Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1902-01-09
The Trouble q
on the TOro1itO.
BY FRANCIS LYNDE.
Copyright 1898, by Francis Lynde)
CHAPTER V.
ULTIMATUMS TWAIN.

When all is said, sober second
thought, so much vaunted and be-
praised, is but an ignoble thing.
How many fine project, conceived
I'm impulsive unselfishness and sent
rocket-wise on it's course starward,
has come to earth again a mere
-blackened stick in the chill
downpour of reflection. How many
an emprise which seemed altogether
promising and feasible when planned
overnight has become a thing pre-
posterous in the cold gray light of
the morning.
Some such reflective misgiving as
sailed me when / came to write the
letter to my friend in the Glenlivat
company's directorate. Doubtless,
the passport into the camp of the
enemy would be Forthcoming; but
once safely within the lines, what
could 1 hope to accomplish? Would
Wykamp straightway proceed to un-
bosom himself to me?-make con-
fidant of a stranger, an emergency
guest foisted upon him by the good
nature of one of his directors? The
idea was absurd. And if he should
do such an incredible thing, the end
would but indifferently justify the
means; one could hardly eat his
salt and betray him.
The letter was written and Dan
Connolly was saddling for the ride
60 the fort. In few minutes the
undertaking would be afoot and re-
consideration impossible But a
-h
and my reprieve was already on the
way. Connolly shaded his eyes un-
der his hand and interrogated
filmy dust-cloud on the up-valley
trail 1t was approaching the ranch,
and the level rays of the newly
arisen sun turned it into a hazy nim-
bus of gold-dust.
EVAN av thim's the Greaser, an
t'other's the scut av an ingineer,"
says my Mercury, scowling. "Now
fwhat1l thin two be doin' on our
reservation betune daybreak an
breakfast, I'd like to know"
70 be consistent l should have
gone indoors and kept out of sight
If | were to serve Macpherson's turn
as a spy in the engineers camp, it
said itself that | must not be known
as Macpherson's friend But shame
priclled into the lists, sword out and
visor down, and / stood my ground
when the pair galloped up.
Wykamp drew rein at the door
stone, or, to record the fact, he
dragged at the leather and his horse
danced an accompaniment. The animal
was a fne-blooded bay which-with
humane gentling and snafile-bit-
might have been ridden by woman;
but it had been spurred cruelty in
the race down the valley In the bit
of equestrian by-play | had an OPP
portunity to observe the two men.
The engineer was a disappointment.
Prefigurings of person described,
but otherwise unknown, are inevit-
able; hence, out of the material
gathered from Macpherson's conf
dences I had fashioned a rather
melodramatic villain of the fctional
school. No fancy sketch could have
been farther from the fact. The en-
gineer was trim-bult, athletic
young fellow, as handsome in his
way as Macpherson, though quite at
the opposite extreme of the gamut
of types, carefully groomed from his
close-trimmed beard and curling
mustaches to the well-fttng tweeds
and tan leather leggings; a man of
business, clear-cut, concise, aggres-
sive, one would say, emotional only
I'm some flood-tide of passion, and
vindictive only when thwarted.
His Mexican henchman could be
summed up in terser phrase. Dark
skinned as a Zambo, small and 1.-THE
as the savage little tiger-cat of his
native chaparrals, with sleepy eyes
pin-points of feral intelligence that
saw everything without appearing to-
ambushed under the dropping brim
of his broad sombrero; he was a
plain-song assassin of the baser sort
of a type familiar enough in the
pioneer period, and seen h, its best
whep found dangling from the cross.
arm of a teiegraPh-pole or the
byanch Gf a convenient tree.
When the bay was temporarily
@uoiugated, Wykamp ignored me and
Surnod to Connolly.