Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-03-18


Yet 1T qUds of this Ucru matter the engineer
1C0S thinking.
glancing out at the barren stretches of
rolling prairie extending to the horizon.
Every. 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, I
was told. If Nevins isn't dead, he at
least hadn't been heard of up to the
time [ left. :"
And sevessil 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 liz
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 well 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 gam led and took little interest
in cards. He was still "taking his ra-
tions'' at the hotel, but much disIiked
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 a rule. Pri-
vate families that took two or three ia
BILE bOarders were very few, but some
one suggested his going to see the rector
of the new parish, himself a 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, a kindly, gen
tie hammered widower, whose sister
had come to keep house for him, and
never before had either of them lived
in a community so utterly primitive if
not uncouth. 1t was plain to be seen
that he was a sOutherner, and in the
Joy Of few minutes conversation with
a young man, whose language and man
ners bespoke the gentleman, Mr.. Lam
bert speedily made known to him that
his health 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 the
sons of the cross, of his sect at least.
He had read with admira tion of the
missionary work accomplished among
the savage Indians by the church of
Rome but there were heather rather
more intractable than they, said he,
iC,1 Mn
thetic, but already informed on that
point. What he wished to learn was
did the rector know of any family
among his parishioners at whose table
he could find his daily bread for a rea
sonable consideration? Loring, as has
been seen, was a 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
neral Colonel Newcome, it will be re-
mem bered, always accorded tne head Of
column to the church,, the adjutan5
general of the new department and one
solitary subaltern of cavalry were the
only men he had met since reporting at
Omaha whom he found really con-
genial. But, then, it must be remem-
bered that it was the early summer and
the troops were all afeld.
The rector brought the tips of his fin
gers together and bowed his gray head, |
his characteristic attitude in reflection
and repose. Yes, he knew of one, a
woman widowed but a year ago, who
was striving to keep her home by tax
ing boarders and who perhaps could
find room for him at her table. Already
she had given shelter to most estima-
BILE woman, a widow like herself, a
woman of many sorrows whom he had
we'll known during the troublous days