HBCT H. VAN DYKE, PnHItlwr «»< UlUr.
NEWPORT. - - ARKANSAS.
A BROKEN
ENGAGEMENT.
AGNES I.OVISE PROVOST.
They stood coldly silent, he with
A dull flush of anger on his face, she
with an unbending pride showing in
the lift of her head. It had been a
bitter quarrel, and now this awkward
pause had fallen upon them. There
was a little table between them, and
on it wore the circlet she had worn
for him, crowned with the clear white
lire of a diamond.
- “Take it,” she said, coldly, indicat
ing the ring with a slight movement
of her hand, as she broke the silence
•of a full minute which had seemed
like ten. He turned away obsti
nately.
, “fl is nothing whatever to me now.
You may do as you please with it.
Give it away.”
It was childish and rude, and he
knew it, but Holcombe was not of a
yielding nature,
“I believe I need not trouble you
longer,” he added, stiffly. “Of
course, this will make some infernal
ly unpleasant comment, but the only
thing is to have it known as soon as
possible. Good afternoon.”
He bowed himself out formally
he who had been used to linger with
60 much of pleasant and tender non
sense, and she inclined her head in
cold acknowledgment.
Then the outer door closed and the
tension relaxed. Sinking wearily
into a chair near the table, Charlotte
dropped her head on her arms, so that
the shining circlet came within
her embrace and pressed sharply into
her cheek. Then the tears came, at
first with slow bitterness, and then
harder until the bowed shoulders
shook.
The next morning Richard Hol
comb received a registered package
in his mail. It was a tiny package,
and he did not need the familiar
handwriting to tell him what it was.
Without opening it, he held the lit
He; 111 u \^i ^1 ij./ m mo
hand, and sat motionless for many
minutes, staring morosely at the
floor,
\
The late afternoon train sped
northward through the gathering
twilight, and Charlotte, leaning back
listlessly in her chair, looked out at
the swiftly sliding landscape.
This was the day she was to have
been married. To be sure, that was
long ago, and the past was buried, hut
the memory of many little things
bad bred a mood of impatient restless
ness which had started her off late
in the afternoon—a foolish time—
on a long-deferred visit to a friend.
It was a four hours’ journey, with
only a telegram to herald her arrival
at ten in the evening, unattended,
but this was a friend who would un
derstand and say nothing.
It seemed a long whiLe hack, much
more than two months, since that
afternoon when so many hard and
cruel words had been said, and she
had sent the little ring back to liich
ard Holcomb. He had studious
ly avoided her since, and she had met
the world’s curious eyes with calm in
difference, going her way as usual.
How people had whispered, and con
jectured and surmised, when it was
known that their engagement was
broken! What a delicious morsel it
had been to some of them! Charlotte
had put it behind her with a firm
hand, and even her nearest friend had
wondered if she ever could have
eared.
A man came down the aisle from
another ear, filling up the narrow
space with his big height and breadth.
Charlotte saw his reflection in the
mirrors at the other end, and colored
faintly. Then she turned away, and
let her eyes wander in a composed
contemplation of her fellow-passen
gers.
“Hello, Dick! Where did you come
from, old man?”
A man near her had called to him in
hearty welcome, as men always wel
comed Dick. Holcombe paused and
gave a good-natured account of him
self.
“I came from the smoker. Present
destination, the sleeper about three
ears on, to find my mother and get
some dinner. We have the nuisance
ol‘ a night’s journey ahead of us.
Come on and we’ll all dine together.”
The man arose and went with
him, and as lloleombe turned be
caught sight of Charlotte, and start
ed slightly. Reluctantly enough she
raised her eyes and bowed, and he re
turned it formally and passed out.
For the merest fraction of a second,
he seemed to hesitate, but now he
was gone.
His mother! A tinge of the old
bitterness came back to Charlotte.
