A Fool For Love

ng of a snow-laden spruce-bough resound like a pistol-shot. For Denver and the dwellers on the eastern plain the sun is an hour high; but the ha

rgles on its descent midway between two railway embankments, the one to which the station and side-tracks belong, old and well-settled, the other new and as yet unballasted. Just oppos

slab shelters is turning out its horde of wild-looking Italians; and on a crooked spur track frontin

hite-robed dawn on the siding at Argentine. The lightest of sleepers, Virginia had awakened when the special was passing through Carbonate; and, drawing the berth curtain, she had lain for an hour watching the solemn procession of cliffs and peaks wheeli

thusiasm, was presently broken by a voice behin

said the secretary, twirling his eyeglasses by th

hing I ever imagined. I wish there were a piano in the car. It makes me fairly

prolonging the interview. "But to me it is nothing more than a dreary wilderness, as I s

ed, in a quick upflash

was exceedingly good to look upon-high-bred, queenly, and just now the fine fi

conqueror, standing triumphant on the apex of that pyramid of success which the Mr. Somerville Darrahs were so painstakingly uprearing. When that day should come, there would need to be an establish

ck to the askings of the moment, agreeing with her

that way, though an unprejudiced onlooker might be foolish enou

she was a woman, and the way to a woman's confidence do

ther side, I will," she

uiesced a s

ly a question of time-a very short time, judging from the

car and the dovecote station shading her eyes to

t least, some of them have guns on their sh

adjusted his

he new chief of construction doesn't mean to take any chanc

e the private car, and to gain the altitude of the high embankment directly across from the station, the new line turned short out of the main canyon at the mouth of the in

and the Utah track-layers, two hundred strong, moved to the front in orderly array, with ar

try colonel fresh from his dressing-room-so fresh, indeed, that he was coatless, hatless, and collarless, and with

w chief of construction. "Jastrow! Faveh me instantly, seh! Hustle up to the camp there and turn out

Virginia smiled-this without prejudice to a very acute appreciation of the grave possibilities which were prepari

hly; and the Rajah came suddenly to a sense of his incompleteness and w

f the law there would be trouble of some sort, and the woman in her shrank from the witnessing of it.

constable with a bit of signed paper from some lawyer or judge be mighty en

stantly the hammermen would pounce upon it. One would fall upon hands and knees to "sight" it into place; two others would slide the squeaking track-gage along its inner edge; a quartet, working like the component parts of a

as a pick-handle. Above all the clamor and the shoutings Virginia could hear the bull-bellow of this foreman roaring out his commands-in terms happily no

him run forward to wrench the bludgeon from the bully's hands and fling it afar. What words emphasized the act she could not hear, but the little deed of swi

is place wouldn't care, so long as the work was done

ok neither defeat at the hands of an antagonist nor disobedience on the part of his following. He was scowling fiercely ac

a. But as I am about to startle some one else

stay out here, Uncle Somerville," she sa

in deprecation rath

an arrest. There may be a fight, or at least tro

Mr. Winton?

nod

doing-besides be

s smile wa

p up there on the mountain?-the hole that looks like a mouth with a long gray beard hanging below it? Tha

rm. A man in a wide-flapped hat and cowboy chaparejos, with a revolver on either hip,

she asked in

he forgot Virginia's presence. "Confound him!" he fumed. "I'd give a thousand doll

Somerville

rson parading as the Argentine town-marshal had climbed the e

his men-a word that stopped the strenuous labor-battle as suddenly as it had beg

t blaze up in violence, but it nettled her to see Winton give up so easily. Some such thought as this had possession of her while the marshal an

ty. Instead of disappearing decently with his captive, the marshal made the mistake of his life by marching Winton up the track to the

ath could maim, it is to be feared that the overzealous Mr. Biggin would have been physically disqualified on the spot. As it was, Mr. Darrah's ebullient wrath c

s handicap was

peace! If you've made an arrest, you must have had a warrant

d the simple-hearted Mr. Bigg

laughed

your move to stop the work, and you have stopped it-for th

d the mask and s

he plaintiff in this particular case is John Doe, the supposable owneh of that mining claim u

mile showe

o be seen," he

ment, where the tracklayers were idling in silent groups

arrest will cost your company twelve hours, or such a matteh-the time

this though she felt intuitively that it would be the greatest

ce he was its advocate, his cause must be righteous and just. But against this dutiful convincement there was a rebellious hop

and read the rebellious hope in them. And in spite of the precaution he

eel to lay to take us into the Carbonate yards. That steel

eply to this cool defiance. Quite contrary t

gave him leave to go on: "Constable, you will find transpo'tation for yourself and one in the hands of the station agent. Miste

f getting word to Adams. Happily the Technologian, who had been unloading steel at the construction camp

ime had grown suddenly precious. Wi

er, Mr. Biggin: will you giv

n't lovin' that old b'iler-buster in the private c

dams, forgetting his d

ing claim up yonder. But I've got to go to Carbonate

nstruc

ring, you get back over there and drive that

o it, and get myself

of the law-all there is of it in Argentine-goes wit

ell, so long. I'll look for y

"if the Rajah doesn't order it to

clank of steel and the chanteys of the hammermen on the other side of the canyon began again with renewed vigor. The Raja

t out there and see wh

test possible interval, and his re

charge of a fellow who wears a bi

ecognizing the description. "Will you h

g and went to his office state-room, follo

lly were doing a constitutional on the plank platform at the station, whe

t do we do next, Mr. Jastrow?" she sa

ng press. It was addressed to the superintendent of the

te County swear in a d

rain to Argentine. Rev

aims on line of the Ut

g blank warrants to

RAH

id the secretary. "I dar

ut her hand, while the Reverend B

er under obligations to him, and he was willing to do that little as he could. "I g

ate. But this time the brown eyes flashed and her breath came qu

will arrive in Carbon

Have our attorneys see

ault of bond. If he is

ll trust you to arrang

n at all

D