The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-03-14
EVENING STORY
Search for the Needle.
(By A. w. Peach.O

AS the little woman lett the post
office, Marshal gazed after her with
interested and curious eyes. During
the week he had spent in the small
village, he had happened to come for
his mail at a regular time each day,
and each time he had heard the wom-
an ask If there was mail for her 1t
was her manner as she asked that
aroused Marshals interest. She APP
preached the window eagerly, a rosy
flush on her pale cheeks; then when
the clerk nodded his head sadly-sO
Marshal thOught-she seemed t.
grow old in a moment; and she pass
ed out of the office as if the burden
of her fifty or more years rested upon
her heavily.
Marshal stepped to the window. As
the clerk ran thru the mail, Marshal
said in a casual way, II have seen
disappointed people. but that little
lady who just left here acts as if she
had been sentenced when you tell her
she has no mail. Anything peculiar
about herr"
The clerk nodded his head. Yes,
she has been coming to this window
for twenty-five years. She expects q
letter from a chap who left here, SO
they tell me, to make his fortune i'll
the West. He vanished and no letter
has come from him. She is a little
off, 1 guess. but she's harmless
Gathering up his mail, Marshal
went to the country hotel to look the
correspondence over, but his mind
was busy with the strange story of
the little lady in gray.
Twenty-Five years and still expect
ing letter-that's some record for
faithfulness." he thought to himself.
"P1tiful, too, when you stop to think
of it,
The white-headed hotel proprietor
was perfectly willing to talk the mat
ter over Sure" said he, II know
the whole thing. She was as pretty
a little thing as you ever see, and
she was dead in love with Clarke
Sherman and he with her-as far as
we could tell Then he got the idea
that the place was too small for him
you know how the young fellows often
fee1-and away he went. 1 guess she
heard from him for three years; he
was doing fine-so he said. Then
came silence. All sorts of yarns went
around, you know; but she held her
head right up, L tell you. Then she
got a clipping from some cheap news
paper out west telling about an acci-
dent he had been in, and with the
clipping was a letter from a friend of
his, saying that he had died since the
accident. 1t threw her off her head,
guess, for since then she's been 60
ing to the postoffice just the same.
She's all right other ways-one of the
best dressmakers in town, so the wom-
en- tell me. Yes, it's kind of a sad
story. Some figure there's something
queer about the way she got the news
CT mis- death-might have married
somebody else, and put job up on
Martha. If he did, and you ever come
across him on your travels, give him
my compliments
About a year later, after Marshal
had made many inquiries of friends
widely acquainted in the west, one of
them said he had run across the name
Clarke Sherman in little town in
Nevada.
It was like searching for a needle in
a haystack, Marshal knew, to seek
out a man by the name of Clarke
sherman, for there were many in the
world; but Marshal made up his mind
to look up the man if his business
brought him near the town. The op-
portunity came a few months later.
Marshal planned to make sure that
if Clarke Sherman were living, he
would know what one man thought
His first question after his arrival
in the Nevada town was asked of the
hotel clerk. but the latter shook his
head. Never heard of anybody
round here by that name-hold on,
perhaps some of the old fellows
know.
An odd fellow called from the
| front off the hotel, smoked slowly.
"Why-er-yes, there was sech a chap
lived out Butte way, but L guess
he's been dead an gone for twenty
years"
| about to give up the foolish search
when the man who had been speak
| ing pointed to thin individual across
! the street There goes a fellow
named Seeker from out that way
| p'rhaps he knows something about
him..
Crossing over, Marshal hailed him
and made known his desire. The
mans eyes were keen and crafty, and
! Marshal did not like them, nor did he
like the mans answer.
No sir there's one out there
now by that name. Clarke sherman
was killed in an accident. What do
YOU want to know for2" he demand
| ed CURLY.
MarshaTs quick temper ffared at the
mans tone That's my business.
He walked away.
Afterward as he thought the mat
ter over, the antagonism in the man $
attitude made Marshal suspicious 1
believe, just for the deuce of 1t, I'll
motor out that way after L ind just
where that chap lives It's needle
in a haystack business. but l may be
able to look up some business on the
way.
Early in the afternoon of the next
1 day he reached a rundown, RAM
shackle place which his guide told
him was Seekers home; the boy add
ed, 4 guess there's some one else
there-sick or sunthin'-anyway no
one has ever seen i'm or her-don't
/ know which it is There's a dawg
| there that'n eat you up, tooH
| Marshal took from the car a heavy
wrench. He shut his jaws grimly.
! I've been fool enough over this to
keep on being one" he said to the
friend who had come with him, and
| who waited in the car.
Hardly had he put his foot on the