The Red Cloud chief., 1906-08-24

A Toss Between Rivals


tOriginal.l
Ben Arnold and | were chums. and
Dorothy Drummond was a witch.
Given a pair of chumS and n witch,
and what is the invariablc result? A
quarrel between the chumS. If this
invariable result had happened in our
case there would he nothing worth the
telling. SO many such affairs have
taken place that they have ceased to
be at least novel. Dorothy said she
would have neither of us. declaring at
the same time that we were more in
love with each other than with any
one else. | will admit that this helped
Ben and me u keep from quarrcllng,
though neither Of Us believed her.
We invented tests TO force Dorothy
to show her hand. Whether She was
too smart for us or whether she had
nothing but friendship for either of MS
we could not tell. " any rate not one
Of our tests gave us any information.
We conspired To send her invitations
Tor a drive to take place mt the same
hour of the same day, hoping she
would show her preference by accept
inZ u and declining the other. The
litt.e mink accepted both, asking us TO
call with an equipage capable Of seat
ING four persons. as she wished TO
take her grandmother. We were both
furious, but dared not dlsohcy. We
tried 20 force her 10 choose one Of Us
to sit beside her. but she declined 10
enter the carriage till all had been
seated. she was The life of the party,
which must hNve been Il difficult role
to play, for Ben and l sat nursing Il
wrath to keep il warm" When we
handel the two women out, Dorothy
was prOfuse in her thanks for an in
vitatiOn which had not been given.
One day l told Ben that there was
but II way to force IL decision be-
tween us. That was to tell Dorothy
if she would have neither of us she
must lose both of us. We would both
'go west" Ben consented to this at
once. lie believed the girl loved him
and when 1t came to the point of los
ing him would show her hand. l had
no doubt that l was the fortunate
man and, if a choice was inevitable.
"bAll Dt 'ilpNtil. IL Nou lSh Oh W lll
grounds we based these opinions / re-
ply that each drew his Inference from
DOrOthy's actions toward him. She
gave me her photograph. ~eXacting my
promise not to tell Ben, and gave Ben
her photograph, eXacting his promise
not to tell me. This sort Of trick she
played us in a great variety of ways.
1t was quite natural that each should
deem himself the favored one.
One evening we called on Dorothy
together and stated our proposition.
In order that neither should have the
advantage of being spokesman we
were both spokesman. Ben made Il
preliminary statement of the case.
while | followed with the alternative.
The little witch's eyes danced while
we were doing so, though when the
last words were spoken, "or we go
west tomorrow" she looked at us in
quiringly. Seeing determination in
the countenance of each, she made Il
little gasp, then turned her back and
walked to the window.
When she turned toward us there
was Il singular expression, or rather
combination of expressions. on her
face-something serious, something
comical, and, above all, something eX-
tremcly mlsChieyous.
Il don't wish to drive two such fine
fellows away" she said. IF must
choose between you | must make my
choice by lot"
Going to an antique writing desk,
IL 80. ~ -
out an old copper cent, such as has
now gone completely out of circula.
ton.
!. 1T is a toss between you. i shall