The Irish standard., 1906-11-17

A FOOL FOR LOVE
By FRANCIS LYNDE
AUTHOR OF "THE aRAFrzRs." ETC
- Is -!
copyright, l9O6. By J. r. Lippinoott Coz

| copyright, lSN. BY
He sat down at the pacKlng-case IN
strument table and wrote out brief
report of the days progress in track
laying for the general managers rec
ord. But when Carter's regular breath
ing told him he was alone he pushed
the pad aside. took down the sending
book and searched until he had found
the original copy of the message
which had reached him at the moment
Of cataclysms in the lobby of the
Buckingham.
"Um,' he said, and his heart grew
warm within him. cts just about as
expected; Morty didn't have any
thing whatever to do with it-except
to sign and send it as she commanded
him to-" And the penciled sheet was
folded carefully and filed in pcrma-
hence in the inner breast pocket of
his brown duck shooting coat.
The moon was rising behind the
eastern mountain when he extin-
guished the candle and went out. pc
low lay the chaotic construction camp
buried in silence and in darkness save
for the lighted windows of the dinkey.
He was not quite ready to go back to
Adams, and after making round of
the camp and bidding the engine
Waterman keep sharp lookout
against possible night surprise, he
set out to walk over the newly laid
track of the day.
Another half-hour had elapsed, and
a waning moon was clearing the top
most crags Of Pacific Peak when he
came out on the high embankment OPP
posite the Rosemary, having traversed
the entire length of the lateral loop
and inspected the trestle at the gulch
head by the light Of a blazing fir
branch.
The station with its two one-car
trains, and the shacks of the little
mining camp beyond, lay shimmering
ghost-like in the newborn light of the
moon. The engine of the sheriff's car
the distant swarming Of bees. and
from the dance hall in Argentine the
snort Of trombone and the tinkling
clang of cracked piano floated out
upon the frosty night air.
Winton turned to go back. The
windows Of the Rosemary were all
dark, and there was nothing to stay
for. So he thought. at all events; but
II he had not been musing abstracted-
ly upon things widely separated from
his present surroundings, no might
have remarked two tiny stars Of Ian
tern light high on the placer ground
above the enlbankment; or, failing
the sight, he might have heard the
dull, measured slumph of a churn-dril;
burrowing deep in the frozen earth Of
the slope.
AS 1t was, a pair Of brown eyes
blinded him, and the tones of voice
sweeter than the songs of Oberon's
sea maid filled his cars. Wherefore
he neither saw nor heard; and taking
the short cut across the mouth of the
lateral gulch back to camp. he boarded
the dinkey and went to bed without
disturbing Adams.
The morning of tho day to come
broke clear and still, with the stars
paling one by one at the pointing fin
ger of the dawn, and the frostsrime
lying thick and white like a snowfall
of erect and glittering needles on iron
and steel and wood.
Obedient to orders, the bridge build
ers were getting out their hand car
at the construction camp, the wheels
shrilling merrily on the frosted rails,
and the men stamping and swinging
their arms to start the sluggish night
blood. Suddenly, like the opening gun
of a battle, the dull rumble Of a
mighty explosion trembled upon the
still air, followed instantly by sound
Of a passing avalanche.
| Winton was out and running up the
track before the camp was fairly
aroused. What he saw when he
gained the hither side of the lateral
gulch was a sight to make strong
man weep. A huge landslide, starting
from the frozen placer ground high
up on the western promontory, had
swept every vestige Of track and en-
bankment into the deep bed of the
creek at a point precisely opposite Mr..
Somerville Darrah's private car.
| CHAPTER VII.
An early riser choice, and made
an earlier this morning by vague
anxiety which had turned the night
into a halfwaking vigil for her, Viz
ginia was up and dressed when the
sullen shock Of the explosion set the
windows Earring in the Rosemary.
| Wondering what dreadful thing had
happened, she hurried out upon the
| observation platform and so came to
look upon the ruin wrought by tho
landslide. while the dust-like smoke OF
the dynamite still hung In the air.
Rather unlucky for our friends the
enemy" said a colorless voice behind
her; and she had an uncomfortable
feeling that Jastrow had been lying in
| wait for her, seconded instantly by the
conviction that he had done the same
thing the previous morning.
| turnod ,,uo, him r,v}nL1u