The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1935-04-26
Ga1ahad Drops Off at Hot Eye By Rupert Hughes

O~0l1Ou NVPO
Published by Special Advancement With The
Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate, Inc.
Copyright: 1895: By RUPERT HUGHES
PART ONE)
Hitched in front of the store one
lone COW pony dropped. Squatted on
the porch rail were four big men.
Leaning against the door jam was one
youngish woman motionlessly staring
at the motiOnlesS men. Sullen thoughts
were always simmering there as she
glowered at the four broad backs.
Look at them buzzards! They call
'emSleveS men, but what are they good
for? All day just sittin' any spittin'.
All four of 'em in love of me and not
n of 'em with gumption to say so.
Lord knows. ! don't want none of their
lovin', but I hate the thought of dyin'
an old maid and I'm sick of bein' Miss
Nobody all my life. Befor I pass out,
I'd like to be Mrs. Somebody-Mrs, Al
most Anybody"
It was always the hotmost hour in
the afternoon when the burly loco
motive of the %eastbound express, hav-
ing Slogged acroS leagues Of binding
desert, dragging its tail of blistering
coaches, snapped its long whip through
her town. It eve stopped, but as it
skirled the tumble weeds and rolled the
dust over the dirty halfbreed children
playing in the street it also sent a swirl
of air through her doorway and woke
for a moment her torpid dreams of her
one fond memory of time when she
had gone east-all the way to Chicago
on business for her fathers store and
had been treated politely by one of
the Junior members of a wholesale
firm, MIR. SnoWden-Mr. Harold Snow
den.
He had written to her since OCCASION
ally, always on business-a mans bus
mess, OF course, never a Woman'S bus
mess, which is getting a change of
name with a Mrs. in front of it.
One evening when the brief twilight
came and drove the birds away to their
roosts, and Hattie grew strong enough
to look over the stock, she noted that
the eating tobacco was dangerously low,
and decided to drive over next morning
to Ell Jorno-well named CThe Oven)
and pick up a supply. To escape as
much of the heat as possible she left in
the blackmost hour before dawn. On
her way she passed the w%estbound ex-
press. 1t had stopped for some
emergency, but soon passed her, bor-
GU d. 1lOlc Ill CllG 1llSllG d1lQ ucW Cllt
hole in after it..
Desert distances are grandiose and
Hattie's homeward journey had to be
made in the full fury of the sunlight
The railroad tracks ran on forever and
the light from them hurt her swimming
eyes.
And then at the very center of the
oceanic waste she saw a dot that look
ed like a man, but must be a mirage.
AS she drew slowly near she realized
that what she had seen there at the
side of the railroad track was actually
a very elegant gentleman lolling at his
eas in an armchair. He seemed to sit
in hell and like it..
Hattie crashed her brakes and star
ed long and hard before she shouted:
The dapper strangers ears were
burnt out perhaps, for he paid no heed
so she picked up her canteen, Chamber
ed out, darted across the sand and
prodded his scorched shoulder. He
turned a scarlet face her way, tried to
focus a pair of wabbly eyes, ose on
wabbly legs, lifted his hat with grand
eur and observed:
"Par'n me, acknowledgements. !
din notice you were stand'n!" AS she
stared he made an exquisite gesture,
II mus inSiS'."
"Gawd, but you got swellelegant
ways" she sighed. Holding up the
canteen she asked archly: Have q
swig?"
"A swig is a thing I never refuse"
Mustn't take too much at first
Fall off q train?"
Got off,"
Got off! Out here? And brought
along a chair? Were they takin' you to
q 'sylum?"
His meek smile rebuked her. She
hooked up the light chair with one
hand and with the other caught the
stranger by the arm, urged him to the
front seat, threw the chair in the rear,
and gave him another pull at the
canteen. Perhaps it vas a warning OF
sunstroke, perhaps her romantic ma