The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1915-02-06

came 10 me. l ie2peO over the wall
and held before Dave a new twenty
dollar gold piece father had given me
that morning. 1t bought his oration
Wentworth paused as if in an en-
barrassment OF shame. Merry watched
him in silence.
Il feel-even now-the reluctant
grip with which Dave held on 10 those
sheets OF blurred foolscap. | never
gave a thought to what l had done.
Every moment for twenty-four hours
was needed to commit Dawes speech
to memory. My father. proud and hap
! py, gave me another twenty-dollar
| goldpiece. l carried it to Dave. He
refused It, turning his back on me
with angry scorn. Twenty years later
met him again. He had gone to
| congress and was blasting his way
upwards toward fame. was assigned
to interview him. He remembered me
instantly For Il moment he stared at
me from head to foot, then he turned
away without word and never
touched the hand | offered him. My
God how that hurt" shiver went
through the mans body
| That happened twenty-five years
ago, said Merry hesitatingly. You
cant lay up a boyhood sin against a
man. He changes-he's almost an
other human being"
NO, he isn't" answered Wentworth
F.! doggedly. Il want to show you tina;
! the psychological fellow was in the
right That was my first fall from
| grace but there was second lesion.
! 1t was worse, worse even than-than
what | did to you, Merry. was out
| in the Balkan mountains where the
blamed barbarian Turks go tearing at
| each others throats once in SO often
| The world looked on. waiting for
story of war. | had none to tell. moth
| ing happened but a skirmish or two
once in a while. There was nothing
man could make into story. 1t
was wretcsed campaign. Young
| Forsyth, of the Tribune. and | hung
| together through ii for months. living
like stray dogs. sick to death of our
| job, and ready 20 throw it up at any
| moment One morning at daybreak
! We were awakened by shooting. We
| scrambled from the cave where We
! had slept and looked down into the
| valley, We were in the very heart of
battle, and these savages were climb
ing over the rocks with their cutlasses
flashing. They shrieked like maniacs,
| the bullets went flying about our
heads. crept back to the hole among
the rocks where we had spent the
night | couldn't see what was hap
pening: ! didn't want to see Death
shrieks echoed all around and above
me. 1t was the most hellish din OF
J battle l ever listened to. had turned
coward. lay there with every tooth
in my head chattering. A nice con-
fession for a man to make. eh?" asked
Wentworth with a grim smile.
Merry half rose then dropped back
into his chair. Hold on. Enoch, /
swear you're not fit for this sort Of
thing Your temperature will go up,
then the nurse"
Damn the nurse I'm fit enough.
keep still | want to finish my story.
Forsyth. the intrepid young fool. went
creeping along the face of the cliff.
He had never seen battle before. |
called to him to lie low. but he never
needed me. Through crevice in the
rock ! saw him stretch his head over
the chasm and crane his neck, then
| plunge down and begin to write as IL
| be were mad. Once | sneaked out
and tried to drag him in beside me.
| He fought like a wildcat, so ! went
back to shelter The bullets pinged on
the rocks all around me. Suddenly |
heard low, gurgling awful cry and
do L.,
shout 1t was Forsyth. crept out.
He stood on clifY above me, clutch
ing at his throat then he toppled aud
tell. he came plunging down over the
rocks until he reached my feet He
| was dead. stark dead. when | pulled
| him into the cave. His notebook was
clutched SO tight in his hand that |
tore a corner from one page as took
it from his fingers. | buried him right
| there.
After a little while the battle tiz-
/ zled down to a stray shot or two. That
night under the gleam of a sputtering
little torch | read Forsyth's story. 1t
was tremendous--perfec tremen-
dous-perfectly tremendous! 1t read
| like inspired stuff had never
dreamed the fellow had such a vocab-
| ulary And he lay there close beside
me, asleep-under the damp, warm,
| soft earth. ! had fit of the horrors.
put out my light, stuffed the pages
| of writing in my pocket, then went
| doubling and twisting down those wild
mountains, lodging the enemy's camp
| fires and their internal bullets. until
reached the miserable little town in
| the valley we TWO men had our
headquarters. l hurried to the tele-
graph office to send out Forsyth's story
to the Tribune. with the news OF his
death. | was waiting to get the wire
| when somebody handed me cable
| l looked at il half-daZed II came from