Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1912-01-17

(t1AF EfE EDITH Maitland, q frank,
Tree and unspo1Ied young Philadelphia
girl, is taken to the Colorado mountains
by her uncle, Robert Maitland. James
Armstrong, Maitland's protege, falls in
love with her.
CHAPTER II.-His persistent wooing
thrills the girl, but she hesitates, and
Armstrong goes east on business with
out a definite answer.
There were curious gIances and
strange speculations in that little
company as they saw her sitting her
horse alone. A few moments before
James Armstrong had passed them at
gallop, ne had waved his hand as
he dashed by and had smiled at them,
hope giving him a certain assurance,
although his confidence was scarcely
warranted by the facts.
His demeanor was not in consonance
with Ends somewhat grave and some
what troubled present aspect. She
threw off her preoccupation instantly
and easily, however, and joined read
ily enough In the merry conversation
of the way.
Mr.. Robert Maitland, as Armstrong
has said, had known him from a boy.
There were things in his career of
which Maitland did not and could not
approve, but they were of the past, he
reflected, and Armstrong was after
all a pretty good sort. Mr. MaitIand's
standards were not at all those of his
Philadelphia brother, but they were
very high. His experiences of men
had been different; he thought that
+ T,Tl1 or no toiY Try hv
time reached years of discretion, could
be safely entrusted with the precious
treasure of the young girl who had
been committed to his care, and for
whom his affection grew as his knowl-
edge of and acquaintanceship with her
increased.
AS for Mrs. Maitland and the two
girls and the youngster, they were
Armstrong; devoted friends They
knew nothing about his past, indeed
there were things in it of which Matt
land himself was ignorant, and which
had they been known to him might
have caused him to withhold even his
tentative acQuiescence in the possibiIi-
ties.
Most of these things we're known
to old Kirkby, who with mastery
skill, amusing nonchalance and amaz-
ing profanity, albeit most of it under
his breath lest he shock the ladies,
fooled along the four nervous, excited
brOnchos that drew the big supply
wagon. Kirkby was Maitland's oldest
and most valued friend. He had been
the latter's deputy sheriff, he had
been cowboy and a lumberman, a
mighty hunter and a successful miner,
and now, although ne had acquired
reasonable competence, and had a nice
little wife and a pleasant home in the
mountain village at the entrance to
the canon, he drove stage for pleas
ure rather than for profit He had
given over his daily twenty-five mile
jaunt from Morrison to TroutdaIe to
other hands for a short space that he
might spend a little time with his old
friend and the family who were all
greatly attached to him on this outing.
Enid Maitland, a girl of a kind that
Kirkby had never seen before, had
won the old mans heart during the
weeks spent on the Maitland ranch.
He had grown fond of her, and he did
not think that Mr.. James Armstrong
merited that which he evidently so
overwhelmingly desired. Kirkby was
well along in years, but he was quite
capable OF playing a mans game for
all that, and he intended to play it in
this instance.
Nobody scanned Enid Ma1tland's
face more closely than he, sitting
bumped up on the front seat Of the
wagon, onesfoot on the high break, his
head sunk almost to the level of his
knee, his long whip in his hand, his
keen and somewhat fierce brown eyes
taking in every detail of what was go
ing on about him. Indeed there was
but little that came before him that
old Kirkby did not see.