A PAIR OF BLUE EYES
In the estimate of the affable
brakeman we wene making a fair
average of twenty miles an hour a
cross the greatest country on earth.
It was a flat country of far hori
zons, and for vast stretches peopled
mainly, as one might judge from the
car windows, by antelope and prairie
dogs.
Yet despite the novelty of such a
ride behold me. surfeited with already
five days' steady travel, engrossed
chiefly in observing a clear, dainty
profile and waiting for the glimpses,
time to time, of a pair of exquisite
blue eyes.
Merely to indulge myself in fem
inine beauty, however, I need not
have undertaken the expense and
fatieue of journeying from Albany
on the Hudson out to Omaha on the
plains side of the M'ssouri River;
thence by the Union Pacific Railroad
of the new transcontinental line into
the Indian country.
There were handsome women a
plenty in the Kast; and of access,
also, to a youth of family and parts!
Hut here I was, advised by the
physicians U> "iro West." meaning by
this not simply tin- one-time West of
Ohio, or Illinois, or even Iowa, hut
the remote ar.d irenuine West lying
beyond the Missouri.
The Union Pacific announcement
acclaimed that this summer of 1m>S
the rails should cross the Black Hills
Mountains of Wyoming to another
range of the Rocky Mounta ns, in
Utah; and that by the end of the year
one might ride comfortably clear to
Salt Lake City! And somewhere in
the expanse of brand new Western
country, the plains and mountains. I
would find at least the breath of life.
When I arrived in Omaha the ticket
agent was enabled to sell me transpor
tation away to the present western
terminus, Benton, Wyoming Terri
tory itself, six hundred and ninety
miles west of the Missouri!
Of Benton I had never heard. But
in round figures, seven hundred miles!
Practically the distance from Albany
to Cincinnati, and itself distant from
Albany over two thousand miles! All
by rail.
The lady of the blue eyes was
bound for the same point. Ye gods,
but she was a little beauty; a perfect
blonde, of the petite and fully formed
type, with regular features inclined
to the clean-cut Grecian, a piquant
mouth deliciously bowed, two eyes of
the deepest blue veiled by long lashes,
and a mass of glinting golden hair
upon which perched a ravishing little
.bon net. ^ ^
The natural ensemble was en
hanced by her costume, all of black,
from the closely fitting bodice to the
rustling crinoline beneath which there
peeped out tiny shoes. I had the op
portunity also to note the jet pen
dant in the shelly ear toward me, and
the flashing rings upon the fingers of
her hands.
Could she by any chance live in
Benton ? a woman dressed as she was,
as much a la mode as if she walked
Broadway in New York? Omaha it
self had astonished me with the dis
play upon its streets ; and now if Ben
ton, far out in the wilderness, should
prove another surprise ? !
Indeed, the Western world was not
so raw, after all.
Half of my seat at the start had
beem effectilally filled by a Large,
stout, red-faced woman who formed
the base of a pyramid of boxes and
parcels.
She was going to North Platte,
three hundred miles westward. I
told her I was going to Benton.
She stared, round-eyed.
"I reckon yun're a gammer 1" she
accused.
"I am seeking health in the West,"
I said, "where the climate is high and
dry."
"My Gawd!" she blurted, "High and
dry! You're goin' to the right place.
For all I hear tell, Benton is high
enough and dry enough. But laws
sakes, you don't need to go that fur.
You can as well stop off at North
Platte, or Sidney or Cheyenne. They'll
sculp you sure at Benton ? unless you
watch out mighty sharp/'
"How so, may I ask?"
"You're certainly green." she ap
prised. "Benton's roarin* ? and I
know what that means. Didn't North |
Platte roar? I seen it at its begin
1 nin's. My old man and me. we were
there from the fust, when it started
in as the railroad terminal. My sakes. j
hut them were times! Gamblin*. ;
shootin', drinkin' and hifih -cockalor- |
-ums night and day! 'T wasn't no
| place for innocence! Easy coe, easy
I go. that was the word. I don't say
j but what times were good, though.
{My old man contracted government
freight, and I run an eatin' house for
| the railroaders, so we made money.
Then when the railroad moved ter
minus, the rest of the crowd moved, j
! too. Y "j stop off at Platte. Xebrar !
ky. it's healthy and it's moral."
But since I had crossed the Mis
souri something had entered into my
blood which rendered me obstinate j
against such allurements. For her
North Piatt*-, "strictly moral." I had
; no ardent feeling. I was set upon '
Benton.
And i*j after ?'f.y< ? *mon to arrive I
-1 bitterly regretted that ! hau not \
(yielded to her counsel. I
ritory."
"Then you'd better move up to the
?ar ahead. This car stops at North
Patte."
Fortune had favored n?e ? across
the aisle from my new seat only a
couple of seats beyond, I glimpsed
the top of a golden head, securely low
and barricaded in by luggage.
I slept until midnight.
The train was rumbling as before.
