The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1920-07-16

out III Ine Noftn Dakota harvest field
had seen him off and on all winter
while we was both loafin' around Chi
cago barrel-houses, and in the sprine
we'd shipped out together for a rail
road construction job in Montana.
1t was in Miles City that Hard
Faced Mike runs onto some &C
quaintance of his in pool hall, and
right away he wants me to beat Il
lack to Iowa with him. He'd argued
me into gettin' off at little junction
before pullin' into certain tank town
and we was hittin' the dusty road be.
tween the Iowa cornfields when l got
out of him why he was so anxious to
make" the town, and yet so alfred
Sneaky about it.
81 amt been back here for II
years." he explains, pullin' the rim
of his black hat down over his eyes
as an automobile tipped past us. But
| don't feel like takin' any chances of
being recognized"
What was it?" I asks. whats
the constable in the town ahead here
apt to pick you up for?"
He didn't answer for a minute
just shifted his hot black coat to his
other arm and kept poundin' along
in the dust with those clumsy shoes
of his.
"She was a hired girl that worked
in the neighborhood," he grumble,s
finally. "She wrote me a letter about
her troubles while was down al
Chickamaugua with the militia COM
pany for the Spanish-American war.
fooled her. l didn't come back with
the rest of the boys that fall After
gettin' that letter 1 didn't intend to
ever come back, but Hank Bayles tells
me out there in Miles City about the
old man havin' dropped off. The old
man had place here, and Pm goin'
to cash in on it and go back and buy
share in Hank pool hall"
Well, it was all out in a breath.
How he'd been Twin the past II years
was written all over him. He had the
hobo way of carryin' his coat; there
was the DO dent in his limp-brimmed
black hat, the DO twist in his mouth
when he talked, and the suspicious 10
Souint In hic ovpc
This has got to be a great coun-
try through here" remarks, glancin'
over the June-fiigh cornfields. 81 hope
the old man left you quite a place.
So you was one of the soldier boys,
eh?"
at was just an acre or two and
the house." he mumbles, "but Hank
seemed to think it would bring me
penty enough to buy an interest in
with him There's an old guy who $
Twin in the neighborhood who'll be
glad to close the deal with me provid'
he gets his rake-off big enough and
he's the kind, too, who'll keep mum
about me bein' around here"
81 see," I says, you're anxious to
see this old guy who's strong for first
mortgages, and you're just as anxious
about not seem this hired girl"
"Just playin' safe" Hard-Faced
Mike assures. "She really didn't have
nothin' on me. Hardly anybody had
ever seen US together we'd always
taken the back streets. See that court
house tower and the water works
standpipe stickin' out above the
naples there? That's the burg. Well
cut through these here woods. It's
just as close, and I amt stuck on
passin' any more of those d-n auto,
mobiles"
You see, there wasn't much of a
home-comin' thrill in Hard-Faced
Mikes system. Henry Klagge, the
alderman who owned the barrel house
in Chicago where we'd hung out most
of the winter, had given my partner
his name, and it was good one. Here
he was within mile of his old home
town and he merely looked tired,
dusty and disguised
You could see plain enough that
the cool, green cornfields, shimmertn'
in the sun, that we'd walked through
had been just cornfields without the
cool green and the simmer. He
wasn't hearin' the fnches singin' in
the sumac bushes on the roadside,
and the woods we was gettin' to was
awakenin' no more memories than a
rabbit. The expression on his dusty
and sweaty and sun-peeled face as
we climbed through the barbed wire
fence to get into the woods showed
how the callouses had layered about
his heart.
It took an effort for him to crawl
through the barbed wire fence, too,
and he must have laughed at that
same dinky barricade as a kid. 1t
made me think of the way the sport
fighters in the bout that leaves them
"has-been."
But with Hard-Faced Mike, youth
had not only gone out of his body
but out of his soul, too. It's the both
Of 'em gone that makes for a real
l-poo1,out