Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1917-09-14

hammock and touching one slippered
toe to the fiagstones for the swinging
push. From Smiths point of view she
had for a background the gorgeous
sunset, but he could not see the more
distant glories.
1--WE owe you much, and we are go
ing to owe you more" she said. you
mustn't think that we don't appreciate
you at your full value. Colonel-daddy
thinks you are the most wonderful
somebody that ever lived, and so do a
lot of the Others"
'And yOu? he couldn't resist saying.
"Tm just plain ashamed-for the
way l treated you when you were here
before. I've been eating humble-pie
ever since"
Smith breathed freer. Nobody but a
most cOnSummate actress could have
simulated her frank sincerity. He had
jumped too quickly to the small sum-
in-addition conclusion. She did not
know the story of the absconGing bank
cashier.
81 don't know why you should feel
that way" he said, eager, now, to run
where he had before been afraid to
walk.
81 do. And I believe you wanted to
shame me. believe you gave up your
place at the dam and took hold with
daddy more to show me what an incon-
sequent little idiot was than for any
other reason. Didn't you, really?"
He laughed in quiet ecstasy at this
newest and most adorable of the
moods.
"Honest confession is good for the
soul: l did" he boosted. "Now beat
that for frankness, If you can"
Il can't" she admitted, laughing
back at him. "But now you've accom-
plfshed your purpose, I hope you are
not going to give up. That would be a
little hard on colOnel-daddy."
ooh, no; I'm not going to give up
until have to-"
docs that mean more than it saysF
Eyes, Tn afraid it does"
She was silent for the length Of time
that it took the flaming crimson in the
western sky to fade to salmon. The
colonel had mounted the steps and was
coming toward them. The young wom-
an slipped from the hammock and
stood up.
"Don't CO." said Smith, feeling as if
he were losing an opportunity and
leaving much unsaid that ought to be
said. But the answer was a quiet
good night" and she was gone.
Smith went back to town with the
colonel the next morning physically
rested, to be sure, but in a frame of
mind bordering again upon the sar-
donic. One thing stood out clearly :
he was most Enthusiastically in love
with Corona Baldwin.
Hence there was another high re-
solve not to go to Hillcrest again until
he could go as a free man; a resolve
which, it is perhaps needless to say,
was broken thereafter as often as the
colonel asked him to go. Why, in the
last resort, Smith should have finally
chosen confidant in the person of
William Starbuck, the reformed cow
puncher, he scarcely knew. But 1t was
to Starbuck that he appealed for adj
vice when the sentimental situation
had grown fairly desperate.
"Pve told you enough so that you
can understand the vise-nip of it,
Billy" he said to Starbuck one night
when he had dragged the mine owner
up to the bathroom suite in the Hophra
House, and had told him just little,
enough to merely hint at his condition.
you see how it stacks up. I'm in a
fair way to come out Of this the big
gest scoundrel alive-the piker who
takes advantage of the innocence of a
good girl. I'm not the man she thinks
| am. l am standing over q volcano pit
every minute of the day. If it blows
up, I'm gone, obliterated, wiped out"
SIS it aiming to blow up?" asked
StarbucB sagely.
81 don't know any more about that
than you do. 1t is the kind that usual
ly does blow up sooner or later. I've
prepared for it as well as can. What
Colonel Baldwin and the rest of you
needed was n financial manager, and
TimanyOni High Line has its fighting
chance-which was more than Timan.
yOni Ditch had when | took hold. If !
should drop out now, you and Maxwell
and the colonel and Kinzie could 90 on