The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1925-08-21

platform the midday humidity Gre
ated smothering steam filled with the
gases belched from locomotive stacks
and the ear-smashing explosions from
engine exhausts and the impact of car
couplers. The train for the West was
three hours late. She could not leave
the station; she walked back and forth,
her weary eyes held open wide by will,
her jaw firm. And logging every step
be too late, that when daylight came
on the twenty-fourth she would not yet
be at her destination.
The conductor on the weStbOund
mail was not of the same mind. Beau
tiful young women travelling alone do
not alight every day in "holes in the
| desert" as he called the Wells; he con-
sidered 1t less desirable TO set her
down some time in the dark hour be-
tween three and four. He said the
place consisted of a siding, water
tank, general store, five houses, two
saloons where roulette wheels were
going during the sheep herders' season.
dH duOUe ruin anu Will tiICc
rooms above bar.
81 am sure it will be all right" said
Brena. "But even IL it were not l
would have to leave this train there"
AT about three the porter woke her.
There were ten minutes of dressing,
and then she heard the whine of the
brakes, and with muddy, sleep-thick-
ened senses, with the ache of stiff
bones and muscles and nerves after
the heat, the inadequate sleep and the
strain, she felt out from the lower step
with one foot into the bOttOmlesS
depths of blackness for the boards of
| the platform.
/ When the soft night breeze that
| flowed in a steady stream from the
southwest had blown the daZe away
as if it were dust that had settled on
her, the train had been swallowed in
the dark.
She could hear the splash of water
leaking from the bottom of the rail-
road tank and occasionally the heat
| lightning on the horizon covered the
| desert toward the south with the white
flare of a photographers fiashlight
powder, disclosing the vast expanse
broken by black patches of desert
vegetation. But her attention was
now held by a dim swinging lantern
! that came toward her out of the black
plush of the dark, as if it came with
volition and movement of it's own.
When this light came close to her,
she felt an impulse to leap back into
the dark as one who is desperate might
leap into the depths of black waters
when the light was raised toward her
face so that its possessor might see
her. she wished that she had fled.
The face on the other side of the
light was the essence of brutality-the
black pupils in bloodshot eyes, the
sun-baked skin drawn taut over i'm
mense protruding cheek bones, the
thin wrinkled upper lip over full red
dropping under lip. the broad, wide
nostrils, the thick cleaning muscular
neck of the halfbreed Mexican and In
dian.
Brena closed her fingers under cover
of the dark and made the pressure of
nails in her own palm summon her
will to put her face nearer his and to
speak before he could speak, so that
she might escape from all manner of
being on the defensive.
She said in a firm voice, Il came to
! find some one"
The other grunted incredulously.
"He came here within day or two .
| The Mexican raised one dark hand
and pulled the long lobe of one ear !;
his expression was crafty. He said.
Maybe so, lquien sabe?"
| AT the hotel,' she suggested
! The man with the lantern raised it
again to look at her; he was silent, and
then suddenly he grinned
"Oh, at hotel. Ell? Ha 1 know heem.
| Certain. AT the hotel. He come by big
automobile"
| Peter DeWolfe?"
The other shook his head; he did
not know. He said in a soothing, cod
ding voice, sail ri, missy. You
come, ehY He beckoned with finger.
Brena nodded and followed him as
he walked on before, the lantern
swinging at his knees, the shadows
of his dark short bowed legs scissor
ing on the gravel and the noncommit-
tai dark beyond in every direction
squirming and alive with black mag
| COTS of fear.
Suddenly the lantern illumined an
entrance cut in high adobe wall. The
man, turning around, said in his pet
/ ting voice, Come" Brena. stepped
through into an enclosure without
roof; the stars of the sky shone down
with their little white needles of light
The lantern, however, now threw its
light upon a little two-story wooden
building within the old walls. This
structure was dark below except for
the lanterns light flung from the glass !;
its faint two squares of windows above
were black on either side Of door
way reached by narrow rickety wood
; en- stairs built on the exterior of the
| house.
up" commanded the Mexican with
his hand on the rail.
|! Brena hesitated.
Il take you to heem."
She began TO climb. gripping the
hand-polished rail to steady her nerves
by the force of her own arm muscles.
I'm! This my house. I keep for
Mister Glaub. In"
i She passed by him as he f1attenec
himself against the door jamb.
EOur closed doors Innainted and
covered with penciled signatures.
dates, arithmetic, and scrawled faces
and verses, almost filed the walls of