Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1911-01-26
CHAPTER TX

CHAPTER TX
For the first few vacation days Tom
rose with the sun and lived with the
industries, marking all the later expan-
sive strides and Borrowing keenly that
he had not been present to see them
taken in detail.
One morning he ran plump into
the Major, stalking grandly along the
| tile-paved walk and smoking a war
time cheroot of preposterous length.
The despot of Paradise, despot now
only by the courtesy of the triumphant
genius of modernity, put on his eye
glasses and stared Thomas into re-
spectful rightly.
why, bless my soull-if it isn't Cap
tain Gordons boyl Well, well, you
young limb If you didn't faveh youth
good fatheh in eve'y line and lineament
of youth face, 1 should neveh have
known you-you've grown so. Shake
hands. subj
Tom did it awkwardly. 1t is a gift
to be able to shake hands easily; a
gift withheld from most girls and all
boys up to the soulful age. But there
was worse to follow. Ardea was some
where on the peopled verandas, and the
Major more terrible in his hospitality
time rage-fits, dragged his hapless VIC
tim up and down and around and about
in search of her. Not say 'Howdy' to
Ardea? Why, you young cub, where
are youh mannehs, subj" Thus the
Major. when the victim would have
broken away.
1t was a fiery trial for Tom-a way
picking among red-hot plowshares Of
embarrassment. How the well-bred
folk smiled, and the grand ladies drew
their immaculate skirts aside to make
passing-room for his dusty feet! How
one of them wondered. quite audibly
where in the world Major Dabney had
unearthed that young nativei Tom
was conscious of every f1eck of dust on
his clothes and shoes; of the skilless
knot in his necktie; OF the school desk
droop in his shoulders; of the utter
superfiuousness of his big hands.
And when, at the long last, Ardea
was discovered sitting beside a gor-
geously attired Queen of Sheba, who
also smiled and examined him minute
| ly through pair of eyeglasses fas-
tened on the end of a gold mounted
stick, the place of torment, wherever
and whatever 1t might be, held no
deeper pit for him. What he had
climbed the mountain to find was a
| little girl in a school frock who had
sat on the yellowing grass with one
arm around the neck of a great dog,
looking fearlessly up at him and tell
| ing him she was sorry he was going
away. What he had found was a very
staturesque little lady, clad in fluffy
summer white, with the other Ardea's
slate blue eyes and soft voice, to be
sure, but with no other reminder of the
lost avatar.
From first to last, from the moment
she made room for him, dusty clothes
and ALL on the settee between herself
and the Queen of Sheba, Tom was con-
scous of but one clearly defined
thought-an overmastering desire to
get away-to be free at any cost. out
the way of escape would not disclose
itself, so he sat in stammering misery,
answering Ardeas questions about the
sectarian school in bluntest monosyl-
tables, and hearing with his other ear
a terrible Major tell the Queen of She
ba all about the railroad invasion, and
how he-Tom Gordon-had run to find
punk match to fire cannon in the
Dabney cause.
He escaped finally from the entan-
clements of Major Dabney's hospital
| ity. On the way down the cliff path
thu fire burned and the revival zeal was
k.a He'd anew. There had been times,