The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1893-02-03

ecrlolng your personaLapp has
just como in from tho White Peak
| Officer
"a telegram! By Jove, the whole
thing is out, then?''
YES" responded the telegraph
operator. tsthe whole thing is out.
Your conjecture is quite correct"
"Does-I beg your pardon, but this
is q matter of Importance to me-
self"
mo"
II may depend on your" with i'm
ploring emphasis.
Yes, you may depend on me-"
'Thanks, awfully!" declared the
stranger, with fervor. "You see, it
makes it very unpleasant to have
those things talked about"
$50 should imagine"
A brief silence ensued. Eunice was
wondering how her strange companion
could speak 50 coolly OF 'these
things"
"Was he utterly dead to ali
shame?" she thought. The strange
companion, in the mean time, was
secretly marveling at the ease and
! lightness with which this extraordin-
airy girl stepped out through the snow
drift.
a pretty one, too. Why doesn't she
keep talking? I like the timbre of her
voice; it's a regular contralto."
ut seems to me observed the young
| man, after another interval ofsilence,
during which the crunching of their
feet in the snow and the PERSISTENT
bowling of the wind was all that
broke the spell "that they put great
deal of responsibility on young women
in this part of the world"
"a good deal of it is forced upon
them, and a good deal they assume
themselves" said Eunice Barlow,
composedly. II am willing to admit
that | have taken heavy response
bility on myself tonight. Under
stand" added Miss Barlow, "that if
take you home tonight and shelter
you. must have your promise
"The new career question again! I'm
blessed Ii know what all this
MEANS" gasped the solitary pas
senger.
"Equivocation is entirely useless"
said Eunice, severely. "You know
perfectly we'll what / mean. I have
given you q chance for freedom; for
what is still better fame and chara-
cter. See to it that this chance does
not pass unimproved,"
"Mad" muttered the stranger to him
self; 've-y mad! Entirely hopeless
case should say. 1 wonder if there
was telegram, or if that is merely
part of her brain disorder? I wonder
If I'd better keep on with her, nobody
knows whittier, or cut and run for it,
snow storm and ALP"
"You have basely absconded with
your employers money" said Eunice,
with the freezing sternness of localized
justice, ''in other words you are a
bank defalcator."
ooh, come, now; won't you give g.
fellow q chance?" uttered her COM
panion. Gas the school books say.
"Strike, but hear. I've nobody's
money but my own, and none too
much of that. l don't know any
thing about your banks nor their de-
falcators. I've been only two weeks
in your country and l think it is the
snowiest climate going. My name is
Ernest Tinsallon, and was to have
been met at the station by Col. Cop
ley, of the 4OOth cavalry
Eunice Barlow gave little shrek of
amazement. "Sir Ernest Tinsallon!"
she cried. '"The Engishman who was
coming out here to hunt buffalo and
follow up the line OF the Pine river.
But you have aEghted at the wrong
station; you should have stopped at
the Pine barracks, seven miles from
here"
II heard the conductor bawl out
something about pine of one sort or
another" said the young Briton. II
was dead asleep and did not stop to
discriminate, and | scrambled off. So
I've made mistake. have l? But all
the same, it's awfully good of you to
offer to conduct me to place of Chris
tain shelter"
"And [ have made u mistake, too"
said Eunice with gasp. "Just before
your train came in there was mes
sage-to Big Pine station-a message
to detain a bank robber who was said
to be on the train. was alone, but
could have locked him into the ticket
Office, perfectly safe. Wew western girls
are prepared for any emergency"
with some PRIDE. "But 1 was sorry
for you. you looked so young and in
nocent; and determined to give you
one more chance"
"For a new career" interrupted the
stranger, with q gust of laughter.
1.-THE key to the puzzle! see it all
now. Don't you know I was begin
ming to think you must be lunatic
And how disagreeably near came to
being locked up, after all and the bank
fellow, whoever he is, seems to have
got off scott free. Really, now, if ever
a man had genuine angel: you are
the one," he added, as Eunice led the
way into q pretty little sitting room
all aglow with red carpet and curtains,
where fire oflogs burned on the open
hearth and cosy meal was spread on
| the table.
Sir Ernest Tinsallon slept in the
spare chamber that night, cas- called
by starlight, and breakfast at 6
o'clock thenext morning with the tele-
graph operator and her mother, and
afterwards accompanied her to the
Big Pine station, plunging through
white masses of snow drifts and slid
ing school-boy fashion, across the
mirror-like surface of frozen brooks
Mr.. Pettyclove was there with his
face tied up in a spotted silk
handkerchief. There were al
II