Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1904-03-10
"The Long Arm."
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BY KEIGHLEY SNOWDEN.

i GAINST his will Col. Sale was play
"A ing n more hand. He played
at all times very quietly, so far as a
card table manner is concerned, and
tonight he was sometimes mildly
humorous. His preoccupation could
not be imagined. But it deepened dur
ing the final rubber, and, far away in
thought from Piccadilly, he heard the
strid roa at Bolton, in lovely Wharfe-
dale. That was a place where a man
might easily seem to die by misadven-
,ture.
The game being ended, he pushed
the cards away with a smile. Some
sense of embarrassment lay upon the
other players. His luck had been
worse than common, he vas a pleasant
officer, and everybody knew him to be
''hipped.' He wrote in his neat hand
upon the back of visiting cards an Il
o U" for each member of the party,
while they were paying cash or checks.
His refined and tranquil face was
flushed a little; the act brought home
to him a very disagreeable sense of his
position.
He reverted to a conversation which
had passed before the game began.
"You are all very good fellows to
wait" he said. I'm sorry. I haven't
at all the same faith in my chances"
His sensitiveness provoked a friend
T., ,,,rDo,,r opd como 1iobt opao11roo o.
ments. When a man is "off his luck"
he cannot do bette than go away and
forget it. In the high priced club
where the colonel played above his
purse worse luck than his had been
known to right itself.
Col. Arthur Sale was a man of no
excuses but this Of gambling; middle
aged, a good soldier, with some repu-
tation as a traveller and a sportsman.
While yet a lieutenant he had made
two independent journeys in the Sou
dan about the time of the first mahdi's
rise to power. His resolute courage
had been attested then and since; the
regularity of his life was of late con-
firmed by a happy marriage, and me
knew him for a nice sense of honor
and excellent temper, taste and social
tact. These last qualities were best
observed in his duller moods, when a
special g%entleness appeared in him.
Few men were better liked, and, as
commonly happens, not the most i'm
aginative among his friends could sus-
pect what he had it in mind to do.
He was going to Yorkshire 'for a
months fishing" But, for some time
now, the position must have seemed
to Col. Sale to have a hopeless look.
He had lost hard upon $4,000 in a few
months; his means were narrow, and,
after calling in all but assurances, he
was in debt for three impossible thou
sands still.
To give up honor and life was doubly
futile. But what had determined him
was the necessity of saving something
for his wife and boys. He said, good
by to them in the morning. Let those
who share his temperament be Col.
Sales judges. Granted his point Of
view, there must have been something
beautifully tender and brave in the
light farewell, and yet mi does not
care to think OF it.
Pass to certain reflections of the
journey. They had some bearing on
the sequel. With only a few days to
live, and with the sense of mastery
which every calm resolution gives,
Col. Sale YVES more than usually clear
headed, although his heart lahored,
and scenes from the old past ran most
ly in his thoughts. In particular he
was struck by recollections Of a COL
lege friendship and of a boys CONVEX
sation which pointed to his present
case. 1t was the most intimate and
lasting friendship he had known, and
he would have liked to say good-by
to Jack Alleyn. Dear old fidus
Achates. matter of fact and gay and
kind. What in these last few years
had become of him? He might even
have shown a better way with debts
Of honor. He always did know the
right thing to do, and did it with a
turn Of the hand. When they were
mere boys, Jack once boosted lightly
that he would undertake.
All, happy time! In a flash the
scene returned. 1t was in the great
holidays, on a night of sentiment and
philosophy, things they did not know
by any such names, and talked never
theless on all occasions. There was a
badger. While it was out they had
stopped the earths, and they lay
among bracken and rocks on the edge
of a Yof kshire moor waiting for it.
The moonlit dale was romantic, but
not Jack, and they were talking ghosts,
Touching to remember how the dear
fellows chaff had never hurt him! But