The Sauk Centre herald., 1909-09-23

verge of collapse on the off-days,
thought him much nicer than he had
formerly been, and she liked his per-
feet simplicity.
stand anywhere you like" she
said, but let me hear the tune"
Van Torp rose and went to the
window and she looked quietly at his
square figure and his massive, sandy
head and his strong neck Presently
he began to whistle, very softly and
perfectly in tune. Many a street-boy
could do as well, no doubt, and Mrs.
Rushmore would have called it q vul-
gar accomplishment, but the mag
nificent prima donna was too true a
! musician, as well as a singer, not to
| take pleasure in a sweet sound, even
II it were produced by street-boy.
But as Mr.. Van Torp went on, she
opened her eyes very wide and held
her breath. There was no mistake
about it; he was whistling long pieces
from "Parsifal," as far as it was pos
: sible to convey an idea of such music
| by such means. Margaret had studied
It before coming to Bayreuth, in or
! der to understand 1t better; she had
now already heard it once, and had
felt the greatest musical emotion Of
her life-one that had stirred other
| emotions, too, strange ones quite
new to her.
She held her breath and listened,
and her eyes that had been wide open
! n oCf0 oh 81 c1N n
! in pleasure, and presently, when he
| reached the Good Friday" music, her
own matchless voice floated out with
her unconscious breath, in such per-
feet octaves with his high whistling
that at first he did not understand;
but when he did, the rough hard man
shivered suddenly and steadied him
self against the. window-sill, and
Margaret's voice went on alone, with
family breathed words and then
without them, following the instru-
mentation to the end of the scene,
beyond what he had ever heard.
Then there was silence in the room,
some moments, but at last Van Torp
turned, and came Dack.
"Vhank you," he said, in . low
voice.
Margaret smiled and passed her
hand over her eyes quickly, as II to
dispel a vision she had seen. Then
she spoke.
do you really not know what that
music is?" she asked. Really,
really"
"Oh, quite honestly 1 don't!"
You're not joking? You're not
! laughing at me?"
"I?" He could not understand. II
shouldn't dare!" he said.
you've been whistling some Of
"Parsifal," some of the most beauti-
full music that ever was written-and
you whistle mavellously, for it's any
thing but easy! Where in the world
did you learn it? Don't tell me that
those are old tunes you picked up
on q California ranch!"
TITS true, all the same" Van Torp
answered.
He told her of the two foreigners
who used to whistle together in the
evenings, and how one was supposed
to have been shot and the other had
disappeared, no one had known whith.
er, nor had cared.
"Al sorts of young fellows used to
drift out there" he said, "and one
couldn't tell where they came from,
though l can give a guess at where
some of them must have been, since
I've seen the world. There were
younger SONS of English gentlemen,
fellows whose fathers were genuine
lords, maybe, who had not brains
enough to get into the army or the
church. There were cashiered Prus-
sian officers, and Frenchmen who had
most likely killed women out of jeal-
ousy, and Sicilian bandits, and brok-
en- society men from New York. There
were all sorts. And there was me.
And we all spoke different kinds of
English and had different kinds of
tastes, good and bad-mostly bad.
There was only one thing we could
all do alike, and that was to ride"
Il never thought of you as riding"
Margaret said.
"Well, why should you? But can,
because was just common cowboy
and had to, for living"
Its intensely interesting-what a
strange life you have had! Tell me
more about yourself, won't you?"
There's not much to tell, it seems
/ to me-" said Van Torp. From being
a cowboy l turned into miner, and
struck little silver, and 1 sold that
and got into nickel, and l made the
Nickel Trust what it is, more by
financing it than anything else, and I
| got almost all Of it. And now I've sold
! the whole thing"
"Sold the Nickel Trust?" Margaret
was quite as much surprised as Lady
Maud had been.
"Yes. I wasn't made to do one
thing long, I suppose. II were, I
should still be a cowboy. Just now,
I'm here to 60 to 'Parsifal,' and since
| you say those tunes are out of that
opera, dare say I'm going to like it
very much"
tits all very uncanny," Margaret
said thoughtfully. II wonder who
those two men were, and what became
Of the one who disappeared"