The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1905-03-02

coaching party to Tia Juana that dav.
and Miss Herrick had returned to the
hotel only in time to dress. By $50
she emerged from the process which
had involved her mother, her younger
sister, her maid and one of the hotel
chambermaids-a dainty, firm corseted
little body, all tulle. white satin and
high piled hair. She carried Marcchal
Mel roses, ordered by wire from Mon
| terey, and about an hour later. when
Ridgeway gave the nod to the waiting
musicians and swung her off to the
beat Of a twostep, there was not a
more graceful little figure upon the
| floor Of the incompatible round ball
room Of the Coronado hotel.
The cotillon was a great success.
The ensigns and younger officers of
! the monitor, at that time anchored off
the hotel, attended in uniform. and
| enough of the members Of what was
known in San Francisco as the dane
ing set'' We're present to give tie at
| fair the necessary entrain. Even Jerry
Haight, who belonged more distinctly
| to the country club set and who had
spent the early part of that winter
shooting elk in Oregon, was among
the ranks of the "rovers," who group
ed themselves about the drafty door
ways and endeavored to appear uncon-
sciOus each time Ridgeway gave the
signal for a "break.''
The figures had gone round the hall
| once. The first set'' was out again,
and as Ridgeway guided Miss Herrick
by the 'rovers'' she looked over the
array of shirt fronts, searching for
Jerry Haight
F'Do you see Mr.. Haight?" she asked
of Ridgeway. II wanted to favor him
this break. I owe him two already,
and he'll never forgive me If I over
look him now
Jerry Haight had gone to the hotel
office for few moments rest and !;
cigarette and was nowhere in sight.
But when the set broke and Miss Her
rick, despairing of Jerry, had started
out to favor one of the younger en-
signs, she suddenly jostled against him
pushing his way eagerly across the
floor in the direction of the musicians
platform.
"Oh," she cried, ''AIr. Haight, you've
missed your chance-I've been looking
for your
But Jerry did not hear. He seemed
very excited. He crossed the floor, al
most running, and went up on the plat
form, where the musicians were mean
dering softly through the mazes of s'La
Paloma," and brought them to an
abrupt silence.
Here, I say, Haight," exclaimed
Ridgeway, who was near by, you can't
break up my figure like thatv'
"Gf me call there on the bugle,"
said Haight rapidly to the cornetist.
Anything to make 'em keep quiet
moment"
The cornetist sounded a couple Of
notes, and the cotillon paused in the
very act of the break. The shutting of
feet grew still, and the conversation
ceased. a diamond brooch had been
found, no doubt, OF some supper an
nouncement was to be made But Jer-
ry Haight, with a great sweep of his
arm, the forgotten cigarette between
his fingers, shouted out breathlessly:
"Ross Wilbur is out in the Office Of
the hotel!'' a.fs
There was an instant's silence and
then a great shout. Wilbur found!
Ross Wilbur come back from the dead!
Ross Wilbur, hunted for and bootlessly
traced from Buenos Ayres in the south
to the Aleutian islands in the north;
Ross Wilbur, the puzzle Of every detec-
tive bureau Oh the coast, the subject OF
a thousand theories, whose name had
figured in the scare heads Of every
newspaper west Of the mississippi;
Ross Wilbur, seen at a fashionable tea
and his club Of an afternoon, then sud-
denly bl0tted out from the world of
men, swallowed up and engulfed by
the unknown, with not so much as a
button left behind; Ross Wilbur. the
suicide; Ross. Wilbur, the murdered;
Ross Wilbur, victim Of a band of kid
napers, the hero of some dreadful
story that was never to be told, the