The lamps had been extinuished ? the
coach atmosphere was heavy with c*:l
smell and the exhalations of human
beings in all stages of deshabille.
But the golden head was there, '
about as when last sighted.
XoW it stirred, and erected a little, j
I felt the unseemliness of sitting and
waiting for her to make her toilet, so
Achieve my own by aid of the water J
lank, tin basin, roller towel and small
looking-glass at tne rear.
The coach was the last in the train.
I stepped out upon the back plat
form, for fresh air.
A l evy of antelope flashed white
ails at us as they scudded away. Two
notionless figures, horseback, whom
[ took to be wild Indians, survey us
from a distant sandhill.
? s s the river there appeared a
of low buildings, almost in-}
iistinguishable, with a glimmer of !
"North Platte!" She
laughed merrily. "Dear
me, don't mention North
Platte ? not in the same
breath with Benton, or
oven Cheyenne. A town
of hayseeds and dollar-a
day clerks whose height of
sport is to go fishing in
the Platte! A young man
like you would die of en
nui in North Platte."
Nevertheless this was true, at
present:
"But I have already purchased my
ticket to Benton," 1 objected. "If I
don't like it I can move elsewhere. !
Possibly to Salt Lake City, or Den
ver."
She snorted.
"In among them Mormons? My
Gawd, young man ! Where they live
in conkibinajre ? several women to one
man, like a buffler herd or other
beasts of the field? Denver ? -well,
Denver mightn't be bad, but ain't on
no railroad, either. If you want
health, and to grow up with a strictly
moral community, you throw in with
North Platte."
"I thank you," I replied. "But
since I've started for Benton, I think
I'll go on. And if I don't like it you
may see me in North Platte after
all."
She grunted.
"You can find me at the Bon Ton
restaurant. If you get in broke, I'll
take care of you."
In remarkably short order she was
asleep.
The brakeman came in later, light
ing the coal-oil lamps. Outside, the
twilight had deepened into dusk.
Numerous passengers were making
ready for bed; the men by removing
their boots and shoes and coats and
gaiiuses and stretching out; the wo
men by loosening their stays, with
significant clicks and sighs, and lay
ing their heads upon adjacent should
ers or drooping against seat ends.
Babies cried, and were hushed.
Final "inght-caps" were taken from
the prevalent bottles.
The brakeman leaned to me.
"You for North Platte?"
"No, sir, Benton, Wyoming Ter
canvass-topped wagons fringing it.
That was C&e old emigrant road.
While I was thus orienting myself
the car di??r opened aird closed. I
turned my bead. The Lady of the
Blue Eyes had joined ine. As fresh
as the morning she wa?C
"Oh! Yoo? I beg y?ir pardwi.
sir," I felt her diffidence' was more
polite than sincere.
"You art heartily welcome," I as
sured. "There is air enough for us
both."
We tore by another freight waiting
upon a siding located amidst a vide
debris of tin cans and barren spots,
resembling the ruins from firs- and
quake.
"There is Juleberg."
"A town?" I gasped.
"The end!" She smiled. "The
only inhabitants now are in the sta
tion-house and the graveyard."
"And the others? Where are
they?"
"Farther west. Many of them in
Benton."
"Indeed? Or in North Plyatte!"
I bantered.
"North Platte!" She laughed mer
rily. "Dear me, don't mention North
Platte ? not in the same breath with
Benton, or even Cheyenne. A town
of hayseeds and dollar-a-day clerks
whose height of sport is to go fishing
in the Platte! A young man like you
would die of ennui in North Platte."
Her free speech accorded ill with
what I had been accustomed to in
womankind; and yet became her
sparkling eyes and general dash.
"Will you," she asked, "join me in
a little appetizer? You will find it
a superior cognac ? and we breakfast
shortly, at Sidney."
From a pocket of her skirt she had
extracted a small silver flask, stop- 1
pered with a tiny screw cup.
Ker face swam before me. in my
astonishment.
"I rarely drink liquor, madam." I
stammered.
"Nor I. But when traveling: ? you
know. And in high and ? dry Ben
ton. liquor is quite a necessity! You
will not decline to taste with a lady?
Let us drink to better acquaintance
in Benton !"
"With all my heart, madam," I
blurted.
We consummated our pledges just
in time. The brakeman issued, bring
ing discord into my heaven of blue
and gold and comfortable warmth.
With a darting glance at him and
a parting smile for me she passed in
side. The brakeman lingered.
"Friend of yours, is she?"
"I met her at Omaha, is all," I
stiffly informed. "You are acquaint
ed with the lady, yourself?"
"Her? Sure. I know about every
body along the line between Platte
and Cheyenne."
"She lives in Benton, though. I un- j
derstand," I proffered.
"Yep. Followed her man. A heap '
of people moved from Cheyenne to
Benton, by way of Laramie."
"She is married, then?"
"Far as I know. Anyway, she's not
single, by a long shot." Aau he
laughed.
(Continued Next Week.)
Copyright by Edwin L. SuOin.
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