The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-11-22
At Mid-Continent

The breathiess overland flyers stopped
and painted in each others faces. One
mad rushed out of the East and the other
out of the West, and they caused amid
sage brush and alkan wastes for mo-
ment before the big water tanks The
weary passengers got out of the coaches
and paced uD and down the wide plat
form with sense of indescribable relief
from the close, dusty coaches. They had
the sensations of those who walk the deck
on the Atlantic, when the world for days
has seemed water-bound and they no
nearer harbor than before. The plains
were as vast, as inscrutable, and as I'M
kindly as the sea. it seemed. Neither
had hospitality; neither was willing to
offer anything but a grave to those who
sought its solitude.
Linda Custer, perched on the step Of a
Pullman coach, looked about her and
smiled. The pretensions of the desert
irritated her. She felt like giving vent to
impertinences. She wanted to dance and
laugh and cry out: You sullen ridicu-
lous desert. what is the matter with you?
Why do you look so leprous? Why do
you never grow anything but sage brush?
And, above all, why do you try to awe
me? Puff! In few minutes I shall
enter this Pullman coach and be IN the
heart of civilization, and you can whirl
your white dust and buster and fume all
you please, but you can't hurt me,''
Her jaunty little dust-covered cap could
not keep her wayward locks in place, nor,
indeed, did these locks even perform the
simple service of securing her hat pins,
so particularly aggressive gust that
came along carried the cap down the plat
form. Linda ran after it as hard as she
could, not having any care TO proprieties.
and only being DESTROYS of making sure
Of her headgear, which, 500 miles from a
milliner's, acquired a distinct value.
Arthur Denslow saw it, too, and he gave
chase as well, and the two reached for 1t
at the same moment, yielded it simil-
taneously. giving it a chance to race yet
further down the platform. and had to
make another sprint before they recover
ed it.
20, thank youi" cried Linda, gratefully
and flushed. What if it had got away?"
THE gray wolves would have worn it,
suppose" responded the young man, bow
ing with as much courtesy as II he were
in drawing-room instead OF on rail-
way platform in the desert.
Are there gray wolves here? Why do
none aDpear?"
81 suppose they don't care to come out
for exposition purposes"
Wouldn't it be amusing If the earth
should suddenly open and swallow the
trains and the tracks and all of us people
should be left here in the midst of moth
ing, without any tools or seeds or clothes
or food? What do you suppose we would
do?"
ut would depend entirely on WHO hap
pens to be walking among these folks on
the platform. If one of them chances to
be Edison I suppose we should soon be
out of our predicament. If they are all
as stupid as I am, no doubt we would
die, providing we are too far from civili-
cation to walk"
I'm afraid we aren't. I'm afraid a
good, vigorous walk would bring US into
the heart Of civilized town. That's theS
worst Of living in this generation. Every
thing is too easy"
You like difficulties?'
'I suppose I would like difficulties.
have never had any. I would like TO get
on a cayuse and ride away over this
alkali desert till I came to wild hills, and
would like to fight Indians"
would you, indeed? Well, I've done |
It. I've lain in trenches three days with |
the rain falling on me. I've been in sew
eral skirmishes and one sea fight"
You're coming home from the Philip |
pines?'
Eyes. I was going to say to you that !
when these things are happening they |
seem perfectly commonplace"
"Impossiblew
at assure you IT'S true"
do you like tropical countries?"
mo. The landscape does not seem any
more sane than this one does. I like the
temperate zone. 1 like-well. I like Jack
son Park pretty well, right near the pavil-
on, where one can look over the lake"
do you live in Chicago? Is that your
2ome?"
Yes. You know the spot Of which
,peak?"
know It? I have been there on my
Wheel every day all SUMMER
And now you are leaving it and 1 am
coming back to It."
I'm going to the coast to stay the rest
# my life"
why didn't you wait by the pavilion?"
The conductor Of the west-bound train
summoned his passengers.
"All aboard! All aboard"
Linda bowed to the young man.
81 did not know you were coming to
he pavilion!" she cried, saucily. II
bought you were going TO stay in Luzon.'
The conductor swung her on the plat
orm, and Arthur Denslow took off his
lat and stood bareheaded in the dusty
sunshine smiling at her somewhat visit
ully.
1T has been horribly lonesome over IN
4uzon," he called.
ut was rather lonesome at Jackson
Park" she confessed.
"All aboard! All aboard" announced
he conductor of the eastward bound
rain.
Linda waved her little hand Good
"! Good-by!'
But we had only begun our converse
ioni What do the trains mean by pull
ng out! We were getting so Interested"
They smiled at each other radiantly.
ut with a lurking pathos. The great
ngines drew deep breaths and their bells
Hanged. The long. dragOn-like trains be-
an a sinuous motion through the length
f their mammoth bodies.
Lets go around the world and meet on
he other side" he cried.
What she said was drowned IN the
latter Of the train. The white dust rose
ehind in an CELEBRATING cloud. From
ne window out OF which he looked with
inpatient eyes he could see nothing but :
he sage brush.
The westward-bound flyer and the east ,
-ard- bound flyer went their breathless >
ra-s.
Brave Offcer Captured ut EstcOurt
Among the officers and men captured
then the Beers destroyed the armored
rain . few miles outside OF Estcoflrt was