The Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1903-1909, 1906-09-11
By w. FOSTER BROWN

! that we ought" Tom began to tloun-
der under the steady gaze of the gray
/ eyes, little CLINT of amusement be-
! ginning to show in them. oh, you
| know what mean" he wound up,
! lamaly, Il don't want you TOTO think
! SO, TOO
| The trife of unconscious emphasis
on the pronoun disconnected the rhythm
Of Miss Fairfaxs even pulses, Il think
I ! must bid you good-morning, she
said, quickly-"I have several other
poor people 10 visit, and have already
stayed here longer than | should
Arcadia is blissful country, and I'M
fortunate indeed is he whose feet have
never wandered across its magic
| boundary in less than month these
two young people, each seeing in the
other something akin-something that
uneonsciously drew forth and vitalized
their secret thoughts and aspirations
had lost themselves beyond recall IN
that fair domain.
Standing one night in the twilight,
under the shadow of the ruined wall of
the old mission, Tom Elliot spoke
aloud the resolution that was in him:
Helen" he said, earnestly his eyes
fixed Oh the fading glory in the west
1T is absurd, preposterous, just be-
cause your father fought for the gray
and my father for the blue, more than
a quarter of century ago, that we
have to renounce all the happiness that
might be ours in the future. The war
has been over for ages, and thsre is
no dividing line of dislike and intol.
erance between the north and south
of to-day. Why, some of my fathers
best friends, whose money helped to
build our factory, fought on the other
side in 81"
Helen Fairfax slipped two confd-
ing fingers into her companions palm
You're dear boy, Tom" she said
softly, rubbing her cheek against his
coat sleeve
About this time, while Tom Elliot
was racking his brain for an expedient
that would straighten out the tangled
skein of his love affair, Fate, the all
powerful, took the matter in her own
mighty hands, and her messenger-an
excited man with a week-old New York
newspaper-burst into San Jose like
a human bombshell. The Maine had
been blown up in Havana harbor, and
the American nation as one man was
clamoring for vengeance,
The impassiveness of the town was
shaken to its foundations by the It'd
ings, the effect produced differing ac-
cording to the point of view.
The native population of San Jose
had but one opinion in regard to the
matter They hoped and believed
to man-that 'los Americanos"
would suffer a swift and overwhelming
defeat at the hands of Spain
climax came speedily Col Fair
fax, coming out on his leaf-coyered
veranda some three days later, beheld
a
ticulating and voluble, were hurrying
along the road. The colonel guessed,
in twinkling, that the resentment
that had been gathering against the
Elliots-the progress of which he had
watched with much satisfaction-was
eliminating in a definite scheme of
vengeance
The colonel fastened to the end
of the piazza, from which vantage
ground an unobstructed view of the
factory could be had "At last the
northerners have got themselves in
trouble" he said to himself.
At first 1t seemed to the colonel that
the Eliots were trying to divert the
mob before them by argument or ex-
tulation-evidently futile-for all at
once lie caught sight of an appraised
arm on the edge of the crowd, saw Ii
suddenly stiffen in the act of throwing
something, and saw Maj. Elliot stag
ger, grasp at the railing of the plat
form, and then roll in heap down the
steps to the ground.
by Gad!" CALCULATED the colonel,
gripping the rail of his piazza, they're
going too far. | won't stand by here
and see murder done at 20 to odds"
He wheeled and dashed into the house,
reappearing in a second or two with
an old-fashioned, but bright and
formidable looking army revolver. Hat
less, his gray locks flying in the wind,
he ran to the factory
The colonel had halted out of breath
directly beside the Flagstaff, forgetting,
in his quick and humane impule to
prevent, if he could probable blood
she'd that the Elliots were northern
men-and forgetting, also, the flag he
hated Now, 30 feet above his head, 1t
hung motionless in the clear, MINDLESS
atmosphere, its red and white folds
sharp and bright in the sunshine.