Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-05-20


~ forth from Rio Pucrcc
to Holbrook. and the jarrlng and noise are toe
much for her. If you could come out and
oversee things for week or two until she could
get nursed back to health, it would lift grea
burden from my heart I'll get woman il
| Albuquerque to help you.''
That paragraph in her brothers letter sen'
Mary Roma straight to the managing editor.
"Of course you can Co." WAS Mr.. Wilson's
CHEEKY answer, but don't let the chaws OF
Navajos gobble you up. I've been thinking Of
sending you out there to write up the boarding
train life. AS your brother is steward you
ought 60 be able, with his assistance, to gel
material for series of brisk articles for the
Odaty Miner. Keep your eyes open for scoops
You Will start in the morning The cashier
Will have your transportation ready for the
$3.50. and with a bow Mr.. Wilson dismissed the
| subject and Miss Roma at one and the same
time. 1t was his way; he never wasted words.
Thirty-six hours later Miss Roma was greet
ing her brother, Dick Roma, and his wife.
"lou ought to have been here twelve hours
ago. What was the matter?" queried Mr..
Roma, after the first greetings.
There was a bridge washed out at Lagarra,
and we had to shoo-fy around it. then there
was clodd burst just before we reached Gal
| lup. and the engine ran into a land slide" re-
PAASA .uAnb pOulu, as sue ulNeetcu Vi uck
wraps. "What time is it, anyhow" she asked
with yawn as Dick left the car. "I'm sleepy
and hungry and tired Heaven have mercy.
What las broken loose now?'' she cried, as she
damned her fingers in her ears to shut out the
unearthly toots and howls of an engine which
stood RICH. beside the car.
your question as to the hour is answered
replied Lottie, with a sorry attempt at laugh
at Miss Roma's dismay. at isn't musical is nj
1t sets my teeth on edge with that diabolical
racket dozen times day. The engineer OF
" Is simply giving the first call for the men to
get up. 1t is $780,
Just then Mr.. Roma looked into the car and
asked his sister to step in and see il the bosses
| dining car was in shape.
| ',Slumgullion Sam got on toot last night
| and reckon he's cashed his chips and trailed
out, for he amt showed up in the game yet
this morning. The new Gunky is tenderfoot
| ut biscuit shooting, and wouldn't like to gam
Bile on his making an artistic success of it.
| Better hurry up" and then he disappeared.
''Lottie, what on earth does Dick mean? Has
he forgotten how to speak English?"
1.-The terriers wouldn't understand him If he
| did talk United States He want you to see
that the funk waiter has the bosses table
properly set.''
but what under the canopy is the bosses
| table and to what genus and gender do fun
kies belong?' demanded Miss Roma in Wild
eyed amazement. a. she hurriedly shed her
travelling dress for morning wrapper.
"Oh my! Nary sighed Lottie, comically.
you have such lot to learn yet. Run along
| to Dick and he will enlghten YOU. Hurry. be-
fore ninety-seven sets her music going again.
or the terriers will run YOU down. Dick is in
the second car west of this
Here you are!" shouted her brother rs she
was flying by the step ladder. Give me your
hand! That's it. You'll have to pervade this
car mighty rapid, for the bosses will be tun-
| bling in to chuck in about two minutes. I've
got TO go to the kitchen and cuss the cook for
scOrching the spuds.' and away he went. leav-
ing Miss Roma bordering by jerks over the ad-
dltlons to her vocabulary, and the probable
outcome OF the andacious step she had inst
taken. while she ''pervaded" the car in which
she had been stranded.
1t was common box car. its interior
painted a CHASTITY blush white. which was
oozed through. dish cupboard partly filled
one end. Down the center a long narrow
pine table shrouded in "gravestone' oilcloth.
On this clammy banquet board ''covers were
laid for twenty guests" Backless benches
lined down each side. Here and there on the
soup dishes of butter. fly specks and bowls of
| sugar. Three lonesome castors Of fil;gree
| pewter stood guard in the middle and at each
| end. Heaviest of hotel plates and rusty iron
knives and forks completed the cherries array.
Though the day was well broken, smoky engine
utauilputs III edCu tilti Vi tne car LelSuteneu
the unutterable dreariness of that wful banquet
hall.
''All set sis?' called Dick, just as his sister
paused by the dish cupboard half inclined to
| flee, but before she could answer 81 turned up,
the wide sliding doors flew back and the
'bosses' came tumbliug in to chuck. Out
side, above The noisy badinGge of the men Just
entered, and above even the demoniacal shrieks
of the engine whistle, Miss Roma heard the
snarl OF angry voices, an uuceasiug stream Of
vilest profanity and thud OF hurrying feet, and
knew that the terriers were also bent on feed
ing"
"Just keep Your eve on the fiunky and see that
he doesn't soldier adjured Dick. as she
| shrurk back in the corner nearest the kitchen
car. i've got TO 60 down and see that the
| chaws don't carve each other instead of the
beef" and he left her to her fate
keep an eye on the fiunky" Dick had said.
81 couldn't have kept an eve off of him unless
l had been blind" she afterward told Lottie.
HE fascinated me, because l felt intui:ively
that somewhere in his horizon a story was
lurking, and was Immediately consumed with
| q desire to discover it,
The flunky in question was tall and slender
| and sinewy. His brown hair hung in curls on
his shoulders and surrounding them was a wide
| white sombrero, around which was cooled a
| tanned RATHER g hide. His blue flannel shir,
farcd in q wide collar, well open at the throat
almost as full aud white as womans. and
| under the cnln WAS knotteQ Roman scarf
caught with grinning deaths head. His
brown velvet trousers were held at the waist by
wide belt filed with cartridges and weighed
down by pair OF Colts Ass, which hung
in their holsters. His feet were en-
cased in handsome top boots and great
silver spurs jIngled at every step. His hands
| were small and shapely aud on the third finger
of the right one biaZed a magnificent heart
shaped ruby in circle of small diamonds
Despite his make up Miss Roma felt sure that
| he was Of gentle birth, and, moreover, she
knew, as woman always knows things. that be
never rode herd in his life. He was deft and
quick and the bosses. who. Miss Roma learned
| later, were the superiutendepts OF the various
gangs of railroads. laborers, engineers. &c.
biscuit shooter" was on deck. She
interfere. for she had learned in her few
months newspaper experience that some peo-
pie had restless, not to say peevish, way of
7 lingering siX-shooters when their motives were
impugned. and while the new flunky had big
blne eyes and a glrish face that dimpled in
smiling. which he did when he looked her wav,
she remembered Shakespearc's apostrophe to
men who smiled and were still villains, and
mentally decided that the lines of their two
| lives should not cross if she could prevent it.
| At $40. after two hours acquaintance with
! her new calling, she was left mistress of the
| situation. Mrs. Roma protested against the
insult to the proprieties. but Dick and his
| sister knowing that life dear to them both de-
pended upon the change, sat upon her objec-
| tons with such good natured severity that she
had to yield Mr.. Roma was to return as soon
as his wife was safely enscOncei in His N, otbero