Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1917-12-21

what you talked about-the trumpery
little social things that you found your
keenest pleasure In talking about. /
don't know what has ever taken you
out to a construction camp. I don't
believe you ever did a days hard
work in your life before you came to
the Timanyoni."
It was growing dark by this time,
and the stars were coming out. Some
n had turned the lights on in the
room the windows Of which opened
upon the portico, and the young wom-
ans chair was so placed that he could
still see her face. She was smiling
rather more amlcably when she said {:
you mustn't take 1t too hard. It
isn't you, personally, you know; it's
the type. I've met II before. I didn't
meet any other kind during my three
years in the boarding school; nice,
pleasant young gentlemen, as immacu-
lately dressed as their p~ocketboOks
would allow, up in all the latest little
courtesies and tea-table shop talk.
They were all men, I suppose, but I'm
afraid a good many of them had never
found 1t out-will never find 1t out.
I've been calling It environment; I
don't like to admit that the race is
going downhill."
BY this time the sardonic humor was
once more in full possession, and he
was enjoying her keenly.
Go on" he said. "This is my night
Off"
i've said enough; too much, per-
haps. But when you were walking
with mamma, you reminded me so
forcibly Of a man whom I met just for
a part Of one evening about a year
ago in a small town in the middle
West. He was one Of them. He
drove Over from some neighboring
town in his natty little automobile,
and gave me fully an hour of his valu-
able time. He made me perfectly fu-
rlousT"
Poor you'll" laughed Smith but he
was thankful that the camp sunburn
and his four weeks beard were safe
guarding his identity. "But why the
fury in his case In PARTICULAR"
"Just because, I suppose. I remem-
Der he told me he was a bank cashier
and that he danced. He was quite
hopeless, of course. Without being
what you would call conceited, you
could see that the crust was so thick
that nothing short of an earthquake
would ever break It,"
"But the earthquakes do come, once
in a blue moon," he said, still smiling
at her. Lets get It straight. You
are not trying to tell m that you
object to decent clothes and good man
ners per Sc, are your"
The colonel was coming out, and he
had stopped in the doorway to light
n long-stemmed pipe. The young wom-
IN got up and luffed her hair with the
ends Of her fngers-a little gesture
which Smith remembered, recalling 1t
from the night Of the far-away lawn
party.
Daddy wants you, and I'll have to
vanish" she said; "but I'll answer
your question before I go. Types are
always hopeless; it's only the hun
dredth man who isn't. It's a great pity
you couldn't go on whipping claim
jumpers all the rest Of your life, Mr..
Smith. Don't you think so? Good
night. Wen meet again at breakfast.
Daddy isn't going to let you get away
short Of a nights lodging, I know"
Two cigars for Smith and four pipes
for the colonel further along, the tall
MlssOurian rose out of the split-bot-
toned chair which he had drawn up to
face the guests and raped the ashes
from the bowl of the corncOb into the
palm of his hand.
II think you've got It all now,
Smith, every last crook and turn Of
1t, and I reckon you're tired enough
to run away to bed"
Smith took n turn up and down the
~stone-iagged floor Of the portlco with
his hands behind him. Truly, the case
Of Timanyonl ditch was desperate /;
even more desperate than he had sup
posed. Figuring as the ~level-headed
bank cashier Of the former days, he
told himself soberly that no man in
his enses would touch 1t with a ten
foot pole. Then the laughing gibes of
the hundredth woman-gibes which
had cut far deeper than she had imag-
ined-came back to send the blood
surging through his veins. It would
be worth something to be able to work
the miracle the colonel had spoken Of /;
ard afterward
Colonel Dexter Baldwin was still
tapping his palm absently with the
pipe when Smith came back and said
abruptly:
81 have decided, colonel. I'll start In
with you tomorrow morning, and Wen
pull this mlred scheme OF yours out
OF the mud, or I'll break a leg trying
to. But you mustn't forget what I
told you out at the camp, Right In the
middle Of things l may go rotten on
you and drop out"
CHAPTER VIII.
The Sick Project.
Rrawqfar had grOWn into c~ltv-chartar