The Idaho Springs siftings-news. (Idaho Springs, Colo.) 1905-19??, 1915-11-12

any nearer right than we has been
many times before; but for som.,<ea.
son found it harder to pardon HI n
ror the hrst time in our long &C
quaintance, I let Algernon Etheridge
leave me- without any attempt at con.
ciliation
II only ! had halted there! II, at
sight OF my empty study. had not
conceived the mad notion Of waylaying
him at the bridge for the handshake
l missed, | might have been a happy
man now, and Oliyer-But why dwell
upon these mighthave-beens! What
happened was this:
Disturbed in mind, and finding my
self alone in the house. Oliver having
| evidently gone out while We two were
disputing, l decided to follow out the
impulse l have mentioned. Leaving
by the rear, | went down the lane to
the path which serves as a short cut
to the bridge.
That | did this unseen by anybody
Is not so strange when you consider
the hour, and how the only person
then living in the lane was, in all
probability, in her kitchen 1t would
have been better for me. little as !
might have recognized 1t at the time,
had she been where she could have
witnessed both my going and coming
and faced me with the fact.
John Scoville. in his statement. says
that after giving up his search for his
little girl he wandered up the ravine
| before taking the path back which led
him through Dark Hollow This was
| false, as well as the story he told Of
leaving his stick by the chestnut tree
in the gully at foot of Ostrander lane.
For | was on the spot. and | know
the route by which he reached Dark
Hollow and also through whose agency
the stick came to be there.
Read and learn with what tricks the
devil beguiles us men.
! l was descending this path, heavily
Swallowed, as you know, by a skirtins
of closely growing trees and bushes,
when just where 1t dips into the HoL
low, heard the sound of hasty foot
come crashing up through the under.
brush from the ravine and cross the
| path ahead of me. A turn In the path
prevented me from seeing the man
himself, but as you Will perceive and
as | perceived later when circum.
stances recalled 1t to my mind, | had
no need to see him to know who it
| was or with what intent he took this
the fields leading to the highway. SEQ
ville's stick spoke for him. the stick
which | presently tripped over and
mechanically picked up, without a
thought of the desperate use to which
| I was destined to put 1t.
Etheridge was coming. | could hear
his whistle on Factory road, There
was no mistaking it. 1t was unusually
shrill one and had always been q
cause of irritation to me, but at this
moment 1t was more; 1t reused every
antagonistic impulse within me. He
whistling like galliard after a part
ing which had dissatisfied me to such
an extent that had come all this dis
lance 10 ask his pardon and see his
old smile again! Afterward, long aft
erward, was able to give another
Interpretation to his show of apparent
self-satisfaction, but then | saw moth
ing but the contrast 1t offered to my
own tender regrets. and my blood be-
gan to boil and my temper rise to such
point that recrimination took the
place of apology when in another mo
ment we came together In the open
space between the end Of the bridge
and Dark Hollow
| (TO BE CONTINUEDJ