The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1913-11-06
CHAPTER u-(contlnuea)

town, unused Rube, Il wonde Why yot
didn't marry Janet. Everybody though
YOU would" He added ap~ologetically
she thought YOU would"
Wiley shrugged. Old friends can sa!
much n hurt little.
Why the blazes." resumed RUDE
don't o marry her YETI You ans
your old shop! Then you'd make s
living. If shed married me, I'd beer
batting 400. Now see I'm q bushel
and going down"
Wiley sat listening. 81 suppose" hi
murmured. like a man who reiishes his
anticipation. but draws pack from Its
ends. He had swung the circle OF the
west k most of the Midland young
men. Homesteading in Dakota. min
ing, timber cruising. selling real estate
unning country papers. leading for
lorn hopes Of impossible reforms In the
wide open camps OF Nevada and Mon
tana, fruit raising on the Matagorda
coast OF Texas, exploiting reclamation
projects In Louisiana-always the en-
thusiast. the dreamer. gaining. for him
SELF nothing at all except the ardor OF
the game-the mighty and expiring
drama OF the old west In the '90s he
had seen and lived and exulted in: free
footed and shiftless for 16 years he had
missed nothing of the last of the great
days. He had written once of the final
roundup In the southwestern cattIe
country and its epic note had aroused
the magazine makers for its brilliance
and Its pathos. A dying flame with
the life 1t celebrated. He had done
nothing more; he was back in the old
town. n merely Curran Of the News.
He looked from Janet yance's office
window to his shop. a long one story
building. implanted. gray, like a worm
that had crawled hungrily down from
the bluff to High street, to stare at the
court house from It's two grtmy win
lows. You would never have thought
that out OF this lethargic monster came
more ~contraband opinions, and into 1t
more unpai bills than n print shop
in Iowa
jail came q man who smelled of car
bolic acid. The town kids knew he
was a "trusty" and hat some Of the
prisoners came every day to get the
exchanges from the News office. The
fumigated spoke pleasantly to the
editor n went In for the papers. He
rummaged the editors desk. opened a
draWe and filed his pipe from the edi-
tors tobacco. and came out In the
draWe We're two dollars OF the editors
money but he Jailbird did not touch
them-that wouldn't have been playing
square with Wiley"
RUDE watched him 20 back to the
court house Jail. Around the square
lights We're coming now and then:
from D~tcktnson's grocery, the Hub
Clothing house with its Isenbaum &
Kickenheimer clothes from New York;
the Palace of Sweets, with a departing
group OF high school girls. and a coun-
tryman gazing in the window mill
pono at the gold fish; the First Ma
ona bank with the gilt legend, Van
Hart & Dcnley," above the cornice,
and before 1t the historic hitching post
with the lead bullet implanted In the
c~opperhead riot of '63-prosy and COM.
monpiace 1t might be, but how dear
n fsmtliar was 1t all.
Even Wiley T. Curran, the towns
insurgent knew it. now that he was
back, q bit gray about the temples
after years on the great highway be-
You'd the everlasting hills.
RUDE voiced the curious call OF home
coming. Z funny how some times
we all want to get back. There was
the two Schnitzler boys and MORT
he in the bank now7 And
you and me-once Hen McFetrtdge
batted q ny clean up In the court
house clock and stopped II for six
monthsEremember7 And the night
we was stealing Tanners grapes, and
you fell through the arbor on tho old
woman, and they pinched you-re-
member What's Thad Tanner doing
now?"
Still running the county board.
soaking us on bridge contracts.
Same little old boss. eh7 And
.Boydston and CurryAstM ON the
board and putting Tanners work
Sure"
AND old Mowry. the underwater.
Stegerss and watching for the old
lady to die, ehg"
"Yes-stni buying his groceries OF
Dickinson, the old 1ady's nephew.
though he hates him worse,n poison,
because ne figures on getting the case
when she passes. Yes, sir-seven
years now Mowry has traded at Dick
inson's waiting for the widow to pass
2 every week they expect her to
go. and she hangs on"
Rube looked across at the widows
garden, its cannas and fire bush bril-
liant In the dusk Suffering johnson.
don't anybody ever die here, Wiley? %
NJ II they did the News would
have q linotype, Rubc. and be 81 daily.
And the old town would have street
lights and sidewalks. Look ut Earl
vile with Its factories springing up,
2 the way they're opening 9up the
sor Goa streaks on the upper creek.
Why we could have had an that II
people here had allowed the railroad
TO come In. They chased away a $50
600 canning plant Iast spring because
they didn't want a factory class In
Rome. l came pretty near suspend
Ing publication when I heard that
WHAT Rome needs Il q few ftrst
class funerals. Whey
You bet" prayed tho editor fer
wiley murmured Rt,be, .von 81