Cut Bank pioneer press. [volume] (Cut Bank, Mont.) 1909-current, 1914-08-21
CHAPTER I.
At n Stage Door.

At the Stage Door.
Courtlandt sat perfectly straight;
his ample shoulders did not touch the
back Of his chair; and his arms were
folded tightly across his chest. The
Characteristic Of his attitude was
tenseness. The nostrils were well de-
fined. as in one who sets the upper
Jaw hard upon the neither. His brown
eyes-their gaze directed toward the
stage whence came the voice OF the
prima donna-epitomized the tension.
expressed the whole as in a word.
Just o the voice was pathetically
subdued, yet reached every part of the
auditorium, kindling the q with its
~singularly mellowing sweetness. To
Csurtlandt 1t resembled, as no other
sound, the note of a muf1ed Burmese
tgong, struck in the dim incensed cav
tern of a temple. A Burmese gong:
briefly and magically the stage, the
audience, the amazing CLEAN and scin-
hllation Of the Opera, faded. He
heard only the voice and saw only
the purple shadows In the temple at
sRangoon, the oriental sunset splash
ing the golden dome, the wavering
lights of the dripping candles, the dead
flowers, the kneeling devoteeG, the
,yellow-robed priests, the tatters of
~igoldleaf, fresh and old, upon the rows
5of placid grinning Buddhas. The
French horns blared and the timpani
crashed. The curtain sank slowly.
The audience rustled, stood up, sought
its wraps, and passed toward the ex-
dts and the grand staircase. 1t was
an over.
Here and there he saw familiar faces.
but these, after the finding glance. he
istudiously avoided. He wanted to be
alone. Outside he lighted a cigar, not
because at that moment he possessed
q craving for nicotine, but because like
all inveterate smokers he believed that
tobacco conduced to clarity Of thought.
And mayhap it did. At least, there
presently followed a mental calm that
expelled all this confusion. The goal
waxed and waned as he gazed down
the great avenu with it's precise rows
of lamps. Far away he could discern
the outline of the brooding Louvre.
There was not the least hope in the
world for him to proceed toward his
goal this night. He realized this clear
ly, now that he was face to face with
actualities. A wild desire seized him
to make a night of it-Maxim's, the
cabarets; riot and wine. Who cared?
But the desire burnt itself out between
two puffs Of his cigar. Ten years
ago, perhaps, this brand of amuse-
ment might have urged him success
fully. But not now; he was done with
temfool nights, Indeed, his dissipa.
lions had been whimsical rather than
brutal; and retrospection never
aroused q furtive sense Of shame.
He was young, but not SO young as
an idle glance might conjecture In
passing. To such casual reckoning
he appeared to be in the early TWEEN.
ties; but scrutiny, more or less infal
,Hble, noting a line here or an angle
there, was disposed to add ten years
to the score. There was in the nose
and chin a certain d~ecisivenees which
In true youth is rarely developed. This
characteristic arrives only with man
hood, manhood that has been tried
and perhaps buffeted and perchanc,
a little disillusioned.
What vas one to do who had botl
money and leisure linked to an IRE
sistble desire to leave behind on,
place or thing in pursuit of another
unfortunately? The inherent ambi
don was to make money; but recoe
nizing the a%beurdity of adding to hi
income, which even in his extrava
gance he could not spend, he CAV
himself over into the hands of grasr
ing railroad and steamship companies
or their agencies, and became for
time the slave of guide and CtAgoma.
and carrier. And then the wanderlus
descended to him from the blood G
his rowing Dutch ancestors, which ha
lain dormant in the several gener,
tons following. sprang into active lii
again. He became known in ever
port of call. He became known ais
in the w~fldernesses.
Whatever had for the moment a
psaled to his fancy, that he had don
He was alone. absolute master of h
millions Mammals with m~arriageab
daughters declared that he was impo
sible: the manageable daughte
never had q chance to decide one W,
or the other; and men called him
fool. He had promoted elephant fgh
which had stirred the Indtsn primo
out OF their nslancholy Indifferent
and tiger hunts, which had, by the
duration and m~agniAcence. threaten
to disrupt the eficienay Of the Britt
military servfco-whfmaAcal excess,
not understandable BY his intimate