The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-04-19
Eoening Story
The Man on Smoky Top.
BY H. LOUIS RAYBOLD.

I
''Good-by and thanks" Shouldering
his pack, he turned away up the pine
scented trail.
The old man looked after. him
/ doubtfully. During his long career
| as warden in this little corner of the
Adirondacks many men of many types
had he sent up that winding path to
stay from May until October, but
never before so well-set-up, SO hand
some a youth, and one so obviously
capable of holding down a far harder
job than that of ranger on old Smoky
Top.
| some time later, arrived at the
summit. Sperry Maynard threw down
| his pack at the door OF small shanty
| set in a cleared space few hundred
feet square. Adjacent to it was
sort of platform on the top of four
! poles, evidently a lookout. On one OF
the poles was fastened a telephone
! box, an homogeneous object in the will
/ derness, but necessary in the perform
ance of his duties.
| So this was to be his home for five
monthsi Sperry sat down upon his
duffle and gave himself up to eating
the last of his sandwiches and re-
viewing the circumstances which had
brought him here.
! Brieftly-it was ennui and disillu-
sionment. With more money to spend
than he had known what to do with,
and with n generosity which made him
! had led a spectacular career at col
| Iege. Then his father had died, in
crea sing his already absurd income.
| But he was riding for a fall from
the quarter in which he least expected
it. He believed his two best friends
to be his roommate and the girl he was
as good as enga ged to. Coming to his
rooms suddenly during the prom
festivities he had surprised them in
unequivocal lovemaking, while osten-
sibly having tea.
Sperry had left the room, the cam
pus the town. In sudden revulsion had
hunted up an old friend of his faith
er's and asked for a job. only sipu-
lating that it be out of doors and
away from the world.
AS a result, here he was, the Smoky
Top ranger, whose one duty was to
sweep the horizon with high powered
glasses and by means of the telephone
to report any fires to the fire wardens
below.
AS May melted into June and June
into July, Sperry grew accustomed to
his monotonous solitude. At times
however, intense longings for the
pleasures and companionships of civil
lization seized him
1t was just after such a period that
a gay party of men and women from
the hotel on the lake below climbed
to his shanty. First came a portly
middle-aged man, putting considera-
bly,; then a younger man, followed by
three ladies, two of whom were I'M
mistakably past the bloom of youth.
The third brought up the rear, and
at first Sperry did not notice her.
Then las he caught a glimpse of the
beautiful face beneath the soft sport
hat, he paled beneath his tan. But on
the girls part there was no trace of
recognition.
II say" said the elderly gentleman,
/ do Won NaVa MANY firPS7'
Sperry managed a reply. Some
times one day. Again, not a sign of
one for weeks
What would you do if you were
surrounded here?" This question was
| from the older woman. Perpetual ask
ing of it from other tourists had given
Sperry a ready answer. Probably be
killed." he said cheerfully. He always
had the feeling that such a response
gave the proper touch of romance to
his situation which they demanded.
'Oh," said the girl softly her brown
eyes wide with horror. Sperry could
see now that the resemblance to an
other, at first so striking, was really
only intermittent as her expression
changed.
Long after their departure sperrv
thought of his visitors, particularly of
the girl and the young man. Were
they engaged or, possibly, married?
A week later they came again, with
variations in the personnel of the
party, but still the same couple. This
time Sperry deliberately, yet unosten-
tatiously made conversation with her
Just before they left the girl said
suddenly, 81 am coming up again"
That was all, but the knowledge was
a bright CLEAN in the dull monotony
of his lonely days.
Many times she came and always
with the personab1e youth, who seem
ed to have established himself as the
girls bodyguard. Little by little
Sperry learned that she was staying
with friends; that she was not mar
rled; that her name was Barbara. And
Sperry, who had thought he was done
with love at twenty-three, presently
reached the stage where his first wax
ing thought was, will she come to-
day?'
Then came the long dry spell of late
August Sperry was kept busy report
ing fires. The very air became yell
low with smoke haze. and for days
at time the lake below was not
visible
One morning sperry paused in the
act of chopping down a dead tree to
sniff the air. Certainly the atmos-
phere was unusually acrid. A glance
thru the glasses reported nothing, yet
Sperry had a feeling that the fire was
not far away.
Running down the trail, he observed
increasing. Coming out on a little
knoll. he saw an Opaque cloud of
smoke settled on an adjacent shoulder
of the mountain. Here and there it
was shot with flame.
His trained eye, h%ever, saw that
the wind was taking it away from
the summit. and that 1t would prob
ably burn itself out when it reached
the edge of the cliff Returning. he
reported the fire to the warden
Late that afternoon Sperry sat
smoking an old pipe. Suddenly he
heard a rustic on the trail behind him.
Turning, he waited. Was it a deer or
had some one been foolish enough to
clumb the mountain, menaced as it
was by fire?
Thunderstruck, he gazed at the girl
who stumbled toward him. Her
wealth of hair tumbling about her
shoulders. her exnreSSiOD ono of