The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1916-04-20

| OF the neaTtn. Bill SpraWled on
the bearskin robe with another
cigaret in his fingers.
| NO" he began, after n long
silence, this country doesn't get
on ones nerves-not If one is a
normal human being. You'll
find that. When / first came up
here | thought so, too; 1t seemed
so big and empty and forbidding.
But the more | see of ii the bet
ter 1t compares with the outer
world, where the extremes of
luxury and want are always in
evidence. 1t began to seem like
home to me when | first looked
down in this little basin. So
stayed. Stayed and began to
build for the winter. And I've
been working at it ever since,
making little things like chairs
and tables and shelves, and fix
ing up game heads whenever
got an extra good one. Lord, the
things I've packed in here from
the outside. Books-I hired a
whole pack train at Ashcroft once
to bring In just books; they
thought / was crazy, | guess. I've
quit this place once or twice, but
| always come back. It's got that
home feel that / can't find any
where else. Only it has always
lacked one important home quail
ification," he finished softly.
do you ever build air castles?'
No." Hazel answered untruth-
fully, uneasy at the trend of his
talk. She was learning that Bill
Wagstaff, for all his gentleness
and patience with her, was per-
sisten mortal.
We'll, 1 do" he continued, un-
perturbed. Lots of EN-. But
mostly around one thing-a wo-
mara dream woman-because
I never saw one who seemed to
fit i'll until ! ran across YOU
Mr.. Wagstaff," Hazel pleaded,
won't you please stop talking
like that 1t isn't---it isn't"
Isn't proper, l suppose" Bill
supplied dryly. Now, that's
merely an error. and a funda-
mental error on your part, little
person. Our emotions and in
stincts are perfectly proper when
you get down to fundamentals.
Now, l may seem to you a
lawless, unprincipled individual
indeed, because I've acted con-
trary to your idea of the accepted
order of things. But here's my
side of it.: I'm in search of hap
piness. We all are. I have a
few ideals-and very few flu
sions. l don't quite believe in
this thing called love at first
sight. That presupposes vol
ability of emotion that people OF
any strength of character are not
likely to- indulge in. But---for
instance, a man can have a very
definite ideal of the kind of wo-
man he would like for a mate.
And whenever he finds a woman
who corresponds to that ideal he's
apt to make strenuous attempt
to get her. That's pretty much
how l felt about you"
you had no right to kidnap
mel" Hazel cried.
There wasn't any other way
open to me-" Bill grew suddenly
moody. mot with you in Carl
boo Meadows. No, 1t was impos-
sible for me to get acquainted
with you in the conventional way.
l knew that, and SO ! didn't make
any effort. Why, I'd have been
at your elbow when you left the
supper table at Jim Briggs that
night IL l hadn't known how it
would be. l went there out of
sheer curiosity to take a look at
you. And came away with a
large-sizeed crouch at myself, at
Cariboo Meadows, and at you for
coming in my way"
"Why?" she asked in wonder.
| Because you'd have believed
what they told you, and Cariboo
Meadows can't tell anything
about me that isn't bad" he said,
quietly. "My record there makes
me entirely unfit to associate
with-that would have been your
conclusion. And l wanted to be
with you, to- talk to you, and
make you like me as felt | could
care for you. You can't have
grown up, little person, without
realizing that you do attract men
very strongly
\ Perhaps" she admitted, cold
j ly. Men have annoyed me with
their unwelcome attentions. But
none of them ever dared go the
length of carrying me away
against my will. You cant ex-
plain or excuse that"
I'm not attempting excuses
J Bill made answer. There are
two things I never do-apologize
or bully, dare say that's one
reason the Meadows gives me
such a black eye. In the first
place the superior inhabitants
took me for a tenderfoot the first
time / blew into town, and they
made 1t so unpleasant that had
to teach them a thing or two.
That may sound to you like
real depravity," he concluded
"but it's a fact in nature that a
man has to blow the steam off
his chest about every so often.
!, have raised all manner of dis.
turbances in Cariboo Meadows
partly out of pure animal spirits,
!