The Yale expositor., 1913-02-20


up from the kitchen, wiping a dish.
Cora appeared in the dining-room
doorway, and in answer to Miss Can
mons inquiringly-lifted eyebrows.
called across the hall:
ITS the Murphysville stage on the
down-trip to Rocky Bar. l guess they
thought they couldn't make it. The
so he's brought 'em round this way
and dumped EN- here. There amt
but two passengers. That's them"
She indicated the two men who.
standing by the hall stove, were d.
vesting themselves OF their wraps.
One OF them was tall upright old
man with a sweep Of grizzled beard
covering his chest, and gray hair fall.
ing from the dome of bald head.
The other was much younger. tall
Also and spare to leanness. He wore
a gray fedora nat, and against its
chill, unbecoming tint. his face, its
prominent, bony surface nipped by
the cold to a raw redness, looked sal
low and unhealthy. With an air OF
solicitudo he laid his overcoat across
a chair, brushing off the snow with a
careful hand. Buttoned tight in
black cutaway with the collar turned
up about his neck, he had an appear
aHcc OF being uncomfortably COM
pressed iutO garments too small for
him. His shiny-knuckled, purplish
hands, pinching up the shoulders OF
his coat over the chair back, were i'll
keeping with his general suggestion
cf lnrge.DOned meagerly covered
'ankness The fact that he was
smooth-shaven, combined with the un-
usual length OF dark hair that APP
peared below his hat-brim, lent him
a suggestion of something interest
ingly unconventional, almost artistic
In the region where he now found
himself he would have been variously
set down as gambler, travelling
clergyman, an actor, or perhaps only
vender of patent medicines who had
some odd attractive way OF advertis-
ing himself, such as drawing teeth
with an electrical appliance, or play
ing the guitar from the tail-board OF
his showman's cart.
Now, having arranged his coat to
its best advantage, he turned 10 Per-
ley and said with a curiously deep
and resonant voice:
And, mine host. stove in my
bedroom, stove in my bedroom or I
perish"
Cora glggled and threw across the
hall to Miss Cannon a delighted MUIR
MUIR of:
ooh. say, amt he just the richest
thing?"
You've got us trapped and Gagged
here for spell, | guess" said the
older man. ANY one else in the
same box"
"Oh. you'll not want for company"
said Perley. pride at the Importance
of the announcement vibrating in his
tone We've got Willoughby here
from the Bella X. with his four set
ter dogs, and Bill Cannon and his
daughter up from the coast"
"Bill Cannon!'--the two men stared
and the younger one said:
Bill Cannon, the Bonanza King
from San Francisco?'
That's him all right" nodded Per
ley. up here TO see the diggings at
Greenhide and showed in same as
You
Here Rose, fearing the converse
ton might turn upon herself, slipped
from the doorway into the passage
and up the stairs to her own room.
An hour later as she stood before
the glass making her toilet for sup
per, knock at the door ushered in
Cora, already curled, powdered and
boribboned for that occasion, small
kerosene lamp in her hand. In the
bare room. it's gloom only partly
dispelled by the light from a similar
lamp on the bureau and the red
CLEAN from the stove. Miss Cannon
was revealed in the becoming half
dusk made by these imperfectly-
blending illuminations, pink silk
dressing-gow loosely cnfolding her.
a lightly brushed-in suggestion of fair
hair behind her ears and on her
shoulders. Her comb was in her hand
and Cora realized with an uplifting
Lnllii lEdE size Idu llIutu nGl NISll
correctly and was about to learn the
mysteries of Miss Cannon's couture
Il brung you another lamp she
said affably. setting her offering down
on the bureau. One amt enough
light 10 dress decently by. | have
three" and she sank down OH the side
of the bed with the air of having
established all intimacy, woman to
woman, by this act OF generous con.
sideration.
Them gentlemen she continued,
are along on this hall with you and
your pa. The old ones Judge Wash
burne, of COlusa, a pioneer that used
to know Mr.. Perley's mother way
back in Sacramento in the fifties, and
knew your pa real well when he was
poor It's sort OF encouraging TO
think your pa was ever poor
Rose laughed and turned sidewise.
locking at the speaker under the arch
Of her uplifted arm. There were
hairpins in her mouth and an up
whrled end OF blond hair protruded
in a cleaning scattering OF yellow