Year: 1878

utes passed, and he did not come back. Ter
ror dried her tears, and her heart almost stop
ped beating. She had quito given him up for
lost and herself too, when with inexpressible
relief she heard him call to her. She replied,
and in a moment more he was at her side,
breathless with running.


~ lost my bearings" be said. III you
had not answered me | could not have found
you"


Don't leave me again, she sobbed cling
ing to his arm.


He put his arms around her aud kissed her.
1t was moan, base, contemplate to take adj
vantage of her agitation in that way, but she
did not resist and he did it again and again
l forbear TO say how many times.


Isn't it perfectly beautiful night p he
exclaimed with fine gush of enthusiasm.
isn't it exquisite Z" she echoed with q rush
of sympathetic feeling.


See those stars they look as if they had
just been polished, he cried.


"What droll idea !" she exclaimed glee-
fully. But do see that lovely mountain"
Holding her with frmer clasp, and speak
ing with what might be styled fierce tender
ness he demanded, "What did you mean,
miss, by refusing me this afternoon"


"What did you go at me so stupidity for ? l
uau 10 reIuSc, she fetOfteu bnllngly


"Will you be my wife -


eyes, sir l meant to be all the time"


The contract having been properly sealed,
Lombard said with a countenance curiously
divided between a tragical expression and
smile of fatuous complacency, ''There was
clear case of poetical justice in your being left
behind in the desert tonight TO see the
lights of the train disappearing, leaving you
alone in the midst of desolatiOn, gave you
touch of my feeling on being rejected this af-
ternoon. OF all leayings behind, there's none
so miserable as the experience of the rejected
lover"


Poor fellow so he shouldn't be left be-
hind. He shall be conductor of the train, "
she said with abcwitching laugh. His response
was not verbal.


"How cold the wind is. she said


"Shall build you another wigwam?'


"No, let us exercise n little. You whistle
the Beautiful Blue Danube" and wen waltz.
This desert is the biggest, jolliest ball room
| foor that ever was, and dare say we shall be
the first to waltz ON it since the creation of
the world. That will be something to boast
of when we get home. Come, let's dedicate
the Great American Desert to Terpsichore.
They stepped out from among the ruins of
| their sagebrush booth upon n patch of hard
| bare earth close to the railroad track. Lom-
bard puckered his lips and struck up the air,
and oil they went with as much enthusiasm
as if inspired by first-class orchestra. Round
and round, to and fro, they swept until,
| laughing, flushed and painting, they came to a
| stop.


1t was then that they first perceived that
they were not without circle of appreciative
spectators. Sitting like statues on their sniff
ing, paving ponies, dozen Piute Indians en-
| crcled them. Engrossed with the dance and
with each other, they had not noticed them
as they rode up, attracted from their route by
this marvellous spectacle of pale-face squaw
and brave engaged in a solitary war dance in
the midst of the desert.


At sight of the grim circle of centaurs
around them Miss Dwyer would have tainted
but for Lombard's firm hold.
pretend not to see them keep on dane
ing, he hissed in her ear. He had no dis
tinct plan in what he said, but spoke merely
from an instinct of self-preservaton, which
told him that when they stopped the Indians
would be upon them. But as she mechanical
ly, and really more dead than alive, obeyed
his direction and resumed the dance, and he
in his excitement was treadng on her feet at
every step, the thought flashed upon him that
| there was a bare chance of escaping violence
if they could keep the Indians interested with
out appearing to notice their presence. In
successive whispers he communicated his
ideas to Miss Dwyer: Don't act as if you
saw them at all, but do everything as if We
were alone. That will puzzle them, and may
make them think us supernatural beings, or
perhaps crazy 4; Indians have great respect
for crazy people. It's our only chance. We
will stop dancing now, and sing a while.
Give them a burlesque of opera. I'll give
| you the cues and show you how. Don't be
| frightened. 1 don't believe they'll touch us
so long as we act as if we didn't see them.
DO you understand Can you do your part 2"
Il understand; I'll try" sue whispered.
Now" he said, and as they separated he
threw his hat on the ground, and assuming an
extmvagantly langushing attitude, burst forth
in a most poignant burlesque of a loyelorn
tenors part, rolling his eyes, clasping his
hands, striking his breast, and gyrating about
! Miss Dwyer in the most approved operate
style He had a fine voice and knew a good
deal of music so that, barring certain ner-
vousness in the performer, the exhibition was
really not bad. In his singing he had used
meaningless gibberish varied with the sylla-
bles of the SCALE but he closed by singing the
words, Are you ready now? Go ahead,
| then"


With that she took it up, and rendered the
| prima donna quite as effectively, interjecting
The Last Rose of Summer" as an aria in
manner that would have been encored in San
Francisco. He responded with few staccato
notes. and the scene ended by their rushing
into each others arms and waltzing down the
stage with abandon.


The Indians sat motionless on their horses,
not even exchanging comments among them
selves They were evidently too utterly as
tonished by the goings on before them to have
any other sentiment as yet beyond pure
amazement Hero were two richly dressed
| pale faces, such as only lived in cities out i'll
| the middle of an uninhabited desert, in the
freezing midnight having variety and min
strel show all to themselves, and to make the
| exhibition the more un0ccountable, without
apparently seeing their auditors at all. Had
they started up the show after being captured,
Indian cunning would have recognized in it &
device to save their lives, but the two had
been at it before the party rode up-had, in
fact, first attracted attention by their gyra-
tions which were visible for miles out ON the
moony plain.


Lombard without ever letting his eyes rest
a moment on the Indians so as to indicate that
he saw them, had still managed by looks
askance and sweeping glances to keep close
watch upon their demeanor, and noted with
prodigious relief that his wild scheme was sue
ceeding better than he had dared to hope.
Without any break in the entertainment he
communicated his reinsurance to Miss Dwyer
by singing, to the tune of my Country tits
of Thee" the following original hymn:
"We're doing admr'bee-
They're heap much tiekledee;
Only keep on"


To which she responded, to the lugubrious air
of John Browns Body"


"Oh what do you spose they'll go for to do,


oh what do you spose they'll go for TO do,


oh what do you s'pose they'll go for TODD,