His mother had not accepted her as
a prospective daughter-in-law with
out a struggle. .She was a proud and
stately old lady, and had centered all
her wishes on a brilliant marriage
for Dick, whereas Charlotte, with all
her fair face and a name no less hon
orable than his own, could bring him
nothing of worldly advancement or
influence. It had been Mrs. Hol
combe’s attitude, which the world
knew as well as she, that had made
that bitter quarrel possible, and had
hardened Charlotte’s hurt pride into
a thing of- steel and ice.
It was foolish to think of those
things now. They were past, far
past. Charlotte turned back to her
listless contemplation of the win
dow" and its reflections. She had seen
Dick but once before since that day.
He seemed a little thin, too—
Out of darkness there came a
deafening roar, a resistless shock
which hurled strong men from their
seats like toys, and the grinding
crash of splintering wood, and iron
on iron. On the heels of this a second
dizzy jerk, a second bruising crash,
and the ear lurched again and pitched
heavily over on its side.
When her dazed senses came back
to her, Charlotte lay huddled,
bruised, and terrified in a corner of
the overturned car. Fearful noises
were in her ears, the shrieks of wom
en and the hoarse shouts of men, cru
elly hurt or imprisoned under heavy
weights. The sound of splintering
glass was close to her, and on trem
bling hands and knees she crept up
the slanting floor to where a man,
groaning under his breath with the
pain of a broken ankle, was using his
heavy dress-suit ease as a battering
ram .urnind vvinrlow «
“It will come in a minute/’ he
called, encouragingly, smashing at
the framework and the sharp corners
of glass as he saw her white face near
him. “I’ll get you through. There!”
The stranger was thin and wiry,
and he worked his head and shoul
ders through and pulled himself
slowly out, drawing his breath sharp
ly as the broken ankle twinged again.
Then he reached in for her. It was
not a large opening, and the little bits
of glass caught and tore her clothing,
but he pulled her safely through aud
Charlotte gasped in breathless thank
fulness as she reached the cool even
ing air.
“Oh, curse this ankle! Look at
that.” The man groaned at bis own
impotence to aid. “What can a lame
man do against that, and with all the
poor wretches pinned under these
timbers.”
Charlotte pressed her bands to her
temples as she followed the direction
of his eyes. A creeping tongue of
flame had shot up from the far end of
car she had left, aud the cries of the
prisoner broke out with renewed in
tensity. She looked at the stranger
with a new horror in her eyes.
“Dick!” she whispered. “Whereis
he? Suppose—”
She arose dizzily and ran with lit
tle stumbling steps picking her way
over the scattered debris. The
wrecked cars lay in terrible confusion
around her, and ahead were two tel
escoped engines, scarcely more than
scrap iron now. And nearer her,
more flames, a creeping, insidious
horror, greedily lapping at the splin
tered wood and crawling nearer, al
ways nearer. Above it all, the heart
rending babel of cries.
Men ran past her in the darkness,
shouting orders in the confusion,
women wrung their hands and sobbed
hysterically, but she heeded no one.
One, two, three, lie had said it
was the third car. Charlotte ran
along it from end to end her nervous
lingers gripped against her throat, as
though to force down the horrible
choking lump there. It was a ruin,
Worse than a ruin. It was from here
that the creeping flamss came—his
carl
A woman rescued by brave bands
sat on the ground just struggling
back to consciousness. Charlotte
dropped on her knees beside her and
looked closely into her face.
“Where is Dick?” she demanded,
sharply. “Where is he?”
Mrs. Holcombe took the girl’s
hands in a convulsive grasp.
“Isn’t he here?” she asked, wildly.
“I do not know. This is the first I
have known anything. ('harlotte, he
cannot be in there! Oh, Dick, mv
boy, my boy!”
Still on her knees, Charlotte
leaned forward and peered with a
dreadful fascination at the burning
ear. From one end of it a woman’s
hand and arm stuck rigidly up from
the wreckage, the body crushed and
lost to sight beneath heavy timbers
and iron. The flickering light played
on it, showing chaos behind and
around.
“Charlotte!” Mrs. Holcombe
pressed the girl close to her, so that
her tine gray hair lay against Char
lotte’s brown locks. She was quiver
ing violently, this stately old lady
who seemed ever to live in an unruf
fled calm. Once I was unkind to you.
