Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1898-04-20
A Fallen Idol.
BY A. S. DUANE.

a condition that belongs to youth and
good constitution. So when I saw
Jack Mallow going about with letter
in his pocket day after day, that only
betrayed that it was not the same one
(the handwriting and stationery were
identicaD by crisp and dainty fresh
ness, gave it no especial thought. In
the nature of things it was likely to
be some fairly nice girl, who had sue
ceeded and was likely to precede other
individuals of the same species; and
when he stumbled one night over the
name of Mary, knew that that COM
monp1ace word had taken on a signific.
ance for him.
Jack was a splendid fellow in those
days, just the man to make you proud
you owned him for friend-big and
handsome and wholesome, little hot
headed, and bit of a dare devil, but
respected for his honesty and clean
mind by men and women alike; man
of such blameless antecedents and
openness of life that every door stood
gladly open to him, and every hand
was held out to meet his cordial grasp.
1 came across him one night at the
Metropolitan Club. He was in even
ing dress, and had probably been out
to dinner. There was faintish flavor
of wine about him, as though he had
stayed a little while in the dining
room, and had come on down to the
club instead of joining the ladies. He
told me a few minutes later, in the
smoking-room, as we lighted our Gig
ars, that the rest of the party had gone
to the theater.
My fiancee, he said, with his fine
brown eyes intent on the end of his
cigar, went home with a headache, and
so 1 cut the whole thing.
Your fiancee?
am about to ask your congratu1a-
tons. I'm about the best off man in
America this minute. Mary Amory
is going to marry me.
stopped dead, and let my cigar go
out. Marp Amory. Mary Amory go
ing to marry Jack. About the queer
est sensation 1 ever had in my life
came over me. 1 wondered what the
duties of an honorable man and a
friend were under certain circum-
stances. l wondered whether, if I
were to tell Jack what 1 knew, he
would knock me down and marry her
just the same, or knock me down and
then kill her. And then l wondered
why he did not know what was COM
mon talk everywhere; and sort of
contempt for him as a callous minded
man, who had no special delicacy of
perception, came over me. It seemed
to ME that no man with eyes in his
head could fail to see that Mary Amory
was head over ears in love with Bel
lamy Groves, who was a wretched,
| dissipated liver upon his wife's money,
poser in club windows, man who
made desperate eff ,rts to entang1e in
a filtration every young girl who came
| out in society, and who had in some
mysterious way taken Mary Amory's
heart by storm the winter before.
And then 1 thought perhaps the
gossips had exaggerated matters.
They often do.
All this went through my mind like
flash; too quickly for Jack to notice
any pause between the time of his
delivering his tidings of great JOY and
my response.
My dear boy, 1 said, I am delighted
to see you so happy. Miss Amory is
beautiful girl, although do not know
her. But 1 am going to. am going
up tomorrow to call, especially to con-
graduate her.
She is beauty, Jack said, soft
look coming in his big face; and TAX
ing a locket out of his pocket, he lean
ed over toward the light and showed
me.her face.
She was pretty, after florid sort of
fashion of big eyes and yellow hair,
and red mouth, and pink shoulders.
Jack looked at the miniature, his head
held sidewise and sunk in his should
ers, his whole exdression and attitude
full of alteration. Evidently in his
eyes she was perfection, and he was.
as he said, supremely happy.
The next morning Jack came rush.
ing into my down town office in great
excitement. All his money was in.
vested in Western mines Indeed
most of it had been made there. and
it was in riding across the mesas of
Arizona and in the intimate and nm
conventional life of the Southwest |
that had first known him and learn
ed to like him. My first acquaintance
with him was made in Tombstone at
the time the Silver Thread Mine was
burned. He was out at his ranch in |
Grass Valley the two DAYS that the
flames took to destroy the great hoist |
ing works and eat their way as far as
possible into the timber bracinp and
lining of the thirty miles of 1abvrin-
thine tunneling that made M the
great mine, but the day he returned. |
he presented his personality and char
acter to me in a way that made him
look hero.
The superintendent of the Silver