Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-02-21
The Silent Barrier
Continued from page 4

less1y into pocket when he followed the three
to the door, was fair instance of this trick of
hers. A tunnel, projected and constructed in
the teeth of ridicule and financial opposition,
had linked up the underground workings of
several mines, and proved conc1usively that it
was far cheaper to bring minerals to the rail in
that manner than to sink expensive shafts,
raise the ore to the top of a mountain, and cart
it to its old level in the valley.
once the thing was indisputable the young
engineer found himself rich and famous.
To increase the feeders of the main bore, he
drove another short gallery through mining
claim acquired for a few dollars,-a claim
deemed worthless owing to geologic fault that
traversed it's whole length. That was Fate's
opportunity. Doubtless she smiled mischiev
ously when she gave him vein of rich
quartz through which to quarry his way. The
mere delving of the rock had produced two
thousand dollars worth of ore, of which sum
he took moiety by agreement with the COM
pany bat purchased his rights
People in Leadville soon discovered that
Spenser was bright man," Yes, sir, citizen
of whom the chief mining city of the Rocky
Mountains has every reason to be proud, =
and the railway magnate who had n arly ruined
him by years of hostility buried the past gran
diloquently with a mot.
Charles K. Spenser can't be sidetracked, y
he said. That X isn't in his name by acct
dent. Look at ia regular buffer of a
letter! Tell you what, you may monkey with
Charles: but when you hit K look out for
troubled"
Whereupon the miners laughed, and said
that the president was a mighty smart man
too, and Spenser, who knew he was thief, but
was unwilling to quarrel with him for the sake
of the company, thought that SIX months
vacation in Europe would make for peace and
general content
He had no plans He was free to wander
whithersoever chance led him. Arriving in
London from Plymouth late on Thursday
evening, he took bus drivers holiday on
Friday. Finding tunnel under the Thames
in full progress near the hotel, he sought the
resident engineer, spoke to him in the lingo of
the craft, and spent several dangerous and en-
joyable hours in crawling through all manner
of uncomfortable passages bored by human
worms beneath the bed of the river.
A ND this was Saturday, and here he was, at
three o'clock in the afternoon turning
over in his mind the best way of sending on an
expensive trip abroad girl who had not the
remotest notion of his existence. 1t was a
whim, and a harmless one, and he excused it
to his practical mind by the reflection that he
was entitled to one day of extravaganza after
seven years of hard labor. For his own part
he was weary of mountains. He had wrought
against one, frowning and stubborn as any
Alp, and had not desisted until he reached its
very heart with a four thousand-foot lance.
Switzerland was the last place in Europe he
would visit. He wanted to see old cities and
dim cathedra1s, to lounge IN pleasant lands
where rivers mur1nured past lush meadows.
Though an American born and bred there was
a tradition in his home that the Sponsors were
once people of note on the border. When tired
of London, he meant to 60 north and ramble
through Liddesdale in search of family records.
But the business presently on hand was to ar
range that Swiss excursion for Helen and
he set about it with characteristic energy.
In the first instance, he noted her name and
address on the back of the Leadvile envelop
Then he sought the manager.
Il guess you know Switzerland pretty well, !"
he said, when polite man was produced by
boy.
The assumption was we'll founded In fact,
the first really important looking object the
manager remembered seeing in this world was
the giant Matterhorn, because his mother told
him that if he was bad boy he would be car