The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1909-03-26
CHAPTER III.-Continued.


CHAPTER IlI.-Contnued.
Archie looked disappointed. 81 sup
pose So" he sighed. I'm afraid I'd
want to, If they were pointing pistols
at me- Lewis was on the train once
when a man showed fight. He wouldn't
put up his hands. and the bandit
plugged him, like flash; he fell
crosswise over the seat and the blood
spurted across Lewis wrist; he said it
vas like hot jet of water"
The homely and bizarre horror of
the picture had evidently struck home
to Archie he half shivered.
TOO much Imagination" grumbled
the colonel to himself. "A Winter
ought to take to fighting like a duck
TO water!" He betook himself to Miss
Smith; and he was uneasily con-
scious that he was going to her for
eonsoling. But he felt better after a
J..tie talk about Archie with her.
Plainly she thought Archie had plenty
of spirit; although, of course. he hadn't
told her about the bandits. The negro
was kidding" the passengers; and
women shouldn't be disturbed by such
nonsense. The colonel had old-fash-
ioned views of guarding his woman
kind from the harsh ways OF the
world. Curious, he reflected, what
sense Miss Smith seemed to have;
and how she understood things. He
felt better acquainted with her than
years garrison intercourse would
have made him with any other woman
he knew.
= yIhat afternoon, they two sat watch
| the fantastic cliffs which took
,3tesque semblance of ruined castles
browning their barren hillsides; or OF
deserted amphitheaters left by some
vanished race to crumble. They had
talked of many things. She had told
him of the sleepy old South Carolinian
town where she was born, and the
plantation and the distant cousin who
was like her mother, and the hospital
married sister who had died. Such
marrow, laborious, innocent existence
as she described! How cheerfully,
too, she had shouldered her burdens!
They talked of the south and of the
Philippines; a little they talked of
Archie and his sorrow and of the
eternal problems that have troubled
the soul Of man since first death en-
tered the world. AS they talked, the
colonels suspicious faded into gro
tesque shadows. "Millicent is ridic-
ulous," quoth he. Then he fell to won
dering whether there had been ro-
nance in Miss Smiths past life. "Such
a handsome woman would look high"
he sighed. Only "a hours ago he had
called Miss Smith "nice-looking,' with
careless criticism. He was quite I'M
conscious of his change of view. That
might he felt lonely, of a sudden; the
old wound In his heart ached; his flu
ture looked as bleak as the mountain
walled plains through which he was
speeding. After a long time the train
stopped with jar and rattle, ending
in a sudden shock. He raised the cur
tain to catch the flash of the electric
lights at Glenwood. Out of the deep
defile they glittered like diamonds in a
cool of water. Why should he think
OF Miss Smiths eyes? With an impa-
tient sigh, he pulled down the curtain
and turned over to sleep.
His thoughts drifted, fioated, were
submerged in a waverirg procession
Of pictures; he was back in the Philip
pines; they had surprised the fort;
how could that be when he was on
guard? But they were there He sat
up in his berth. Instinctively he
slipped the revolver out of his bag and
held It In one hand. as he peeped
through the crevice of the curtains.
There was no motion. no sound OF
moving; but heads were emerging be-
tween the curtains in every direction;
and Archie was standing, his hands
ahaking above his tumbled brown
head and pale face. A man In soft
nat held two revolvers while another
man was pounding on the drawing
room door, gruffiy commanding those
1nside to come out mo. we shall not
come out" responded Aunt Rebecca's
composed. we.l-bred accents. her neat
.anunciation not disturbed by a culver.
-.If YOU want to kill an old woman.
con will have to break down the door"
"Iet them alone. Shay, it takes too
aonq. let's finish here, first" called the
man with the revolver; they'll come
aeon enough when we want them,
Here young feller. fish out! Nobodyli
%, hurt if you Keep quiet; II you
ami you'll get a dose like the man in