Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-11-09
GOLD OF SILENCE.

MUTT IdEIl has uccu WTOuBuU III UllS
world by the gold Of silence than by the
silver of speech. Especially is this true
of matters of the heart.
Farland came to realize it in the end,
but as he left the commanding officer and
walked in his deliberate way across the
hoproom to where Miss Cameron stood he
was priding himself upon his ability to
hold his tongue and, with a wretched sort
of vainglory, nerving himself to hold it
for seven hours longer.
Miss Cameron was talking to the regi-
mental quartermastcr, and when she
caught sight of Farland she grew radiant.
The regimental quartermaster observed
this and was of course annoyed. He went
away and left her with the lieutenant.
1t is the fate of a woman to be forever
smiling. Few men have learned to dis
tinguish that eternal smile. Those who
have have observed the subtlest tragedies
of life.
Farland was not of them. He was too
distinctly manly to understand women
He was therefore strengthened in his re-
solve to keep silence when Miss Cameron's
expression in nowise changed as he told
her that she must excuse him from the
next dance.
II have just seen the colonel, and he
has been pleased to inform me that l must
leave at reveille."
For what portion Of the globe?"
She gazed over his shoulder in apparent
absorption in something at the other side
of the room. II Farland had been a stu
dent of the sex, he would have known that
this vas overacting. 1t was one of the
many of Miss Cameron's charms that she
usually fixed her entire attention upon
the person at hand.
"Where are you going?" she repeated.
"To join Blake's command; after that
wherever the will Of heaven and the craft
of the Apache may lead me-"
For just one instant her expression
changed, but Farland was not acute.
"Upon a scout, them" she asked.
"Upon a scout, yes. And as I have to
leave before r~eveille, and as it is now II
o'clock, there is no time to be lost"
Miss Cameron was smiling again.
"You will not sleep much tonight.
Things must be serious"
"They are" he told her.
There was a pause-one of those inter
walls when the gods benumb our mental
powers that instinct may have fair play.
But we defeat their ends. We have trained
instinct to lie quiet.
The lieutenant moved uneasily. Miss
Cameron, with the delicate, much sung
discernment Of woman, thought him rest
less to be gone. She drew herself up to
her full height, and the regal poise Of her
head was accumulated. Farland deter
mined that she was Indifferent and hard,
and his resolution was enforced.
"You must not let me keep you" she
said.
Farland was far too we'll trained to al
low his anger and u%nhappiness to appear
in more than an exaggerated n
He took her extended hand.
"Shall you be here when l returnp" he
asked. His resolution was near to break
ing. If her tawny eyes had grown ever so
little soft, he would have flung his golden
wealth of silence to the winds. But her
pride was mighty, and it was aroused.
"My visit comes to IN end this week.
she said.
"We shall probably meet again." he
ventured.
She shrugged her shoulders negligently.
Probably. One can never be sure that
one has seen the last of anybody in the
army" And then she added, "Goodby! p
She would have been glad. to bow her
head upon her arms and to have kept her
heartache in silence. Instead she gave the
dance which was to have been Farland's
to a married captain and succeeded per-
fectly in her effort to appear to enjoy it.
And Farland went out, morally and
bodily, into the night. His was the code
of honor-which considers not the woman
that holds that If a man may not ask a
woman to marry him then and there
neither may he tell her of his love. He
thought he was doing right, and he was
not one to rail at fate. A little tempest
of temptation had rufled the deep waters
of his conscience for a time, but they were
calm again. He remembered with resent
ment the haughtily poised head and the
placid smile and the last glimpse he had
caught of her through the hoproom win
dow-a yellow gowned figure, swaying to
the music in full enjoyment Of life.
Well, she would have gone back to Bay
ard by the time Of his return, and one
could never be sure n would not forget
after years. He went into the barracks
and gave his orders.
When the brass mouths of the bugles
pealed their reveilie welcome to the sun as
1t rose above the mountains, far across the
prairie, Farland and his command were
trotting toward Mount Graham, and Miss
Cameron, still In the yellow gown, stood
at her window with her hands clasped be-
fore her and watched the line Of the reced.
ing column.
Farland stopped at Bayard two months
later. The scout was over, and he was
taking his command back to Fort Grant.
They were to strike the railroad at Silver
City, nine miles away, upon the following
day.
He meant to see Miss Cameron. There
was no longer a reason for silence. He
waited with impatience while the com
mandant arranged for the disposition Of
the men. Then he walked with him across
the parade, The primroses of the evening
were opening, a great pale flower bursting
out here and there in the grass, until even
us he went all the ground was starred
with them, and the children from the Off.