The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1919-03-04
CONTINUED From Last Friday
CHAPTER v.
A Game of Checkers.

wind-blown sand, drove people indoors
the next morning. Rickard was served
q substantial, indifferently cooked
breakfast in the dining room Of the
Desert hotel, whose limitations were
as conspicuous to the newcomer as
they were nonedstent to the other
men. They were finding 1t soft con-
trast to sand-blown tents, to life In the
open.
Later he wandered through the
group Of staring idlers in the Office,
past the popular soda stand and the
few chair-tilters on the sidewalk, 60
ing on, as If without purpose, to the
railroad sheds. and then on, down to
the offices Of the Desert Reclamation
company. He discovered 1t to be the
one engaging spot In the hastily
thrown-together town. There were
oleanders, rose and white, blooming in
the patch of purple blooming alfalfa
that stood for lawn. Morning-glories
clambered over the supports Of the
veranda, and on over the roof. Rick
ards deductions led him to the Har-
dins.
What school Of experience had SO
changed the awkward country fellow?
He had resented his rivalry, not that
he was rival, but that he was boor.
His kisses still warm on her lips, and
she had turned to welcome, to coquet
with Tom Hardin! The woman who
was to be his wife must be steadier
than that! It he'd cooled his fever.
Not for. him the aspen who could
shake and bend her pretty boughs to
each rough breeze that blew!
Men tossed into desert, fighting to
keep foothold, do not garland their
Offices with morning-glories! Was it
the gracious quiet influence Of wife,
a Gerty Hardin? The festive build
ing he was approaching was as unex-
pected-as Captain Brandon! Rickard
walked on, smiling.
He was fairly blown into the outer
room, the door banging behind him.
Every one looked up at the noisy inter-
ruption. There were several men in
the long ,oom. Among them two alert,
clean-faced youths, college graduates,
or students out on furlough, the kino
Of stuff in his class at Lawrence. Three
Of the seasoned, road-coached type
were leaning their chairs against the
cool thick walls. One was putting q,
a cigar. The other, big, shy giant,
was drawing clouds Of comfort from 9
pipe. There was a telegraph operator
at work in one end Of the room, her
instrument rapidly clicking. In an op.
posite corner was telephone ex.
change. A girl with a metal band
around her forehead was punching
connections between the valley towns.
Rickard lost the feeling of having
gone into q remote and isolated re-
gion. The twin towns were on the
map.
One Of the older men returned his
nod. The young men returned their
hastily withdrawn attention to their
game Of checkers. The other smoker
was watching with cross-eyed absorp-
ton the rings his cigar was sending
into the air. Rickard might not have
been there.
One Of the checker players looked
up.
anything can do for you? Do you
want to see anyone in PARTICULAR"
NO." it was admitted. "No one in
particular. was just looking round"
'It's the show place Of Calexico. I'll
take you around. It Is the only place
in town that Ia comfortable when it's
hot, or when the wind blows and
that's the program all summer. Take
my place, Pete"
Pete, the young giant with tho face
q his infancy enlarged rather than
tnatured, slipped into the vacant chair.
He bad been tha first to discover the
aranSer, but ha had evaded the ~
q aondbiuty. The game na0a6sssls