The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1922-02-16

Consented 10 Let the Fires Die Down.
Old 'innnbNr stays right where she is
and S"TkS tin Kingdom come"
N" Iin off OF me?" I yclpctl, with
sort K wild laugh. "IiStcn-hoth
"f you anh then told them the en-.
tire h"a;t breaking story OF Cousin
iPrcy'S Setter and my grandrather's
Joke: If my starting out on the fam
;nstic search FOR ~" girl, a horse and
dog--n search which would ,oubtlcss
nave Failed before II had fairly begun
f hadn't happened to ride I'm a Pull
man smoker with the man, Charles
Fullerton
remembered aftCrward that | had
E"' 1l'&t that far--to the naminp OF
bu'lerto''-when Barney. The pie faced
;o''!", got M from his corner of the
hearth. stated to the door and bepon
to gr"wl. The nest minute we heard
horses sh-r-r-, and Daddy Hiram
rose. pushed the dog aside and opened
the door. Then Ieanle and !. still
sitting before the fire, heard him saw
sr1flty: "Veli, hello. Charley Butler
ton! What In Sam Hill are you doin
up in this neck o. wOOds?"
turned to look at Jeanie-and
missed. In the moment when I hod
glanced aside she had vanished.
When Bullerton came in. which vos
after Daddy Hiram had lighted the
lantern and shown him whore to nut
his horse. he didn't seem half as much
surprised TO find me sitting before The
Iw";nbiy hous" fire as I thou-ht he
might have been.
"Well, well look who's here" he
bantered. "How are you, Broughton?
This old world Isn't so Internally big
as 1t might be. after all, is #? Who
would have thought that our naxt
meeting would be I'm such an out of
the-way corner Of the universe as this !
i hope you've been well and chippcr,
all these weeks"
i said what / was obliged to. and
wasn't any too cOnfoundedIy cordial
about it, either, l guess.
BnllertOn drew up chair and began
to talk, much as II we'd invited him TO-
about his Woodworking year I'm 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 I'm the East.
ern Tlmanyonis things like that
He was just comfortably surging
az
opened behind MS and he iumped up
with another "Well, well, look who's
here" and when turned, he was
holding Jeanic's two hands In his and
braying over her like wild ass of the
plains. And, If you'll believe me. thnt
girl had gone and changed her dress |!
That is what she Went to do when she
slipped out and left me to stare at her
empty chair, after she had heard her
father say, "Well. hello. Charley Bull
iertOn !"
1t was all off with me from that
time on. For what was left Of the
evening. Fullerton played q solo. |
got full-up ON the performance about
nine O'Clock. and climbed my ladder
and went to bed, muliling my head In
the blankets SStthat | wouldn't have
to lie there and- listen to the bacpipe
drone of Bullertons voice in the room
below.
hoped-without the least shadow Of
reason for the hope, of course-thnt
the next morning would show me a
hole I'm the atmosphere i'm the space
that Fullerton had occupied. But
there was no such luck. He was pres
ent .at the breakfast table, as large
rs life and twice as talkative.
j made my escape from the cabin
as soon as | could and tramped over
to the mine. A glance into the shaft
showed the black pool I'm its depths as
placid and untroubled as IT we hadn't
just lifted million or so cubic feet
of water out Of IL by hard labor.
In morOse discouragement | recalled
the few tnings l had learned about
drOwyrei minen while I was knocking
about In the Cripple Greek district
trying to trace Fullerton. Particular
~ remembered my talk with Hilton,
, The man who had finally put me. upon
what had proved TO be the right track
In the tracing Job He had talked
quite freely, Sometimes the food was
only the tapping OF an underground
stream as when one digs well; I; In
e ~ mi . we're 3gox< con-