Desert Dust

and upon his red hair a flaring-brimmed black slouch hat) we were making a fair average of twenty miles an hour across the greatest country on earth. It was a flat c

miraculous Pacific Railway, behold me, surfeited with already five days' steady travel, engrossed chiefly in o

to the Indian country. There were handsome women a-plenty in the East; and of access, also, to a youth of family and parts. I had pictures of the same in my social register. A man does not attain to twenty-five years without having accomplished a few pages of the heart book.

hope I had taken the bull by the horns in earnest. West shou

in Utah; and that by the end of the year one might ride comfortably clear to Salt Lake City. Certainly this was "going West" with a vengeance; but as appeared to me-and

transportation away to the town of Benton, Wyoming Territory its

d figures, seven hundred miles! Practically the distance from Albany to Cinc

t end of passenger service, this Aug

ght on the heels of the graders. Last April we were selling only to Cheyenne, rising of five hundred miles. Then in May we began to sell to Laramie, five hundred and seventy-six miles. Last of July we beg

on. I can go on from there as I think best.

the little window behind which

I do wh

nton where I'm going. The

A dozen of 'em, but I don't know their names. What do you expect to find in Ben

for a change," I answered. "I am looki

l find Benton high enough, and toler'bly dry. You bet! And nobody dies natural, a

and ninety miles of travel at ten cents a mile. I hastily stepped aside. A subtle fragrance and a rustle warn

red, lifting my hat-agreeably

While pocketing my change and stowing away my t

said briefly

the deepest blue veiled by long lashes, and a mass of glinting golden hair upon which perched a ravishing little bonnet. The natural ensemble was enhanced by her costume, all of black, from the closely fitting bodice to the rustling crin

ned no novelty for her. Could she by any chance live there-a woman dressed like she was, as much à la mode as if she walked Broadway in New York? Omaha itself had astonished me with the display upon its streets; and now if Be

and I turned away under pretense of examining some placards upon the wall advertising "Platte Valley lands" for sale. I had curiosity to see which way she wended. Then as sh

ly; caught it, and wit

t me,

took

k you

restore it to its company;

u are going to Benton,

gh to daze me with their glory. There was

enton City, of W

ainted there?

uainted there. And

my ticket to Benton, and--" I stammered, "I have made bold to wonder if you would not have the goodness to tell m

ir, may I ask?"

direct, and her bewildering

Territory has been mentioned in the n

," she smiled. "You have not been out over the railroad,

een west of Cin

the railroad? The Pacific Railway

hurlow Weed formerly of Albany, was killed a year ago by your Indians while surveying w

survey service?

madam

trip to en

accustomed to questions into private matter

I laughed. "I have been advised

. I can promise you that it is high and reasonably dry. And as for accommodations-so far as I have ever heard an

and that it is a

ere are five thousand people there now, and all busy. Yes, a young man will find his opportunities in Benton. I think your choice will please you. Money is plentiful, and

nd received a nod of the golden head as s

All aboard, going west on the Union Pacific!" here amidst the platform hurly-burly of men, women, children and bundles I had the satisfaction to sight the black-clad figure of My Lady of the Blue Eyes; hastening, like the rest

owed on down the aisle until I managed to squirm aside into a vacant seat. The remaining half was at once e

tte, three hundred miles westward, I speedily found out. An

red, ro

a gambler, young

Do I look li

e asserted, 18 still suspicious, "Maybe

he West, is all, where th

he right place. For all I hear tell, Benton is high enou

"I hope so, madam. Are eye

leetle green in your eye. No, you ain't a tin-horn. You're some mother's boy, jest gettin' away from

query. Plainly she had a good heart, l

ach by railroad, and everybody I have talke

to go that fur. You can as well stop off at North Platte, or Sidney or Che

, may I

y go, that was the word. I don't say 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 terminus, the wust of the crowd moved, too, and us others who stayed turned North Platte into a strictly moral town. But land sakes! North Platte in its roarin' days wasn't no place for a young man like

North Platte, "strictly moral," and the guardianship of her broad 20 motherly wing I had no ardent feeling. I was set upon Benton; fo

this was true

that I shall find the proper climate there, and suitable accommodations. And i

snor

, Denver mightn't be bad, though I do hear tell that folks nigh starve to death there, what with the Injuns and the snow. Denver ain't on no railroad, either. If you want health, and to grow up with a strictly mora

ss Illinois and Iowa 21 from Chicago, I had encountered this peculiar trait. Iowa was rife with aspiring if embryonic metropolises. Now in Nebraska, Columbus was destined to be the new national capital and the center of p

on I think I'll go on. And if I don't like it or it doesn'

grun

on restaurant. If you get in

mfortably. In remarkably short o