Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1909-02-09

and, though he had true affection for
the girl. boylike concealed it by show
Of rude Indifference
The tender relations of these boys
and girls persisted naturally into
young manhood and womanhood. No
word of love passed between Dick and
Echo until that time when the nest
ing impulse" the desire to have Il
home of his own, prompted the young
man to go out into the world and win
his fortune. For year he had acted
as foreman of the Allen ranch, work
ing in neighborly cooperation with
Jack Payson Of Sweetwater ranch, a
man of about his own age. The two
young men became the closest of COM
rades. When the fever of adventure
seized upon Lane and he became dis
satisfied with the plodding career of
wage Garner, Payson insisted on mort
gaging Sweetwater ranch for $1,000
and in lending Dick the money for
years prospecting in the mountains of
Sonora, Mexico, In search Of fabu-
lousy rich lost mine Of the AZtecs."
Traditions of lost mines are plentiful
in Arizona and northern Mexico. First
taken up by the Spanish invaders of
300 years ago from the native Indians,
they have passed down to each subse-
Quent influx Of white men. The direc-
| lions are always vague. The inquirer
cannot pin his informant down to any
definite data. Over the mountains al
ways lies the road. Hundreds of lives
have been sacrificed and cruelty un-
paralleled practiced upon innocent
men, women and children by gold
seekers in their lust for conquest.
Prosperous Indian villages have been
laid waste, and whole bands of ad-
venturers have gone into the desert in
search of these mines, never to return.
When the time for Lanes departure
came Echo wept at the thought of los
ing for SO long time the close COM
panion of her childhood and the SYM
pathetic confdant of her youthful
thoughts and aspirations. Dick, in
whom friendship for Echo had long
before ripened into conscious love, took
her tears as evidence that she was
similarly affected toward him, and he
allowed all the suppressed passion of
his nature full vent In a declaration of
love- The girl was deeply moved by
this revelation Of the heart of strong
man made tender as woman's by
power centering in her own humble
self, and, being utterly without expert
ence Of the emotion even In its protec-
tive form of calf love, which is the
varioloid of the genuine affection, she
imagined through sheer sympathy that
she shared his passion So she assent
ed with maidenly reserve to his plea
that she promise to marry him when
he should return and provide home
for her. Her more cautious mother Sc
cured modification Of this pledge by
limiting the time that Echo should
wait for him to one year. If at the ex-
piration Of that period Lane did not
return to claim her promise or did not
write making satisfactory arrange
ments for continuance of the engage
ment Echo was to be considered free
to marry whom she chose.
Soon after Lanes departure Mrs.
Allen persuaded the colonel to send
Echo east to New England finishing
school for girls. where her mother
hoped that her budding love for Lane
might be nipped by the frigid atmos-
phere Of intellectual culture, If not, in
deed, supplanted by saving interest
In young men in general and perhaps
In some particular scion Of blue
blooded Boston family.
The plan succeeded in part only
The companionship of her schoolfel
lows, her music and art lessons, her
books during the limited periods al
lotted to serious study and readingl
and, above all, her attrition at recep
lions with another order Of men than
that she had known in the rough, un
cultured west occupied her mind sc
fully that poor Dick Lane. who was
: putting thought Of Echo Allen IL
. every blow of his pick, received only
the scraps of her attention.
Dick had few opportunities to mai
q letter and none Of them for recelv
ing one. Impractical In writing, hi!
epistolary compositions were crude IL
the extreme. being wholly confined
to bald statements Of fact. Had b,
been as tender on paper as he was IL
his words and accents when he kissed
away her tears at parting her regard
for him would have had fuel to feet
on and might have kindled into genu
inc love. AS 1t was. she was forcet
to admit that in comparison with tn
brilliant university men with whom
she conversed Dick Lane intellectual.
was as quartz to diamond.
On the other hand. she contraste,
Dick In the essential point Of manli
ness most favorably with the maj
butterflies of society that hovere,
around her. What one of them wa
so essentially chivalrous as the west
ern man-so modest. so self sacrihc
Ing, so brave and resolute and re
sourceful? Dick Lane, or Jack Pay
son, for that matter, in all save tn
adventurous points Of education all
o,,lturo uos tha hiohar tyne of mar