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Show HOW OLD WAS ANN? By J. L. CONSIDINE. It happened in those days in Goldfleld when the shower of gold from the pay-streak in the east was so heavy that the brokers worked eighteen eigh-teen hours a day, the hours of sleep being, as a rule, from two to seven in the morning, thus allowing al-lowing half an hour for supper and half an hour for breakfast. One night in the height of the rush, about the middle of December, 1006, Robert and James, the senior and the second member of the house of Collins Brothers, Brokers, stole a minute or two from their labors to discuss the unaccountable absences of their younger brother, and junior partner, Arthur, who had been missing during business hours for three successive nights. "See," complained James, with the bitterness of youth (he was only forty, while Robert was forty-eight), "it's half past ten, and he's been missing since eight. Said he was just going out for a bite of lunch. Those young fellows are always hungry!" Arthur was only twenty-three. "I wonder what he is up to," mused conservative conserva-tive Robert, never impulsive and never irritable. "We can't spare him at this time. He's easily worth any three clerks we've got." "Do you think one of us might spare the time to look him up?' "Yes; if it wouldn't take more than a night's search. Once we get him back, he sticks here." "Yes, if " "If what?" "If he's not in love." Robert looked up in consternation. "Great heavens! You don't mean that?" "All things are possible," quoted the philosophic philo-sophic James. "Well," continued Robert, "it's up to you to make up the first rescue party. You're younger, and you know the town better. But hurry; for if ever time meant money, it does here and now." James donned his overcoat and hat, and departed, de-parted, followed by the envious gaze of twenty clerks, typists, stenographers and bookkeepers. The dark head of Robert, slightly fading to gray at the temples, alone refused to turn after the departing partner. It was long after his usual hour when James reappeared the morning following, signaled by a most serious expression on his ordinarily impassive impas-sive countenance. There were hints of weariness, weari-ness, too, in the lines of his face, and a slight cloudiness obscured the usual milkiness of his eye-whites. Arthur, even, had arrived an hour earlier. It was not long before Robert ound an opportunity oppor-tunity to draw James aside and inquire the result re-sult of his quest. The interrogated one raised his eyes ceiling-ward. 'It's more serious than we feared. He's dead collared. On an actress, too." Robert was visibly startled. "An actress? I didn't know there was a troupe in town." i "There isn't. She's a variety performer, out of a job. A peroxide the limit. Old enough to be his mother, too. I knew her in Cripple Creek in ninety-three." A sly look mantled James' ascetic countenance. "Leave it to me. I met her last night at Jake's. I know how to manage it. A woman of her age prefers maturity." The startled expression again showed in Robert's Rob-ert's eyes. "You mean to cut him outi" James nodded, cold-bloodedly. "But that will take time." "I know it. Can't be helped, though. It's my time for his in the office. And we can't let him jgo home to Denver with a perox for a Christmas present for the old folks." BMMBKBBBjijjpHWiMaiaiiMfcMg&iaiahii .,,, Still Robert paused. "Do you think you can do it?" . "What? Beat the kid out with a middle-aged bleacherino? Well, I guess so." "Well," consented Robert, with a sigh, "if needs must" and he returned to his correspondence correspond-ence without finishing the sentence. a- Two nights after this conversation, Ariyur re mained at his duties from dinner-time until the lust clerk had gone. But Brother James was missing. This happened the next night; and the next. The fourth night being a Sunday, there was a lull in the work. After dinner, which Robert and Arthur ate together at the Palm, the elder brother proposed a diversion. "Do you happen, Arthur, to know of a place called Jake's?" "Yes," admitted Arthur, evidently surprised, "its a dance-hall." "I have heard so. Let us go there." Arthur flushed a little, plainly unwilling. "Cut 1l- it out," he ejaculated tersely. "We want nothing . there." "Of course, not. We don't -go there to dance. But in the way of an experience, yes. I've heard much about Jake's." Arthur looked suspiciously at the staid elder brother, and led. the way to