Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1909-07-22


dirty scrap of paper bearing these words :
"Jim: I'll be at the Occidental Hotel
tonight at s o'clock. Don't fail to come
BILLY"
Wheaton tore up the note with irrta-
tion and threw it into the waste paper
basket. He called the Chinese servant
who explained that boy had left it in
the course of the morning and had said
nothing about an answer.
The Bachelors did not usually muster
a full table at Sunday dinner. All Clark
son dined at noon on Sunday, and most
of the bachelors were fortunate enough
to be asked out Wheaton was not fre-
quently a diner out by reason of his more
slender acquaintance; and to-day all
pere present, including Rariaan, the E,Nst
fickle OF all in his attendance 1t had
pleased Wheaton to find that the others
had been setting him apart more and
more with Raridan for the daily disci-
pline they dealt one another. They liked
to poke fun at Rardan on the score of
what they called his mad social whirl:
there was no resentment about it; they
were themselves of sterner stuff and had
no patience with Raridan's frivolities
and they were within the fact when they
assumed that, If they wished, they could
20 anywhere that he did. 1t touched
Wheaton's vanity to find himself joint
target with Raridan for the arrows which
the other bachelors fired at folly.
Wheaton after dinner went to his room
and made himself comfortable. He re-
read the Sunday papers through all theil
supplements, dwelling again on the events
of the carnival. He had saved all the
other papers that contained society news,
and now brought them out and cut from
them all references to himself. He re-
solved to open kind of social scrap
book in which to preserve record o.
his social doings He remembered a COM
plant often heard in Clarkson that there
were no eligible men there; he was no.
sure Just what constituted eligibility, but
as he reviewed the men that went about
he could not see that they possessed any
advantages over himself. 1t occurred to
him for the first time that he was the
only unmarried bank cashier in town
and this in itself conferred a distinction.
He was not so secure in his place as he
should like to be: if Thompson died there
ANS~ ~'''i''>N'S'
of the bank and the few shares that Por
ter had sold to him would not hold the
cashership for him. 1t might be that
Porters plan was to keep him in the
place until Grant grew up. Again, he
reflected the man who married Evelyn
Porter would become an element to reck-
on with; and yet if he were to be that
man
He slept and dreamed that he was
king of cream realm and that Evelyn
Porter reigned with him as queen; then
he awoke with start to find that it was
late. He sat up on the couch and gath
cred together the newspaper cuttings
which had fallen about him. He remem-
bered the imperative summons which had
been left for him during the morning; II
was already 6 o'clock. Before going Out
he changed his clothes to a rough busl-
ness suit and took car that bore him
rapidly through the business district and
beyond, into the older part of Clarkson.
The locality was very shabby, and when
he left the car presently it was to con
tinue his journey in an ill-lighted street
over board walks which yielded a pre-
carious footing. The Occidental Hotel
was III lIe OIu part VI loH Ii, anu NAV
long ago ceased to be what it had once
been, the first hostelry of Clarkson. 1t
had descended to the level of a cheap
boarding house, little patronized except
by the rougher element of cattlemen and
by railroad crews that found it convent
ent to the yards. Over the door a dim
light blnked, and this, it was understood
in the neighborhood. meant not merely an
invita- ton to bed and board but also t,
the Occidental bar, which was accessible
at all hours of the day and night, and
was open through all the spasms of vir-
tue with which the city administration
was seized from time to time. The dool
stood open and Wheaton stepped up to
the counter on which a boy sat playing
with a cat
rs William Snyder stopping here?' he
asked
The boy looked up lazily from his play.
Are you the gent he's expecting|
"Very likely. Is he inF'
"Yes, he's number eighteen He drop |
ped the cat and led Wheaton down a dark
hall which was stale with the odors o.
cooked vegetables up a steep fight OF
stairs to landing from which he point
ed to an oblong of light above a door.
There you are" said the boy. III
kicked the door and rctreated down the
stairs, leaving Wheaton to obey the sum-
mons to enter which was bawled from
within. William Snyder unfolded his
long figure and rose to greet his visitor
(To be continued.)