The Irish standard., 1908-05-23

while the late afternoon sun shone full
upon him.
II read Of the crack operation the
doctors performed on YOU, Mr.. Carter.
l congratulate you ON it's bcin' o. X.
It's an elegant Improvement. Won't
you Set-sit?"
She did not even look at him, he
thought. Blindly he CROPPED for
chair. his eyes burning as if she had
slapped them with a hard hand. Had
he but known. Sally B.'s keen vision
had instantly noted and approved his
erect manincss, his resolute counte-
nance. Her heart warmed to him. He
belonged to her world appreciated
her. Yet ambition held the rein She
suspected his errand, and purposely
put him at a disadvantage, plying him
with questions. intending to. leave him
no opportunity for personal topics.
But for once she met her equal. She
took the one topic that could best fire
him: and in turn he caught her spirit
In the fame of his enthusiasm. and
consumed her society veil in single
sentence.
do tell me something about the
rairoad. miss it powerful-ly.'
i've just returned from the Front;
got back yesterday"
"Oh, 60 She hesitated. He
could see her eyes shine, knew she
was going to say gosh" and mis- self
possession flew home again.
In a breath Sally b. caught herself,
and went on.
''I'm Just that hungry to hear all
about things. Whered they run the
line? Across by Battle nolntain-I
know that; and where clse??"
"Thcy run 100 lines. ! guess; just
kept the surveyors sticking pins into
the whole American desert Till they'd
picked out the best one. They've got
the track away by Battle mountain
now; past Be-owa-we, Argonta-that's
the junction for Austin and Reese
rivcr-oh, they were way by Toano
when left"
II knew them places: come acrost
there in '54. Paw cmigrated from Ore
gon to Salt Lake, didn't like it there.
dH SOlllc oNCl w SdIIlbiIN -NytlIl-
fornia" She had almost forgotten her
elegance.
Alvin brcathcd freely. "My! Butts
It's cold over therc,'
Il bet it is" she indorsed, emphatic
ally. 'How's Charley Crocker, an
Gregory, an all the rest? Lord!
can smell the sagcbrush now"
Working like blazes! Laying track
by moonlight and stars. Just think of
that. And big sage-brush bonfires to
help out. 1t was the strangest sight;
the men looked like goblins, and the
hammer blows sounded far away, and
made you Creep"
Gosh! They must be runnin' them
U. p. folks hard"
'Not so hard as I'd like to see. The
U. P.'s are coming like lightning, just
a-whoopin' 'em up! They have man
for every rod for 100 miles. They've
got good fuel and plenty of stuff.
Glory! l wish our folks could hurry
up some OF those 35 iron ships out ON
the ocean. and scare up more men.
That lot Of rails the Washoe took up
won't last any time"
Say! That was snifty trick, the
way they snooped them SOC Cinnamon
straight from the ship to the train an
got 'em to the Front before they knew
where they was goin'. read about it
in the paper" She moved her chair .
little and the light reached her face:
Alvin saw the old spirit looking out
of 1t.
ITS awful, what our folks have to
buck against. They can't build shops
for lack of men and stuh-stuff that's
coming in those ironships. And there's
freeze.ups, slides, and wrecks-nothing
settled and finished-and the i'm.
mense cost of repairs, when they've
nothing fixed right to make 'em. Why,
q .waterspout over on the desert sliced
Ito Be Continued)