Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1898-04-27

u WnlIe nj, JACK spoke TO me OF
Mary.
We had lighted our cigars again and
wrapped ourselves in our overcoats,
for the night was chill. The Chinese
were twanging away at that shrill and
stringy instrument they call Chinese
fiddle, and the coyotes were barking
viciously at their own fears. Away
down in Tombstone we could see the
lights of a s'casino garden,' where
there was dance Of the worst descrip-
ton in progress, but the lights and
and made a pleasant note IN the
strange sounds of the Southwestern
night.
Jim, Jack said, where is Mary Am
DRY?
Married long ago, said hastily.
Yes, / know that. asked after her
as soon as returned, and they told
me she had married and gone to India
to live. Is that true?
Yes, I think it was. She married
an Englishman, you know. There
were no near relations left after her
mother died, and believe she did go
to India. 1 remember hearing some
thing of the sort.
There was long silence.
What wonderfully pretty girl Miss
Malcolm is, said with the 1iveliness
of a very fresh and interesting topic.
Yes, she is, Jack said heartily, and
as good and merry and sweet as she is
pretty. She is the life of the little
circle of civilized people here. She is
perfectly adaptable to this life. Her
father is very rich man, and offers
to take her anywhere, but she has
chosen to spend the winter here, with
her horses and dogs and gun. Jenny
is nice girl.
1 thought of half a dozen ways of
delicate1y approaching the subject,
and then blurted out:
Why don't you marry her?
Jack brought his tilted chair legs
heavily down to the floor.
thought you knew, he said, that 1
should never marry. 1 loved one wo-
man. love one woman, and that
woman was-is-Mary Amory.
Stuff! 1 said. You aren't the man
to go whining about after another
mans wife.
No,-very gent1y-but Mary Amory
has been the guardian angel of my
life. She would not marry me because
her sweet woman's soul could not
stand the blood stain that was on my
hands; but she has ruled my life.
Whenever an hour has come in which
everything seemed to go to pieces, and
the temptation was strong to be reck-
less, and go with the current, I have
taken her picture out and looked at it,
and it has given me new courage.
am not whining after another mans
wife. Mary Amory is apart from me,
always and forever, but can offer no
other woman my heart while she sits
enshrined there. Jenny Malcolm is a
sweet young girl, who has no thought
of me.
Stuff and nonsense!
l know she hasn't.
Have you told her this pretty ro-
nance about Mary Amory?
No, haven't.
Well, don't. And all have to say
is this: if you are going on acting
like a lover to this charming young
girl, with a sentimental incoming after
woman who wasn't fit to lace her
shoes
But Jack had stepped off the veranda
and around the house.
Mary Amory as guardian angel!
1t was too ridiculous to laugh at. Mary
Amory, who hadn't rag of reputa-
ton years ago-Mary Amory, who
was gone out of his life completely
and should never have entered it! She
had probably found her proper place
long ago as the Ang1o-Indian married
f1irt. I would take the first opportuni-
ty and tell Jack the whole story.
But the opportunity and the mood
did not come readily together.
Jack and Sailor had added to their
one mine quite large group, some of
them of fluxing ores, and different
grades, which they mixed with Mon
arch ore in the mill. They gave to
each personal superintendence, and
drove about the group-a distance of
several miles-almost every day.
Jack kept up quite an esta blishment,
having large, low, wooden house
and four or FIVE Chinese servants.
Everything in the way of food could
be obtained from California, and all
the strangers who visited this typical
mining camp OF the West were enter
tanned at luncheon or dinner, or at a
gay late supper. Every day or two
the Ma1colms came up to breakfast. /
began to think Jack was right. Jenny
Malcolm was too happy with her faith
er and her out of door 1ife-to unseu-
timental, too healthy to think of any
man until he had given her strong
invitation to look his way.
ITO be Continued
A severe hail storm visited Assaria