= soo hnn ha ,axrth hiFNer
to him; as we'll expect the milen mum TO
come at once and the lion to lie down with
the lamb as expect Lois-Sweet, innocent
Lois-to mate with one like him, Jim told
himself savagely.
For a week or ten days the friendship
which was SO pleasant to all, but espe-
cialv so to Lois and Jim, had continued,
and then one day Mr.. Clifton had gone to
his daughter and told her grayely and de-
cidedly that it must cease; that man
who bore the reputation which Jim God
dart had earned for himself, even in a
place where the standard of morality was
not pitched unduly high, was no fit friend
for her.
Lois was too much in awe OF her father
to rebel or to make any open rem0nstrance.
and when she yentured to speak to her
lover on the subject and found thathe held
the same views as her father she reluc-
tantIy submitted to the stern decree which
bade her regard Jim Goddart S a stranger.
She deserted her seat under the trees, and
the next time they met and he stopped to
speak to her she had hurried on with a
slight bend of her head and flushed cheeks
and averted eyes.
Jim had looked after her and had first
sworn a deep oath to himself and then
laughed harshlv. but he was not the man
TO force his presence where it was unwel-
come-be could take hint as we'll as any
one-so he came no more to the shanty,
and on the few occasions when he met Lois
had passed her with a distant, courteous
bow.
1t was better so he told himself. Some
times in her presence he was tempted 10
forget that he was-what he had made
himself; 20 forget that dark time of
Youthful folly, that moment of madness
which had spoiled his life and brought his
fathers curse upon his head; TO forget all
this and the wild, reckless life to which it
had been the prelude. Lois was not fit
company for him; like must mate with
like. Let HIM keep to his own kind; his
place was in the bar with the noisy revel-
ers who crowded there after working
hours were over to drink and gamble. not
under the soft starlight by the side OF that
Gove-eyed girl, with her sweet face and
lo-,