Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-01-14
DAILY. STORY.
al WILL SEND HER."

| his own occasional amusement. Once
and only once during the ten years fol-
lowing his graduation there was a
| chance for his reform. At Nice one
| year during the carnival he met a girl
| who might have awakened in him an
| ambition. There was a love affair, but
in its incipiency the girl was taken
westward by her parents, while Mer-
| Ram went eastward. AS soon as they
| had separated Merriam knew what he
| had lost. Why he had lost her he never
| told his dearest friend. 1t was sup
posed her parents had other plans for
| her.
Bat he did tell his dearest friend of
| his disappointment. Strangely enough.
that friend was an Alpine guide. Mer-
riam spent many summers climbing
the Swiss peaks, always with the same
guide, Herman GoertZ. The dangers
they passed together the solitudeS in
which they camped, brought out con-
fidence that could have been ELECTED in
no other way. The guide had occasion
to love his employer. On one occasion
Goertz slipped, hung by the rope over
over with him. He called on Merriam
to save himself by cutting the rope,
but Merriam was made of sterner stuff
and hung on till the guide got grip
on the ice, and they were saved.
The two parted at last in n snow
storm. An avalanche began to move
slowly, taking Goertz with it. Merriam
could not see him, but heard him say:
Herr, farewell. I will send her to
you" a week later the guides body
was found a thousand feet below, head
down in the snow.
Returning to America, Merriam tried
to amuse himself. One day while at
the seashore strolling alone on the
beach, a fog came in from the ocean
and enveloped him. He was walking
slowly, guided by the sound of the
breakers, when form doomed before
him and in another moment resolved
itself into woman. She stopped, and
Merriam stopped.
You herer' he said under his breath |
Yes, and your
81 supposed you were in Egypt. |
was told by friend that he saw you |
at Cairo not three weeks ago."
81 was. 1 reached America last |
week.
stranger
'That we should meet In this way? |
l should think SO. How small the |
world is after all! But there is some |
thing stranger still. Do you know that |
1 felt a premonition of meeting you
here?"
I'm the fog?"
Yes
THAT is remarkable" Then he add
ed musingly. "a premonition that you
would meet me-in fogr'
There are gray hairs-a few-in
your beard. Let me see; it is ten
years since we met in Nice"
"And parted"
81 couldn't help that
"Not very we'll you so young. Had
you been thirty instead OF twenty it
you here?'
"Who sent me?"
81 mean why did you comeY'
81 took fancy to walk down the
beach,
"And took fancy TO walk up"
''And then the fog rolled in, and we
didn't see each other until we happen
ed to come near together. After all,
it's simply coincidence"
Merriam was silent.
what are you dreaming about? I've
heard you have been spending most
of your time climbing mountains. You
seem now to be looking from some
high peak and wondering as Professor
Tyndall did from the top of the Mat
terhorn, whether the broad expanse
before him had contained the nebulous
cloud from which the universe was
evolved
mo. / am listening to the voice of
a friend going to his death. There was
a snowstorm. / couldn't see him. AS
the avalanche took him he babe me
through the fakes. And now
you come to me through the mist
She placed hand on his. Don't
wear that uncanny expression. You
seem to be standing between the nat
ural and the spirit world. Go back In
fancy to Nice. Say again what you
said them
"And receive q different answer"
"All is changed. 1 am alone in the
world"
Two expressions were lowering on d.,
MS face contending for precedence, the
me she had called uncanny gradually
'eceding before the other, a sudden
lope.
and receive a different answerY'
lie repeated.
Eyes"
IL one had been listening to this dia.
ogue between two persons he could
lot see, he would have heard nothing g
urther except the plashings on the line j
Il foam.
Then came a soft yellow light from
lbove, and the mist slowly melted s
way, revealing the ocean, the cir G
ling gulls, the dunes, the cluster of Ia
lotelS and Gotta es both I'M and down :