The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-02-27
BEYOND HUMAN SAVING.
THE STRANGE REFORMATION OF
ERRING BADGER WILLIE.


Solemn Hour, but it Formed Only One of
the Blocks with which IL Tropie Place is
Said to be Paved.
1t was cheerful day for Badger Will
lie. When, in the gray of the early
morning, she had entered the Tucson
stage and found that Wylie Kimball,
manager of the Star and Crescent, was
to be her fellow passenger she had
looked for decidedly disagreeable trip,
and had almost decided on the spur of
the moment to wait for the next stage.
But when Kimball, who had been one of
her lesser victims for brief space of
time, and had hated himself and her
accordingly ever since, in response to
her cheerful query as to his reasons for
going to Tucson, remarked very point
edly that 1t was none of her - bust
ness" that settled it, Willie liked moth
ing better than making some one else
uncomfortable. even at the expense of
her own comfort; so it took her less
than one second to make up her mind
to carry out her original intention as
regarded the date of her departure.
For this resolution she shortly had rea-
son to congratulate herself, for at the
outskirts of the camp the stage stopped
to take on three more passengers
miners, going to town to blow in" the
re ,f I, ynYs1y
Willie well knew that before she got to
Tucson she would have one or all of
them ION her staff"
She was bit abashed at first, may
be, by the presence of Kimball, whose
aversion to herself she understood per-
fectly; he did not look at her at all,
however, but sat and smoked and
stared moodily out of the window. He
had got aboard in the most cheerful
mood imaginable, for he was going to
meet his wife and babies, who We're
coming out to join him after a separa-
ton of two years-and then this harry
must needs intrude herself upon his
pleasant thoughts, and worse still,
thrust her society upon him, to be a
journey-long reminder of his one time
mad weakness. How could he, he
asked himself, go from her presence
into that of the pure, sweet, trusting
woman he called wife and look into her
honest eyes without finching? She
would never know, of course, but that
would not prevent his feeling like
scoundrel, And hereupon Wylie Kim
ball passed another bad half hour or so
with his very active conscience.
But this could not last long. Two of
the miners were Kimball's own en-
ployes, and he knew the other one very
well also; SO it was impossible to avoid
taking a part in the conversation, even
had he not desired to get away from
his conscience. Thus, after couple of
hours, during which the bottle went the
rounds more often than was necessary,
he found himself laughing, chatting
and swapping lies" with the rest with
all the permissible freedom of popular
mine manager off duty.
About the middle of the day the stage
left the foothills and, branching off the
main road, took a short cut across the
desert, beyond which doomed, through
the heated quivering atmosphere, the
last spur of mountains to be crossed be-
fore the desert proper was reached. BY
this time the three miners and Badger
Willie had succumbed, in greater or less
degree, to the soothing influences of the
heat, the bottle and the swaying Of the
vehicle, and one by one they dropped
off to sleep.
Kimball then got outside with Dan
Latham, the driver, and rode on the
box. He did not mind the heat very
much, and he did want some one to talk
to, and even the monosyllablc Daniel
was better company than none at all.
He told Dan about expecting to meet
his family at Tucson, and the surly
driver was so pleased over the prospect
of seeing kids" at the camp that he
grew quite loquacious, and told Kimball
a few yarns" about his experiences
when the country was new
The road through the mountains they
had been approaching was a new one,
just built by the stage company and
the mining operators at considerable
good investment, as saving considerable
time in freighting, but Dan Latham,
who was opposed to Innovations, could
not see it in that light; so he and Kim
ball, as the horses climbed the first
graded stretch, were engaged in a
heated argument on the subject, when
Dan suddenly Strengthened up and
asked sharply, as he stared hard at
point above them on the right:
God! did We see that?"
WHAT"
There she goes gin!" calculated the
driver, excitedly, pointing with the butt
of his whip. Kimball looked, and saw
bright ball of light, like a diamond
FASH CLEAN for an instant, then disap-
pear, and moment later, there was an
answering flash from rocky peak two
miles away.
Troopers, heliographing," said the
manager easily.
Troopers, nothin'," snorted Dan, in
deep disgust. 'They don't use two-inch
lookin' glasses, man. There's another
one-see? Say, mister, we've got to git
move on. Wake them DRINKS up, will
We? an tell 'em they's a scrap in sight.
Then we makes hot-foot FIR place a
piece up tn road, where they's some
show to fight
Why the Apaches did not wait fur
and ambush the stage at some favora-
BILE point, it is Impossible to say. 1t did
not take their lookouts long to under
stand, however, when they saw the pas
sengers helping the vehicle on the up