Jake's. The place was full. Sporty brokers, traveling sight-seek-- - ors, prosperous leasers, laborers in the mines, and prospectors and miners from Bullfrog, Green-water, Green-water, Lida, and Silver Bow, who had made a quick turn and were bent on getting rid of the proceeds as quickly, were dancing with women in short dresses with high necks, and women in long dresses with low necks, After each dance the participants adjourned to the bar in the forward for-ward part of the room, near the door, where the male dancers treated their partners to drinks, the bartender presenting each woman with a check, good for a refund at the close of business. About the main entrance were clustered a motley mot-ley throng of spectators. At the opposite end, on a stage, sat the orchestra. Running down one side of the hall, between this stage and the main entrance, was a row of boxes, in which, seated at small tables, drinking, chatting, or looking look-ing out upon the throng, were other spectators and dancers, temporarily resting. In one of these, not far from the entrance, sat Mr. James Collins, and a lady of uncertain age. A profusion of straw-colored hair was her most striking feature. Her expression was neither over-bold nor noticeably notice-ably shy. A restrained vivacity played about her freshly tinted face, and her full blue eye held no hint of the weariness that usually comes of late' hours and many of them. Apparently, James and the lady were engrossed en-grossed in each other. They paid little heed either to dancers or spectators. Robert had drawn quite close without attracting observation, Arthur following, reluctantly. He appeared to be somewhat some-what annoyed at the course Robert's leadership was taking. The younger brother took but small interest in the occupants of the boxes, and resolutely reso-lutely bent his attention upon anything else he could find to look at the dancers, the bar, the men grouped about the door. So it was that Robert had to jog his arm while he whispered in his ear: "Who is that lady in the box with James?" Arthur affected slowly and carefully to survey the picture in the straw-colored frame. As he turned again to his eldest brother, there burned in his eye an expression of bitter amusement, an effort at youthful cynicism, which Robert pretended pre-tended not to see. "That lady's name,' said Arthur, with great deliberation and distinctness, "is Ann Madelene Delavigne." "Ah! I thought so." AUh.r looked at him in amazement. "You M know her, then?" M "I saw her in Leadville, in eighty-two." H At this startling bit of information, another H look of resentful surprise crossed Arthur's mobile H countenance, to be followed again by that enig- matic expression of bitter amusement. M Robert tarried a few minutes longer, philoso- H phically contemplating the pair in the box. James, H slightly flushed of face, appeared to be in high H good humor with his companion, himself, and the H world a state of bliss that was probably duo H somewhat to the ambertinted beverage he was H sipping from a thin-stemmed glass. As for the H lady, she seemed to be contented with a paler H M "Seltzer," replied Arthur, in response to a comment of Robert's. H "That's probably the reason she carries her H age so well," remarked the elder brother, who H was himself what people call "a well-preserved man." H "It's c'ertainly one reason why she's able to ,H make suckers out of out of fellows like Jim," H responded the younger brother, not without some acidity of tone. Robert glanced at him sidewise. M It was funny, reflected Robert, how easily young M men are ensnared. Yes, and older ones, too, he WM pursued, as he glanced once more at James. Ho flfl would havo to put a stop to this if he could. M So the next evening after dinner, both the M older members of the firm of Collins Brothers M were missing from the office. And the next night M and the next. Arthur, meantime, conducting the M business with an air of resignation that would M have sat better on the shoulders of a man of M seventy. fl On the fourth, evening James returned, a chast- M ened look upon his ordinarily Impassive face. But oi Robert there was no appearance. M H f At twelve oclock of Christmas eve James Col- H lins closed his roller-top desk with a slam, and H , turned to the typists, clerks, stenographers and H I book-keepers. H U "Boys and girls," ho announced, "this is Christ- H mas morning. We're a little behind with our H j , work, as it is, but we're no heathens. I declare