Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1899-04-20

Yet 1t 1cdS of this UcrY matter the engineer
acoS thinking.
glancing out at the barren stretches of
rolling prairie extending to the horizon.
Very. All like this till you get over
toward the mountains. Then it's fine
But, isn't it really believed out there
that Nevins is dead? What became of
his wife?'
"She went back to New Orleans, l
was told. If Nevins isn't dead, he at
least hadn't been heard of up to the
time left.
And several times again that long
afternoon did Burleigh return to the
charge and speak of Nevins, and more
than once during the busy days that
followed, but by the time they started
on their return he had probably con.
cluded that Loring really knew no more
about him, and once or twice, when
Blake and his love affairs were men,
toned, Loring seemed unwilling to
hear. Stone pondered over it not little
before they got to Reno, on the back
track, and there it was that Burleigh
had demanded to be sent right on to
Frayne, despite fatigue, for something
had come to him in this mail that filled
him with dismay, as the major COM
manding told them dozen times over
Moreover, Mr.. Omaha Stone became
gradually convinced that Loring was i'll
partial possession of the secret of Bur
leigh's stampede. Unless Stone was ut
terly in error Loring had seen some
where before the handwriting of the
superscription of the envelope Burleigh
had dropped in his nerveless collapse.
But Stone might as we'll have cross
questioned the sphinx. Loring would
admit nothing.
Yet it was Of this very matter the en-
gineer was thinking one soft, still even
ing soon after his return to department
headquarters. His boxes had just arriv-
ed. He had found fairly comfortable
room away from the turbulent section
of the new and bustling town, and
equally distant from the domicile of
Stone and his particular set. Loring
never gambled and took little interest
in cards. He was still "taking his ra-
tions" at the hotel, but much disliked
it, and was seriously thinking of seek
ing board in some private family. The
barracks were too far out and the roads
deep in mud, or he would have lived
and messed" out there The few
boarding houses were crowded, and
with an uncongenial lot as rule. Pri
vate families that took two or three TIA
BILE boarders were very few, but some
one suggested his going to see the rector
of the new parish, himself recent ar
rival
The sun had gone down behind the
high bluffs at the back of the struggling
frontier town. The plank sidewalks
were thronged in the neighborhood OF
the hotel with picturesque loungers as
the young officer made his way west
ward and soon reached the outlying, I'M
paved, deep rutted CROSS streets He
readily found the rector, kindly, gen
tie hammered widower whose sister
had come to keep house for him, and
never before had either of them lived
in community SO utterly primitive. if
not uncouth. 1t was plain to be seen
that he was a southerner, and in the
VI a LOW ul6S COLN6TSdGlON WIFI
a young man, whose language and man
ners bespoke the gentleman, Mr.. Lam
bert speedily made known to him that
his healrh had suffered in New Orleans
and his physicians had insisted on total
change of climate and the great north
west was new, untrodden field for tho
sons of the cross, OF his sect at least.
He had read with admiration of tho
missionary work accomplished among
the savage Indians by the church of
Rome, but there We're heather rather
moro intractable than they, said he
with sigh, Mr., Loring was sympa-
thetic, but already informed on that
point. What he wished TO learn was
did the rector know of any family
among bis parishioners at whose table
he could find his daily bread for a rea-
sonable consideration? Loring, as has
been seen, was man to whom the CON
verse OF his fellow men, as found upon
our frontier. was neither edifying nor
improving He preferred the society of
his own thoughts. The rector, the gen