Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1898-03-12
The OLD SILVER Tran.
By MARY {. sncMEY.
lcovyurh. 1895. BY }. 3. LIpplneou Cal
CHAPTER XII.

time to leave the Colorado world. DAY
by day the sky was Of IN intense, ex
quisite blue, the heat at midday op
rressive, although nj morning and even
Ing there wns the chill in the air TIM
rallied for fires. The hills had turned Il
huller browns, splashed here and Their,
with touch of red, more often with tht
dark disks of dead sunflowers bent low
on their shriveled stems. Behind then
The mountains had caught n misty blue
that changed to rich lapis-lazuli in tn,
shadows, fading all day long to pale,
iints, until with the going down Of thu
sun they seemed TO SILVER and turn blue
ngain with the cold. The quaking asps
Haunted in lines Of Pickering yellow
lame up every gulch, n fame that daily
burned more low; and down by the
creek the cottonwoods, erstwhil'
clothed in palest yellows and faded
greens, were leaved oil over with SHIN
mering bits Of bronze just touched with
gold where the sunshine played. Even
In the blossom-time of summer there
had not been SO much of brightness
nor Of beauty; but withal Windy Gulcll
looked only a shade more dull and
lifeless than it had been before, its old
wcather-beaten face borrowing new
ugliness from contrast with the evanes
cent glory of its background.
Harvey Neil, bolstered up with many
pillows in his bed at the Palace hotel,
looked out at the small segment OF land
scape to be seen between the looped-
back curtains of his window, with an
apathetic disgust for II all that hardly
took shape of words even in his
thoughts. He had been i'll of that form
of typhus known us mountain fever, and
the doctor, in order to give him all pos
sible attention. had induced the young
man to allow himself to be brought here
from his cabin at the mine. Here he had
been for nearly three weeks now, his
perceptions for most of the time dulled
beyond heed for anything outside Of the
hot discomfort of his bed aud the grow
ing grievance of over-much beef ten;
but now he was fast mending, the pro-
test of his appetite taking form in an
intense desire for varied and generally
taboocd forms OF refreshment, while
other interests OF life were gradually
rcawakening.
Tie had made his nurse move the bed
nearer the window, that he might look
out; but there was little Of entertain
n.ent to be derived there. The room
was ut the back of the house, overlook
ing the creek, and few struggling cab
ms, their back yards abruptly sloping
10 the stream. while behind them
showed the dreary sequence OF bare,
barn-like buildings housing the aban-
doned process OF treating ores, each adj
dition in the line little lower and
smaller than its predecessor, so that the
whole wore an mir Of having been drawn
out like cunning contrivance OF Chi
nese boxes. Beyond the mill were the
tree-fringed tops of the hills hedging
the creek where the Tomtown roud
crept along by its side; and many q
time. us he looked, II had seemed TO
Neil rs though the old mill had dis
solved to nothingness, SO clear before
his staring eyes was the shaded visia
Of roadway where q young girl in n
broad brimmed hat and dainty mus
lin gown seemed forever looking at
hin, in smiling greeting.
To-day. however. he was hardly
OF the Tomtown road or even
Of Dorothy Meredith; hardly thinking
of anything beyond the soul-sickening
WEAKNESS Of this environment which
held for him nothing that ut the mo-
ment he was willing to reckon good
lie was 80 tired OF il all; SO hcait-
sick; SO homesick. lie had spared his
mother knowledge Of his sickness, sit
Ting up in led now and then TO pencil
her brief scrawls for which he apollo
glzed on special pleas OF haste; but
now, lying here alone in the dreary
little hotel chamber. he felt himself
fairly starving for her sympathy, her
rncompassing love. lie longed to go
I.way, TO he Mt home, TO forget Windy
I;ulch. the Tomtown road-everything.
Ills mind was so weary Of traversing
I.ver and over the same treadmill round
VI thought, thoughts which began anil
Inded with her. Dorothy Meredith.
Why should lie keep alive memory
which could hold for him nothing of
sweetness that was not swallowed up
In chagrin? II was time he learned the
lesson Of forgetting; but here, where
served 10 recall her, 1t was
impossible. He must get away. He
would tell the doctor so when he came
igain.
lie turned restlessly on the pillow, lis
Iening TO the nurses returning step,
with an invalid's peevish fretfu!ness
hat she stayed SO long away. There
yns no sound In the house save the
faint CHATTER Of dishes In the distant
kitchen. where preparations for sup
,er were evidently going on. Outside
sounded the faint systole and diastole
u some fnr-away engine and the reg
liar dull munching Of the stnmp-mill
On its endless hard pabulum; while
every now and then, as though feeling
sound TO rouse the place from It's
sleepy lethnrgy, tame magpie down
he street would vent its whole roper
DIRE Of speech in a series Of shrill hal
COS. like a telephone girl gone mad.
lust so. Neil remembered, this mis-
.rable bird had been screaming when
re had looked his last upon Dorothy
when she was coming out OF
he hotel door In her black gown, SEEM
ng like the ghost OF the girl whose
viId-rose loneliness had been clasped
o his heart but the dry before. They |
scre taking her dead to 0rodelphia to
&c made ready for the long journey east.
md IN company with her fathers at