The Uphill Climb

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tuation. After a day of unmitigated gloom and a night of uneasy dreams, Ford awoke to a white, s

and thereby attain middle life with smooth foreheads and cheeks unlined by thought; and Ford was therefore not much different from his fellows. Never before had he found himself with anything worse than bodily bruise

ature so common to small persons, made it a point to see everything there was to be seen; and his peculiar digestive organs might be counted upon to keep him sober. It was a real grievance to Ford that Sandy should have chosen the hour he did for indulging in su

fore he was fairly awake. He glanced reproachfully down at

a beefsteak with mushrooms, devilled kidneys, waffles with honey, and four banana fritters for breakfast. I'l

rstood Ford's sense of humor, at such times, but he had learned that it is more comfortable to crawl out of bed than to be kicke

thed and at a safe distance from the bed. He ducked instinctively afterwa

spirit of pure friendship. I'm going to give him a separate licking for every alleged joke. I'll want two steaks, Sandy. I'll likely have

lly while he scraped t

cking me goes-" He stopped to blow warmth upon his fingers, which were numbed with their grasp of the poker. "As for licking me, I guess you'l

e to be told in detail just what a man dreams upon certain occasions, he did dream, and it was something about being married. At any rate, when the sizzling of bacon frying invaded even his slu

erved inadvertently, before he was wide enough

un

bed and yawning so that his swollen jaw hurt him, and relapsed into his usua

t when, or just where, or how great that descent had been, they had no means of finding out. Ford, so far as his speech upon the subject was concerned, had no existence previous to his appearance in Montana, five or six years before; but he bore certain earmarks of a higher civili

o unusual; it was Ford's custom to wash the dishes, because he objected to Sandy's economy of clean, hot water. Sandy flattened his nose against the window, saw

well, anyway," he mumbled disapprovingly. "I

unoccupied, save with a large lump of gum. Being at the bar, he drank a glass of whisky; not of deliberate intent, but merely from forc

each separate scar of battle, and had shifted his cud to the other side of his mou

mation, Sam, and if you've got any you aren't using, I'd advise you to pass

"Tolerable sober, yes," he decided at las

en to see-my-the lady I married?" He had been embarrassed at first, but when he

r all evenin'-and she

ning, saw that it was only Bill, and leaned over the

pen to hear

and shook

her at all-where she came fro

ignorance; which, Sam could not determine. Sam was of the sleek, oily-haired type of young men, wit

onsible) that's what everybody's wondering. Nobo

ar any gabbling going on about my affairs." He was seized then with an uncomfortable fee

boards upon which a man might easily slip and break a bone or two, and with a whine overhead as the wind sucked under the roof. Ford stood there so long that his feet began to tingle. He was not thinking; he was merely feeling the

uld really have done it; more incredible that he could have done it and then have wiped the slate of his memory clean; with the crowning impossibility that a strange young woman could come into town, marry him, and afterward depart and

been time to buy a ticket, and that the girl had been compelled to run down the platform to reach the t

the scar,' or something like that?" The agent was plainly interested and desirous of rendering any as

t was I married, and why I married her, and where she went afterwards, but that's just the kinda fix I'm in, Lew. I don't suppose she came here and did it just for fun-and I can't figure out any other reason, unle

d looking up the record? She had to get the license there, and they'd have her name, age, place of residence, and-and whether she's white or black." The agent smiled uncertainly ove

here was some way of finding out. Throw me a round-trip ticket, Lew. Lordy me! I can't afford to let a real,

his head quickly toward the sounder chattering hysterically behind him. His jaw slackened as he list

released the ticket from the grip of the stamp, and flipped it in

et," Ford remin

he instrument. "A wire just went through-the court-house at Garbin caught fire in the basement-something about the furnace, they t

t up the preacher and ask him," he said, hi

" he observed rashly, "you've made th

d which the snow was sweeping aslant. Upon his own side of the ticket window

eral any more than it is hers. If she wants to be so darned mysterious about it, she can go plumb-to-New York!" There were a few decent traits in F

r, on the theory that amiability means popularity, and that placation is better than plasters. "You sure ought to let her do the hunting-and the

of it if I could. She took me for some one else, and I was just drunk enough to think it was a joke, I suppose, and le

ight about it," agreed the adaptable

gs like this, it's time to cut it out altogeth

ving you the worst of it all around. You ought to climb on the water-

"I'm liable to come over here and lick you, Lew, just for being such an agreeable cuss. You better leave your mother's address handy." He laughed a little to

a heavy step; and he would have been convulsed with mirth if he had caught sight of the formidable billet of wood which Lew kept beside his chair all that day, and had guessed its purpose, and that it was a mute witness to the reputati

very like a calamity, and the mystery which surrounded it began to fret him intolerably; and the very unusualness of a trouble he could not settle with his fists whipped his temper to the point of explosion. H

a slight touch of matrimony acts like that with a man, what can the real thing be like? I always heard it made a fool of a fellow." To prove to himself that he

n so that his gum showed shamelessly. Bill and Aleck and

his lips close enough together to declare, and chewed vigorously upon the idea,-until he glanced up and saw Ford standing by the door. He tur

silence which followed, the popping of a piece of slate-veined coa