The St. Johns herald., 1921-05-05

desire was to have the affair ended and be left alone
 Shelby passed and stared down at the face in the casket, that of a man of sixty, possibly, yet exhibiting even in death the marks of a hard life which had unduly aged him. It was rather an intelligent face, framed in a white beard, with the fragment of a scar showing on one cheek. There was something about the face strange ly familiar, yet he could not recall the man to memOry-sOme way the sight of him had turned his mind back to army days, yet the two would not connect themselves definitely. As he thrust his contribution into the box. Mccarthy gripped him cordially.
 "Well, bless me, if here ain't Tom Shelby, lOOkin' like a white man, and blowin' his money like a good sport. How's things on the Cottonwood? |? Fine as silk, hey? See yer later, Tom. No, yer don't, RamsayI You tried that game on me once before. Pm keepin' cases here"
 There was a moments delay, while Ramsay reluctantly dug down into his jeans for an amount satisfactory to the party in charge, and Shelby. still struggling with his elusive memory, bent over and asked hoarsely:
 "Say, Mac, who was this guy, any wayY'
 "Old Dad, you mean2 Furst knel. of the fellow was about three years ago, blacksmithin' down at Kelly's camp. When that moved on he come up here, an has been hangin' round ever since. Want such a bad sort, 'cept when in liquor; smart oP Levil, too; read everything he could get hold of"
 ever in the army?
 Come to think of 1t, Tom, I do. Once when he was drunk, he showed me his discharge papers. Lemme see {; h-l, yes-the OF cock wus a sergeant in the Sixth cavalry. That's all right, Ramsay-pass along. Now, whose next; step up lively, boys"
 Shelby drifted along with the line, which broke into groups, waiting si- lently for the ceremonies to be con- cluded and the body lowered into the grave before vending their way back to the delights of Ponca. The ranch man fingered with the others while the preacher solemnly consigned the body to dust, but when he saw the quartette climbing back into the wag- on for a final song. he promptly joined number who were attempting to escape. Shelby paused and glanced back; the distance was too great to distinguish faces, yet there was no mistaking the pathetic figure of the girl standing in loneliness beside the still open grave. She had not particu- larly appealed to him before, but now his heart made vague response to her loneliness.
 It was doubtless this lingering mem- ory which kept him away from Nc Carthy's saloon during the next hour. He had lost his earlier inclination for wild carOuse in town, or any desire to renew old acquaintances at the bar.
  He was almost persuaded to load up in the morning, if he could find the hand he needed and drive back to Cot tOnwOod. There was nothing in 1t, this getting drunk on vile whisky and blowing in ali he had saved at faro. HI, nOI He needed every dollar to make the ranch pay and could not afford to be a d-n fool forever. Here is where he would quit. No doubt, he was honest enough in these intentions, yet the mood passed away so com pletely that before night he was again with the gang and had slowed away sufficient liquid refreshments to con- pletely overcome any lingering recol- lection of any higher purpose. In this happy condition he finally wended his way across the street to the shelter of the hotel.