Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1902-12-17
lid when his pockets were
not

empty.
What is the fare by rail to your
town." he inquired.
Il don't know; never asked. But
it's between $50 and $50. reckon;
and that's more money than I've
seen sence the woman died"
| Griswold hastily counted out 500
from his contingent fund, and thrust
the money into the mans hand.
Take that and'change places with
me-" he said, slipping on the mash
of gruffness again. PAY your fare
on the train and I'll take your job
on the boat. Don't be a fool" he
added, when the man put his face
in his hands and began to choke.
''It's a fair enough exchange, and
I'll get as much out of it one way
as you will the other. What is your
name? L may have to borrow it."
John Gavitt."
Cali right; off with you,'' said the
liberator; and with that he shout
dered the sick mans load and fell
into line in the ant-procession.
Once on board the steamer he fol-
| lowed his file-leader aft and made it
his first care to find a safe hiding
place for the knotted bandanna.
That done, he dropped into line
again, and when he went ashore the
sick man was gone.
Injured to hard living as he was,
Griswold had made no more than
half-dozen rounds between the levee
and the after-deck of the Belle
Julie in the ant-procession before he
was glad to remember that the
steamers lading was all but COM
pleted. It was toll of the sharpest,
and he drew breath of blessed re-
lief when the last man staggered
up the plank with his burden, while
the bell changed it's final summons,
and the slowly-revolving paddle
wheels took the strain from the
mooring lines. Being nearest the
bow line, Griswold was one of the
two who sprang ashore at the mates
bidding to cast off; and they were
in the act when a carriage drove
rapidly down to the stage and two
tardy passengers hurried aboard.
The mate bawled from his station
on the hurricane deck:
"Now, then! Take a turn on that
spring line out there and get them
trunks aboard! Lively!"
The larger of the two trunks fell
to the late recruit; and when he had
set it down at the door of the desig-
mated stateroom he so far forgot
himself as to read the card tackled
upon it: Charlotte Farnham, Wa
haska, Minnesota"
"Thank you," said musical voice
at his elbow. MAY I trouble you to
put it inside?"
Griswold turned as one smitten,
and was not without embarrassment
at having been caught reading the
tag. But when he saw the owner of
the voice, CONSERVATION slew shame
and he was prompted to make a wild
dash for liberty. For Miss Farnham
was no other than the young wom-
an to whom he had given place at
the teller's window in the Bayou
| bank.
She saw his confusion, OWNED the
first cause of it and smiled Then
he met her gaze fairly and became
sane again when he made sure that
she did not recognize him-became
sane, and snatched off his cap and
dragged the trunk into the state
room; after which he went to his
place with great thankfulness
throbbing in his heart and an in
choate resolve shaping itself in his
brain.
Late that night, when the Belle
Julie was we'll on her way to the
northward, he flung himself down
upon the freight on the engine-room
guard to snatch little rest between
landings, and the resolve became
sufficiently cosmic to formulate itself
in words.
'I'll call it an oracle, The said.
"One place is as good as another, so
it be small enough; and / am sure
I have never heard of Wahaska."
Now Griswold the proletary was,
before all things else, Griswold the
ina ginative craftsman; and no soon
er was the question of his destina-
ton settled than he began to pre-
figure the place and it's probable
lacks and havings. This process
brought him by easy gradations to
pleasant dealings of Miss Farm.
ham, who was, thus far, the only
thing tangible connected with the
destination dream. Whereupon her