The Huttig news., 1911-04-29
ll0SGLaRNU0OE1S bY RAY EXAAllT[5DG

Is a party I've never card of. if l you'll excuse my sayin so. no more'n I ave of yourself. sir"
 Well" began Amber; but paused, his face hardening as he lecked the man up and down, noddine 3wly.
 "Per'aps' continued Mir. D t, unabashed, "you mistyke me for ny 1 brother, Emery Doggott E was one in England, larst card of i'm. We look deal alike. I've been tolds
 You would be- admitted Amber drily; and. shutting his teeth upon his inherent contempt for liar. he swung away, acknowledges with curt nod the civil Good arfternoon, sir that followed him.
 The man had disappeared by the time Amber regained his kit-bag and gun-case; standing over which he surveyed his surroundings with some annoyance, discovering that he now shared the station with none but the ticket agent shambling and dis eonsolate youth, clad in a three-days' growth of beard, a checked jumper and khaki trousers. this person lounged negligantly in the doorway of the waiting room and, caressing his rusty chin with nicctine-dyed fingers, regarded the strap ger in Nekomis with an air of subtle yet vaguely mel ancholy superiority
 If ye're lookin fer tn hotel" he volunteered unexpectedly. there ainit none" ard effected masterly retreat into the ticket booth
 Amused. the despised outlander picked up his lrgga ge and followed amiably. I'm not looking for the hotel that ain't," he said. planting himself in front of the grating; "but I expected to be met by some one from Tanglowood-'
 "Thet's the Quain place. daown by 1 th ba-ay,. interrolated the youth from unplumbed depths of meurnful ab- straetion.
 sIt is. I wired vesfereay-'
 '.Yeour name's Amber, ain't it?''
 .'Yes. I-"
 Well, ouain didn't get yeour mes ssge till this mornin'. I sent kid daown with it 'baout ten o'clock
 But why the-but I wired yester- day afternoon.p
 q knaow ye did" assented the youth wearily Tt come through raound closin' time and they want nobody baound that way. so I held it over"
 This craze for being characterfs- tic" observed MT. Amber obscure'y. | I,1 in the way of Nokomis becoming a thriving metropolis. Do you agree with me? No matter" He smiled en- | gaaiBgly: a seasoned traveller this, who could recognize the futility of pickering over the irreparable. More over, he had to remind himself in all fairness. the blame was, in part at least. his own; for he had thought lessly worded his telegram. Will be with you tomorrow afternoon" and it was wholly like Quain that he should have accepted the statement at it's face value, regardless of the date line.
 q can leave my things here for | little while, I presume?" Amber sug gested after a pause.
 The ticket agent stared stubbornly into the infinite, making no sign till coin rang on the window-ledgs; when he started. eyed the offering with fugi- tive mistrust, and g'oomily possessed hims of it. 'I'll look after them" he said Be ye thinkin of wallJin 2"
 "Yes," said Amber over his shoul- der He was already moving toward l the door.
 "Knaow yeour wa-ay?"
 I've been here before. thank you"
 Crossing the tracks, he addressed himself to the southward stretching highway. Walking briskly at first, he soon left behind the railway station with its few parasitic cottages, a dip in the land hid them, and he had hereafter for all company his thoughts. the desultory road, a vast and looming sky and bare fields hedged with impoverished forest.
 Amber lad professed acquaintance with his way; it seemed rather to be intimacy, for when he chose to for sake the main traveled read he did so boldly, striking off upon a wagon track which. leading across the fields, delyed presently into the heart of the l forest
 The hush of the forest world bore heavily upon his senses; ~the slight and stealthy rustlirgs in the brush, the clear dense ringing of some re- l mote ax, an attenuated clamor of cawlng from some far crows con gross, but served to accentuate it's in l fuepce.
 Then into the silence cfept sound to rouse him from his formiess rev erie. At first a mere pulsing in the stiffness, barely to be distir guished from the song of the surf; but pres ently a pounding. ever louder and more in nsistent. Ha paused, attentive; and whiie he waited the drumming. minute hy minrte gaining in volume, swept swiftly toward hirn-tha rhyth- mic hoofteats of a single horse madly ridden When 1t was close upon him he stepred back into the tangled un- E dergrewth, making room: for the track was anvlhipg but wide.
 Simultaneously there burst into 4tN. z