Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-03-04

arrival in Aguilar, but If he fancied that
the little Colorado town always mani
tested to strangers an attitude so exclu-
sive and forbidding. he was quite as far
afield as in suspecting himself to be the
object Of exceptional social disfavor. In
point of fact, Aguilar had nothing against
Jason Gilmer; what it would have called
his record" was entirely unknown: it
merely wished to demonstrate. by means
of a frigid indifference to him, its loyalty
to Col. Wiggin.
Col Wiggin had. indeed, of his own
will resigned charge of the companys
store. but this circumstance did little to
temper his admirers resolute aversion
for the newcomer. The colonel was
man of exceeding popularity. and when.
after examining certain specimens of ore
from the Red River country, he an
nounced his design of putting his for
tunes to the test Of proof in the new
camp. deep gloom fell on the town which
had so ungrudgingly paid tribute to his
social gifts.
II hate the worst kind to leave y'all-
but when a mans got stuff in his veins
like 1 got. life Of adventure is just nat
urally all he's fit TO, said the colonel,
In that rich southern dialect which, to-
gether with his title. he had acquired
during a years sojOurn in Georgia.
The colonels little pretensions in this
sort We're quite innocent, being grounded
in nothing more reprehensible than his
childlike admiration for life In the state
OF his adoption. But for that twelve
mantle tradition with which it had nur.
tured the coloners starved Connecticut
fancy, there is no telling whether Aguilar
would have found it's IDOLS fascination SO
sr.I. nlx, r0t
have lacked something had they been
shorn of the magnolias and mooIshine
and mint juleps which gave them so n i J.
local color. And as to the elegant
nishing life and movement to the coloners
stories Of himself, these things presup-
pose II will be seen. a fervor of the blood
most probable In a land not only favor
able In point of climate, but having time
for the cultivation of fine behavior.
In this Granny of the scorched foot
hills the coloners romanticism had been
too rare and exquisite thing not to be
widely appreciated. When. therefore. the
town realized that II would hear no more
of those 'dark-eyed daughters of the
south who had figured SO sweetly in the
colonefs narratives, vowing fealty In
burning ming. accents sc',n to a gentleman whose
seem ever to have detracted from his
fatal charm for women. then indeed there
was nothing for Aguilar to do, except to
StanQ Win pOCketeQ QdnQS ana SIOucnlnE
chin refusing any comfort save such as
lay In hostility toward the interloper.
In this attitude Jason Gilmer found the
scene of his new labors, and regarding II.
seemed unaware of anything queer in the
| moral atmosphere. The perception of
queerness. indeed. appeared shortly to be
on the part of his reluctant neighbors
| for assuredly there was none among
them so dull-witted as not to catch at
| something decidedly odd in the new
| clerk.
! He was little man, thin and elderly, of
whom nothing was known, except that he
had kept country store somewhere in
! Kentucky. No glowing hint OF this state.
/ however. chung to his pale gray person
atty. His eyes were vague and wide,
and there was in his face a strangely i'm
presstve vacancy, that was like the ghost