The Greeley tribune., 1905-11-23

| C NJ
She's dancin rhole lot ouer TO
Erpou."
getic crook i'll the knees and q certain
| furtive way of glancing over the shoul-
| der as if anticipating missiles.
| .Pshaw now, ladies! Why didn't you
let me know that you was coming,
and I'd have tidied up the place and
organized a few dried apple pies"
| where's your wife?" sternly de-
manded the fat lady.
"Oh, l presume she's dancin' whole
lot over to Ervay. She packed her ball
gown in a gripsack and lit out Of here
two days ago, printing that way. A To-
comotive couldn't stop her none If she
got a chance to go cycloning round n
dance"
After supper when the fat lady was
so busy talking 'goo-goo" language to
the baby as to be oblivious Of every
thing else Mary Carmichael took the
opportunity to ask Johnnie If he knew
anything about Lost Trail. The name
of her destination had come to sound
-unpleasantly ominous in the ears of
the tired young traveller, and she fear
ed that her inquiry did not sound US
casual as she tried to have 1t. Nor was
Johnnie's candid reply reassuring.
Its a piZen mean country, from all
consists mainly Of coyotes and noun
tain lions, with few rattlers thrown
in just to make things neishborly
| This yere place'-waving his hand to-
ward the arid wastes which night was
making more desolate-''is summer
resort, with modern improvements,
compared to It."
Mary screwed her courage to still
more desperate point and inquired If
Mr.. Dax knew q family named Yellett
living In Lost Trail.
Never heard Of no family living
there excepting the bluff at family life
maintained by the wild beasts before
referred to. See here, miss, 1 amt
maxim no play to inquire into your af-
fairs, but you amt thinkIn' O visitin'
Lost Trail, be you"
Perhaps" said Mary family, and
then she, too. talked "goo-goo'' to the
baby.
All that long and never to be forgot.
ten night the stage lurched through the
darkness with Mary Carmichael the
solitary passenger. The fat lady had
warned Johnnie Dax that he was on nc
account to replenish Chuggs flask If he
had the wherewithal for replenishment
on the premises. Johnnie hurt to the
quick by the unjust suspicion that he
could fail so signally in his duty to q
lady, not only refused to replenish the
flask. but threatened Chugg with CON
ditional vengeance In the event Of &C
cident Detailing the stage. 1t was with
partially sobered and much threat
ened stage driver, therefore, that Mary
continued her journey after the supper
at Johnnie Dax's, but the knowledge OF
1t brought scant reinsurance, and 1t is
doubtful If the red stage ever harbored
any one more wakeful than the pale
tired girl who watched all the changes
from dark to dawn at the stage win
dow.
The hoofs of the horses beat the
night away as regularly as the ticking
of clock. 1t grew darker as the night
wore on and sometimes a coyote would
yelp from the fringe Of willows that
bordered a creek in a way that made
Mary recall tales of banshees. And
once. when the first pale streak of
dawn trembled In the east and the
mountains looked like Jagged rocks,
heaved against the sky and In danger
Of toppling, the whole dread scene
brought before her one Of Vedder's
pictures that hung in the shabby old
library at home.
They breakfasted somewhere and
Chugg put fresh horses to the stage.
She knew this from their difference of
color; the horses that they had left the
second Dax ranch with had been white
and these that now toiled over the
sand and desolation were apparently
brown. She could not be certain that
, they were brown, or that they were
i. toiling over the sand and desolation,
or that her name was Mary Carmichael,
or indeed Of anything. Four days In
the train and what seemed like four
centuries In the stage eliminated any
certainty as to anything. She could
only sit huddled in a heap and wait
Tor things to become adjusted by time.
Chugg was behaving in a most ex-
smplary manner. He drove risidly a.
an autamaton, and apparently he
looked no longer on the lightning
when 1t was bottled. Once or twice
he had applied bis eye to the pane that
separated him from his passenger and
asked questions relative to her COM
fort, but Aafy was too utterly defect
I'd to reply in more than monosyllablss.
A they crept along. the sun dried tim
9s1s Of The stage creaked and sroaned