a t ' holiday from this till eight o'clock of the morning ' of the twenty-sixth." B In two minutes the' place was empty of em- H ployees. The two brothers donned their over- M coats in silence. m "Let's do a little missionary work," said H Brother James, pausing a moment at the door. H "Let's go find that prodigal brother of ours and Hv tell him the fatted gobbler will be ready at a H reserved table at the Palm tomorrow evening at H seven." M The enigmatic smile flitted once more across y Arthur's face. "Where shall we look for him?" M he carelessly inquired. H "I haven't the least idea," returned James H with the same ostentatious carelessness, "but we 1 might try Jake's." H "Wliat!" ejaculated Arthur, in affected horror. M "Our godly brother, Robert, at Jake's?" m "All things are possible," sententiously de- H clared James, glancing down from heights of su- m perior experience upon the younger brother. But H he felt a queer sensation as that enigmatic smile H flashed once more over Arthur's countenance, and fl placed his hand uneasily on his chest. H "What's the matter?" cried Arthur. H "A little heartburn," answered James. M "From drinking wine?" solicitously pursued m, the junior. B James did not reply. He was doing some H thinking. H' The visit to Jake's was fruitless: Robert was H not there. H "Neither ,'s Madelene," murmured James. H "What's that?" snapped Arthur. "Nothing, nothing," hastily replied James. The elder brother was evidently much dissatisfied with something or other, and went to bed muttering words, some of which sounded like "old fools." But his emotion at that hour was nothing to bo compared to that of next morning, when, at breakfast at the Palm, his face froze and his eyes popped as he re-read an item that had caught his eye on the first page. "What's the matter?" inquired Arthur, who was sitting opposite. For reply James folded the paper about the item of interest and handed it to his brother. "Read that read it," he croaked. And Arthur , read it aloud. BROKER WEDS ACTRESS. Robert C. Collins, the popular head of the firm of Collins Brothers, Brokers, was married in this city yesterday to Miss Ann Madelene Delavigne, a dramatic star of magnitude, who has performed in nearly every mining camp of the Far West. The happy couple left last evening even-ing for Los Angeles, where they will spend their honeymoon. Two brothers of the youthful bridegroom bride-groom remain in Goldfield and will break the news by wire to his parents in Denver. Den-ver. "Angels and ministers of grace " ejaculated Arthur. "Waiter, bring us a bottle of wine. James, you need a drink." James shook his head sudly. "And to think of it, Arthur," he said, almost tearfully, I knew that woman in Cripple Creek, in 1893." Arthur affected to misunderstand him. "You stood no chance at all, a youngster like you," he said brightly. "Robert had twelve years the I start of you: he knew her in Leadville'in 1882." "Great heavens!" exclaimed Brother James. "Old enough to be his mother!" I "Good morning, major," cried Arthur heartily to a stout, elderly, somewhat bleareyed individual . who was approaching their table. "Brother James, (his is Major Stanley, who was one of Mackay's staff on the Comstock in bonanza days. Have a glass of wine, Major?" "It's rather early in the day for wine, but it's Christmas. I was out with the other young blades last night; and a hair of the dog that bit me you know the rest. Ah! I perceive celebrating cele-brating your brother Robert's ahem! good fortune, for-tune, eh?" "And our own, Major; our own," Vociferated Arthur. For James was still speechless. For an instant, the Major looked surprised. Then he brightened. "Ah, there's nothing like it brotherly love, brotherly love! To see you re- t joicing thus over your brother's nuptials touches " this veteran's hard old heart, at least. ,Your" health, gentlemen, your health, and your brothers health. And the health of the bride a fine woman, wo-man, sir!" "Knew her?" returned the rubicund old tippler, a- he replaced his glass on the table and brushed a drop of wine from his dyed moustache, "knew her? Well, I should say I did know her. I heard her sing "Champagne Charley" at the old Alham-bra Alham-bra in Virginia City in 1874. God bless me! What's the matter?" he cried, turning in alarm to Brother James, from whose throat was coming queer, inarticulate sounds. "Pound him on the back, Major, pound him on the back," cried Arthur. "A piece of steak has stuck in his throat." |