Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1897-11-11
The Old SILVER TRAIL
BY MARY E. STICKNEY.
) lCoryright 1896. by j. B. Lippincott Col
CHAPTER III.-CoNrINUED.

You are so kind" Dorothy returned,
her eyes very brig hit she looked down
at him. 81 am sure you did not guess
that night how grateful we were. We
were so tongue-tied with excitement
so wholly upset. But afterward-
would have been so glad of an opportu-
Eity to thank you again. 1t troubled
me to think we had said so little when
you had been so kind"
1T was more than kind of you not
to think it presumption" he answered
her, flushing with pleasure. 81 con-
fcss it rather looked like that to me
when you had so courteously dismissed
me at the door of the Colorado building
and 1 persisted in still keeping you i'll
sight down the walk"
but what a relief it was to me to
find you there when that alarm came,
and the fire company came rushing by
and the crowd jostled me about! It was
SO soon after the Cold Storage disas-
ter, and the idea of fire threw me into
panic, to say nothing of the fact that
the crowd seemed disposed to trampie
me to death without perceiving me at
all. 1 was so grateful to you for see
ing me- she added, smiling down at
him with perhaps more of kindness
than she knew in the depths of her eyes.
you seemed like an old friend then-a
friend in need"
''And how grateful 1 was to that fire
alarm for giving me a chance. to as
sumo the attitude!" he eagerly ex
claimed. And when I ventured to as
sumo that it might give me a pretext to
walk along beside you-ah, Miss Mere
dith, trembled for my audacity then
a good deal more than when l was bur-
g!arizing up in the Colorado building"
II can hardly credit that. I remem
Der you as perfectly cool and self-pos-
sessed," she declared, holding up her
soft cap as though to Shield her face
from the fire, in reality making it serve
as a screen to hide the blush she could
feel burning upon her cheeks. and
what a mercy it was that you did come,
i'll view of the fact that Mrs. Hallet
was not waiting for me at the place
We had agreed upon! With the dark
ness and the crowds about the electric
fountains, I should have been wild if
you had not been there to help me find
her. And when she had been discov-
cred and it further developed that she
had lost the child and his nurse-why,
you were q regular godsend. 1t was such
time of mishapS."
'You did seem rather out of luck, for
a fact" he laughed, though when you
make so much of my small services
feel anything but sympathetic in a
way; L can't be sorry that it happened,
But never clearly understood, by the
way, how your friend happened to let
the boy get away from her. Was it in
her hunt for you?"
"Oh, no; we had left little Paul with
his nurse looking at the trained animals
over in the Midway late in the after
noon, arranging that they were 10
take supper at some place over there
where the girl had a friend employed.
fancy 1t was her sweetheart, from her
anxiety to patroniZe the place. At all
events, it was settled that they were
to be left to their own devices until
seven o'clock, when they were to meet
us by the electric fountains. But Mrs.
Hallet and l became absorbed in bag
Cling over some curios at one of the AL
gerian baZaars over by the anthropo-
logical building, and before we knew it
1T was after seven o'clock. Of course
she felt that she must fly to keep her
appointment with little Paul, while it
vas hastily settled that I should take
the intramural train around to the Col
orado building and get my jacket,
which I had left there. 1t had never
occurred to her that she had arranged
her rendezvous at the spot which was
sure to be most crowded at that hour,
where everybody was gathering for the
illumination; but when she came there
OF course it was like hunting needle in
q haystack to find the child and nurse
And then, as it grew dark. and her
search continually appeared more hope.
less, while 1 also failed to come back
the poor woman was simply wild. (:
seemed very funny in retrospect-sucr
chapter of incidents; but it did not ap-
peal to our sense OF humor at the time.
should say not" he sympathet