Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1907-06-01
CHAPTER l.
THE ANTECEDENTS or PATRICK
CAMBEI4

4 y N IbE.I4
He has, said Fairfax, "a genial i'm
science of manner which seems rather
taking with some people But | confess
! shouldn't have thought him the mar
you would have cared to see twice
/ Amy"
You are projudicca obviously. and
I've good mind to say maliciously
| prejudiced. | don't know how much
YOU saw OF him because ! can't bc in
vted 60 "A Wanderers club dinner. You
don't know how much | saw Of him be-
cause you missed some distant train
and didn't como here to the ball last
night. Put III tell you. | saw all
could. He's perfectly and entirely
charming. He's been everywhere. done
| everything, and isn't a bit blase."
II heard, said FairfaX that Mrs
Shelf was trotting him around last
night as the great traveller. Is he OF
the advertised variety Of a globe trot-
ter? Did he sit i'm a side room and hold
a small audience spellDound with a Sc
/ lection from his adventures"
Miss Rivers shrugged hcr shoulders
Not he. but YOU know what .drs
Shelf is when she gets any show per-
son at one Of her functions He had
tC stand il for a while because She
hCl OF 60 MIN as though he might
have been her fan. But he escaped ms
/ soon as ne duCeutly could by saying
| that he wanted 90 dance. He asked me
90 give him the fourth waltz. | did
u ont Of sheer pity, because | saw
Mrs. SAclfs thumbscreWs were making
him WI,th
shows how little a man may know
about the girl he is engaged TO- Now
/ had always imagined that, having
the pick Of the men, you invariably
wrote down the best dancers and
never saddied yourself with "a stranger
who was a very possible duner."
Amy Rivers laughed. "ThGts gen
erallZing But IT was different last
night because / am, SO 10 speak, a
member of the household here. ward
counts as a sort of a niece. doesn't she,
or between that and am adopted
daughter? But anyhow il was out of
sheer pity for Mr Cambcl On thc first
instance and it was with distinct
qualms that l LET him take me down 10
dance. | quite intended after half q
round to say the room was too crowd
ed and so and sit somewhere. That is
to say, ! made UP my mind To DO this
when he asked nc.
However, when | dropped my fin
gers on his arm to 60 down stairs. /
| had my doubts. You know after two
seasons one gets instinctively to know
by the first touch how man viii
| dance. And when he put his arm
around me and we moved to the music
/ felt like going forever. Waiting is
! hard just now because it's in a transit
tion state between TWO styles, but his
! dancing was something to dream
ayout We started off with the new
est quick waltz. Hamilton il was Just
lovely He was so perfect that just
for experiment l alter my step-by de-
grees, you know. Automatically, with
out anything being seen, he changed,
too, and we were dancing the old SLOW
glide before / knew And his steering
was perfect. In that WhiriirE teem-
ing, tangled mob he never bumped me
once. ! gave him two more legal
waltzes and cut another couple in his
favor
Which makes FIVE in all said Fair
fax ratnc stifliy.
Amy Rivers took his hand and pat
ted il. Don't be cross dear. You
know / love a good dance, and one
doesn't meet q partner like Mr.. Cam
bel every day. | suppose he's done
his Waltzing in Vienna and Paris and
Yorkshire and New Orleans as well as
here in London, and by averaging them
All up he can't help bat be good.
Is it from going to those places that
Mrs. Shelf called him the great
traveller
"Of course not. Hamilton how
stupid you are about him Why, he's
runmagcd about in every back corner
OF the world. so they say"
80 they say yes Tchcran to TIM
bulttu. But what does he say nmsClf
about mis- waadesngs beyond the tram
lines Shumles mostly, doesn't he?
And who's met him anywhere? Not q
soul VINO win come forward TO speak.
! tell you. Amy, there's something un-
canny about this Patrick Cambel lie
turns ur here periodically in London
after some vague exploring trip TO a
place which isn't mapped and you can
never pin him to tell exactly where
he's been. He comes with money,
spends IT en- prince and then goes Off
agaln, nomInally perhaps to the Cobb
desert, and returns with anothe:
cargo"
"dow romartlc." said Miss Rivers
yes, isn't it?" said her dauce drYly.
IF he'd lived a century earlier, one
would have said he'd got "a sound bus
mess connection as a pirate some
where West Indies way As his year
IS 1899 ard that explanations barred.
one simply has 10 accept him as an
uncomforta bic mystery"
Hamilton, how absurd you are!
Wherever did all this rigma-olo come
from?"
From the clu5 and London gossip
ing places generally. / suppose We
ought 90 be indebted 10 Cambd for
proviains US mcthing 10 talk about
But, tell me If his antCcedonts are
Sc queer how is il he goes about SO
much here? He's apparently asked
,vorywhcre at least so Mrs Shelf says
and he know everybody who's worth
IuoWinc'
Fairfax laughed. why does London
society take up with an eX-buShrangc
from Australia or a gloriiied advortis-
ing cowboy from the wild, Wild west
simply because London society is eX
trcmeiy parCchial and gets dCspcrat, ly
bored with its own little self uulilutCd.
Now, Cambel Eas undoubtedly wan-
dercd about outside the parish and oc-
CasioUaHy he lets drop hints which
makes one guess he's seen some queer
iSh rough and tumbles I'm places where
polite society doesn't go. ana, i'm fact,
preserves good humored reticenCe
about most of his doings This makes
people thoughtful and speculative II
Chinese cNp addition warrant was ~
turn up tomorrow morning TO arrest
him for sticking UP a two button man
DARN beyond the great wall nobody
would be a biz surprised or if he were
tC tell the city this afternoon that he'd
q concession for "A silver mine In Para
quay which he wished to dispose of al
reasonable rates we'd take il with
pleased equauimity. Now you know.
Amy, there's a fearful JOY In enter
tanning man Of that stamp"
Especially when he's as entirely
fascinating as Mr.. Cambel can be when
he chooses. And such waltzeri But
you speak as III he We're a savage from