The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-12
ter without amendment or change:
 Hotel Colon, Huelva, Spain,


 deed' for all the care you must have taken to get my traps off on the first i of our steamers to come out here. Ev- l erything was right, and this I owe en- 1 tirely to your good offices I trust you ] VIII not think l have shown myself i nhsratetuL either to your father or l Soufself-to your father for weleom- Ing the coming, to you for speeding the parting guest.
 T have now been up at Rio Tinto l nearly month. and have taken hold pretty well. l ran down to stay over d weekend in the charming hotel here which. l understand, belongs to the company-also to see my trunks through the customs. All the formal tiles have now been gone through, and l am several crowns the poorer thanks to the useful but impoverishing system of bribery and corruption which obtains here.
 But up at the mines l shall have to put my foot down, l can see. And I am told that if l do. some of these dusky- skinned rascals will think nothing of putting a knife into me. Still. every job has it's risks. and in these sierras one is no more likely than anywhere else to meet the Stranger waiting on the waste
 Now, I am not going to preach. 1 couldn't at any rate Your father will call this rank fatalism: but 1t is a sound,, healthy eff not hearty) belief to carry round with a fellow into strange places-that a man cant die before his clock strikes the hour. If he says different tell him for me to preach next Sunday from the text, My time is not yet come.'"
 Here John Fowler laughed a little and shook his head murmuring, "A lit- tie knowledge of Scripture is a dan gerous thing. He forgets the context: But your time Is always readyr"
 For practice each morning with The Tartan editorials had made him a very dangerous adversary in argument. Janet read on without entering into this, while her father continued to chuckle. Raif lounged on the sofa and petted the fox-terrier He had just returned from having "a few words with the kids" on the back -green-as he had promised after prayers" It is always well to take a little exercise of a morning.
 But so far I have seen nothing of all this (the letter continued) Every one has been kind and easy to get on with. have had no need to show my teeth or the men their ten-inch knives. If you, on your part. will enlighten me on the doings of Kirktovn since that morning when you gave me break fast, and l slipped away into another world by the 6:10 a. m. train, you will do me a great service.
 How is old Dick up at the Glebe End Lodge, and Miss Bryan? Please remember me to them. I hope she was none the worse of her rough handling in the pit?"
 Not a bit-not a bitm said the min ister, T saw her yesterday-prettier than ever. l always call as I pass by. though they are Irongray's people. You have my authority for reassuring him on that point"
 As he father continued to manifest an unwelcome and pointless tendency to enlarge on the beauty and health of Miss BryH, Janet shut him down with snap as if he had been the lid Of box, and proceeded with the next sentence. Raif impassively caressed the fox-terrier, which feigned it's usual cat-like indifference.
 T suppose the company took my ad- vice and made young Calmont interim engineer. With Fraser and Helver to steady him below, he will soon get all the underground practice that is need ed, and Incubus & Go. could not do bet ter. Also the men will get something done for them. But I suppose there
 
 doors since the steed was stolen. was discharged for telling the truth Great is truth and shall prevail says your father, Miss Fowler, and very right he Is. But in this case 1t took sixty three dead men to prove it. And here am in the Hotel Colon at Huelva. listening to the fountains in the gar den, before the Truth could finally pre- vail"
 Inc spoken of," said MT. Fowler, gently.
 Not by Vicr' flashed his daughter in voice so different from that in which she had been reading, that her brother Raif looked up sharply from scratching the fox terrier under the chin.
 ''Yap" objected the fox-terrier. whose name, Janet had always been secretly glad, was Vie. He was not used to having his name taken in vain when rats were not in the question.
 Mir. Fowler scratched his ear and blinked benevolently through the gold en circles of his glasses. He nodded his head at his daughter to intimate that she might continue.
 She hesitated a little, and then, glancing her eye down, boldly skipped the next portion. He brother saw her do 1t, but being well aware that in his turn he would need such complaisances. he passed the matter over in silence devoting himself to the inside of Vic's ears This, however, since there need be no reticences with readers trained in the newest Journalism, was the pas sage omitted:
 "One does deal of clean cut. solid thinking out here proceeded MT. Nor ris's tter)-burnt- scrup which cuts like knives and stings like needles on the one side, and the black vault Of sky aboye-all about queer little hill Villages where they dig up Roman coins and use them to pay for parafYin at the company's stores-the populaoe wild-faced, begrimed men, each with knife that can cut cheese or take the life of a manl And, among other things, dear Miss Fowler, 1t has come to me that your eyes are the color of live sapphires, and that I was a fool not to want to talk more to you when l had the chance.
 Perhaps you would not have cared about it-but I should-now. Now-ah that Is pity. Many things take on their proper proportions when one Is two or three thousand miles away" There was much more in the letter. i but for Janet this was the piece she kept for herself making no man nor woman partaker of her joy.
 She saw a chance--far off and diff cult, but still a ground on which she might strive with the beauty of Vida l Bryan. She could write a better let ter. Oh! yes-the thought made her | face flush and burn. But there was no ! need to deny it to herself-why should | she? She was in love with Vic Morris with Vic Morris who had left Kirk 1 town because of the unkindness of Vida Bryan. Not very dignifed, but still