Evening star. [volume], October 27, 1912, Page 8, Image 34

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
less than twenty minutes the following communication
was despatched by hand to Messrs. Sharpe, Skinner &
Son.
Law Office of Thomas J. Robertson.
342 Wall Street, New York City.
December 14, 19?
Messrs. Sharpe, Skinner & Son, 435 Broad Street, New
York.
Gentlemen.?Your esteemed favor of yesterday to my
client, Mr. Hcnrv Sanderson Wintringham, was received
by him this morning prior to his enforced departure for a
four days' business trip to Boston. While its contents were
something in the nature of a surprise to Mr. Wintringham,
he has, acting upon mv advice, decided to ask you to meet
him here at my office on Tuesday morning next, December
20, at any hour best suited to your convenience, to go over
the matter to which your letter refers n a friendly spirit,
with the idea of reaching a satisfactory settlement. Mr.
Wintringham has no wish in any way to shirk any responsibility
that attaches to anything he has written, and, far
from denying the authorship of the letters of which you
have been good enough to send him a true copy, as suggested
in your letter, he cheerfully admits it. It will expedite
matters, perhaps, if on coming here you will have the
letters with you for possible delivery.
Hoping for a reply to this communication by bearer, so
that I may arrange to have Mr. Wintringham here on the
twentieth, I beg to remain, Gentlemen,
Yours respectfully,
Thomas J. Robertson.
Dic.T.J.R.?C.G.
Wintringham indulged in the luxury of a long, low
whistle when he read this letter. "Hu 'ph!" he said.
"That means face the music and settle, I suppose.''
THE ROAD TO
Drawings by Douglas Ducr
MORNING was on the mountain.
The mesa sang with
light. Chu-eveh lifted his
eves to the sun. There had been rain.
The valley sparkled.
The Indian led the horse down the
trail, the alfalfa-laden cart creaking
after, and stopped at the school
teacher's house. A pink cloud overhead
gave color to the adobe; a
cactus climbed to its cornice to bloom.
"Chu-eveh waits," he said aloud,
and stood dark against the day,
majestic, primeval, part of the eternal
fastnesses around him. ,
Last night he had been Snake J
Chief in the ancient religious dance fl
of his people. Naked, azure plumed, J
with a serpent in his teeth and prayer MM
wands in his hands, he had led the ^^^M
snake-wreathed braves and singing
mail lens before the Gods of Rain.
Torrents had followed the petition. ^K
The harvest was assured. And now,
in farmer clothes, he waited to con
vev the young school teacher to the ^fi
railway station, a day's journey, and e^-M
to sell his alfalfa in the white man's ^ I
m
From the lowlands white mists
came scudding upward. Raindrops
dried on the sagebrush under a hot
breeze, and over the Cordilleras, as
over a well curb, swung buckets of BiXsl^HMK
the
Ten minutes?and then Nell
opened the door of the adobe. She
was twenty. Her blue eyes had
black fringes. The rose of her cheek
had not paled in the desert, nor had
her step faltered on the parched
mesa. Her hair, black as a crow's *^B^B
wing, shadowed white temples. Her
mouth was brave and merry. She
came, with swift lightness, in a blue
linen dress.
"Good morning," she called gaily.
Chu-eveh almost smiled as he
answered her; but he did not offer
to take her wicker suitcase or find
place for her banjo in its green
covering. It is not for a brave to
weaken the arm of woman - and the
"This is my affair now, Wint," said Robertson.
"Never you mind what it means. We'll wait for their
answer."
The latter was soon forthcoming, and ran thus:
Offices of Sharpe, Skinner & Son.
Attorneys and Counsellors at Law.
435 Broad Street, New York City.
December 14, 19?
Thomas J. Robertson, Esq., 342 Wall Street, New York
City.
Dear Sir.?Your kind favor by messenger is just received.
We are glad to learn from it that Mr. Wintringham's
disposition in the matter is of so amiable a character.
He has evidently been well advised. We shall be glad to
confer with him on I uesday, December JU, at ten o clock
in the morning; but, owing to the pressure of other engagements,
shall have to stipulate that the conference be held
here at our offices instead of at your office as proposed. If
this transpires to be in accordance with your convenience,
we shall consider the engagement as made.
Respectfully yours,
Sharpe, Skinner & Son,
Dic.M.L.?J.S.Jr. per J. Skinner, Jr.
"Fine!" said Robertson, his face wreathing with
smiles. "We're off. We'll meet 'em anywhere if it
only isn't tomorrow or the next day."
Formal ratification of the engagement was made in
writing, and Robertson, picking up his hat, bade
Wintringham come along.
"Where to now'-'*' ;i<lre<1 Wintrinuh.nm
"You to Boston, I for the Racket Club, to get some
of this out of my system," said Robertson. "Whenever
I communicate with people like Sharpe & Skinner, even
ALBUQUERQUI
By ANN MAZZANOVIC
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t You Dare Keep Me Here Another Minute!'*
of thrushes, copper brown, her pupils were after her.
"Nell," they cried; for even the Indians had given her
no other name, "stay with us!"
"Stay with us!" it was a plaintive chorus.
"Stay in the land of the great rains!"
"Stay in the clifls of the sun!"
One, Waupello, beautiful as a young god, his black
hair banded by a fillet of beadwork, caught the folds
u.... ivi i: : r. u\\* 11 - ~.:ii
vji uu unit* nut'ii in uupi'iiuus lingers. \\itupcno win
endure the great test," he said. "He will sleep in the
kiva, and the plumed snake shall judge his courage; but
Nell must stay to teach him laughter!"
