Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-02
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Two Old Friends Seek Wayne.

Two Old Friends Seek Wayne.
Joe. swollen with pride at having re-
ceived a telegram. hurried from the
mine to the station with the CRIME of the
pit on his face and his lamp still flaring
in his cap. He grinned cheerfully at
Walsh ard Wingfield as they stepped
from the train. the worse for hot after
noon in a day coach. Wingfield surveyed
the town with his habitual austerity as
they consulted on the platform. His
linen had suffered on the journey and
he was conscious of the fact; Walsh.
blowing hard, mopped his head freely.
The heat of August was trying and no
trifiing business could have brought these
gentlemen to Denbeigh.
I'VE came to see Mr.. Craighill; We
want to do it privately. Can you fix it?'
sure l cam
Understand" said Wingfeld that we
don't want to interfere with him or en-
barrass him in any way. He doesn't ex-
pect US.
Joe commended them to the bus driver
and. conscious of the dignity conferred
upon himself by their arrival, hurried off.
They passed a coliery little way
from the station, and the visitors turned
I'm the rumbling omnibus to look at the
blackened walls of the roaring breaker.
And they saw. driving his mule team
soberly into the coliery yard. man
whose figure at once arrested their at
tention Wayne Craighill, brOnzed.
bearded. clad in jumper and overalls. a
cap on the back of his head, had finished
his days work, and was returning his
team to the cOlliery stables. The pill
grims stared in silence: then they turned
toward each other slowly. Wingfield' S
face as usual, expressed no emotion :;
Walsh grunted UNI" and craned his
neck to get last view of the disappear
ing teamster through the rear door OF
the bus. His thin lips smiled trife;
the appearance of Mr.. Wayne Craighiil
as a driver of mules seemed not to have
dispIeased Walsh. Wingfield read the
advertisements in the panels over TN"
windows and said nothing. Life. he re-
solved afresh. is an interesting business.
In the hotel lavatory he made the &C
quaintance of that dark scroll of our de-
mocracy, the roller-tOwel He was afraid
not to use it. he told Walsh, for fear OF
being thought naughty; but he promised
to report the matter to a Philadelphia
friend of his who was "a distinguished
sanitarian Joe. honoring the occasion
with a white collar, was cooling his heels
in the office when they came out from
their supper which had been suffered
ress had taken for the advance agent OF
a circus billed for early appearance in
Denbeigh This idea delighted him, and
he confided to her that he had no tickets
provided for; he was only the monkey
trainer, he confessed.
There was little park about the court
house and thither Joe led them and dis
creetly disappeared Wayne rose from a
bench and greeted them. He had donned
for the occasion the suit in which he
had made the journey from home, and 1t
hung loosely upon him. He was in good
spirits and greeted them cordially, with
much chatting of Wingfield for his te-
merity in venturing So far from his beaten
trails In a few minutes Wingfeld stroll
ed away: it was Walsh. then. who had
business with him, and Wayne settled
himself TO listen as the old fellow plunged
rand.
THE coloners in bad shape. Things
haven't improved he expected: some
of the people who helped him out last
fall won't carry him any longer. And
he's sick, too. He's good deal broken.
the colonel is. I've been trying to help
him-spending an hour day at the office
for week or two.
you
Don't get hot. SON; it makes no diff
ference if he did. You want to cut out
any feeling you have against your father
it amt like you-it never was like you.
He's your father; his hoods in you, and
he's clear down now"
WAYNE listened in logged silence as
Walsh went into the details of Roger
| CraighilTS analrS. Much might yet De
saved Walsh held. if this new crisis
! could be bridged. Wayne chafed under
Walsh's recital: he would not help the
/ old fellow with any expressions of sym
pathy: but Walsh had expected to ad-
dress an unsympathetic ear. and he told
| his story to the end.
What ! want you to do is to go home
and give the old man a lift. l amt go
| ing to argue it with you. Wingtield and
| l start back at 10 o'clock. If you do
anything il will have to be done at once.
| You can come back here afterward If
YOU want to. 1t amt been bad place
| for you. Think 1t over"
| He lighted a cigar. glanced at the
| clock tower and walked away to find
| Wingfield, to whom Joe was disclosing
| the marvels of his native city.
Wayne sat gloomily bordering what
Walsh had said. Walsh's own magma
nimity in having gone to his fathers as
| sistance had impressed him. The old
] hostility toward his father had lost its
edge through successive defeats; but
| what struck Wayne tonight was the fact
| that higher law of compensation than
| any within his grasp had taken the blade