God is punishing me for that. Char
lotte forgive me, and help me find my
boy!”
“He isn’t in there! He can’t be in
there!” Charlotte clung to her for a
moment, and broke away to to run up
and down the length of the car again,
peering into every crack and space.
She even crept cautiously over the
wreckage, shuddering at the sound
of 4faint groans beneath, until the
heat of the flames at the far end drove
her back again, frantic with appre
hension.
A half-insane idea came to her that
the man who had helped her out could
find him. He was hurt, but lie had
known how to save himself and her;
surely he would help find Dick. She
flew back toward the ear she had left,
peering into the faces of the excit
ed men who were tearing at the
wreckage to rescue those beneath.
She noticed vaguely that the flames
had made great headway on that ear
since she had left it. There was only
a quarter of its length now where
men could work, and the number of
rescuers was pitifully small in com
parison with those who moaned and
shrieked for help.
Through the half darkness Char
lotte stumbled on sobbing now as she
looked into face after face and failed
to find the stranger who had helped
her through.
At the end of the burning car a big
man worked like a demon grasping
hot timbers with his bare hands and
prying up great weights with the
strength of men and angels. There
were two men helping him and now
and then they shot a look of wonder
ing pity at his face. His hands were
black with soot and bleeding, his
clothes were torn, and in the yellow
lights of the flames his face showed
haggard and set. Some poor crea
ture below, hot with the approaching
fire and half-crushed , cried out with
renewed vigor as blessed relief came
so near. The big man bent over the
opening his own hands had made.
“Charlotte!” he called, anxiously.
“Charlotte!”
“Oh, Dick!”
Not from the horror beneath, but
from the good, firm ground beside
him, Charlotte’s fingers clutched at
his arm. The other men looked at
each other and turned their heads,
as they bent down and carefully lift
ed a half dead woman from the hor
ror which had hemmed her in.
Charlotte did not see them. Her
face was buried in Dick’s shoulder,
and he held her close to him, regard
less of his lacerated hands.
“I thought you were in there,” he
whispered, huskily, “in that burning
car. I got my mother out unhurt,
but before she came to herself I saw
the fire here, and I laid her in a safe
place and came down for you. Char
lotte, dear little girl!”
A few moments later a half
crazed woman, kneeling beside the
wreckage with disordered gray hair
and straining eyes, saw these two com
ing swiftly toward her.
“My son!” she cried, eagerly, sob
bing for gladness, and as he lifted her
she put one hand blindly toward
Charlotte. “My daughter!”—House
keeper, Minneapolis, Minu.
i
DRS. B. A. « W. R. WASHBURN
Physicians and Surgeons.
Special attention given to diseases
of Ear, Nose and Throat. Also Dis
eases of Women.
-:o:
Offices: New Watson Building,
Rooms 12, 14 and 15.
WT
Newport, Arkansas.
DR. H. 0. WALKER,
Physician and Surgeon.
Office: Redman’s Diug Store.
Newport, - Arkansas.
WHEN GOING
EAST • WEST - NORTH - SOUTH
TAKE THE OLD RELIABLE
ONLY LINE WITH DOUBLE DAILY
THROUGH SERVICE
TO HOT SPRINGS
NO CHANGE.
CONNECTION MADE AT BALD KNOB
FOR MEMPHIS.
UNSURPASSED SERVICE^
^ FAST TIME
DIRECT CONNECTION MADE AT ST.
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DIVERGING.
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NEWPORT, ARK.
h. C. Townsend, G. P. A.,
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PHYSICIAN, SURGEON ANi
nr.ui 1ST.
f
#jV-R BAILEY BROS’. DRY GOOD3 STORE
Eupion Oil
When buying illuminating
oil insist on having Eupion, tue
family safety. This is a dou
ble distilled process oil that is
okdoki.ess and absolutely safe.
If you will use clean burners
and wicks and Eupion Oil you
will have best light obtainable.
The only merchants in New
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C.>.. W. B. Chastain, Wilmane
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ger’s Union Market Co., Martin
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CAPITAL $50,000
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..