The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1911-03-23
CHAPTER /.
Destiny and the Eabu.
LOl/S NOOE~ HAW(E


ed and husky roar of d locomotive
crossing.
Reused by this sound from his soil
tary musings in the parlor ear o.
which he happened temporarily to be
the sole occupant, Mr.. David Amber
put aside the magazine over which
he had been dreaming. and looked out
OF the window, catching a glimpse Of
woodland road shining white between
Somber walls Of stunted pine. Lazily
he consulted his watch.
It's not for nothing he observed
p~ensively, that this railroad years
late
His gaze, again diverted to the fly
Ing countryside, noted tha5 it had
changed character, pine yielding to
scrub-oak and second growth the
ragged yeatments OF an area some
years since denuded by fire. This,
too, presently swung away, giving
place to cleared ~land-arable acres
golden with the stubble Of garnered
haryests or sentinelled with unkempt
shocks Of corn.
In the south a simmer Of laughing
gold and blue edged the faded hort
Eon.
Eagerly the young nan leaned for
ward, dark eyes tightening, lips part
ing as If already he could taste the
savou OF the sea.
Then, quite without warning, a deep
elbow Of the bay swept up almost to
the railway, its surface mirror-like,
profoundly blue, profoundly beautiful.
Il think said the traveller softly
81 think it's mighty fine to be alive
and-here!"
He lounged back comfortably again,
gmiling as he watched the wheeling
landscape, his eyes glowing with ex-
pectaIcy. For his cares were negli-
gible, his content boundless; he was
experiencing, for the first time IN
many years, a sense OF freedom akin
to that felt by a ~schoolboy at the be-
ginning of the summer vacation. The
work of his heart and hand for a little
time belonged equally to a forgotten
Yesterday and an uncontemplated To-
morrow; he existed only for the con
fident Today. He had put behind him
the haunts Of men, and his y%earning
for the open places that lay before
him was almost childlike in its fer
vency; he would, indeed, have been
quite satisfied if assured that he was
to find nothing to do save to play aim
lessly in the sun. But, in point Of
fact, he looked forward to an employ
ment much more pleasurable; he was
off to shoot duck with his very dear
friend, Mr.. Anthony Quain of Tangle-
wood lodge, Nokomis, Long Island.
Again the whistle bawled u~ncannily,
and the train began to moderate It's
speed. Objects in the foreground that
otherwise had been mere streakeG
blurs assumed recognizable contours.
North Of the line a string of squat,
square, ~unlovely frame edifces,
aligned upon a country road, drifted
back. A brakeman popped head and
shoulders into the car and out again,
leaving the echo Of an abrupt bark to
be interpreted at the passengers
leisure.
Slowly jolting across a rutted. dusty
road, the cars stopped. Amber, alight-
ing, found himself upon a length Of
boardwalk platform and confronted
by a distressingly matter-of-fact wood
en- structure, combining the functions
~ no;finy rnano anI +tnlrot orI ta1a
graph offices. From it's caves de-
pended a weather-worn board bearing
the legend: "Nokomts."
The train, pausing only long enough
to disgorge from the baggage car a
trunk or two and from the day coach
on into the wilderness, cracked bell
clanking somewhat disdainfully.
By degrees the platform cleared, the
srstwhile patrons of the road and the
station oafers-for the most part hall
marked natives of the region-strag-
CLING off upon their several ways,
some afoot, a majority in d~ilapidated
Surveys and buckboards. Amber
watched them go with unassumed In
difference; their type interested him
little. But in their company he pres
emily discovered one, a figure SO
thoroughly foreign and aloof in atti.
tude, that 1t caught his eye, and, hav-
ing caught, held 1t clouded with per-
pleXity.
Abruptly he abandoned his belong
ings and gave chase, overtaking the
object of his attention at the far end
of the station.
"Doggott!" he cried. e" say, Dog.
gott!"
His hand, falling lightly upon the
mans shoulder, brought him square.
" about, his expression transiently
startled, II not a shade truculent.
"Doggott, what the deuce brings you
here? And Mr.. R%utton?"
Amber's cordially educed no re-
Spouse. The gray eyes. meeting eyes
dark, kindly, and penetrating, flicker
Cd and fell; so much emotion they be.
trayed, no more, and that as disingen'
uous IA you could wish,
"Doggott!" insisted Amber, dis