The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1921-12-08

Z Consented 10 Let the Fires DIE DOWN.
old Cinnabar stays right where she is
and soaks till kingdom come"
mo skin off of me?' / yelped, with
a sort of wild laugh. "Listen-both
of you" and then | told them the en-
tire heart-breaking story of Cousin
Percy's letter and my grandfather's
joke; of my starting out on the fan
tastic search for the girl, a horse and
a dog-a search which would doubtless
have failed before it had fairly begun
If hadn't happened TO ride in Pull
man smoker with the man, Charles
Fullerton.
/ remembered afterward that | had
got just that far--to the naming of
Bullerton-when Barney, the pie-faced
collie, got up from his corner of the
hearth, stalked to the door and began
to growl. The next minute we heard
a horses sh-r-r-, and Daddy Hiram
rose, pushed the dog aside and opened
the door. Then Jeanie and !, still
sitting before the fire, heard him say
grufly well. hello, Charley Butler
tom What in Sam Hill are you doin'
up i'm this neck o. wOOds?"
/ turned to look at Jeanie-and
missed. In the moment when l had
glanced aside she had vanished.
When Fullerton came in, which was
after Daddy Hiram had lighted the
lantern and shown him where to put
his horse. he didn't seem half as much
surprised TO find me sitting before the
Twombly house fire as / thought he
might have been.
'Well. well look who's here r' he
bantered "HOw are you, Broughton?
This old world isn't so Internally big
as it might be, after all, is it? Who
would have thought that our next
meeting would be in such an out-of-
! the-way corner of the universe as this
| 1 hope you've been well and clipper.
| all these weeks"
said what / was obliged to, and
wasn't any too confOundedly cordial
about it. either, I guess.
Fullerton drew up a chair and began
| to talk. much as If we'd invited him to-
about his Woodworking year in South
America; about the fabulously rich
mines in that far-away Utopia of the
gold-diggers about his voyage up from
the Isthmus; about the oddness of his
meeting me on the train, combined
with the more excruciating OddnesS OF
his meeting me again, here in the East
ern Timanyonis; things like that.
He was just comfortably surginl
along in the swing of it when doc
opened behind US and he jumped VI
with another 'Well, well, look who'
here!' and when l turned, he wa
holding Jeanie's two hands in his ant
! braying over her like q wild ass of tn
plains. And, if you'll believe me, tina
girl had gone and changed her dress
That is what she went TO do when sh
slipped out and left me to stare at he
empty chair, after she had heard he
father say, "Well, hello, Charley Blu
lerton!"
1t was all off with me from tina
time on. For what was left of tn
evening, Fullerton played a solo.
got fulI-up on the performance abOU
nine o'clock. and climbed my ladde
and went TO bed. muffiing my head /
the blankets so that l wouldn't hay
to lie there and listen to the bagpiI
drone of Bullerten's voice in the rool
below.
hoped-without the least shadow I
reason for the hope, of cOurse-ths
the next morning would show me
J hole in the atmosphere in the spa'
. that Fullerton had occupied. b
!, there was no such luck. He was pre-
ent at the breakfast table, as lars
: as life and twice as talkative.
: ] made my escape from the cab
as soon as l could and tramped Ov'
to the mine. a glance into the sha
showed the black pool in its depths
: placid and untroubled as if we hadr
! lust lifted million or so cubic Re
: of water out Of il by hard labor.
In morose encouragement l recall'
, the few things | had learned aho
? drowned mines while ] was knockil
5 about in the Cripple Greek distri
) trying to trace Fullerton Parueula