Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-12-23


 ing aside to leave way clear. "You shah meet my friends.''
 Thorpe imagined she referred to the rest of the tenting party. He hesitat- ed.
 T am hardly in fit condition" he ob- jected.
 She laughed, parting her red lips. ''You are extremely picturesque just as you are," she said, with rather em- barrassing directness. "I wouldn't have you any different for the world. But my friends don't mind. They are used to it.'' She laughed again.
 Thorpe crossed the pole trail and for the first time found himself by her side. The warm summer odors were in the air; dozen lively little birds sang i'm the. brush along the rail; the the openings. NJ
 Then suddenly they were among the pines, and the air was cool, the vista dim and the birds songs inconceivably far away.
 He said little, and that lamely, for he dreaded to say too much. To her playful sallies he had no reposte, and in consequence he fell more silent with another boding-that be was losing his cause outright for lack of 8 ready word.
 And so the last spoken exchange be tween them meant nothing, but if each could have read the unsaid words that quivered on the others heart Thorpe would have returned to the Fighting Forty more tranquilly, while she would probably not have returned to the camping party at all for number of hours.
 II do not think you had better come with me-" she said Make your call and be forgiven on your own account. I don't want to drag you in at my chariot wheels
 "All right. I'll come this afternoon" Thorpe had replied.
 ''I love her; must have her. must goat once," his soul cried, quick now-before kiss her!'
 Flow strong he is," she said to her self, .'how brave looking, how honest! He is different from the other men. He is magnificent"
 That afternoon Thorpe met the other members of the party, offered his apol- ogies and explanations and was gra- ciously forgiven. He found the person mel to consist of first of all Mrs. Gary the chaperon, very young married woman of twentytwo or thereabout; her husband, a youth of three years older, clean shaven, light haired, quiet mannered; Miss Elizabeth Carpenter, who resembled her brother in the char acteristics of good looks, vivacious dis position and curly hair; an attendant satellite of the masculine persuasion called Morton, and last of all the girl whom Thorpe had already so variously encountered and whom he now met as Miss Hilda Farrand. Besides these were Ginger, a squat negro built to fit the galley of a yacht, and three Indian guides. They inhabited tents, which made quite little encampment. Thorpe was received with enthusi- asm. Wallace Carpenters stories of his woods partner, while never doing more than justice to the truth, had been warm. One and all owned a lively curl osity to see what real woodsman
 
 handsome and well hammered as we'll as picturesque his reception was no lon ger in doubt.
 \ Nothing could exceed his solicitude as to their comfort and amusement. He inspected personally the arrangement | of the gents and suggested one or two changes conducive to the Hitler com forts. Simple things enough they were 1t was as though a city man were to 1 direct a newcomer to Central park-yet Thorpe's new friends were profoundly l impressed with his knowledge of occult things. The forest was to them, as to most, more or less of mystery unfath- omable except to the favored of genius. l A man who could interpret it even a I little into the speech of everyday com fort and expediency possessed a strong l claim to their maginations. When he had finished these practical affairs they wanted him to sit down and tell them more things-to dine with them, to smoke about their camp fire in the evening But here they encountered a l decided check. Thorpe became silent, l almost morose. He talked in monosyl- fables and soon went away. They did not know what to make of him and so were of course the more profoundly in terested. The truth was his habitual reticence would not have permitted a great degree Of expansion in any case, but now the presence of Hilda made any but an attitude of hushed waiting 4 for her words utterly impossible to him.
 However, when he discovered that Hilda had ceased visiting the clump of pines near the pole trail his desire forced him back among these people. He used to walk in swiftly at almost any time of day, casting quick glances here and there in search of his alvin ity.
 How do. Mrs. Cary" he would say. Mice weather. Enjoying yourself?''
 On receiving the reply he would an swer heartily, That's good and lapse