There it was, in the heart of this primitive lad, the
child's ever present desire for merriment?the great lack
of the Indian people.
girl had both fineness and strength. "Don"
She crossed the trail like a breeze
blown iris, and as lightly mounted
the cart and took her place on the
plumy load, and, with Chu-eveh leading, started down
the trail, her heart athrill with the young day and the
joy of going home to her own land of broad rivers.
Weaving women leaned round their looms and called
her name, waving their gaily colored wools as she passed
down the road. The sound of grinding was low in the
cliff dwellings as the old squaws left their tasks of preparing
corn to call farewell. Boys plaiting baskets and
potters modeling water jars stopped their work to cry
good by, while from fields, still set with feathered prayer
stieks and damp with answering rain, old men lifted
their hands, palms outward, as a sign that the Great
Spirit guided her.
She thought of that assurance more than once before
the day was done. But now, with the rush and swirl
in writing, I always take a Turkish bath, as a matter of
hvaienu* iin'rantinn :in<1 ner^nn.-tl ri-cfio t
vo ?~ i ? - i ;? ?v?^wv.
"Shall I need to have any kind of check ready on
Tuesday?" asked Wintringham gloomily.
"(>h," said Robertson, "I'll have the check?and it'll
be certified at that. All you've got to do now is to while
away the next four days in Boston, after leaving with
me a power of attorney to act on your behalf. And forget
that such a person as Myrtle Vynne ever existed.
Only, don't fail to turn up on Tuesday."
"i won't," said Wintringham, and the friends parted.
TX spite of Robertson's advice that he forget that such
a person as Miss Myrtle Vynne ever existed, Wintringham
approached the office of Messrs. Sharpe, Skinner
& Son the following Tuesday morning with considerable
trepidation. On his return from Boston the
flnv hofnrp Vw? Vmrl trinrl tn crr?t Prihortcnn r?n
phone to ascertain how the land lay, if indeed it were
land, and not quicksand, only to 1 am that the latter
had gone to Washington to spend Sunday with one of
his friends there, and was not expected back until the
next morning. This, of course, was somewhat reassuring;
for if Robertson could go off anywhere for the delights
of a week-end it was fairly good evidence that he
was not seriously worried about his client's plight.
Nevertheless, poor Wintringham put in a bad night,
which found its only relief along about breakfast time
on Tuesday when a telephone message was received from
Robertson himself.
"I-I-Is it all right, old man?" Wintringham quavered
Continued on page 14
1
A
A
:h and grace duffie boylan
Nell's eyes filled. All the moon of white nights she
had danced with them on the mesa they had taught each
other many things.
It was harder leaving them than she had thought, and
with a lump in her throat she accepted their tributes of
love, under which she and the purple bloom of the alfalfa
were soon covered,?dolls and images, symbolizingthe
seasons and the elements, arrows and beaded
things.
"Where shall I ever put them all?" she inquired half
tearfully as the cart moved on. "Dear little people, I
must go! Goodby, goodby!"
She rose and stretched her arms toward them as, reluctant,
sorrow faced, they stood back, and she tossed
kisses from her fingertips as Chu-eveh, tired of so much
sentimental tarrying, whipped up his horse and left
them silhouetted against the day.
'X'HE Overland was due at Bakers at ten o'clock. Xell
found that she had four hours to wait at the way
station after she had bidden Chu-eveh goodby and seen
him drive his weary horse toward the Indian encampment
a few miles farther on, where he was to spend the
night.
The clouds, which she had watched with delight during
the long ride, had lost their white beauty and lay in
ominous banks against a vast and leaden sky. Lightning
zigzagged across the north, and the low bellow of
thunder shook the far hills. Between lay the desert,
steel banded by the tracks,?desert, cactus, and yellowshadowed
sage,?and a girl in a blue dress under a
stormy sky.
Nell shivered as she glanced in the door of the vacant
station. It was less lonely in the open. She would stay
out of doors as long as she could. She drew a deep
breath and smelled the rain. The wind seemed to come
from the edge of the world, the lost horizon, leveling the
buffalo grass, trampling toward her. The dust rose to
her nostrils, bringing forgotten fragrances, ghosts of long
buried flowers released and reimprisoned in a breath.
The storm broke, and reluctantly she went inside.
The clicking of a telegraph instrument sounded. Like
all teachers trained for Government service, Nell knew
the telegraph code. The operator at Laguna was calling
Los Lunas. Bakers was between the two more important
points. It seemed neighborly to hear the gossip,?
about when "87" left a station or "103" was due,?and,
t 1 .1 A 1 t 1 < ^1 1 1 1 * 1,1
Desiaes, tnere must dc someDoay at ine Key oeninu tne
closed ticket window.
The desert and the girl admitted an unseen third, the
telegraph operator.
Then the gale had its way. The mountains were cut
with javelins of flame. Thunders threatened the world.
Nell unstrapped her wicker suitcase and took out her
long, warm coat; for it had grown cold with the coming
of the storm.
Then, more comfortably clad, she realized that it was
high noon when Chu-eveh had stopped in the shadow of
a rock in a barren land: and she had eaten part of the
lunch that the wife of the agent at Walpi had prepared
for her. Chu-eveh and his horse had shared mealcakes
and water skin some distance from where she sat. And
then the former had taken a siesta with the horse between
him and the sun, until, weary with watching a
battle between a tarantula and a horned toad, she had
awciKL'iieu nun aim ufggeu nun iu icsuiiic uk.* journey.
CHE took out the food gingerly. It was sticky and
^ sodden. And as she glanced at the gloomy, cobwebbed
room with its fly-specked lithographs and the
half-filled lamp with its smoke-blackened chimney, a
feeling of such utter desolation swept over her that she