Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1919 — THEIR EDEN [ARTICLE]

THEIR EDEN

By JACK LAWTON.

iCcpyngui, •»!«. Aewopaper cnws.) As Billy Towne drove up the narrow road, he spied a blur of scarlet st the edge of a wood. And as he came nearer, Billy whistled, for the scarlet blur proved to be a silken sweater, with a girl’s brown head above it. Bill’s wonderment was caused by the fact that the road at this point was almost impassable, no human habitation for miles, and no vehicle 3K_ any sort in sight. How then had this small, white-slippered creature chosen this wilderness in which to continue her knitting? For Billy could see that she was knitting. The needles gleamed tn the sunlight as the isolated girl hummed a song. Billy had been sent up in his little car by the chief engineer and the newmade way was precarious. The girl, raising dark eyes from her knitting, regarded him coldly, then resumed her work. “I thought,” he blundered, “that you might need assistance.” She raised her pretty brows. “Why?” she asked. am comfortable here.” “You’re not lost then?” Billy questioned. The girl shook her head. “I know just where I am,” she answered decidedly. There seemed nothing to do, after that, but to continue his way, but Billy felt strangely loath to depart. The young engineer puzzled over it during the wakeful hours of the night. So you may see what had, in one flash of dark eyes, happened to Billy. It was idiotic, of course, to expect that the perverse girl would be at her soli- ~ tary post upon the following day. But an overwhelming desire took Billy to the chief engineer. . “Want me to go up top again?” he asked eagerly, and the great man absently assented, so Billy went. And far up the trail his joyous searching gaze discerned the red blur which grew into that same scarlet sweater. Exactly in the same spot sat- the haunting girl, still calmly bending over her knitting and humming what seemed to Billy a most appropriate song, “You’ll Be. Coming Back Again to Me, My Dearie.” Deliberately Billy stopped his car. “I wish,” he said, “that you would satisfy my very natural, though maybe, impertinent curiosity. How do you manage to come here? The road is closed —save to employees—and is positively dangerous. There is no other path —and the woods, of course, would be out of the question.” The girl looked frowningly at him. “Why you should concern yourself—” she began, then as suddenly broke off in a smile. “Perhaps an airplane brought me,” she said. “At any rate, I did not come here seeking companionship—you will excuse me—l came in the hope of being for a time, alone.” Billy excused her. Inwardly fuming he rode on his way without one backward glance. But the mockingwords of the girl’s low-song followed him. “You’ll be coming back again to me, my dearie,” she sang, and in his raging heart Billy knew that the song was true. His great anxiety was that he might not find her there when he came. So, the next day he did not risk awaiting an order from the chief; ■ he hastened on in his car. Billy had no Intention of speaking to the girl. Even-the love which had r found him in one flashing glance could brook no such evident snubbing. Mischievously she had laid aside* her sweater and Billy could not tell until close, that she was there. When the discovery came to him his heart beat maddeningly and the surprising girl raised her face in a frank smile. “Good morning,” she “Morning," answered Billy, “where is your airplane T’ "On i that —•” murmured the girt and laughing softly, “was a foolish remark. I ride up here every morning in a car like yours, and am called for at noon. I might have told you,” she studied her knitting, “that I—await my husband.” “Your —husband!” muttered Billy. He had never thought of that. All the sunlight left the mountain air. It was queer, how quickly one could come to think a lot of a girl! Poor Billy gulped. “Good-by,” he said. “Good-by,” the girl replied slowly. Onward rode Billy. But his mournful meditation was interrupted by a piercing scream. Ixioking back, he saw the girl perched high on a bit of broken fence by the niladway. Vlos lently she beckoned him. Billy, leap Ing from his car, ran to her. “Oh!” she gasped, “a snake! A big snake there by the wood!” Billy could not see the snake, but he caught the girl in his arms and ran with her toward his car. Safely ensconced on the seat she sighed in relief. “Drive me down to father’s shack, please.” she requested, “Father ta chief engineer. It is he for whom I wait every day.”. “You told me,” said the bewildered Billy, “that you awaited your ht»» band.” . The chiefs daughter smiled. “You looked so flirtatious I had v te tell you something',” she said, “and anyway, most girls? do await a husband, you know.” . . ■ ~- Then Billy grinned rapturously late the guileless eyes upraised to hl&